Assassin's Creed: Rogue is a weird game in that it was one of the two successors to Assassin's Creed: IV - Black Flag. And removing the numbering of the titles (after a discussion of the community if AC IV should have gotten a new number or be part of the AC III series [as Brotherhood and Revelation where part of the AC II series]), and giving it the same release date as Assassin's Creed Unity this further added to the confusion. What's even more: While AC Rogue actually builds on the same engine that Black Flag did, and even continues all the mechanics and game play elements of that game, Unity was marketed as the next gen game, using a new engine, new mechanics, as well as a new (and more modern) setting. So for many at that time it was considered the actual successor, and Rogue a bit overlooked.

However, Rogue is also weird in that it tried to be the second game that does something different - I said in my "Black Flag" review that it was an "odd one out" as you don't play an Assassin. Well, guess what: In Rogue you play an Assassin turned Templar. Which in itself could have been a cool idea. However, the name Rogue already gives it away, and after playing AC III, this was not a novel surprise anymore. Still, it could have been a really cool idea - as in AC III you don't get to play the Templars to their full extend - it's an Epilogue after all, and once you're done with it, you switch back to playing an Assassin. And as a Templar you also don't get to do much Templar stuff, because Haytham just arrives at the place, there is no secret Templar society yet, so he has to build one up by himself.

Rogue starts in 1752, i.e. two years before Haytham reaches the colonies. You play Shay Patrick Cormac, an Assassin who is doing missions for the Brotherhood that make him question the actions the Assassins take. He's more open to dialogue and he feels that things the Assassins do, lead to catastrophes, so after a falling out with the Assassins he does the one thing you usually do when realizing that a secret society is a bad thing to be a part of: Join another secret society. If that doesn't already feel rather unbelievable, take this: Now all the locations that previously where bad because of being under Templar control, are under Assassin's control. And that does not mean that there are Assassins in there. Nope, it's the same units, with the same abilities, that are just in a different color.

From the Templars, Shay gets an ship with a quartermaster, and nothing more, so with this ship he needs to start to - pirate other ships. I've heard the term Black Flag 1.5, and that what all the ship missions feel like, except that the sea fights are a bit dumbed down and not as complex as they where for AC IV, which is a shame. There are a few new aspects (like breaking ice, and being able to be boarded by pirate hunters), but for the most parts - when it comes to Gameplay - you feel like you're playing a DLC to Black Flag. We have to liberate areas from Assassin's control, and we do so, by sneaking into them, and assassinating people - with the tools Shay got from the Assassins. This would have made for a perfect game in an Assassins point of view, but is in no way what I would have liked to play as an Templar. Templars should have had resources, should be plotting and scheming, should use their power and control over people to get to their objectives; and not feel like the same thing in other colors...

For me, this game breaks the lore in multiple ways - Templars see themselves as the good people and Assassin's as the bad ones and vice versa; and the previous AC games have all shown us, that this is a battle of philosophies. Philosophies that can be argued about. None does this better than AC III with Haytham and Connor. Rogue however chooses the easy way out of this conundrum. To justify Shay being a Templar, the Assassins are depicted as truly and purely evil - to the point that they start killing randomly and uninvolved civilians, e.g. by releasing poisonous gasses, just to make Shay be established as the good person here.

It's a fine AC game, in regards of game play, and generally fun to play; and I liked the tie-ins to other games: On the Assassin's side we get to meet Adéwalé again - and as he's the leader of the Assassins in the colonies, we also meet a young Achilles Davenport - and on the Templar side we of course meet Haytham Kenway. There is also a tie-in to Unity (which I didn't know of). And besides we have some really fun missions - I really enjoyed the Lisbon mission, which was incredible to play. But all in all I was rather disappointed about how much this felt like a low effort and how little it fits into the entire lore otherwise.

Funny, though: On the modern-day story we again play a different unnamed new employee for Abstergo, but this time the employees reveal themselves as Templars to us and at the end we are forced at gun-point to join their organization - here the Templars are evil again.

I was intrigued by the idea of playing the antagonist of the series, learn more of their perspective and being able to use the weapons they usually throw at us when we are Assassins. Rogue offers nothing of this at all to us. So in the end, for me it was a real disappointment in the series of AC-games.

This is peak Assassin's Creed.

From the "press X" screen to the end, this game is way more fire than I thought it would be.

It's actually kind of brilliant.

You START as an assassin. Just right off the bat. Which makes way more sense for the story, but still. It's just nice to not have to wait until you get the blade and clothes in the second act.

I didn't know that this was another Abstergo Entertainment story 'cause I thought Black Flag was the only one like that, but I am more than happy to welcome it back. I actually rose up out of my chair and shouted when I realized. And it's even way better than Black Flag's. Pretty much everything is better than Black Flag.

I find the sea environments a bit more intriguing, and cool to look at, even though it doesn't have Black Flag's warm and colorful aesthetic because this is a much grayer story.

The scuffed traversal from 3 was heavily improved in Black Flag and a bit more improved here.

Better boating? Better boating. It has better boating. Both the traversal and combat.

It's just better. And the direction of the actual game is the coolest in the series.

Literally having the 1755 Lisbon earthquake as a set-piece, and you causing it, is fucking brilliant.

All this said, this still sometimes (in the first half) feels very much like it was supposed to be a spin-off like Liberation and Freedom Cry. But it's still peak Assassin's Creed.

It might be my favorite Assassin's Creed story within a single game.

It's almost unfair to compare it to the Ezio games because the tech and the team have actually evolved so much in between that they can do so much more in this game.

Next to last mission MIGHT be my favorite mission in the whole franchise.

And I haven't played Unity yet, but I know the basics, like the setting and the main character's name, and I know how the game starts, and playing this last mission was a fucking trip! I'm telling you... PEAK!

PEAK ASSASSIN'S CREED!