"Return to Roots" was the marketing tagline of this new Assassin's Creed Experience, developed by a Ubisoft team with no past releases in the series. Much like Ubisoft Sophia (who released rogue) this was always going to be a title that received little budget in development and a much smaller team of Around 400 (Compared to the thousands who work in Montreal and Quebec Studios). But Bordeaux fought heart and soul to make this a game, a standalone game instead of a DLC, they itched and ached for this to be a return to roots, an Assassin's Creed game, the first one to play as an Assassin (Hidden One is the same thing) since Bayek in Origins, and the first game to have the core gameplay loop of a classic AC since syndicate. So how did this hold up?
Very Good, I will say off the bat. Bordeaux were left to use systems from the prior 3 AC titles, mainly Valhalla and due to budget and engine limitations couldn't change too much of what they had, but what they could change, was absolutely for the better.
Story.
Firstly, Let's get the elephant out of the room, the story is mediocre, it starts of really strong, ends really strong and overall maintains the classic Assassin's Creed philosophy and guidance and understands it well, however the middle majority of the game, hardly had a story, and what was there was plagud by inconsistent writing and campy Movie Dialogue, however Basim and Roshan definitely stole the show in the game, the majority of other characters were either hit or miss, or just unmemorable.
The Story in the majority was mainly done to serve the core gameplay Loop of Investigating and assassinating The Order of The Ancients, who, for the first time since origins felt at least that they had some story instead of being masked people just to pad out run time, even if they weren't written well, it was serviceable and helped me not get bored.
A solid 20 hour story with side content that takes another 10-20 hours if you rush, this is a much smaller project and it is so so much better for it, as it does not overstay its welcome like Valhalla and odyssey had done prior.
Missions.
The Missions of the game are what reminds me the most of the original Assassin's Creed 1, just with the elements of Blackbox missions, which were underwhelming to some extent as there was multiple routes to achieve them, but they'd all end the same way, However, this core mission loop was extremely fun and engaging for me, the occasional tailing mission, eavesdropping, fighting, stealing and Assassinating was a perfect decision to modernise the loop and changed what made AC1 repetitive into a fun task that never felt repetitive.
I also enjoyed that you can do these targets in any order you'd like, I went clockwise only staying in the district that was assigned to me at the time, made a really enjoyable and immersive experience to the AC games, something they can do rather well, but mirage did especially well.
On top of this, is a variety of side-content like finding incredible gear along the world such s the Abbasid knight (not a spoiler was in pre release gameplay) alongside unlockable costumes and talismans which add no stats but increase the customisation of the game, The only way this can be improved is by adding an option to like in origins go in the menu, take down Hood and even choose if you want a beard or not.
Tales of Baghdad were short side missions found in the world that enhance the immersion of the world and provide easter eggs, my only issue is there is not many at all of these.
Assassin Contracts are missions that you take from the bureaus that are side content, they have short storylines with them that add more flavour and fun to the world as they are well designed.
This game sorely lacks NG+ and a repayable mission and contracts option, it makes replayability weak for the game without it and is definitely a slight on the game for it.
World.
Arguably the greatest world design that Ubisoft has ever produced, especially with AC, A city on par with unity's paris or Brotherhoods Rome. Mirage is a city that can be traversed entirely on rooftop, utilising excellent parkour tools like the new beams to jump across gaps and returning ziplines, each roof you are on has at least 2 routes you can take from here, if not more to traverse the cityscape, I myself have found even after finishing the story that I was finding new parkour routes I have never seen before. The city feels alive, with bustling streets, the absolutely stunning bazaar which immediately became one of my favourite landmarks in any AC, The variety in every district, each feeling unique, from the slums of Sharqiyah to the rich inner-city and the Beautiful and visually stunning Caliphates palace which towers over everywhere in the city. Baghdad is one of, if not the best cities in the series.
a wilderness that evokes Origins Egypt in its design and its secrets and places to find, without the overabundance of Question marks and bandit forts, making the exploration fun due to its use of unmarked moments or thrilling use of Negative space to make the outside feel immersive.
Stealth.
Arguably the best stealth the series has had to offer yet, on par with unity and syndicates loop, it took what could have been a great foundation of stealth from origins, expanded the social stealth from Valhalla and made it more akin to AC2 - Syndicate as we now have crowd blending back and hiring groups, which made this experience feel even more like classic AC. The detection system was fixed from the absolutely broken System in Valhalla which made stealth not only actually doable, but also challenging and made players want to use it.
