GOW Acension

 Hello everyone, I recently finished God of War Ascension on hard difficulty on my PS3 and wanted to talk about. I was planning on platinumming the game but it has online trophies😢.

 

-Gameplay:

 

The best thing about GOW Ascension's Combat is that it retains about 90% of the stuff from GOW3, and GOW3's combat was fantastic so Ascension's combat is great by default. So this section will focus more on the new stuff Ascension does:

 

I read online that people complained Ascension only having 1 permanent set of weapons: The Blades of Chaos, while other GOW games typically gave you 2-3 other weapons/abilities, typically a short range DPS focused weapon (like the Blade of Artemis, Barbarian Hammer and Cetsus) or some long range projectile weapon (e.g Zeus Lightning, Bows, Spears). And I don't mind this aspect. In past GOW games, players would main The BoC for 90-100% of the game since the game is built around them. Most encounters have Kratos deal with groups of enemies while the camera is zoomed out. The BoC have good range, are fast, do decent damage and have great combo and dodging potential. Expanding the Blades to do more is neat. 

 

But my main issue is that GOW Ascension doesn't go far enough with the concept. You get 4 elemental effects on the BoC: Fire, Ice, Lightning and Soul, that change some of your combos and special moves but as a whole, play the same. There are some strats with now, if you finish enemies with a charged rage meter, the element used gives you a bonus (like Ice giving you extra Red Orbs or Soul giving you extra Green Orbs) but it's too inconsequential. 

 

Moreover, only the Fire Element comes stock with a Magic Attack. For the others, their final upgrade is their magic attack. You need to invest like 10000 Orbs into an element to finally make it fleshed out, in addition to upgrading the BoC themselves separately. On Hard Difficulty, for me, I found I only managed to fully upgrade the BoC, Fire and Soul elements by the time I finished the game. The end result being that rather than adding variety, this limited what I was doing for most of the game. 

 

I also want to complain that Magic is now segmented into pre-selected charges. Each Magic Attack will eat 1 charge in a massive AOE. Past GOWs had different magic attacks consuming different amounts of magic rather than using pre-set charges. So you could, for example, drop multiple Chronos' Orbs and then fit in Eurayle's head so managing effective magic usage added variety. 

 

Here's a suggestion: You can spend Rage to do a "mini-magic/elemental attack". Lets say I press L1+R1+square, I spend 25% Rage to immediately switch to the fire element and do a fire slam attack that coats enemies in weak DoT fire. If I then hit enemies with Lightning Blades for a while or immediately press L1+R1+Triangle to switch to Lightning and do a Rage Lightning Slam, it coats enemies with electricity. Enemies coated with Fire and Lightning do a chain explosion. 

 

Kinda like what Genshin Impact would do later with its elemental interactions. I'm imagining this is a bonus add on for GOW Ascension's combat since it's already the hardest GOW (even regular mooks would kill me on hard which is just embarrassing 🥲). You could have enemies or groups of enemies weak to certain elemental combinations to encourage exploration and switching between elements as well as encouraging getting Rage going by fighting well normally and spending a little Rage or keeping the Rage and switching Elements to get those bonuses. 

 

The Rage Meter itself, I am mixed on. In past GOWs, the Rage Meter built up as you hit enemies and could be used to enter a "Devil Trigger State" where you were near invincible and ultra powerful. I usually would use this as a last resort "I am about to die, time to enter my final phase" move. But in GOW Ascension, the Rage Meter now fills as Kratos deals damage and decreases when you don't deal damage quickly or get hit. When full, it gives you access to Kratos' default moveset from GOW3 with a few more explosive endings on some attacks.

 

I suppose it works narraitively. This is Kratos at the start of his adventure. He is more driven by desperation and concern rather than pure anger. He's even against killing innocent people. Makes sense he'd have to push himself in fights to really get going. It puts you in Kratos' shoes. You have to fight more desperately, barely hanging by a thread, and have to push yourself more than ever because you aren't that unstoppable monster yet. Like a Hulk who can't go all out because Bruce Banner still has some control and is holding him back. 

 

But gameplay wise, I can't deny it feels rough to have to work to max out the meter just to get Kratos where he is at the start of GOW1, and lose that immediately with 1 hit. 

 

Another change, which helps make Kratos feel weaker and requiring more skill from the player, but feels worse to play is how parrying works. In past GOW games, you just tap L1 right before an attack to parry. You can argue this doesn't really feel justified since if you're too early, you can block most attacks. But this approach worked in improving flow and keeping your combo going. I remember in GOW: Ghost of Sparta on Hard Mode, the early game was rather challenging. But once I got parrying down, I was tearing through enemies and getting high combo counts and it felt so good. I was in the zone. 

 

Ascension changes it that parrying requires you press L1+X right before an attack. If you're too early, Kratos gets hit. It means Parrying is now too risky to use in combat unless you really get good at knowing enemy patterns. And even then, you can sometimes "whiff" a parry counter attack if the enemy moves out of the way or Kratos tracks the wrong target. In past GOWs, getting a parry but whiffing a counter attack didn't feel as bad since it still pushed enemies back and gave you some breathing room. But here, given how aggressive enemies are, how challenging it is to even pull off a parry, the whiff stings more. 

 

Ascension also shuffles the controls around. R1 now does a grab/tether that lets Kratos tether enemies, hit others around him and pull in and throw the enemy. I wish this was expanded a bit more with letting the player have more options. Maybe with a toggle in the options menu to expand the moveset with R1+ other buttons. Maybe R1+square makes Kratos do a GOW3 style Hyperion Ram so he can zoom over into an enemy. And R1+O makes Kratos do the current Tether move. 

 

The other change is the Circle button. Just pressing it normally makes Kratos do a basic kick/punch that can disarm some enemies (although they still fight normally). You can pick up their weapons and press O to use it or L1+O to throw that weapon at the enemy in a stun attack. 

 

I didn't use this much. O attacks don't build Rage so you're better off using the BoC. You only have one combo with just O and it's not really intuitive to weave them into a normal BoC combo. The only ones I got use out of were the Club since that could send some enemies flying, and the Sling and Spears since they acted as Ranged weapons. 

 

Ascension also adds "Tether minigames". Some finisher sequences in past games that would just be regular QTEs now play out a sequence where you mash square to damage enemies, move the left stick to dodge their attack and continue mashing square until they die. I don't really like this. In past GOWs (and even Acension), the QTE finishers were long enough to give you a quick breather and look cool but short enough to not feel like a drag. The Tether ones go on for too long and the added interaction doesn't add enough. There's no "challenge" if I will fail. I already won when I started the grab. Save them for solo minibosses at most. The Trial of Archimedes really started to drag when I had to keep repeating the Tether Minigame on every Gorgon as a safe way to kill them and get some Blue orbs. 

