I’ll admit that I haven’t come close to finishing this game.  Every major Assassin’s Creed game, if played to the fullest, will take a player upward of 60-80 hours to complete.  And as many longtime listeners of The Critical Myth Show know, I’m a dedicated member of the #GlobalBrotherhood.  That said, having not leapt into the current-gen fray of either the PlayStation 4 or the XBox One, I’m glad that Ubisoft chose to grace the players still firmly rooted in the previous generation with one (presumably last) franchise offering on the PlayStation 3 or XBox 360.

 

Assassin’s Creed: Rogue is a strange iteration of the story, because it is ostensibly the final chapter of the so-called “Kenway Saga”, yet it is essentially the middle chapter of the piece.  The lead character is Shay Cormac, and one will immediately notice the lack of “Kenway” in the name, which is the other odd part of considering this a segment in the larger narrative of Connor Kenway’s family trevails.

 

And yet, from a story perspective, there is an immediate sense of pulling together all of the disparate story threads that were introduced to the mythos in Assassin’s Creed III.  In that game, it was revealed that Connor’s father, Haytham Kenway, was a high-ranking Templar, in contradiction to the legacy of Edward Kenway, the semi-infamous pirate-cum-Assassin that would become the main character of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.

 

The upshot is that the notion of Assassins changing sides and aligning with the Templars is part and parcel to the Kenway Saga, and so it makes perfect sense to explore why that might take place.  And given that the burgeoning Assassin presence of the early 1700s in Black Flag is wiped out by the time of the American Revolution later that century, there is a story to be told in how that purge by the Templars takes place.

 

The trick is finding a protagonist that will betray the putative “heroes” of the franchise and yet remain a likeable character to play.  There’s also something to be said for the notion that such a decision could be made for entirely moral reasons; after all, the war between the Assassins and Templars is one of ideologies, and both are willing to do terrible things in the name of protecting human freedom.

 

If it seems like a lot of my emphasis is on the story, that’s because it’s by far the highlight of the game.  Everything else is a mostly refined version of what has been the prevailing gameplay mechanic since Assassin’s Creed III.  As such, it’s a love it/hate it situation, and this is likely the reason why the game hasn’t been given rave reviews.  For some, this will be like sliding into a pair of well-worn but incredibly comfortable slippers on a cold winter’s night; for others, it will feel like being stuck in gaming Purgatory.


WHAT WORKS

Clearly, the highlight is the story, especially if one is inclined to dig into the mythos while playing each new game of the franchise.  Delving into the deeper layers of the narrative will reveal connections all the way back to the very first Assassin’s Creed, and linkages between Shay, the Kenways, and even Aveline from Assassin’s Creed: Liberation.  There are even elements that allude to Assassin’s Creed: Unity, so there is a sense in the meta-narrative of a passing of the torch.

 

In terms of the gameplay, there’s an argument to be made that one shouldn’t fix what isn’t broken.  (An argument that some players of Unity, perhaps, might agree with these days.)  Anyone who played Black Flag can pick this up and go within minutes of re-acclimating to the controls.  In fact, it is so comfortable that one can focus entirely on the story, missions, and free-roaming.  A good number of the 20 hours I’ve spent so far in the game were spent just running about, gathering up those plentiful story items.  One could easily interpret the lack of innovation as intentional; Unity for those looking for the leading edge of the franchise, Rogue for those who aren’t ready to move on yet.


WHAT DOESN'T WORK

The downside of having a gameplay mechanic that is 99.9% identical to Black Flag is that it can feel too familiar.  I have yet to encounter a serious challenge; even running down those damn wafting shanties has been a breeze.  It’s a bit of a Catch 22: while folks often complain about changes to gameplay mechanics, they also get bored by the same-old thing, especially after dozens of hours of it.

 

Because so much of the enjoyment of the game is wrapped up in the story, anyone not as invested in the lore will see this as an unnecessary extension.  And to be fair, in a previous era, Assassin’s Creed III would have been the major release, Black Flag would have been the first extension, and Rogue would be the second.  And since Black Flag felt like a game expanded from a DLC venture, Rogue feels like something similar for Black Flag.  It all adds up to the sense that Rogue is a needless addition.  That it came out on the exact same day as the much more promoted Unity doesn’t help that impression.



THE BOTTOM LINE

Rogue is likely to be the swan song of the franchise in terms of the PS3/360 generation, and after roughly 20 hours of play, it is performing exactly as one would hope in terms of wrapping up a number of story elements, pointing the way for the PS4/XB1-gen games to launch into the next phase.  Longtime fans who want to immerse themselves in more of the lore and series’ mythology will get plenty to chew on with this installment, though with that familiarity comes a potential for boredom or a feeling that there’s a lack of innovation.  It’s somewhat unfortunate that a game with so few technical issues is being completely overshadowed by its buggy big brother.

John Keegan aka "criticalmyth", is one of the hosts of the "Critical Myth" podcast heard here on VOG Network's radio feed Monday, Wednesday & Friday. You can follow him on twitter at @criticalmyth