Assassin's Creed Rogue (2014)

 Assassin's Creed Rogue was released on November 11, 2014, which was the same day Assassin's Creed Unity. It was released for PS3, Xbox 360, and Windows initially and rereleased for eighth gen consoles in March 2018. 

Plot

Rogue ties together story elements from III and Black Flag and then leads directly into Unity. Set in the backdrop of the French and Indian War, it follows Shay Patrick Cormac, an Irish immigrant who is an initiate for the Assassins at the beginning of the game. The Assassins are allied with the French in the colonies as the events of the French and Indian War begin. Shay is tasked by his Mentor Achilles (the same Achilles from III) to find a Precursor Box and Manuscript that have fallen into Templar hands. 

Shay is aided by other Assassins, namely Liam O'Brien, Hope Jensen, Kesegowaase, and Louis-Jospeh Gaultier, Chevalier de la Vérendrye, though Shay and Chevalier were antagonistic to each other from the beginning. With their help, Shay is able to track down the Templar Lawrence Washington and assassinate him, but not before learning that Templars Samuel Smith and James Wardrop had the Box and Manuscript. 

After some years, Shay is able to assassinate Smith and Wardrop and retrieve the Box and Manuscript. However, all of the men he had assassinated were older men who could not put up a fight and Shay began to have second thoughts about his mission. Regardless, Shay is able to activate the Box with the help of Benjamin Franklin's lightning experiment and saw that it revealed Precursor temples. Shay recognized the location of one as Lisbon, Portugal and travelled the ocean to open the temple and retrieve the Precursor device. 

Upon arriving in Lisbon on All Saint's Day in 1755, Shay is able to access the temple underneath a cathedral. He goes to grab the device, but as he picks it up, it disintegrates and triggers a catastrophic earthquake that levels Lisbon. Shay is disillusioned with the Assassins upon returning to the colonies and tries to take the Box and Manuscript from Achilles. He is discovered and cornered on a cliff at the edge of the Davenport Homestead. Shay moves to jump in the ocean to drown the Manuscript and escape from his guilt, but is shot before he can jump and falls off the cliff. 

Shay is rescued by a passing merchant ship and is sent to New York to rest and recover at the home of Barry and Cassidy Finnegan. After the Finnegans are attacked by a local gang, Shay goes to protect them by eliminating the gang leader and taking over their base. He is approached by Colonel George Monro, who asks for Shay's continued help against the gangs. Shay rescues Christopher Gist, who helps him regain his old ship, the Morrigan, and gathers a crew. 

Shay and Gist work to rid the area of the gang's influence as they are a proxy for the Assassins. Gist and Monro turn out to be Templars and Shay continues to work with them. Monro is given a command of British troops operating in the frontier against the French when he is ambushed by Kesegowaase. Shay is able to rescue him, but in the process the Assassins discover that he is alive. Kesegowaase attacks Monro's forces in Albany soon after and Shay sails there to assist Monro. He kills Kesegowaase, but Liam kills Monro and takes the Manuscript, which did not fall into the ocean as Shay had originally thought. 

Shay is inducted into the Templar Order by Haytham Kenway. He explains to Haytham the nature of the temples that the Assassins are seeking and Haytham agrees to stop them. With the help of Captain James Cook, Shay tracks down Adéwalé (from Black Flag) and kills him, then travels to New York to cripple the Assassin gangs. 

Shay and fellow Templar Jack Weeks stage a false flag attack on the British using gang disguises. This prompts the British to retaliate and allows Shay to sneak into Hope's mansion in the chaos. However, Liam and Hope are able to activate the Box and Liam departs to find the next Precursor site. Hope poisons Shay, who chases her down and assassinates her to recover the antidote. However, Liam and Achilles leave New York on Chevalier's ship and head for the North Atlantic. 

Shay pursues them, again enlisting the help of James Cook. He is able to locate Chevalier's ship and kills him, but discovers Chevalier had already gotten Liam and Achilles to the temple. Shay and Haytham follow, reaching the temple and infiltrating it just as Liam and Achilles arrive at the device. Achilles realizes Shay was right about the device all along and Liam tries to kill Shay for destroying the Assassins, accidently knocking the device off of its pedestal and triggering an earthquake. 

Everyone flees the temple, with Shay running off in pursuit of Liam. Liam falls to his death, with Shay barely surviving. Shay finds Haytham and Achilles fighting near the ship. Haytham is about to kill Achilles when Shay stops him, saying that the Assassins may still pursue the temples unless Achilles warns them not to. Haytham agrees, but shoots Achilles in the knee to cripple him. He then tasks Shay to retrieve the Box and Manuscript. 