 

One aspect GOW:Ascension unquestionably does better than GOW3 are the sub items (well, 2 of them). GOW3 had 3 sub-items. The Bow of Apollo (which was goat-ed), Helios' Head (which was too impractical to use in combat and didn't provide much extra use) and Hermes' Boots (which I only used for Air Dodging). Ascension's Amulet is what Helios' Head should have been. When maxed out, it fires a quick beam that freezes a target and creates a bubble that slows down nearby enemies. It becomes invaluable on Hard mode to help either freeze an enemy for you to beat up on, or temporarily get out of the way so you can focus on others. 

 

The other is Orkos' Heart which pulls a doppelganger to do some damage and draw heat off you. I used these 2 a lot. The Eyes..... less so. I feel they could have worked as a recharging nuke or strong AOE attack. 

 

Other notes on the gameplay, the puzzles were quite mind boggling and I had to consult walkthroughs a lot of times. The creative uses of heal/decay and Orkos' Heart always stumped me. I suppose that's a me problem but part of that is due to how "rigid" heal/decay are. You can only use it on specific spots and move it to specific "times" so the challenge is more in figuring out what the game wants rather than figuring out the puzzles on their own terms. A lot of the later chain puzzles had me scratching my head with a "Damn, that looked so confusing. I don't think I would have figured it out. There was one conveyor belt puzzle where you have to drop your doppelganger that I was like "damn, this one is cool. I'm not even mad I didn't get this one. It gets points for creativity alone".

 

Also,  I am not fond of the climbing in Ascension. Ascension ditches the blade climbing in GOW3 where you could do a bit of combat for Uncharted style climbing. While it does look better, it lacks the gameplay variety of prior GOWs. It also "feels slower and longer" which meant it felt a bit more tedious on average.

 

I want to give a shout out to the Trials of Archimedes. I had heard this would be a rough section in the game but I wasn't worried. I've beaten prior GOW games on Hard Before. This can't be that bad. I was wrong. The Trials of Archimedes humbled me. It throws so many hard to hit enemies at you with attacks that can't be blocked and requiring tight timing to dodge, it's easy to get overwhelmed and there are no health refills or checkpoints for 2 rooms! This section is not for the faint of heart. It will separate the wheat from the chaff, the gamer girls from the girls, the femboys from the boys.

 

 -Story:

As for the story, I am a bit mixed on it. In terms of the broad strokes and on paper, it is rad. GOW Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta already cover a lot of Kratos' past and family life. Ascension opts for a Kratos at essentially the start of his "career". Resulting in a Kratos that, for the first time to us, is arguably a full on babyface despite being in his Greek era (Even Chains of Olympus Kratos was kinda a dick). Even his rampage and quest here feel the most justified and even noble. We have a Kratos that, excusing the cliches, feels more human. He uses sarcasm and humour when talking with Orkos, going so far as to have a decent friendship with him that feels legit. He shows concern to people like Oracle and even innocent civilians. Pushing them out of the way of enemy projectiles and saying he hates killing innocents. Like, this Kratos is what Atreus probably thinks his father was like when he was younger. 

 

It adds to the tragedy. This is Kratos without the nightmares and traumatic memories as a result of amnesia, and his quest is about finding the truth which gives him back the nightmares, memories, trauma and anger that leads him down to the path to GOW1 Kratos and as a result, GOW3 Kratos. GOW1 Kratos would have regretted the decisions he made in Ascension. Ascension Kratos shows that, without all that baggage, Kratos would have been a solid guy and could have been a proper and legit Greek Hero. Dude could have been a better Hercules.

 

In a weird way, Ascension is kinda GOW's Metal Gear Solid 3. Kratos is Naked Snake before the events of the story make him into the villain we see later on. If you're making a prequel to GOW, Ascension chose arguably the only point in the timeline that has the potential to be novel. Because the previous earliest game in the timeline, Chains of Olympus, took place during Kratos 10 year servitude to the Gods. At that point, he's become way more cold, stoic and angry. We still see some of his desperation and brokenness/trauma, but Ascension explores a Kratos before that.

 

The issue is more in the finer details. The Story can't seem to decide how much of Kratos' amnesia is "active". He cuts off Orkos before he talks about Lysndre and Calliope's deaths. Implying Kratos knows he was was responsible there. But still acts like he is searching for knowledge and the truth. But he shouldn't have Amnesia yet since he wasn't yet tortured by the Furies.

 

I feel the story would have been stronger if it was both more clear on Kratos' amnesia and leaned into it more. Have Kratos be doubtful and even insecure about his reputation and adventure. Regular people are scared of him despite him trying to be a bit heroic. Maybe Kratos wonders if what he did in the past he can't remember really was an unforgivable sin. Also lean into it for the adventure. This is meant to be Kratos' first adventure. When he fights monsters like the Heritoncles, have the game lean into how even Kratos is out of his element here. Dude is pushing on from sheer force of will, tactics and planning rather than pure anger and brute strength.

 

Kratos should be surprised at how far he's getting as well as being something of an underdog. He should have doubts if he will even make it since nobody has any expectations on him. The game sorta does this in places. Like how he is vulnerable to the Sisters' goo and needs to use Orkos heart to escape. Or how he gets covered in scars, scratches and cuts by the end. Rather than looking powerful, the game tries to show us a Kratos that really is making it through by the skin of his teeth. I wish the game pushed this further. The idea of babyface underdog Greek Kratos, who tragically is going on a quest to make his life worse when he already has what he wants later, is cool.

 

I also dislike how Ascension tries to add more context and explanations for future GOW games. Like how Ares planned to overthrow Olympus which is why he sought out Kratos, and Kratos is destined to kill Ares in revenge. This is something I always disliked about the GOW prequels. Like, what I loved about GOW1's story was the simplicity of it. Ares is destroying Athens because of his warlike nature but also as a show of pride and jealousy. He is competing with Athena in the eyes of Zeus.

 

Ares did manipulate Kratos but as the ultimate servant for him and the Gods to mess around with. Which showcases how shortsighted and cruel the Gods are. And Kratos' motivations for getting Pandora's Box are framed in an excellent way. GOW1 initially makes it look like Kratos is doing it for revenge but then pulls back the curtain and shows Kratos is motivated by like 80% guilt and 20% revenge. You get the impression that if Kratos could cure his trauma without needing to kill Ares, he would do it. Moreover, there is a sense of doubt if Kratos could even pull this off. You get the sense that for Kratos, this is a "win-win" for him. Either he does the impossible, gets Pandora's Box, kills Ares and this cures his trauma. Or he dies in the attempt and doesn't have to worry about it anymore. 

 

The prequels, by adding in stuff about Destiny, prophecy and other planning, takes away from this. GOW2's reveal that Kratos is Zeus' kid is weakened if Kratos already knew that from Ghost of Sparta. Kratos' suicide quest in GOW1 that nobody, not even him, is sure is even possible, feels less impactful if we get the impression that Kratos was always destined to succeed and even he knew that. It also muddies the moral ambiguity in GOW2 whether if the Gods or Kratos was in the right. 

