Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: Russia is the third and final episode of the Chronicles franchise. A franchise that already brought us to China and India. Russia is an entirely different experience since we play during a darker era. Mother Russia is about to lose its last Tsar to the Templars and it’s up to assassin Nikolai to rescue and guard the valuable princess Anastasia. Prepare for a dark and gritty Assassin’s Creed story!
Meet Nikolai
In this Chronicles episode you play as Nikolai Orelov, in Russia 1918. Fans of the Assassin’s Creed lore might remember Nikolai from the graphic novels and it’s indeed the same person. The events of the game are set between Assassin’s Creed: The Fall and Assassin’s Creed: The Chain, both graphic novels. Nikolai wants to leave the country to take care of his family but is tasked with a dangerous assignment for the Assassins Order. He has to steal a mysterious box from the Bolsheviks, a box that is said to be one of the last pieces of Eden. During his attempt to steal this box, Nikolai witnesses the murder of Nicholas’s children, all murdered except for one, Anastasia. It’s up to Nikolai now to guard the princess and make sure the box never falls back in the hands of the Templars. It’s an interesting story filled with betrayal an mysteries between the Templars and the Assassins. Of all Chronicles games, this Russia episode offers the darkest and most serious story for sure.
Communist Russia
As you might already know, each Chronicles episode comes with its own unique style. China went for oriental drawings while India went for a true color fest. The Russia episode tries to mimic communist Russia, meaning you’ll have a lot of dark and red colors. The environments and characters are introduced using a visual style that mostly resembles the propaganda posters of back in the days. This is Russia at the end of World War I, a Russia that was desperately looking for new and strong leaders. It’s great to see how well the developers managed to recreate this communist atmosphere into the game. Every new character or environment that’s presented in a cut scene feels right at its place. Thanks to the huge texts over the images, you really feel like you’re playing a communist game. Everything about this title feels dark and gritty and fits the atmosphere of that era incredibly well.
For Mother Russia!
A more brutal assassin
If you’ve read the graphic novels, you know what kind of assassin Nikolai truly is. If you haven’t read those, let me explain the situation. Nikolai is a very loyal assassin but he’s even more loyal towards his family. He’ll do everything that’s in his power to keep his family safe. Unlike Shao Jun (China) and Arbaaz Mir (India), Nikolai isn’t afraid to use brutal force. Right from the start of the game it’s clear that Nikolai is a more violent assassin. He has a lot of useful gadgets varying from a grappling hook and smoke bombs to a sniper rifle. This rifle is Nokolai’s signature weapon and is even used to break the 2.5D platform sections. From time to time, you’re forced to hide behind cover and aim your rifle at certain enemies to take them down or create a distraction. These Sniper missions reminded us of old arcade shooters and are actually fun to play!
Nikolai is of course still capable to take down his enemies as a true assassin but it’s clear the developers encourage the more brutal approach. This gets even more obvious due the lack of Helix powers. Unlike the other assassins in the Chronicles games, Nikolai can’t use special powers to remain invisible from his enemies, that’s where Anastasia comes in handy.
The deadly princess
Anastasia is the second playable character in this episode and has the same basic skills as Nikolai. This means she can also take down enemies with ease and can count on various distracting tools to get her way around. Anastasia is the more stealthy character on the other hand thanks to her Helix powers. Just like the other Chronicles games, the Helix power is used to get from cover to cover without being noticed. It’s an important technique since the combat of the game still results in your death most of the times. Guards can call in reinforcements and will take you down without hesitation. If you want to survive, you’ll need to learn how to use your environment to your advantage. Just like before, getting passed guards without killing them will result in most points at the end of your run.
Some problems
When it comes to setting and characters, this Assassin’s Creed Chronicles is by far the best of all three. Too bad the same can’t be told about the gameplay. Where we saw improvements to the gameplay in India, we must say that Russia fails to deliver. Since Nikolai is a very weak assassin based on his healthbar, a lot of sections are trial and error. Meaning you’ll need to restart a lot of missions due the fact that the enemies discovered you and took you down. At first you think it’s all fair but the more you advance the more unfair those missions will become. There are some truly frustrating missions near the end of the game that really take away all the fun out of the game. The game forces you to use your abilities to get passed the guards but if you make one little mistake, you’re forced to replay the entire mission. The worst thing about this is that you can’t learn from your mistakes. Techniques you used before seem harmless against new guards so you’ll just need to learn from your previous deaths, which can become rather frustrating.
Same goes for the timed platforming sections where you need to escape before the time runs out. Due to imprecise controls you’ll often end up on ledges you didn’t want to reach, resulting in your death and restart of the mission. It’s a shame the developers didn’t invest more time in resolving these issues since they certainly take away some of the fun.
If you manage to complete the game however you can try to beat the New Game Plus and extra difficulty mode. It’s fun to have a mode with extra difficulties but I’m sure not many of you will want to replay the same frustrating levels over and over again.
Conclusion
Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: Russia nails its setting and is without a doubt the best of the spin-off franchise when it comes to visual presentation. Too bad the same can’t be told about the gameplay. The game struggle with a lot of trial & error missions and the controls aren’t as accurate as they should, which of course kills some of the platform fun. It’s not a bad episode but we wished the last one of the trilogy would handle things a little more carefully. That being said, if you’re an Assassin’s Creed fan, Russia is without a doubt a fun new playground.