Fourteen years later, Shay is able to locate the Box in Paris. He infiltrates the Palace of Versailles with Benjamin Franklin's help and finds the Assassin holding the Box, Charles Dorian. He kills Dorian and retrieves the Box, setting up the events of Unity.

In the modern day, these events are experienced by another analyst in Abstergo Entertainment. After Shawn and Rebecca infiltrated the facility the previous year, Abstergo sent in high ranking Templars Otso Berg and Violet De Costa to prevent further security breaches. However, Shay's date file was rigged with a computer virus, which cripples the building. During the course of the game. The unnamed analyst is able to restore the servers and eventually uploads the footage of Shay's memories to the Assassin's network to show them how destructive the Assassins can be. Afterwards, the analyst is given a choices: join the Templars or die. 

Gameplay

While this is a full title, Rogue uses the same gameplay mechanics as Black Flag, though with enough tweaks to make sure it is not a complete rehash. In combat, Shay uses a knife and sword, which allows for different moves. He also has access to an air rifle, which fires berserk and sleep darts to incapacitate enemies, and fire crackers to distract them. Shay also uses a grenade launcher, which has an area effect on enemies. 

Naval combat has been tweaked as well. The Morrigan can utilize a Puckle gun, which was a precursor to the Gatling gun. The ship also has the ability to create an oil slick, which be set ablaze to damage enemy ships. The Morrigan is equipped with an icebreaker ram to be able to get through the ice of the North Atlantic. There is no underwater exploration like Black Flag, since the waters of the North Atlantic are lethal. 

The setting for the game includes the North Atlantic, which mainly centers around Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and the nearby Arctic waters. Another area that is explorable is called the River Valley, which seems to be loosely related to the St. Lawrence and the Hudson River Valley. New York returns in this game, though with a bigger land area than the version in III.

Since the story is short, much of this game's time is taken up with location activities. Forts can be taken from the French in the North Atlantic and the River Valley, and gang headquarters can be liberated in all three areas. There are smaller settlements as well that can be seized from the French. Instead of Assassin contracts, Shay has the ability to stop Assassins attempting to carry out a contract. 

Hunting returns in this game, though instead of animals native to the Caribbean, Shay can hunt animals native to the Arctic like polar bears and Arctic wolves. Again, these skins are used to create health upgrades and increase the effects of the darts and grenades. 

Renovations return in the game as well, which can be unlocked by conquering forts and liberating gang headquarters. Resources for the renovations are obtained by attacking French ships, mainly in the North Atlantic since the bigger ships cannot get into the River Valley. Collectibles in this game include Animus fragments, song sheets, prosperity fragments, which increase payouts from renovations and holding territories, Viking swords, chests, and buried chests. The Viking swords unlock a Viking outfit  and the buried chests have keys that unlock a 12th century Templar armor.

Legendary ships make a return in this game, though this time they are more historic battles in the context of the French and Indian War. Completing three of these unlocks one last ship, the Storm Fortress, which honestly is probably one of the most difficult boss fights of any game in this series. 

Given that Shay betrayed the Assassins, they are now constantly on the hunt for him. During ship battles, the Morrigan can be reverse boarded, which can decimate the crew numbers. On land, stalkers hunt Shay and can be counter killed when they ambush Shay. 

Thoughts. 

I love this game. Honestly, this is close to my favorite games in the series. Shay's story is tragic and you feel his pain as he betrays the Assassins and follows a dark path. I thought it was interesting to see the other side of the Assassin-Templar conflict, one that portrays the Assassins in a bad light for once. 

Until Origins and Odyssey were released, I thought this game's setting was the most beautiful in the series. You can feel just how raw the frozen wilderness was, even on seventh generation consoles. Even the ice of the Arctic was jaw-dropping. The background music, inspired by Shay's Celtic heritage, matches the rough scenery perfectly, really giving me a feel for the vastness of this wilderness. Even with the shortened story, this game kept me busy for tens of hours exploring every nook and cranny of the frozen islands of the North Atlantic and the forests and rivers of the River Valley. 

Probably more in this game than any other game, I enjoyed going after all of the unlockable outfits. Besides the ones listed above, some outfits can be crafted like a frontiersmen coat. The Templar coats are great as well, even the 12th century armor.

I wish there had been a longer story, but considering they were making and releasing Unity at the same time, it's amazing that they turned out a game this good. I certainly enjoyed it a lot more than Unity, which will be the subject of the next review.