Assassin’s Creed Rogue
18th century, North America. Amidst the chaos and violence of the French and Indian War, Shay Patrick Cormac, a fearless young member of the Brotherhood of Assassin’s, undergoes a dark transformation that will forever shape the future of the American colonies. After a dangerous mission gone tragically wrong, Shay turns his back on the Assassins who, in response, attempt to end his life. Cast aside by those he once called brothers, Shay sets out on a mission to wipe out all who turned against him and ultimately become the most feared Assassin hunter in history. Introducing Assassin’s Creed® Rogue, the darkest chapter in the Assassin’s Creed franchise yet. As Shay, you will experience the slow transformation from Assassin to Assassin Hunter. Follow your own creed and set off on an extraordinary journey through New York City, the wild river valley, and far away to the icy cold waters of the North Atlantic in pursuit of your ultimate goal – bringing down the Assassins for good.
Steam User 50
Assassin’s Creed: Rogue offers more of what’s to be expected instead of really utilizing the first templar protagonist in the franchise to the fullest, making Rogue a game that’s recommendable for those who liked what came before but not for those who were hoping for big changes to the formula
Before I go on to discuss Assassin’s Creed: Rogue, I feel like it’s important to recap its launch circumstances first. Rogue was the last Assassin’s Creed game to be developed for the seventh generation of videogame consoles (Xbox 360 & PlayStation 3 in particular). It also released on the same day as Assassin’s Creed: Unity in 2014, which was developed for the eight generation of videogames consoles (Xbox One, PlayStation 4). Basically, Rogue was the final hurrah for older videogame consoles at the time while Unity was supposed to be the next big (technical) step in the franchise. A fun side fact: Rogue actually also made an appearance on Nintendo consoles, with a Remastered version released for the Switch in 2019, while Unity has yet to make an appearance.
Considering these development & launch circumstances, it might be a little more understandable why Rogue is what it is: basically Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag with a new setting. Save for some minor gameplay changes, like the introduction of an air rifle, a grenade launcher and slightly different weapons for your boat, it’s really just Black Flag set in North America. You got the usual sea battles, a similar upgrade process and of course the typical Assassin’s Creed stuff to do while on land: killing, tailing, collecting stuff.
There’s nothing I can tell you about Rogue’s gameplay that hasn’t been said about the previous Assassin’s Creed games as well. At this point, you’ll either like the gameplay or not. There’s also a third category called “getting tired of the entire thing being repeated over and over again”, which eventually became so common that Ubisoft soft-rebooted the franchise with Origins only a few years later. Anyway, to keep it short, Rogue is more of the same without anything new to really change the general gameplay experience.
Considering Rogue does try to change things up in one regard, this is a huge disappointment: Rogue is the first Assassin’s Creed game where you play as a templar instead of an assassin throughout most of the game – something Assassin’s Creed III shied away from. This is the first time since the franchises’ beginning in 2007 (and the eleven games that released before Rogue, counting the DS titles as well) that a templar became the playable protagonist. It would’ve been a great opportunity to show things from a different perspective and offer new gameplay options at the same time. Unfortunately, Rogue doesn’t make proper use of this chance.
First, as I mentioned, the gameplay is basically the same – even down to the use of hidden blades. Story-wise, this is explained by protagonist Shay belonging to the assassins in the opening hours of the game, so it’s not coming from nowhere. But I also feel like this is taking the easy way out in terms of gameplay, as Shay plays just like the assassin protagonists in previous games of the franchise. Not even the fights against the assassins are much different than what we’ve seen before, as similar battles occurred during Black Flag. Creating a templar protagonist just to make him play like an assassin just feels like a wasted opportunity to me, it’s just playing it safe in a franchise that already played it safe for years at this point.
Again, the gameplay is as one expects from an Assassin’s Creed game and if that’s what you want, you won’t be disappointed. But those hoping for a templar game mixing things up in a big way are not going to be happy about this.
It's a shame that the story of Rogue also doesn’t properly uses the chance it got. It does offer quite a lot of ties to games like Assassin’s Creed III, Black Flag and Unity, which are certainly well-appreciated. But it also repeats the same mistakes the franchise just can’t seem to get right, like an underdeveloped supporting cast and pacing issues. The latter is even more surprising considering the fact that this game is noticeably shorter than previous entries in the franchise, with the main story lasting just about 10 hours including travel and some ship upgrades.
I also have to mention that the event driving Shay to switch sides is incredibly forced, as it mostly boils down to “this could’ve been prevented if everyone just sat down and had a nice, long talk”. It’s accompanied by an admittedly nice setpiece straight from an Uncharted game (which honestly makes me wonder why these setpieces are so rare in the Assassin’s Creed franchise) but it’s still far from a natural story development. Speaking of, I also have to mention that Benjamin Franklin (!) is the person who gave Shay his grenade launcher (!!), which is something you either find incredibly funny or incredibly stupid.
Overall, Rogue is an okay Assassin’s Creed game that feels like a best-of what’s come before. Everything you expect to be here is here, from ship battles to tailing missions, from hundreds of collectables to easy-to-understand combat that’s also lacking some depth. And considering that it was the final hurrah for the franchise on seventh generation consoles, as I mentioned at the beginning of this review, all of this makes sense.
But considering the enormous opportunity of the templar perspective here, I can’t help but also feel a little disappointed. The same goes for the real-world plot, which is incredibly predictable once you’re introduced to the setting.
A templar-focused game could’ve also been a great entry point to the franchise for newer players but considering the lack of proper explanation concerning many concepts (e.g. the templars and assassins themselves) and ties to older games, Rogue really feels like a game that was made with fans of the franchise in mind.
Which is why, as a conclusion, that’s exactly the type of player I can recommend Rogue to. If you love (pre-Origins) Assassin’s Creed, you’ll like this game too. If you didn’t like the previous Assassin’s Creed games, considering Rogue isn’t much different, you are not going to change their mind after experiencing what’s on offer here. And those new to the franchise – you are better off picking an Assassin’s Creed game that truly offers a fresh start.
Steam User 37
Did you like Black Flag? Here's more of it, but now you're a Templar hunting Assassins instead of a Pirate hunting gold. Oh and there's icebergs instead of sandy beaches.
Steam User 40
Killing my friends - The Game
Steam User 33
The most underrated AC games ever, if you an AC fans then you must definitely try it
10/10 shay did nothing wrong
Steam User 34
---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☑ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☑ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☑ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☑ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☐ 8
☐ 9
☑ 10
Best assassin's creed game after ac2
Steam User 26
A fun little spin off chapter with an interesting bit of story to add. The main campaign is a bit short though honestly they focused more on the side content than anything else, but that doesn't take away from enjoying the game.
The side content this time around is pretty much a collective of everything up to this point. Naval mechanics, town management, free running challenges, and tons of various collectibles floating around the world. Every aspect has been slightly improved upon with even more stuff to unlock than before.
Great addition to the series and well worth your dime and time!
Steam User 19
One of the most underrated games. This masterpiece should not be released with AC Unity. A great twist turn in the franchise, where first time an assassin left his path and joined templar cause. And there it ended where Unity started, Even you can see child Arno and Elise there conversing. This game needs to get more care. And though I very much appriciate AC IV Black flag remake, this game also need something like that, at least an expansion, or something to give light on Shay's final fate. Absolutely recommending this.