Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China is a refreshing take in the series, opting for a 2.5D side-scrolling experience, putting a stronger focus on stealth. Set in 16th-century China, you play as Shao Jun, a former concubine turned assassin, on her quest for revenge against the Templars who have wiped out the Chinese Assassins. The art has a watercolour painting styling to it.
The levels are well-designed, offering multiple paths and verticality that encourage exploration and strategic planning. There's optional objectives and collectables that keep you looking out for these alternate routes.
I was wondering if the mechanics translate into this style of game or if it is just a different style of game leveraging the brand name. It still has the platforming, stealth, ledge kills, and leap of faith etc., and utilises the 3rd dimension in parts as part of the stealth. Some ledges can be traversed this way as well as hiding in some areas in the foreground or background. So it works extremely well.
You need to time your movement with enemy patrols, avoiding their vision cones. Eagle vision zooms the camera out more and shows patrol routes and marks key targets. You can whistle and use equipment to distract. If you opt for kills, you often need to hide bodies to make sure other guards aren't alerted.
New mechanics are introduced over time; both moves and environmental. At first, you might hide in dark areas and can move freely, but then bushes are introduced which you can hide but can't move undetected due to the rustling. There's some noisy floorboards or caged birds that require you to walk slowly, or dogs that need to be bypassed.
You are rewarded for stealthy play. You can still kill as long as you remain undetected, so make sure you hide their bodies in populated areas.
There are some levels which force you to keep running, for example fleeing a burning building. Here you can still perform a few stealth kills but the focus is on speed and platforming. These levels offer a great change of pace from the slower, methodical movement in prior levels.
You start with one health point but get stronger as you play. In terms of combat you can block, flip, use light and heavy attacks, and countering is introduced later. Combat can be tough especially when surrounded, because you need to press the correct direction to block and also can be hit from range, so there's a lot to look out for.
I think this game translates the key ideas of the main franchise and executes them well. Although I heard the other 2 games in this series aren’t as good, I am motivated to play them because I enjoyed this instalment.