Three years and eleven days ago Assassin’s Creed Rogue released for the PC. A few months prior the game had also released on the PS3 and Xbox 360 – a sort of consolation prize for last-gen console owners who would not be able to play the new Unity game. And while I really enjoyed the 100+ hours spent with Assassin’s Creed Unity, the DLC, and the companion app, if you asked me to pick my favorite Assassin’s Creed game out of the entire series it would have to be Black Flag. There was something about the mix of high seas piracy and landlubber exploration that was as undeniably fresh as the sea air.
At the time and still today, Assassin’s Creed Rogue is a competent standalone installment in the Assassin’s Creed franchise; one that incorporates all the best elements of Black Flag while tying together plot threads and characters from Assassin’s Creed III, Black Flag and its DLC. Once again, you’ll be playing as an employee of Abstergo, acting under the guidance of an unseen voice in your head as you explore those familiar office cubicles from Black Flag looking for more lost data pads and jacking into the Animus to take on the role of Shay Patrick Cormac.
The story for Rogue is extremely clever and once again inserts Shay into historical events much like Forrest Gump. I had never heard of Lawrence Washington, or that he invented an air-powered (silent) rifle, or that he was killed by an assassin so his brother George could rise to power. If you are a fan of the TV series Sleepy Hollow you will certainly enjoy sailing your ship to that town and assisting Ben Franklin with some experiments involving lightning and a mysterious artifact. But things really get tense when Shay cuts his ties with the Assassin’s and even starts to hunt down his former brothers. You might say he’s gone…ROGUE!
The game opens with an efficiently brief and informative tutorial level that familiarizes you to with the core gameplay elements of the franchise as well as reminding you of a few favorite tricks that are back – who else missed whistling from haystacks in Unity? By the end of the tutorial mission you will have whacked a few redcoats, freed some prisoners, opened a few chests, found a treasure map, and stolen your new ship, the Morrigan. Cue the title screen.
As always, the story is only a small fraction of the content and is presented in such a way that you can decide when you are ready to pursue the next chapter. This leaves you plenty of time to scour the maps to find and collect more booty than your ship could ever hold. Divided into two main areas, you can chart your course across maps of the River Valley and North America, which both contain a wealth of known and unknown locations such as islands, bays, shipwrecks, outposts, forts, and settlements. There are plenty of towns, villages, and major cities including a sprawling 18th century version of the Big Apple that will keep you busy for days.
Finding the viewpoint in each new area, climbing to its peak, and syncing will reveal all the collectibles in the area and then it’s map clean-up time. Chests, totems, Indian cave drawings, Templar relics, treasure maps, sea shanties, and Viking sword fragments have all been carelessly misplaced and need your recovery. You won’t be able to abandon the main story for too long though, as Rogue gates much of its content by your progress through the campaign. This is especially evident in crafting, equipment for Shay, and ship upgrades. Even treasure is gated, as they will tempt you with chests hidden behind ice walls that cannot be shattered until you get frag grenades much later in the game, so completionists will be doing a bit of backtracking.
Rogue offers a travel speed to quickly get you from one location to the next and if you have already been to that location and synced the viewpoint you can always fast-travel, but then you might miss out on some rewarding ship combat, which always helps fill the hold with valuable resources for upgrades and cash, as well as fishing opportunities to catch yourself a great white shark or perhaps a killer whale. There are plenty of hunting opportunities and challenges on land as well, and everything you scavenge can be used in the excellent crafting system to improve and resupply Shay.
Rogue introduces a few new elements to the series starting with the icy conditions of the North Atlantic. Sure, those shimmering Northern Lights are beautiful at night, but don’t let them distract you from that iceberg that threatens to sink your ship – at least until you can install an ice breaking ram on the bow. Shay can also freeze to death if he’s in the water for too long. Assassin Intercept missions are another fun and challenging diversion. Once you break ties with the assassins you’ll want to sink their ships and foil their plans, which means sneaking up on carrier pigeons to intercept their orders, find their target, and protect them from multiple assassins who are blended into the local population. Even the naval combat has been enhanced. Instead of dropping exploding barrels behind your ship you can now ignite a trail of oil to set your pursuers on fire. And for the first time, enemies will now try to board your ship, putting you into a defensive mode where you must quickly kill your attackers before your crew is killed and you lose your ship.
One thing that is missing from Rogue is the companion app. This was an invaluable tool when playing Black Flag, not only being able to access the real-time navigation maps without interrupting my gameplay, but also being able to have my treasure maps accessible while trying to match-up landmarks. Plus, the whole building a fleet and shipping cargo around the world for extra cash element is gone. Now, instead of building a fleet of my own I just scrap all captured ships for repair materials. Rogue didn’t offer any multiplayer modes and none have been added to this remaster, but there is ample single-player content.
I played and finished Rogue on a high-end PC back in 2015, and I took it for a spin prior to reviewing on PS4 just to have a point of reference. This HD remaster is truly a masterclass of renovation with 4K textures and resolutions that look incredible on my PS4 Pro, and it all plays flawlessly at 60fps. Non Pro gamers can enjoy 1080p at 60fps. The opening movie with island flyover always had hiccups on the PC running at 1080p, but now everything is smooth sailing, both in-game and in the wonderful cutscenes. The soundtrack is just as glorious as I remember, inspiring all sorts of emotions, and the sea shanties always put a smile on my face, but nothing will boost your ego like taking command of your ship and having the entire deck crew cheer you on. The voice acting is perhaps some of the finest in the series, especially if you enjoy lots of thick Irish accents.
I said in my PC review three years ago that I hoped Ubisoft would release this game to next-gen consoles. I just didn’t expect it to take this long, but the developers have clearly put some serious effort into making this the best remaster possible, and I can’t help but grin at the diabolical release date – the same day Microsoft releases their own exclusive “pirate game”. It’s worth noting that Rogue uses the classic control scheme from all the previous games except for Origins, so if you are coming off of that game prepare for a slight relearning curve, especially for combat. This remaster also includes downloadable content from the original game: two bonus missions (The Armor of Sir Gunn Quest and The Siege of Fort de Sable), as well as the Master Templar and Explorer packs, which contain weapons, customization items and special outfits, including Bayek’s legacy outfit from Assassin’s Creed Origins.
Despite my love of Black Flag, Unity, and the recently released Origins, Assassin’s Creed Rogue remains one of my top three favorite installments in the franchise thanks to the wonderful way in which it ties together so many individual games, stories, and characters. I can’t count the number of times I said, “Hey, I know that guy!”, or “Hey, I (Connor) built that house!”, and yes, Shay will get to renovate plenty of buildings in almost every location he visits and even do some city management later in the game.
And that is what I love most about the Assassin’s Creed franchise – there is never a shortage of things to do. You can immerse yourself in the fictionalized events of American history, or you can lose countless hours of your life in simple exploration and treasure hunting – with or without a treasure map. No matter what you do or when or how you do it, Assassin’s Creed Rogue delivers 30-40 hours of solid single-player entertainment, and a grand adventure you don’t want to miss.
