Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China

Chronicles: China is short—I completed it in only a few hours—but with a cheap price and a handy new game plus mode, there’s certainly a lot of stabby-runny-climby value to be found.

Climax Studios has done well: Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China is a fresh and enjoyable experience, both for fans and newcomers of the Creed.

AC Chronicles: China is a funny and smart game that capitalizes on what made Assassin's Creed so successful.

As someone who has admittedly grown a bit tired with the Assassin’s Creed series, I found Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China to be an invigorating breath of fresh air.

The first Chronicles entry isn’t perfect, but it’s a good starting point.

A joy to play for any fan of stealth and secret stabbing, Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China is nuanced and immersive in a gorgeous setting. If you loved Mark of the Ninja, you really shouldn't miss out on this one.

Get past the rubbish revenge tale and you'll find a brilliant new take on a series that needed it. [July 2015, p.77]

AC Chronicles China its a new point of view for the franchise. Preserves the essence of the brand, but fails in the structural design of the scenarios. The AI of the enemies also hurts the experience.

Ubisoft reinvents Assassin's Creed franchise with Chronicles. This first part, that takes place in China, is an interesting breath of fresh air that revives the stealth, without burdening the mechanics provided through the 2D. The plot, of course, isn't as good as this interesting experiment.

It’s not a must-have game, even for Assassin’s Creed fans, but I had more fun with it than with Rogue. [06/2015, p.54]

The greatest sin of Assassin's Creed: China could be found in coming after the excellent Klei's Mark of the Ninja. As a whole, the work of Ubisoft is less satisfying and original, with a worse game design and narrative. Nevertheless, it is quite entertaining.

No mere spinoff, this is a beautiful addition to the series. [June 2015, p.89]

China's overall simplicity and blandness means you won't be returning soon. [Issue#257, p.68]

Not a cut above the main franchise, but a decent stab at a spin-off. [July 2015, p83]

Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China is a decent stab---no pun intended---at bringing the series to a 2.5D realm, though it's sadly let down by poor level design and dull combat.

It's clear that the same effort that went into historical research in other Assassin's Creed games did not happen here. Rather, it's quite obvious that the team did an afternoon's research on Wikipedia and called it a day.

Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China takes a bold new step for the franchise. While I did have fun, I spent most of the game frustrated by buggy controls and A.I. that seemed to forget what its limitations were.

Visually beautiful and interesting in the gameplay department, the spin-off series Assassin's Creed Chronicles is off to a good start. It's a shame the developers kind of force you to use stealth though, whereas action was always a viable option in previous games. It doesn't help that the controls feel a bit clunky either.

Chronicles: China is a decent and correct game, it adapts the mechanics of the popular Ubisoft franchise to 2.5D perspective in a positive way with interesting contributions. Its history is not brilliant but it has a decent presentation and some fun mechanics.

An interesting change in Assassin's Creed's gameplay and a charismatic main character don't hide its flaws in the technical aspect. It's a bit monotonous, too.

A sidescrolling Assassin's Creed works fine, but Ubisoft starts working in a genre that is way more developed than Ubisoft is on that department. The graphic style is beautiful and if you'd like to have a more stealthy approach to Assassin's Creed, this is definitely a game for you.

This has not become the game people were hoping for. The choice to make it a 2.5D sidescroller is a good one, as many of the issues with 3D-games are now a force behind this one. In a way ACC: China is a very entertaining platform game, but the voice-overs are odd and the game asks a lot of patience of you.

It doesn't offer anything particularly surprising, but delivers a side-scrolling stealth-based adventure worth checking out for fans of the franchise.

An interesting break from the traditional Assassin's Creed formula. Not without its shortcomings, but engaging enough.

Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China turned out to be a really decent product. There's something here for the fans of Mark of the Ninja, as well as the lovers of classic, platform-jumping Princes of Persia. This cycle will be expanded the same way the big AC games are - and judging from what I have seen, it should turn out not bad at all.

With its 2,5D environments, Chronicles: China is a nice new horizon for the Assassin’s Creed series.

A decent change of pace for the franchise. The goals are more focused and deliver some great stealth gameplay across the approximately five hours it takes to complete. With all the open world distractions stripped away I felt like I was playing a proper assassin-based title, with the only focus being to take out the target.

All design style with no narrative substance.

It’s a different take on side-scrolling gameplay, but the added depth doesn’t save it from feeling flat.

You can't actually say that the first part of the "Chronicles" trilogy is a "bad" game, but at this point the story of the Assassin's series seems like a mess and Assassin's Creed Chronicles China is not offering anything we haven't seen (and in a better way) in Mark of the Ninja.

There are many ways in which this Assassin’s Creed could have gone terribly wrong, but didn’t. Its problems lie, instead, in its inability to truly let the player off the leash, and its uncharacteristically soulless presentation.

Quotation forthcoming.

What is left is a run-of-the-mill 2D sidescroller grafted to a superficial Assassin’s Creed theme. More than anything Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China makes me less interested in the rest of the new series. Give me a proper Assassin’s Creed game set in China instead.

We wouldn’t say that the game overstays its welcome, but by the midway point getting through the levels starts to become a chore.

Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China features some great stealth gameplay reminiscent of Klei Entertainment's Mark of the Ninja. Unfortunately, the mechanics lack more depth and grow tired by time you reach the end of your quest. Ubisoft also misses the opportunity to tell a bigger story. Worth playing, but Shao Jun deserves better.

Without a better story, and the game ending before you can really ever test your mettle, Assassin's Creed Chronicles feels lackluster.

Though it sheds many of the series' best elements, Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China has its own charm, and is worth a play for those in search of a simple stealth experience.

Chronicles: China is a valiant attempt at expanding such offerings, but it doesn't hit the bar of quality or originality that its genre peers have already set.

As a 2D interpretation of Assassin’s Creed this works perfectly well, but the workmanlike design and bland atmosphere makes it hard to get excited about.

Traversal is fluid and fun, combat is enjoyably simple, and the level design is often lovingly crafted, but it never comes close to stepping out of its comfort zone and trying something remotely memorable.

Chronicles rests on being pretty, adding new mechanics over time but flattening the pace and allowing exploits and glitches to suck out the rising tension.

Still, I think of how The Devil Inside essentially is a film with no third act. By the same token, ACC: China never really lets the itself soar. Everything feels deliberately muted. And that leads Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China being ultimately just as forgettable as The Devil Inside.