Assassin’s Creed Rogue Remastered – Should You Play / Play Again?

If I told you I was working on a review for a Ubisoft title, you’d probably initially assume I was working on Far Cry 5. That was the case – and you can read that terrific review here – but this time around I’m heading back into the world of Assassin’s Creed and taking a look at Assassin’s Creed Rogue Remastered on the Xbox One X!

Set during the 7 Years War period – 1756 to 1763 – you will play as Shay Patrick Cormac who is an Assassin turned Templar. For the first time in the Assassin’s Creed franchise, you’ll get the opportunity to play the other side of the conflict, dawning Templar gear for the first time. This sets Rogue apart from the rest of the franchise, and actually provided Ubisoft with a chance to do something wildly different. Ubisoft did capture this chance ever so slightly, with a much more mature storyline, but opted to keep the (at the time) refreshing look and feel of Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag. When it was released, that was a great mechanics decision; in the wake of the superior Asssassin’s Creed Origins, Rogue Remastered does feel a bit dated.

It is easy to forget that Assassin’s Creed Rogue originally released after the Xbox One and PS4 hit the market, but the game was only released on Xbox 360 and PS3. This remastered edition not only gives players and opportunity to relive the game in gorgeous HD – and Ubisoft did a great job enhancing the graphics for this release – but could also provide some gamers with their first opportunity ever to play Rogue. With so many great features brough over from Assassin’s Creed 4 and a much different feeling storyline, playing Rogue is a must for long time Assassin’s Creed fans.

But understand the experience is not without it’s faults. One of the best things about the recently released Assassin’s Creed Origins was that the game was completely overhauled fixing a number of the problems that have plagued this franchise for years. All those issues you thought were behind you are front and centre with Rogue. Problems traversing environments are present, jumping where you don’t mean to and screwing up missions is present, and a host of other issues that you hate about Assassin’s Creed, are still present.

The biggest problem for me, however, is the combat. Reverting away from what was done in Assassin’s Creed Origins and going back to the button mashing combat mechanic that was prevalent for the last number of years was pretty disappointing, and avoiding combat as much as possible became my thing in Assassin’s Creed Rogue. Thankfully, the stealth mechanics are still top notch, and have been since the franchise originally debuted.

If you’ve played Assassin’s Creed Rogue on the Xbox 360 or PS3, I don’t see a ton of reasons to come back to it a second time. If you are dying for another Assassin’s Creed experience and you’ve drained every ounce of life out of Assassin’s Creed Origins, there is still value here in this title. The ship to ship combat that was introduced in Black Flag is back, although you could call it a lite version. It’s still fun, however, to head out to sea and figure out what type of mischief you might be able to get yourself into.

As the end of the day, there is a good story here that deserves to be played and  locations that are interesting to explore – who doesn’t want to wander around a New York settlement? The visuals and audio are outstanding, as Ubisoft has made a tremendous effort to bring them all up to HD / 4K. If you can get past the dated combat mechanics, the up on Assassin’s Creed Rogue Remastered!

Should you play? (if never played before) – Yes!

Should you play again? Probably not, unless you are a huge fan!

Check out all the key features of Assassin’s creed Rogue on the  Ubisoft website!