The use of tools in this game, brought the variety from older games to a head and makes each stealth situation have many many different ways to go about, do you parkour through, use your smoke bombs and eliminate 4 targets in a go, do you take them all out with a well placed throwing knife, track their route with Enkidu your eagle and place traps along?
I must say however, the AI in this game is bad, arguably the worst part of this game, guards hardly react seeing a dead comrade, there are chases if caught but they will never catch you or pose a threat like the original games, and they don't have the excellent routine feature that only origins featured which would have made this AI go from bad to good in and of itself.
Combat.
This section varies from opinion to opinion, some thinking it is bad, some good. Me, I thought it was serviceable, It used the foundation parts of RPG with The essence of the Ezio trilogy games, including counter kills. Alongside this, combat is tough, you can only take around 4 hits and you will die, you are not a warrior in this game, but you can use skills like an unlockable roll over enemies, dodges and even tools in combat to aid this.
However combat doesn't feel good to use, it feels barebones and an afterthought, it isn't too fun to do. but as weird as this sounds, I believe it was done this way so that combat is not incentivised in game, much like how Mario kart makes driving not fun if you're on grass, combat isn't fun if you are caught because this is a stealth game. Although I wish it was more in depth including more skills or tools like the harpoon that was in Valhalla.
Parkour.
Mediocre but a definite improvement over the RPG trilogy. Not much difference from the RPG Trilogy Parkour, however the animations and overall parkour is sped up and feels more fluid; on top of what I have already said about the city, The parkour is easily aided so much by the level design that it actually feels amazing, and if you don't believe me, watch youtubers like AltairStealth who showcases the brilliance of the level designs aiding of the parkour, this parkour while not being the best in the series, feels better than the RPG trilogy and even the Colonial trilogy because of its level design.
Overall, this is not my favourite game, but it is certainly great, on the same A tier with Black flag, but there is 4 games, it simply can't beat for me, Origins and the Ezio Trilogy.
It does so well in so many areas but not so well in others, and despite that I do love this game and I am so happy for everything it has done to rejuvenate the AC franchise. Seriously give Bordeaux a fully funded AC project that is back to roots and it will arguably become the best AC ever.
Despite all of this, I cannot Give it the 5 stars, however it comes so close.
an 8.25/10 seriously it is great and for releasing at £44 I can safely recommend getting this now
Very Good, I will say off the bat. Bordeaux were left to use systems from the prior 3 AC titles, mainly Valhalla and due to budget and engine limitations couldn't change too much of what they had, but what they could change, was absolutely for the better.
Story.
Firstly, Let's get the elephant out of the room, the story is mediocre, it starts of really strong, ends really strong and overall maintains the classic Assassin's Creed philosophy and guidance and understands it well, however the middle majority of the game, hardly had a story, and what was there was plagud by inconsistent writing and campy Movie Dialogue, however Basim and Roshan definitely stole the show in the game, the majority of other characters were either hit or miss, or just unmemorable.
The Story in the majority was mainly done to serve the core gameplay Loop of Investigating and assassinating The Order of The Ancients, who, for the first time since origins felt at least that they had some story instead of being masked people just to pad out run time, even if they weren't written well, it was serviceable and helped me not get bored.
A solid 20 hour story with side content that takes another 10-20 hours if you rush, this is a much smaller project and it is so so much better for it, as it does not overstay its welcome like Valhalla and odyssey had done prior.
Missions.
The Missions of the game are what reminds me the most of the original Assassin's Creed 1, just with the elements of Blackbox missions, which were underwhelming to some extent as there was multiple routes to achieve them, but they'd all end the same way, However, this core mission loop was extremely fun and engaging for me, the occasional tailing mission, eavesdropping, fighting, stealing and Assassinating was a perfect decision to modernise the loop and changed what made AC1 repetitive into a fun task that never felt repetitive.
I also enjoyed that you can do these targets in any order you'd like, I went clockwise only staying in the district that was assigned to me at the time, made a really enjoyable and immersive experience to the AC games, something they can do rather well, but mirage did especially well.