 

I suppose Ghost of Sparta and Ascension didn't have much choice. I love of Chains of Olympus added to Kratos' character without undermining too much of GOW1 and 2 but it is ultimately "filler" in a sense. You want a new GOW game to feel important. I suppose adding more to the story is a way of doing it even if it's one I am not happy with.

 

 

-Presentation and performance:

 

GOW Ascension looks and sounds fantastic. My poor little PS3 was sweating as I played the game. Environments look massive in scale and are extremely detailed. To the point I feel this could pass for an early PS4 title. The game also sounds incredible, with Kratos' echo-y Orkos scream in particular sounding so guttural. A lot of the music feels like it's been taken from past GOW games but still suitably fit Ascension.

 

Compared to GOW3 PS3, (which was a rock solid 30FPS  no matter what), I did notice a lot more performance drops in Ascension. The game seems to hover around 30-45 FPS when playing regularly, but drops to a choppy 23-ish during certain cutscenes and down to 17-20-ish when doing certain extravagant magic attacks with a lot of enemies around. The sound and music would also cut out or lag for a while sometimes and the game would sometimes stop and throw up a loading screen as I was moving through levels. In Past GOWs, that only tended to happen if I were to intentionally backtrack through an area or roll fast through certain levels and even then, it was brief. At least there were zero crashes but there was one game breaking bug I encountered.

 

Early on, you fall into a sewer and the game introduces the climbing tutorial. You need to climb out, open a grate and jump out. For one reason, the game doesn't seem to load the outside area and the camera is so zoomed back and washed out by external light that I can't even see what's going on so I spent 30 minutes of slowly climbing out, then trying to jump out only to fall to my death multiple times. Had to restart my PS3 to fix that.

 

My conspiracy theory is that GOW Ascension was rushed to meet its March 2013 release date. Any later and it might have been competing with Sony's other big 2013 PS3 release, The Last of Us 1 as well as Grand Theft Auto V. And any later and it would have been overshadowed by the PS4 launch. Poor Gran Turismo 6 is the "worst selling GT game in the series" due to its release date. I do wonder if it would have been better to delay the game to 2014 or even 2015 as a crossplatform PS3/PS4 title? Even the multiplayer mode might have fared better being on PS4 (certainly helped TLOU1). 

-Conclusion:

 

Ascension is often treated as the "black sheep of the GOW series" in online discussions (which is saying something when Betrayal exists lmao). Its changes to combat didn't resonate with people. Moreover, it's the 7th game in a series with similar gameplay to its 6 predecessors. The funny thing about Ascension is that, by the standards of any other game or series, it's a technical marvel and easily one of the most impressive and fun games I've ever played. But by GOW standards, it's only..... good. The other GOW games raised the bar so high and did so many of the same things well that poor Ascension feels overlooked.

It's like you're an A grade student with tons of projects and accolades under your belt and easily one of the top students in your class..... but you have 6 other older siblings that did the same stuff as you (and slightly more) before you so you don't stand out. I imagine if Ascension was someone's first GOW game, it would have blown their minds. It's about as epic in scale as GOW3, looks slightly better (runs slightly worse), packs an interesting world etc. 

 

Ascension is a PS3 only GOW game releasing in 2013 after GOW3 already wowed the world with its scale, spectacle and near perfect combat system. It's hard to stand out after that, especially if you make some divisive changes. Ascension isn't even novel as a prequel as GOW Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta cover a lot of ground. Ascension's only novel aspect, underdog babyface Greek Kratos, isn't explored in enough depth to compensate. No wonder the poor game hasn't stood out much.

 

A shame because despite everything, I had a good time with Ascension. It deserves to be preserved better with a current gen port/remaster along with the other Greek GOW games besides 3. If nothing else, its visuals and graphics would shine a lot brighter because everything else is pretty solid already. I don't feel any rush to replay Ascension if I want to replay a GOW game (I might do any other GOW game first since I like their flow and combat more), but its "last place" status is still better than many other games' first place attempts.

 

 

Splinter Cell Chaos Theory Assault Playstyle with Stealth Loadout on Expert Difficulty

 Hello everyone. A while back, I got the itch to replay Splinter Chaos Theory. Rather than doing another stealthy playthrough, I had an idea, "what if I played it like a shooter?". A lot of people like to complain that Splinter Cell Blacklist is way more of a shooter than a stealth game and the original Splinter Cell games would never let you use combat to progress and ammo was scarce but how true is that? So for the fun of it, I decided to do a run of the game with the following rules:

 

-Play on the Expert Difficulty and select the Stealth Loadout for every mission.

 

-Kill Every NPC I come across with bullets.

 

-In missions/scenarios where I cannot kill people, I must tag every NPC with a bullet with a body shot and then KO them. 

 

-In missions/scenarios where I cannot fire a gun, I must KO or Knife NPCs and Whistle to get other guards' attention.

 

-I can't shoot out lights. 

 

As a quick refresher, Chaos Theory has 3 difficulty modes. Normal, where guards don't immediately get suspicious if they catch a glimpse of you or barely hear you. Hard, which  makes guards slightly more alert and do more damage. And Expert, where guards instantly become suspicious if they catch a glimpse of you and seem to hear you if you make slightly less sound than the environment when close to them. As well as instantly shred your health to 0.

 

At the start of almost every mission, Chaos Theory offers you 3 loadout options. The Assault Loadout (which gives you extra lethal bullets and equipment at the expense of non-lethal options), The Stealth Loadout (which gives you 50 bullets max and more non lethal options), and Redding's Recommendation (A sort of middle ground between the 2). The main obstacle I was worried about was the lack of ammo on Stealth Loadouts. In a casual run, 50 bullets + 4 Sticky Shockers, 3 Ring Airfoils, 2 Gas Grenades, 5 Sticky Cameras are enough for every level. Most of your bullets will be spent on shooting out lights to create more hiding spots. Chaos Theory gives you an EMP Jammer called the OCP with unlimited charges that can temporarily disable lights without drawing attention which cuts down on the number of bullets needed. Sticky Shockers and Ring Airfoil rounds can KO a lot of the more troublesome guards. So in a casual run, you usually have enough supplies.

 

I decided to do this on the PC version as having Quicksaves would make this challenge way less frustrating. As well as using the Mouse Wheel to scroll which makes sneaking a lot easier. I will complain the PC version has a few issues. Widescreen would cut out some info when doing the hacking minigame. The Steam Overlay doesn't seem to work without some Windows Configuration I had no idea how to do as a MacOS and Linux boi. There's no Cloud Saves. There were also said to be some physics and shadow issues if the Framerate ever got too high. There are mods to supposedly both fix that and let you max out the game but I have no idea how to install them. So to be safe, I just maxed out the game's graphics settings and shader models. Without the Steam Overlay, I couldn't confirm what the framerate was but I was confident it hovered between 20-30 FPS (the game seemed to only max out one of my cores, take up around ~500 MB of RAM and around 46% of my GPU. I suspect the poor game is really single threaded).

