Assassin's Creed Rogue is the last generation side release next to Assassin's Creed Unity. Serving as a prequel to AC III, Rogue explores how an Assassin initiate, Shay Cormac, turned against the Assassin Order in Colonial America and wiped out the Assassins.

Gameplay is extremely similar to AC IV Black Flag with sailing, climbing, and combat. However, Rogue adds new elements like gas grenades and icebergs to make combat amd exploration much more interesting, and it does very well mixing in these new elements. Sailing is still basically the same, so if you liked it from AC IV, then you get more of it. Renovations make a return in Rogue, using materials looted from other ships to contruct buildings to generate more income. Similar to the forts in AC III, there are gang headquarters scattered throughout the world that you can take over and use as a base of operations. Also, I found Rogue to be much more difficult overall than other Assassin's Creed games, which is a nice change of pace from always being overpowered against every other enemy.

Rogue's story is definitely one of the strongest in the series, providing a relatable character Shay, as he experiences that the Assassins aren't always the "good guys", and the Templars aren't always the "bad guys". Shay struggles as he believes in the Templar cause, but has to come to terms and fight against his former brother and sister assassins. This story fills the gap on why the Assassin Order is all but extinct during the events of AC III. Also, the modern day segments are minimal and dont' provide much new if you've played other AC games. Overall, Rogue delivers a very different story than the rest of the series, and that makes it one of the best.

Rogue keeps on par with visuals just like AC IV, but with the added ice and snow elements. The game performs smoothly with little to no visual hiccups.

Despite having an exact replica of the AC IV exploration mechanic, navigation is much more of a hassle in Rogue. One sailing area in particular is very frustrating to navigate because it's a long winding and narrow river that just makes me want to fast travel everywhere, almost cutting out exploration.

Overall, Rogue is a fresh new idea in the series that performs well and is definitely worth playing through. The story is drastically different and keeps the intrigue as Shay goes from Assassin to Templar. However, most people probably didn't play this game since it came out with Assassin's Creed Unity, which is highly unfortunate.

Reviewed on Apr 16, 2024


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