Except now you’re a bad guy so you can totally kill everybody
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag was a huge game. Like, you could easily sink 100 hours into that whole experience before getting 100 percent completion. So Assassin’s Creed Rogue may or may not be quite the game for you. It just depends, really.
If you couldn’t get enough of the pirate sailing and high seas traveling, then you’ll be all over Rogue. (Those of you stuck on last-gen platforms, at least). If you’ve had more than your fill already though, well, Rogue may not have enough to offer you.
Personally, I’m in the camp that’s excited for Rogue. More so than Unity, in fact. The open ocean stuff still intrigues me enough to warrant another adventure on a map that’s comparable to Assassin’s Creed IV‘s. But more than that, I like the idea of playing as a Templar this time around.
Assassin’s Creed Rogue (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
Developer: Ubisoft Sofia
Publisher: Ubisoft
Release: November 11, 2014
You play as Shay Patrick Cormac, a former assassin who was betrayed by his brotherhood. So Shay is out for revenge, and he’s teamed up with his former nemesis the Templar in order to accomplish his goals. This is a story of revenge, and from what little I got to play I could really feel the experience was more violent compared to playing as an assassin.
Specifically, it’s the ship combat that felt way more brutal compared to Black Flag‘s. It is a smaller vessel this time around, so you’re much quicker on the ocean. You also have a giant ram at the front of the ship designed to break apart ice on the water, but it can totally be used to plow into enemy vessels all the same. The overall firepower is nothing to laugh at either, with a cannon that acts like a machine gun of sorts now, and the ability to release burning oil from the rear of the ship and set those giving chase on fire.
There’s no shortage of assassins in Rogue and you’ll be hunting them down. Remember how in Assassin’s Creed III there was a great shortage of assassins in the North American territory? Yeah, blame Shay for that. The events in Rogue set up that aspect of ACIII, and Haytham Kenway himself happens to be your second in command aboard your ship, in fact.
The assassin we dealt with in our demo was holed up at a base with some of his allies in the open world outside of a story mission. You have to hunt down the assassin when you get to his base, but you have to be careful as you go about it. Your targets can do everything you could always do in past Assassin’s Creed games.
In this particular case, the target literally got the drop on us, and then fled the area. As we gave chase, we saw him call in allies, hide in bushes, and use his environment to his advantage. He even shot an explosive barrel just as Shay ran past it, knocking him over.
At one point the assassin dropped a smoke bomb, but Shay does have plenty of his own new tricks to directly counter his former allies. In this case, he dawned a gas mask to bypass the smoke bomb, and eventually was able to corner the assassin to finish him off.
Shay was also using a primitive grenade launcher to take out some enemies. He even had this poison that was able to cause anyone in the vicinity to go wild and attack each other; a great way to infiltrate bases. This would cause civilians to go nuts too — which, by the way, you can totally kill civilians without any consequences. You’re a Templar now, who cares!
Again, if you got your fill out of Black Flag you may just want to focus on Unity. If you’re looking for more of that seamless open-world ocean experience with new and expanded features — and the ability to play on the other side of the war — then Rogue may just be the game for you.