 

 

 

So I began playing. I  noticed a few things. Firstly, The Pistol is relatively quiet (I could get away with shooting it and not immediately alert everyone) but pretty inaccurate. In the classic SC games, the pistol has a bit of bloom/sway even if you are completely still and crouching. In Pandora Tommorow, you can press L1 to  toggle a laser view and realize that yes, even when crouching still, the pistol's aim wavers. Personally, I prefer that system. If you didn't want to chance a miss, you would have had to get closer to the thing you were shooting and risk the noise. Or shoot from further back using the laser to more accurately predict the shot and risk people spotting the laser. CT and DA keep the RNG Bloom but took away the laser view. I don't mind the bloom but I'd rather have a way to play with the RNG than have to rely entirely on luck. If I miss with laser view, that's on me for making the choice and messing up and not getting the timing and pattern down. 

 

 

Back to Chaos Theory, I also suspect the base Health of guards even without armour is boosted as they take multiple body shots to go down with both the pistol and SC20k and entire clips if they are armoured. With only 20 Pistol rounds and 30 SC20k rounds on the Stealth Loadout, there really isn't enough for me to be careless. Moreover, they shred your health really quick. I will admit it is hard to play it as a straight up "typical aggressive shooter" as you don't have the health for it and enemies react really fast to gunfire. So you have to be a lot smarter with your positioning.

 

My main strats were to fire a headshot and immediately start shifting away from my position (preferably towards cover). CT uses a "Last Known Position" System and guards can't see you in shadows. Meaning it is possible to shift enough away that they are firing at where they think you are rather than where you actually are. Letting you reposition and fire again. If there 2 or 3 guards in a pack, this would usually let me kill 1, reposition and take out another.

 

This was surprisingly hard in areas without cover. The Bank Level's courtyard required a lot of retries because after dropping one guard, the others would lock onto me well enough that I'd get shredded. Their senses are good enough to track you if you make even a little bit of sound or get lit up even a little. But thankfully, there are some narrow trees and benches that work as good cover. Flashbangs were partially useful as they stun a group for only a few seconds so you have to move fast if you use them.

 

Alarms were a mixed bag. At high alarm levels, enemies would crouch or take cover at specific chokepoints and not even move an inch (they don't even have a breathing animation). Which meant it was easier to headshot them especially if they were facing where I was coming from. The main issue was helmets. CT appears to use some amount of "bloom" when firing and hitboxes are a bit questionable. For example, I shot an enemy from behind around the base of the skull where their helmet didn't fully cover it. But it just popped their helmet off rather than go for the headshot. Othertimes, side and front headshots through helmet gaps was more than sufficient. If helmets were a bit more consistent, the challenge would be a whole lot easier. In its current state, it's doable but a bit finicky.

 

I noted that, outside of lasers and cameras, CT is a bit hesitant to hand out alarms. You need to be actively firing at guards to spook them enough to trigger an alarm safely. But they won't rush to trigger any more. The same laser and camera also won't trigger multiple alarms. In the bank, I ran around the front lobby multiple times. The Camera would make a sound and I'd hear a voice on the intercom say "Intruder in the Lobby" (sidenote but CT seems to have unique dialogue that accurately locates you on cameras) but no reinforcements arrived. Guards will sometimes be drawn to where you trip a laser or camera but only if they are really close (like 1 room over max).

 

Lighthouse and Bank were the easiest to clear out of the 3 missions I played. They only have 16 enemies total with no reinforcements so I had plenty of ammo left by the end. Funny because Lambert's Bank dialogue warns you not to trigger alarms as you'd have the entire Panamanian army after you. But turns out he was just gaslighting you lol.

 

 

Cargo Ship was challenging because there are over 34 guards (of the ones I remember. One of the guards you interrogate says there are 36). I killed 31 in my playthrough with 3 needing to be knifed in the Engine Room. I could have played better but ran out of ammo and also had to knife Lacerda and his 2 men. The Redding's Recommendation and Assault Loadouts would have easily had enough to kill everyone and still have plenty left over. The Stealth loadout only barely has enough for everyone if you play well.

 

 

Overall, this does highlight a few gaps in CT's guards and AI. Guards will almost never leave their immediate room/area nor will they be proactive in dealing with you. This meant that during these 3 missions, only like 3 bodies were found according to my stats and that was because I whistled and lured guards over to the bodies. So the game is relatively forgiving regarding detection.

 

In Metal Gear Solid 2, for example, when you trigger an alert, it will cause armoured guard squads with riot shields to start clearing rooms actively searching for you. They'd also respawn in areas to make sure you weren't safe just because you killed everyone there. Upcoming areas and escape routes would be better protected so you can't just easily escape by leaving the immediate area. Guard you knock out will wake up after a while and other guards will notice some guards are missing. Something like Hitman Blood Money as has levels where the guards can bring in reinforcements as well as move targets to secure areas.

 

For all its flaws, this is something Blacklist actually improves upon. While levels are still segmented into individual "sections" guards tend to be able to freely move across an entire section. They will buddy up and interact with any other guard they come across rather than the one they happened to spawn with. They also "are drawn to your position" (especially in Charlie's missions) so you can't entirely camp them out. They will also notice missing guards.

 

Interestingly, it sorta highlighted how, if you play CT using a stealth playstyle, the stealth loadout isn't too constricting. Since you aren't going to be shooting people, you have 50 bullets for lights. How many lights in the game require you to shoot them out entirely vs just use the OCP on them and move past? You also have around 4 Sticky Shockers, 4 Ring Airfoils and 5 Sticky Cams (which can also be used to KO people). Depending on the mission, that's enough to safely KO over half the guards present. So CT is surprisingly generous for stealth players that want to KO guards instead of ghosting past.

 

Like, if I had a magic wand and could make a "modern remake of CT however I wanted", I'd keep most of the game and its levels the same but add in a higher difficulty that seriously tweaks the AI. Firstly, I'd add the ability for guards to be able to patrol more throughout the level. For example in Lighthouse, I might have a few guards that are capable of traversing from near Morgenholt's room all the way to the Technician's room. Or on the Cargo Ship, a few guards that patrol the entire upper section of the ship and move between floors. I'd also have guards respawn and at least investigate areas where you knocked out guards. Maybe even being ordered something like "hey, x guard hasn't reported in y room. Go take a look and bring z guard with you as backup. If I don't hear from you in q minutes, something is wrong".

