February’s second Xbox One Games With Gold title was Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India which is a 2.5D puzzle stealth game.

When starting the game you get a choice of play game or challenge rooms (which it turns out you need to unlock before you can play). After starting a new game you are shown that there are three difficulties: normal, plus and plus hard.

The story is introduced with a mixture of text and slideshow-like cut scenes with a voiceover and if you’ve played any Assassin’s Creed titles before then the plot wont surprise you, the story seems to be kill the Templars.

The story and factions aren’t the only things similar to main series Assassin’s Creed games (except Origins), there’s also leaps of faith, eagle vision and memory sequences as levels.

Actual movement is interesting as the 2.5D means you can go backwards and forwards as well as side to side, this will mean you can sometimes find secret areas or even alternative routes hidden off-screen. Enemies have cones of vision which you have to avoid and the different climbing and hiding opportunities can make these an enjoyable thing to get around, this turns the game into a combination of patient and reactive gameplay.

There is combat in the game but I have found that it isn’t a viable strategy to use throughout the game. At the stage I’ve got to I die in two hits and blocking/dodging attacks is not easy eventhough they are shown with bright colours following sword swings or riflemen’s lines of sight. In the early game you can’t fight at all but you do have non-lethal takedowns.

Every section of the game you complete gets rated gold, silver or bronze for your performance and you are also given a label for your playstyle.

As you go on you unlock more equipment for the assassin to use and there are chests containing scrolls which act as collectables for the game.

As much as I’m a fan of Assassin’s Creed games I can’t honestly say I like this game’s style. In the main series games there are only ever a few missions that restrict you to stealth but in the majority of the game if you wanted to be a gun toting maniac who just charged in you often could if you could get the ammo. I am terrible at stealth so I’m not a fan but I do appreciate how well made the game is as far as I’ve got.

 

The art that I’m using as the featured image was found on the achievements section of the Xbox website. It’s a bright picture of the main character holding a chakram which is an Indian weapon telling us where the game is set which is further reinforced by arrows pointing towards what I think is the Taj Mahal. It’s an informative piece of artwork that does its job.