As we march on toward November 11th and the release of TWO brand new Assassin’s Creed games, we here at TheHDRoom are continuing our month-long preview coverage, this time focusing on Assassin’s Creed Rogue. Our previous articles focused on the story of Assassin’s Creed Unity, and on the new features of the hotly anticipated game, but Rogue is a completely different experience. In fact, there has never been an Assassin’s Creed game like this, as for the first time players take control of a Templar and they do battle against the assassins!
In Assassin’s Creed Rogue, the protagonist is Shay Cormac, a one-time assassin (and protege of Achilles, Connor’s teacher/mentor in Assassin’s Creed III), who turns on the order after a terrible event. Haytham Kenway–also from Assassin’s Creed III–helps turn Shay into an assassin-hunting Templar who must hunt down his one time comrades, creating a whole new play experience. The game does have some ties to Unity, but those ties will not be revealed until very late in the Rogue’s story.
Rogue serves as the middle–or connecting–chapter of the “new world trilogy” that includes ACIII and Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. The story takes place between 1752 and 1761, which fits in nicely with the established timelines from this trilogy. Many familiar faces from both previous games make appearances in Rogue, but perhaps the biggest callback to the previous games is the naval travel and combat. Shay takes control of the Morrigan, a smaller ship than Edward Kenway’s Jackdaw, and Shay will have opportunities to attack ships in open water for loot and cash, and even sail down rivers in and around New York. Arguably, the naval aspects are what made Black Flag one of the best games in the long-running series so far, so to revisit that gameplay is very much a good thing. Lastly, Rogue is a single-player only experience, so all of Ubisoft Sofia’s resources were focused on telling a killer story with inspired gameplay, which is what fans have come to expect from an Assassin’s Creed game.
Assassin’s Creed Rogue is also exclusively for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 systems, giving gamers who have yet to adopt the new gen systems–or have yet to get rid of their old systems–their own Assassin’s Creed game to play this holiday season. Ubisoft is taking a chance on releasing two very different Assassin’s Creed games on the same day, but whereas Unity was built from the ground up for new gen, Rogue retains the play control and graphics engine that made the series a success in the first place. And again, playing as a templar and hunting assassins could be somewhat jarring for players who have battled the templars now for seven-plus games. But we fully trust Ubisoft to come through with another stellar game experience. I mean, it is still called “Assassin’s Creed,” and not “Templar’s Creed” so who knows what will happen?
Here is the story trailer.
Assassin’s Creed Rogue hits the PS3 and Xbox 360 exclusively on November 11th.