 

 

Anyway, back to the missions. The next mission is Penthouse and, to my surprise, I actually had a blast. This feels like the first mission that was built for my unorthodox playstyle. Even right from the start, you have giant dumpsters and blind spots to flank enemies. Even though I often need 2 headshots to drop enemies, it’s fun to fire one shot, shuffle around so the guard fires at where I was, then reposition for another headshot to finish the job.

 

The other highlight section is the kitchen area. You can headshot one guard’s helmet, he and his friends start firing at you which shatters the glass windows and railings, but I can use the vent to enter the kitchen in front of cover, pull off another headshot and reposition. This level was a fun mix of positioning, firing off a headshot, using the OCP to create more zones of darkness to be able to zoom around while guards fire at where they think I am. Even ammo isn’t a problem because the game offers 20 extra SC20K rounds for free as a pickup I didn’t even need. So generous. Finished the level with 28 kills and 7 bodies found. Probably because the National Guards and Displace Guards don't barricade themselves as much and stumbled over the bodies of their comrades.

 

I don’t think I can legally recommend this fun play style for this level because every Splinter Cell player is going to crucify me for daring to suggest that. I’ll just say that if I ever had to replay levels with this playstyle again, this is the one level I’d really be looking forward to.

 

Interestingly, this is 1 of only 2 levels that actually sets traps for you for high alarms. Penthouse sets more wall mines in places like the bedroom when you backtrack. I didn’t see these coming so I got the biggest jump scare. Almost fell out of my seat and nearly had a heart attack at the sound lol. The only other level to do this is Bathhouse and it kinda cheats. There's this circular loop between the dry baths, pool and massage area connected by hallways. I was making my way through slowly headshotting when I turned around and was suddenly killed by a turret that had suddenly spawned in behind me in the hallway despite there being nobody that could have set it up. I quick loaded and decided to move forward and got jumpscared by another wall mine death. I quick loaded, avoided all mines and saw there was another turret in the hallway ahead.

 

So Bathhouse starts spawning in turrets and wall mines in that central area when you get high alarms to catch you out regardless of if you move forward or backwards. Quite a clever and devilish ploy. I wish more levels did this.

 

Anyway back in chronological order, after Penthouse is Displace. The first proper “No kill level”. Even Lambert knew about my challenge run because in the briefing, he says, “I hate to do this to you but no fatalities”. So for the sake of the challenge, I set it that I must land a body shot on every NPC at least once before going in for the Knockout to satiate my bloodlust while technically not breaking the rules. I feel bad for Lambert and how much paperwork he must fill out every time this Sam goes on missions.

 

Displace was also fun despite my updated rules. Lots of corners, blind spots and cover meant it was easy to land a shot and slink away then come in for the KO. CT AI never adapt or realizes they are shooting at a corner I'd have long since moved away from. I feel this level would also be fun even if I could kill them. Plenty of ammo for all guards. Around 18 KOs and 4 injured and 3 bodies found.

 

Hokaiddo was fine. While there is an alarm system, it's oddly hard to trigger them since it's all up to the guards to do it. One section that highlights how inconsistent this is with Nedich. I wanted to kill him and his goons in his meeting room rather than waiting until the end when they'd all be in the open. It took a lot of attempts but I got it down. Foregrip sniper head shot on Neditch followed by a Foregrip Sniper Head shot on the guard close to me as when he turns around, he "sprays and prays" so I can survive his onslaught for a few seconds. Then back up to the right to have the 2 remaining guards fire at where they think I was. Then, just improvise what happens. Around 30% of the time, they'd hit the alarm that is literally right outside the door. But even then, there's so few guards and alarm panels are scattered that by the time you hit 3-4 alarms, most of the level is finished. Hokkaido's level design generally works fine for this challenge but isn't as varied as Penthouse or Displace. Still, there's plenty of ammo for everyone. 26 killed and 3 bodies found. Hokkaido Guards rarely patrol outside their area.

 

Battery was kinda annoying. It's a lot more open with fewer cover and blind spots. But at this point, I had gotten good enough with Foregrip Sniper headshots that I could usually 2 tap even helmeted guards if they approached from certain angles. My favourite part was up after the elevator. When I opened the door, about 4 guards were rushing in. It took a lot of attempts but I was able to essentially get a 4 kill streak. I guess this is what Mouse and Keyboard Players were talking about when they said Mouse Aiming was OP. Still, it generally felt like I was fighting uphill in this level. 26 kills and 4 bodies found.

 

Seoul's encounters were more of a coin flip whether they'd go well or be finicky. This was the first level where I really wished I had the Sniper or Shotgun attachments as they would have made my life so much easier or was allowed to use Sticky Shockers. Some encounters like the mobile command center or long drop were fine as there was plenty of cover to hide behind even when enemies were firing at me. Others like the plane wreckage and building drop were rough because there was only really one angle to shoot from and if the enemies ever rushed me together, I'd be toast. Granted, Seoul isn't even the best level casually so at least it's fitting. At least there's extra ammo pickups so the challenge is doable. 23 kills, 1 injured and 7 bodies found. I am unsure how that even is lol. Maybe the UAVs picked them up?

 

 

I was dreading Bathhouse. The first part of the mission went swimmingly. The hallways and multiple angles and hiding spots meant I never felt like I was fighting uphill. This was also one of those levels where enemy pathfinding was also limited. Like, even though I kept headshotting guards in the Dry Bath Room from the Massage Room literally next door, guards would never cross over to investigate the Massage Room. Meaning the hardest part that kept killing me were the surprise spawning Wall Mines and Turrets the game would spawn behind me as it were karmic punishment for my playstyle. I did get a nice setup where 5 ISDF soldiers walked into a hallway to investigate bodies and I kept landing pistol headhots on them to have 5 of them right next to each other.

 

The final part of Bathhouse was absolutely brutal. On Expert Difficulty, Displace Guards have Thermal vision and can spot you instantly if they have line of sight on you even in the dark. This shot my main strategy because I usually relied on getting 1 free headshot which would knock off their helmets and make them do a flinch animation giving me just enough time to follow up with another headshot or move away and follow up later. This wasn't viable anymore because even scooting a bit out of cover would have them see me and start firing at perfect accuracy and shred me before I could even get 1 headshot off.

 

I was forced to rely on gadgets for the first time this run. Using a combination of the Sticky Cameras, Smoke grenades and Flashbangs to lure them out and stun them for a precious few seconds to take them down. I was elated when I accomplished this. Even casually, I dread this part and usually rely on Sticky Camera KOs to get past this.