On top of this, is a variety of side-content like finding incredible gear along the world such s the Abbasid knight (not a spoiler was in pre release gameplay) alongside unlockable costumes and talismans which add no stats but increase the customisation of the game, The only way this can be improved is by adding an option to like in origins go in the menu, take down Hood and even choose if you want a beard or not.
Tales of Baghdad were short side missions found in the world that enhance the immersion of the world and provide easter eggs, my only issue is there is not many at all of these.
Assassin Contracts are missions that you take from the bureaus that are side content, they have short storylines with them that add more flavour and fun to the world as they are well designed.
This game sorely lacks NG+ and a repayable mission and contracts option, it makes replayability weak for the game without it and is definitely a slight on the game for it.
World.
Arguably the greatest world design that Ubisoft has ever produced, especially with AC, A city on par with unity's paris or Brotherhoods Rome. Mirage is a city that can be traversed entirely on rooftop, utilising excellent parkour tools like the new beams to jump across gaps and returning ziplines, each roof you are on has at least 2 routes you can take from here, if not more to traverse the cityscape, I myself have found even after finishing the story that I was finding new parkour routes I have never seen before. The city feels alive, with bustling streets, the absolutely stunning bazaar which immediately became one of my favourite landmarks in any AC, The variety in every district, each feeling unique, from the slums of Sharqiyah to the rich inner-city and the Beautiful and visually stunning Caliphates palace which towers over everywhere in the city. Baghdad is one of, if not the best cities in the series.
a wilderness that evokes Origins Egypt in its design and its secrets and places to find, without the overabundance of Question marks and bandit forts, making the exploration fun due to its use of unmarked moments or thrilling use of Negative space to make the outside feel immersive.
Stealth.
Arguably the best stealth the series has had to offer yet, on par with unity and syndicates loop, it took what could have been a great foundation of stealth from origins, expanded the social stealth from Valhalla and made it more akin to AC2 - Syndicate as we now have crowd blending back and hiring groups, which made this experience feel even more like classic AC. The detection system was fixed from the absolutely broken System in Valhalla which made stealth not only actually doable, but also challenging and made players want to use it.
The use of tools in this game, brought the variety from older games to a head and makes each stealth situation have many many different ways to go about, do you parkour through, use your smoke bombs and eliminate 4 targets in a go, do you take them all out with a well placed throwing knife, track their route with Enkidu your eagle and place traps along?
I must say however, the AI in this game is bad, arguably the worst part of this game, guards hardly react seeing a dead comrade, there are chases if caught but they will never catch you or pose a threat like the original games, and they don't have the excellent routine feature that only origins featured which would have made this AI go from bad to good in and of itself.
Combat.
This section varies from opinion to opinion, some thinking it is bad, some good. Me, I thought it was serviceable, It used the foundation parts of RPG with The essence of the Ezio trilogy games, including counter kills. Alongside this, combat is tough, you can only take around 4 hits and you will die, you are not a warrior in this game, but you can use skills like an unlockable roll over enemies, dodges and even tools in combat to aid this.
However combat doesn't feel good to use, it feels barebones and an afterthought, it isn't too fun to do. but as weird as this sounds, I believe it was done this way so that combat is not incentivised in game, much like how Mario kart makes driving not fun if you're on grass, combat isn't fun if you are caught because this is a stealth game. Although I wish it was more in depth including more skills or tools like the harpoon that was in Valhalla.
Parkour.
Mediocre but a definite improvement over the RPG trilogy. Not much difference from the RPG Trilogy Parkour, however the animations and overall parkour is sped up and feels more fluid; on top of what I have already said about the city, The parkour is easily aided so much by the level design that it actually feels amazing, and if you don't believe me, watch youtubers like AltairStealth who showcases the brilliance of the level designs aiding of the parkour, this parkour while not being the best in the series, feels better than the RPG trilogy and even the Colonial trilogy because of its level design.
Overall, this is not my favourite game, but it is certainly great, on the same A tier with Black flag, but there is 4 games, it simply can't beat for me, Origins and the Ezio Trilogy.
It does so well in so many areas but not so well in others, and despite that I do love this game and I am so happy for everything it has done to rejuvenate the AC franchise. Seriously give Bordeaux a fully funded AC project that is back to roots and it will arguably become the best AC ever.
Despite all of this, I cannot Give it the 5 stars, however it comes so close.
an 8.25/10 seriously it is great and for releasing at £44 I can safely recommend getting this now