Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India

If you enjoyed the previous installment of Assassin's Creed Chronicles, then you'll find more of the same here. It won't convert anyone who didn't like the last game, but it does provide more stealth platforming at an affordable price.

Chronicles India tries to do something more than the China chapter. While still highly enjoyable, it's a little more unfocused and unpolished than the previous game.

The visuals are plain beautiful (the occasional clipping aside), but even with slightly changed abilities the Chronicles rely far too early on repeating the established, while adding a few minor problems that were not present in the predecessor.

A good second stab for Ubisoft's latest spin-off series, India makes up for what it lacks in excitement with visual flare.

Assassin's Creed Chronicles India is a 2.5 platformer that is all about subterfuge set in this wonderful franchise!

Its focus on stealth actually causes you to pause and take in a lot of the rest of the game's features, especially its art and beautiful environment.

Our trip to India is not dissimilar to our original trip to China; the style and gameplay are almost identical to the first game, not that there is anything particularly wrong with that. Being given the choice to play stealthy or by using full on combat is refreshing and you are able to go through the whole game without directly harming a single enemy, but it does sometimes feel like you are forced into combat with the layout of the levels and the frequency of the enemies.

Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India learned from the missteps of its predecessor, as gameplay is more varied and its colorful, vibrant levels are both pleasing to the eye and fun to interact with in most cases. Open combat is to be avoided at all costs, however, limiting how you play the game—and some of the puzzle-platforming levels drag in term of pacing.

Like Arbaaz himself, these great moments have a bad habit of vanishing into thin air when you least want them to, bit there is still a lot of fun to be had in this Indian adventure.

Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India, isn't a whole lot different compared to China, which is either a good or a bad thing depending on your prior experience. It sports a slightly less interesting character and setting, but the core experience is replicated, and the addition of a few gameplay tweaks as well as the aforementioned challenge mode ensures that it's on the level.

The mechanics are basically unchanged from its predecessor, but the developers have gotten better when it comes to pure level design and variety. The 2.5 perspective is also used much better in the maps, even if we would have liked more gadgets and possibilities during the action. If you liked Chronicles: China get it without a second thought, but keep in mind that it’s still a long way from the quality that we’ve seen in Mark of the Ninja.

An improvement on its predecessor, Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India is a more varied game that at it’s best, is pretty damn good. But a handful of poor choices and underdeveloped ideas hold it back.

Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India is not a bad game, just not different enough from its predecessor to stand out. On top of that there is an uninspired presentation, dull story and repetitive mechanics.

Not quite the diamond in the rough, India is at times sumptuous but often shallow in almost every other way.

In terms of presentation, Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India remedies the stiff sense of joylessness that pervades Chronicles: China by injecting more color and personality wherever it seemed possible. That renewed energy only makes it more disappointing that the generally well-designed missions have given way to the artifice of cheap-feeling instant deaths.

Offering neither the thrilling gymnastic momentum of Prince of Persia, nor the flexible sneaking of its superstar sibling, ACC: India finds itself spinning off into a cul-de-sac. [March 2016, p.76]

If you liked Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China, then there's a decent chance that you'll have a good time in India, in spite of the problems outlined above.

Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India is a disappointment. Outside of the gorgeous, painted art style, it has few redeeming features.