 

The bomb defusal was the final stop, and it too was brutal. On Expert Difficulty, the whole room might well not even have a light meter. Just assume you are at 100% light anyway. My first series of attempts resulted in me getting softlocked after the 3rd bomb because there was no way to escape without getting shot to death. Fortunately, I had a manual save from just before I could use to retry. The strat I came up with was the following: break the entrance lock then go in and disable the first bomb. This spawns the first guard who will investigate the broken lock then climb the stairs. You can move in quickly and 2 tap him from the side before he can see you. Leave his body there and go disarm the second bomb then climb the pipe to your left to the spot overlooking the entrance. Disarming the second bomb spawns 2 enemies that will at first be delayed by the broken lock and the body of the guard you killed earlier on the stairs. This gives you a chance to snipe the very tips of their heads before they see you and is just barely possible. Then disarm the 3rd bomb and position myself such that when the final guard spawns, I can snipe him from the side.

 

Yeah, Bathouse went from really fun in the first part to a chore in the final part. Which, to be fair, is accurate to the real thing. At least there are ammo pickups so you have enough to headshot everyone. 37 kills and 10 bodies found. Likely because Bathhouse actually spawns in new guards in some of the areas where you encounter others which brings up the count. That and I used corpse piles to draw in more enemies.

 

Kokubo Sosho is the final mission. I played the first part of this mission using my Displace Rules and intentionally let myself get caught and interrogated for the meme. But even still, this mission was absolutely brutal. Sosho is a lot of open areas and hallways with minimal cover you are expected to either sneak alongside enemies or KO them silently. It does not lend itself well to even a regular assault playthrough. Never mind my weird one with the Stealth Loadout.

 

The final part of the mission removes the no kill rule but introduces a new type of guards that also countered my strat. Gas Mask enemies. These guys wear gas masks that completely block their front and sides from headshots and never come off no matter how many headshots you land. If you want to headshot them, it has to be from the behind. But good luck given how lit up this area is and the 3 minute time limit. Even I had to cut my losses and leave 2 alive in the elevator room and run in order to make the time limit. The missile defuse room is thankfully much easier. There's 4 gas mask guards pointing their guns all facing the same direction. Once I defused the missile, I could exploit their formation by sneaking behind them and headshotting them with the SC Pistol. It's quiet enough and the room is naturally loud enough that they didn't hear this. Finished the mission with a score of 54%, 19 KOs, 2 injuries, 5 killed and 1 body found.

 

All in all, if I had to rank the experience:

 

S Tier levels: Penthouse was the easy highlight and most fun level to play. It truly felt like the only level that was built around this playstyle despite the no kill "Rule" with proper cover, flanking routes, blind spots and places to exploit the AI.

 

A Tier: I'd put Displace here. Despite the no kill Rule, the level was fun to play with enemies actively hunting me. The first part of Bathouse could also fit here. These are the levels/sections I'd consider replaying if I ever did this challenge again.

 

B Tier: Lighthouse, Bank, Hokkaido. Generally solid but with some problem spots for this playstyle. I was hoping for more cover and options than what was there.

 

C Tier: Cargo Ship for being the only level where there are enough enemies that you might not have enough ammo for everyone. The layout also leaves a lot of exposed areas. I'd also put Battery Here.

 

D tier: Seoul. Doable but more of a chore than fun with few bright spots.

 

F Tier: Final part of Bathouse and Kokubo Sosho. Those levels were brutal and made me wish I wasn't doing this challenge.

 

 But yeah, in closing, it was overall fun revisiting the game for this challenge. I do feel this challenge might be more fun on Hard or Normal difficulty since you have more wiggle room with shadows, sound and enemies being slower to lock in on you. Having extra health would help in making more consistent pushes and not being as dependent on cover to help.

 

Assassin's Creed Chronicles Trilogy Vita Platinum

 Hello Everyone. I recently platinummed the Assassin's Creed Chronicles Trilogy on the PSVITA (and can now say I platinummed every AC game on Vita) and wish to talk about the experience.

 

The trilogy is made up of 3 games, Chronicles China, India and Russia. Note that only the trilogy pack has a platinum. If you get the games separately, they do not have their own platinums. Normally, this wouldn't matter since in the Trilogy Pack version, the 3 games have their own separate lists of trophies but uh..... I had some issues with this.

 

 

Lets start with a basic review of these games. All 3 games are 2D Side Scrollers that attempt to translate the gameplay of the mainline AC games into a linear 2D Stealth game. Navigation lets you climb objects in the environments marked in red such as walls and beams and even use them to transition to the foreground and background. You can manually jump and even manually side/back eject and manually catch ledge. Making these the last AC games with these features until 2025 when Mirage and Shadows added them via a patch. The movement here works more like platforming and is pretty fun and solid. Once I got the hang of it, I felt like 99% of the time, I was in control of my character and they did what I wanted.

 

Combat works by requiring you to do light and heavy attacks to weaken enemies and finish them off with a final heavy strike. Most enemies will not die to purely light attacks. There are no instant counter kills. Instead, you can parry and counter kick or roll over enemies. However, Combat is very difficult. Your Assassin is extremely frail and will die to a few hits and faster if shot. Enemies will tank through your attacks and attack you in groups. And in India and Russia, they will duck to let their allies shoot you (wheras in China, you need to farm friendly fire for a trophy). I do feel like this works for the game. Stealth and Platforming are the main focus. Combat being relatively simple and hard kinda works better to prefer Stealth.

 

Stealth works by letting you hide in bushes and crates (and sometimes crowds), or climbing up and around enemies and their absolutely massive vision cones (seriously, I wish these were smaller). The 2.5 nature of the game also kicks in by allowing you bypass some enemies depending on your plane. For example, if you and a guard are in a hallway, that guard can see you if you get too close. You can bypass them by climbing around their feet if they're on a ledge or above them, or distracting them past a hiding spot.

 

The different planes was confusing at first. I remember early on in China, there was a level where there was a bridge. There were guards on the bridge and below it. I remember being so confused on how to ghost past this that I just stealth killed the enemies and moved on. Later, when I revisited the level, I learned that you can cling to both the underside of the bridge and cling to the sides. If you're on the underside, the guards above can't see when they look over even though their vision cones are seemingly "overlapping with you" because they're in a different plane. While the guards below the bridge can see you if they look up. Conversely, if you cling to the sides of the bridge and shimmy along, the guards below can't see you even when they look up because they will only see the undersides of the bridge. While the guards on the bridge can see you if they look off the edge.

 

On top of that, you have a few gadgets in each game to help you out. You have infinite Whistles and you can control  how loud they are (shown in a ring) to attract certain guards. All 3 games give you access to 2-4 Smoke bombs which blind and stun most enemies and still count as ghosting (despite it disturbing guards). China gives you access to throwing knives to cut certain objects in the environment and Noisemakers to distract guards. India gives you access to throwing knives that ricochet. Russia swaps that with a silenced rifle and an electric grappling hook to pull objects and non-lethally electrocute enemies. 

