Assassin's Creed Chronicles - India: First impressions

Assassin's Creed Chronicles India - FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Markuz, June 19, 2015
Translated by: Sara

We get the ball rolling on our articles dedicated to E3 2015 in a completely unexpected way. On June 16th, the Star Players (me included) invited by Ubisoft in Los Angeles have been able to access the Uplay Lounge.

The Uplay Lounge is located in the Skyspace that is the 71st floor of the Bank Tower in Downtown Los Angeles. During the E3 period it is usually used as a "lounge" that both the developers and the fans (the Star Players) could access, where they could discuss about the newly revealed games and be able to try them hands-on.

Among the various announced games there were Assassin's Creed Syndicate, For Honor, The Division, Anno 2205 and ...
Assassin's Creed Chronichles: India.

This took the fans by surprise because the game had never been shown publicly, not even in a demo format.
Probably driven by the surprise, India has been the first game I tried in the lounge while Aymeric Evennou, International Brand Strategist, followed me and explained to me the various innovations and the setting of the mission shown in the demo.

Obviously, as you might already know, the protagonist of Assassin’s Creed Chronicles India is Arbaaz Mir, the main character of the AC: Brahman comic book, set in 1839 in Amritsar, India. Curiously enough, the mission available in the Lounge was set in Amritsar too, and to be more specific, two years after the events of Brahman. That said, you'll never be able to guess the very place in which it was held. The headline read:

Amritsar 1841, Precursor site

In contrast to what one might expect, the mission (or rather the part of mission) shown in the demo took place within a First Civilization Temple and it was a timed mission, too. Its description continued with:

Arbaaz has followed Major Sleeman to a secret Precursor site, hidden deep beneath the Templar outpost. Arbaaz will need to be at his most agile as he navigates this mysterious place full of fragile structures and deadly ancient traps.

The description gives a lot of information: the name of the level’s final enemy, Major Sleeman, that could refer to Sir William Henry Sleeman or the fact that he was able to enter the Precursor site (in the demo he can be seen for a few seconds, in his black robes as he enters the Temple). In addition to this, the description stresses that the Temple is located just below a Templar outpost and that is full of traps, even deadly ones. In short, an enemy to chase and deadly traps: a perfect cocktail for a checkpoint mission and a plausible justification for the presence of the British guards inside the temple.

The demo, therefore, begins with a "cutscene" that, with colors ranging from blue to red, shows Arbaaz entering the Temple. Unfortunately the true artistic style of the game was not shown in this demo (the setting of the Temple is completely different from the outdoor levels in ACC:India), but it was still possible to appreciate the protagonist and his design.

Arbaaz is similar to what we saw in Brahman but "more handsome", as Aymeric tells me. His robes were changed, and he still has the daggers, the chakram and the hidden blade, but beyond that equipment, it's impossible to miss his new sword (which is useful to adapt the character to the mechanics already seen in China).
Going back to the setting, the Temple seems very similar to the Observatory we saw in Assassin’s Creed 4, with moving blocks and both frontal and ground-placed platforms, that generate energy that is able to instantly kill both the guards and Arbaaz (it's therefore possible to hypothesize that, as in AC4, even in this temple a security system has been activated). Besides this, in order to allow the parkour mechanics in 2.5D, Arbaaz is able to climb the walls that contain the First Civilization drawings that we are now used to see in the temples (especially from AC Brotherhood to AC4). In this environment, therefore, Arbaaz will have to move quickly, using the traps in his favor: he is able to activate them to attract the attention of the guards, or to use the whistle - a recurring element from China - to lure them over the traps to eliminate them. To favor the platforming element, in addition, the Temple also contains pillars that move vertically and between which Arbaaz must jump to reach his objective.

For what concerns the game mechanics, they are more or less the same as China and the same goes for the controls (I was also able to take a picture about this to give you a better idea).

The smoke bombs, the whistle, the Helix fractures and the Animus fragments will make a return but, apart from those, it seems that in Assassin’s Creed Chronicles India we will be able to see some new additions too. As we already know, Arbaaz will have the Chakram: it can be used as a tactical weapon, bouncing from wall to wall, or even to open passages cutting the ropes. In addition, a “ground rolling” action has been added and this is going to allow Arbaaz (by pressing the X button - on PS4) to avoid damage after performing challenging jumps (and to go faster during timed missions). Also, I’d like to point out the presence of armored guards, the usual brutes, against whom Arbaaz will have to be more cunning, maybe using his tools, as most of the direct attacks will not affect them.
Finally, among the other recurring elements from China, we can find puzzles that need to be solved in order to move forward through the story (pull levers, move columns, etc), and there will also be the same type of map and menus (unfortunately, in the demo the database did not show more information :P )

In the end, the game appears to be enjoyable, with the same gameplay of China (with a few additions, at least for what I could see in this demo) and with the great plot potential coming from the presence of a First Civilization Temple. At this point, we just have to wait to see if India is going to be able to be better than China, especially in terms of plot.

And with this, we end this brief and unexpected preview of India, stay tuned for new updates and stay synchronized!

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