Digital Copy of the game generously provided by the publisher.
Reviewed on Nintendo Switch
Game Size: 19GB
Ubisoft has a lot of love to give to the Nintendo Switch. With the release of Assassins Creed 3: Remastered on the system earlier this year. Assassins Creed 3 may not be as revered as Altair or Ezio, but it was still a first for gamers who wanted to revisit or play the games for the first time. Here’s our Assassins Creed: The Rebel Collection Review.
Ubisoft has released the Assassins Creed: The Rebel Collection for the Nintendo Switch. These include 2 games befitting its title; Assassins Creed: Black Flag and Assassins Creed: Rogue. Unlike the protagonist of the previous games, each game lives up to the title.
With all this out of the way, let’s take a walk down this pier with these 2 games on the Nintendo Switch.
Story
If you haven’t played either of these two titles before, you’re in for a treat because Assassin’s Cree IV Black Flag isn’t only my personal favorite entry in the mainline franchise, but it also has the most compelling narrative as well.
You play as Edward James Kenway, privateer-turned-pirate who eventually joins up with the Assassin’s Brotherhood, and has an important lineage value when it comes to the overarching plot of the franchise.
He isn’t the least bit interested in the order and wants to become the most successful pirate to have lived, and it’s because of this that he stands out among the other range of protagonists in the franchise.
He’s righteous but has his own agenda, and loyalties.
The story is well written and doesn’t have any sort of padding. The characters you meet along the way are integral and are developed as you go through the oceans, and live your life as a pirate first, and an Assassin second.
We won’t spoil how you get dragged into the whole Assassin’s vs Templar business, but you’re in for plenty of surprises, and twists.
Not only does this collection include the main title, but all it’s DLCs too, that are set in the same era, featuring returning and brand new characters in their own narrative arcs.
Assassin’s Creed Rogue follows an Assassin turned Templar, and features very similar mechanics and setting from the previous title, but a whole new narrative perspective.
We’re not going to spoil anything for you but playing the game as a Templar, is surely something that we weren’t used to when this first came out.
ALL Assassin’s Creed Black Flag and Assassin’s Creed Rogue SOLO DLCS
- Freedom Cry: Rise up against slavery with the standalone story in the Assassin’s Creed® franchise. Play as Adewale, an ex-slave turned Assassin fighting for freedom with the help of his own Pirate crew.
- Aveline: The Aveline DLC was the first instance of single-player downloadable content which did not star the game’s main protagonist, instead introducing a new protagonist.
- Exclusive Packs with different appearance, location, missions: Crusader & Florentine Pack, Illustrious Pirates Pack, Kraken Ship Pack, Death Vessel Pack, Templar Legacy Pack and Explorer Pack.
Extra Contents (English Version Only)
- Novel : Blackbeard: The Lost Journal (PP.1-55)
- Manga :Assassin’s Creed® Awakening Volume I & II
- 22 Art Concepts
- 2 trailer videos
Screenshots
These screenshots were taken during our Assassins Creed: The Rebel Collection Review.
Graphics and Performance
While I don’t have my PS3, or Xbox 360 to compare these games to, I can say that there are points where the games match the quality, but at times do surpass the visual quality of their previous generation originals. This is to be expected when you’re porting such massive open-world games on a system like the Switch.
Whether you choose to play the game in handheld, tabletop or docked is up to you. However, if you’re going to plug it in expecting the visual appeal of Doom or Breath of the Wild, you’re going to be very disappointed. This is not to say the game doesn’t hold up to modern standards, but it does have a strong and unique presentation if you don’t immediately compare it to games that succeeded it or current games in the console generation, this is still a previous generation title, improved today.
Combat Video
If you’re willing to treat the game as a last-gen title and go in with an open mind with regard to the graphics, you’re bound to have more fun with it.
The game runs at 720p in handheld and 1080p in docked.
Keep in mind, the games (particularly Black Flag with various DLC’s) gives you a plethora of different places to visit with majestic and beautiful places like Kingston, Havana, Nassau, and nearly 50 islands to explore, this game is tapped full of gameplay and lots of fun for people eager to explore the series for the first time.
The game does a good job of keeping up a steady FPS. Even with a lot of chaos on the screen, whether it was in naval combat or sword fights, the game did a good job of staying at a stable frame which surprised me. Freedom Cry’s opening Naval Combat was full of explosions but it was still a relatively smooth experience. In my brief sessions with the games, I tried my best to bring the FPS down in handheld as that’s when the system is at its bare, even in handheld the FPS didn’t falter.
Where the graphics might not be the strongest aspect of the game, the game makes up for it plentiful with a lot of exclusive features for the system, a stable frame rate and plenty of content to keep you coming back for more.
Value
You’re looking at easily 30-50 hours if you take your time with the story side content, DLC and if you set out to do everything the games have to offer, you can easily get over 60 hours of content just from Black Flag. Adding in Assassins Creed: Rogue, that’s another 40 or so hours if you want to do everything the game has to offer you.
The games offer a convenient touch screen interface so that you can have a second option to adjust your game when playing on a tabletop or handheld. The game further added motion controls when navigating ships, horses, etc. and HD rumble. There have been tweaks for the HUD, subtitles, eagle vision and other aspects of the game to fit the system and make experiencing the game all the more memorable on the system.
Verdict
This is where you face a binary decision:
- Do you have the time, space and dedication to revisit the entry for the nth time? If you have already played the games on the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, or Xbox One, then you should get the game just for brand loyalty. Aside from the new system features like HD Rumble, touch controls and motion controls, there is nothing new here. It’s your own decision if you want to support the release.
- Have you not played any of these games? At all? Then I completely endorse the purchase. Black Flag and Rogue are easily my two favorite games in the series after the departure of Ezio when talking about games that were on the PS3.
Whatever you decide, Assassins Creed: Rebel Collection is a game that fans of the series will enjoy. Grab it when you can at your own leisure, but I recommend newcomers to the series explore the game immediately.
Both games offer immense value with plenty of DLC to boot, plenty of post-game content with lots of exploration and some amazing stories to be told.
I give this game a strong 8/10.
You can purchase the title digitally at the official Nintendo Store from this link.
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