 

Most gadgets are limited to 2-4 uses and you can collect more from ammo caches or pickpocketing guards. Eagle Vision lets you know what guards are carrying. I do like the way China and India handle this. Because gadgets are so powerful but rare, you have to plan when and how to use them and how to get more. I remember during my Perfect Ghost runs of China, basically planning out when to use my Noise Makers and Whistles instead of my Smoke Bombs to stretch them out longer and which guards to pickpocket for refills. I could "choose" which sections I could "skip" with a Smoke Bomb as a reward for playing well,

 

Russia kinda twists this. Later on, enemies start wearing gas masks rendering them mostly immune to smoke bombs taking away one of your best tools and rewards for playing well. Its grading/scoring system is also way more harsh so you don't even have a lot of gadgets. I had 2 smoke bombs for my entire playthrough despite getting Gold Shadow and Silencer Ratings in every encounter.

 

You also have access to Helix Abilities. Glitches in the Animus you can exploit to help you out. For example, Helix Blend makes you invisible to enemies when standing still. Helix Dash lets you dash between hiding spots without being detected by guards. Helix Assassinations dissolve bodies. Helix Kill lets you instakill enemies in combat. Helix abilities are recharged by collecting Helix Cores throughout levels. Characters unlock and lose Helix Abilities depending on where they are in the story. Except in NG+ which gives all characters full access to all Helix Abilities they had in the main story and retroactively adds Helix Cores to levels that didn't have them.

 

I love the idea of Helix Abilities on paper. I've talked before about how, since AC1, since the AC games are technically a simulation within the Animus (that are intentionally designed to resemble video games to make it more intuitive for Animus users), there should be more ways for the player to "glitch" the simulation in their own favour. But AC has seldom used this idea. AC Mirage in 2023 had an interesting take on this with "Assassin Focus". A "Mark and Execute" style ability that allowed the Assassin to teleport between enemies as long as they were within a certain distance and had line of sight. The explanation of this ability was that "it's a glitch in the Animus the user can exploit to stealthily kill enemies multiple distant enemies  that you normally couldn't reach". And it being a "glitch" allowed the ability to remain "lore accurate". Players who wanted the game to remain visually and mechanically consistent with the 861 CE Baghdad and Scrappy Basim setting didn't have to use it. Players who did use it didn't get whiplash why Basim was teleporting between enemies and why he doesn't use it in cutscenes. Because it's not Basim's ability. It's the Animus'.

 

The Chronicles games make Helix Abilities Mandatory for the sections they're in for the main story. So for example, in India when Arbaaz is captured and doesn't have his gear, you can only proceed by using Helix Blend to hide. Same for Anastasia in Russia. And later sections heavily push you to using Helix Abilities. In a weird way, Helix abilities are at their most fun in NG+ during the early levels. Since these levels were designed to be completed without using Helix Abilities, Helix Abilities really do feel like Glitches you are using to bypass tricky sections quicker. They end up working like Gadgets where they're a scarce resource you deploy in situations you feel are the best.

 

Speaking of the level design, this is an area I am mixed on. All 3 games start out fun. Most early levels are generally larger and have multiple ways to progress even when you're ghosting. Later levels become way more trial and error and "you have to do the specific thing in a specific order" to progress. Even for stealth takedown playthroughs, it's rough. Russia ends up being the worse in this regard due to gas mask enemies. While China generally remains somewhat open ended even by the end. A shame because these games are otherwise so close to being great. Instead, they often feel more frustrating than anything. I do wish these games gave you a minimap or something to better note more enemies around you as you can get sucker punched by their vision cones.

 

I will note that Social Stealth is sadly limited to just "moving groups of people" and these functionally are no different to haystacks or bushes. You can assassinate guards from crowds and they won't panic or give away your position. A shame because I was curious to see how these more stealth focussed games would adapt crowds and social stealth. Maybe intentionally using a noisemaker to spook a crowd into running away from it and running alongside them as a faster mobile hiding spot. Or agitating guards so they then waste time scanning crowds you aren't in.

 

 

The 3 games also have a scoring system based on your playstyle. China adopts one based on 2013's Splinter Cell Blacklist.  There's the "Shadow" Playstyle (Awarded for Ghosting past enemies and not knocking out or killing them), Assassin (awarded for Assassinating at least one guard in a section) and Brawler (Awarded for killing at least 1 enemy in combat). These 3 playstyles are also split into Gold, Silver and Bronze tiers. So if you sneak through an area unseen and only stealth kill 1 enemy, you get an Assassin Gold Rank for that section. If you sneak through an area unseen and don't kill anyone, you get Shadow Gold. Getting spotted or disturbing enemies with sound like footsteps (but not Smoke bombs or noisemakers) reduces you down to Silver and Bronze. Brawler Gold requires you kill everyone in Combat and leave no survivors. Note that targets you have to kill don't count for scoring. 

 

India and Russia tweak this. Assassin and Brawler are now fused into the Assassin Playstyle. Stealth killing enemies unseen now earns you Assassin Gold while combat kills earns you Assassin Bronze. The middle playstyle is now "Silencer" earned by knocking out enemies non-lethally. They also add in a streak system where the more Golds of a style you get in a row, the higher your score multiplier will be. The highest score in a level is gained by doing all Shadow Gold + all the Optional Objectives. And high scores also unlock new upgrades.

 

I'm mixed on this system. On the one hand, I do like Chronicles India and Russia are the first AC games to add actual non-lethal means of taking enemies down and completing entire missions and acknowledging it (AC3-Rogue had non-lethal takedowns but they rarely came into play except for rare story or optional sections). It allows the game to have sections like the final sequences in Russia where the player can have guards they can take out but in a way that makes sense for Orelov. But, I have a few notes.

 

Firstly, India uses the "Shadow > Silencer > Assassin" ranking system. Aside from the irony that Assassin is the worst score, from a gameplay perspective, there isn't much difference between Silencer Gold and Assassin Gold. There's trophies in the game to get "Silencer Gold" and "Silencer Assassin" 30 times each. This required me to play through a section, knock out one enemy and then progress to the next section. Repeat until I get the trophy. Then play through the section, stealth assassinate 1 enemy and then progress to the next section. Repeat until I get the trophy. It's not like Knocking out enemies causes them to wake up later, or requires certain gadgets or tools or setup. For the most part, the difference between knocking out and killing is the animation you do. So instead of there being 3 seperate playstyles, it's 2 and one you have to repeat. China at least has a more appropriate system as the 3 playstyles were actually distinct in Ghosting, stealth takedowns and combat kills. Russia takes a few steps forward here. You can use the Electric Hook to electrocute certain groups of enemies to get instant and safe KOs. But this is somewhat situational and rare. For the most part, getting Silencer Gold and Assassin Gold is the same process as in India.

 

 Another issue with this is the rewards don't really scale or reward you. If you properly get a lot of Shadow Golds and complete Optional Objectives, you will get rewards like extra health, more damage etc. Stuff that's useless to Shadow Players but out of reach of Combat Players.

 

Something like Splinter Cell Blacklist also had a similar 3 Playstyle scoring system in Ghost (Ghosting past enemies and knocking out enemies), Panther (stealth killing enemies) and Assault (Combat kills). But here, the system worked better because levels only required you reach a certain score with your chosen playstyle to get the medal. Not get the highest score possible. You were also rewarded for "chaining actions". So if you snuck past a lot of enemies, it would give you a massive Ghost Bonus. If you used Mark and Execute on 3 enemies using a silenced pistol, then immediately stealth killed someone, you'd get a Panther multiplier of 4x. If you were in a shootout and killed multiple enemies quickly, Assault bonus. So now, all 3 playstyles required playing in different ways to get their respective highest scores. Plus, you can get gear and unlocks to min-max certain playstyles.

 

Something like the Hitman games just dock marks for KOs and penalize you way more for unnecessary kills. I wonder if Hitman's approach might have been better for Chronicles. Have a score that goes up when you Ghost past enemies and ticks down when you kill or knock someone out and have KOs refund some points if you hide the body. 

With all that setup, lets talk about how the games specifically lay out their trophies.

 The 3 games have relatively similar trophies. China basically asks you to beat the game but also get the max score in every level which requires you to perfect stealth and complete every optional objective and collect every collectible. India and Russia don't ask for that perfection but do ask you to beat the game in NG+ Hard mode which turns off enemy vision cones unless you use Eagle Vision and without getting spotted. This was rough. These games are already hard enough to stealth on Normal and NG+ modes. This required so much trial and error. The Chronicles games often feel less like freeform 2D Stealth games like Mark of the Ninja or CounterSpy and instead more like puzzle games that demand precise timing and execution if you want to ghost through them.

 

I did enjoy a few Trophies as they provided a fun challenge like India's 2 speedrunning trophies, and Sharpshooter Trophy. But a few trophies from the 3 games were especially rough or annoying: 

 "Not Your Usual Assassin = Complete Assassin's Creed® Chronicles: India without killing anyone." Apparently, this also includes accidental kills. India has a few "timed levels" that task you with speedrunning the level. However, there's sections in these levels where the wall or platform you are using will crumble beneath you. And if there's an enemy below you, the crumbling wall/platform will crush them and it will count as a kill. And during timed levels, the game doesn't even tell you that someone died.

 

 "Mercy Shooter = Don't kill any enemies in the Orelov Sniping sections in Memory Sequence 7". I was so confused when I first did this. I imagined that the trick here was to shoot the walls with your sniper so it drew enemies away from where Anastasia was hiding so she doesn't get spotted. Instead it it's "Don't do headshots or chest shots". You have to shoot enemies in the legs so they enter a downed state. Later on, this sequence throws enemies hiding behind doors and gaps that require you to hit their arms. Or have multiple approaching enemies so you don't accidentally shoot an already downed enemy.  And to cap it all off, the final section requires you to shoot an explosive barrel that kills people but the game doesn't count it.

 

The games also have a lot of grinding trophies. India asks you to Double Assassinate 200 enemies. There aren't even 200 enemies in the game, never mind 200 you can Double Assassinate. There's one for pickpocketing or Looting 100 enemies, Helix blending past 100 enemies, using Helix Assassination 100 times etc. Russia has one for head shotting 100 enemies. These trophies required me to just grind out the same activity for 40+ minutes per trophy.

 

However, I ran into 1 major issue. While playing through  India, I did 1 playthrough on the Normal Difficulty. I was doing my second Playthrough on NG+ mode to get the trophy for beating the game without killing one and the one for getting the max score on every level. Then I planned to do 1 playthrough on NG+ Hard mode to get the trophy for beating the game on NG+ Hard without being seen. Then my plan was to go mop up any remaining trophies for the India game, then move onto the Russia game.

 But partway through my 2nd Playthrough, during the second level and several times, The game would freeze during checkpoints when it was supposed to save and my Vita would throw an error that the game cannot save (it was a VITA UI popup rather than a game popup). The Vita would then tell me the save is corrupted and ask me to delete the save. Doing so seemed to delete the save and then overwrite it on the spot. I closed the game app and reopened it and seemed to save my exact progress through the game. This repeated several times.

 

After I did several levels, I closed the Vita for a while and reopened it. That seemed to fix the repeated prompts to delete the save game. I noted that I had base game HP, Gadgets, Abilities and unlocks rather than my NG+ unlocks. But the game was still skipping some of the tutorials and pop ups it would have done for a new playthrough. The mid level stats page seemed to forget I had completed some of the optional collectibles. I thought nothing of it until at one point, I quit to the main menu and looked up the mission list and found only Mission 1 available. The game seemed to have forgotten I beat it already and was doing NG+. I could load my progress/autosave and get back to mission 7 at least. So I decided to finish the game quickly in hopes I could get the the trophy for beating the game without killing one and the one for getting the max score on every level. Then hopefully the game would know I beat it. It remembered to give me the trophy for using Smoke Grenades on 100 enemies so I hoped this was just visual. But no. When I beat the India game, No extra trophy popped and the mission select menu still shows only Mission 1 unlocked. 

 

I tried connecting my Vita to my old pre-Catalina Mac (Thank you Apple for killing 32 bit apps 😤) via Content Manager and seeing if I could pull a MattKC and fix my save file. But no dice.  Looking through the logs, The Vita just threw Error C0-12157-6 (“Could not save the file”). A generic Vita filesystem write error. It basically means the save file could not be written/updated correctly at that moment. Could be caused by corrupted save data. My theory is that when I reached a checkpoint, the game tried to overwrite part of the save file but the write got interrupted. Maybe due to a storage hiccup or memory error or lag when writing. My Vita's OS then flagged it as a bad write causing the C0-12157-6 error. The OS then asked me to “delete corrupted save” and replace it with a fallback snapshot, which explains why it kept gameplay progress but lost meta-flags like NG+.

 

Doing some research, it seems the Chronicles Games on Vita are Unity ports (the engine, not the game). Unity games' saves seem to rely on big binary blobs (e.g Checkpoint + Profile data packed together).  If only part of the blob gets updated, the “checkpoint” half may survive while the “profile” half (unlocks, collectibles, NG+ state) gets wiped. And a brief Google Search shows Chronicles Save file wipes being somewhat common for PC and Xbox. So yeah, play this game on PS4/5 and/or use Cloud Backups on PC.

 

In any case, it meant I had to replay India twice over to get the remaining trophies. When I finished Russia, I didn't get the trophy for beating all 3 games. So I had to go back and beat India and China again and it finally popped.  I was really annoyed having to play these games again.

 

Back to the games themselves and onto less depressing topics:

 

Presentation: 

 The 3 games all look really cool and distinct. Each incorporates a unique art style for their cutscenes. China is inspired by old Chinese Oil paintings. These are the most striking during cutscenes but gameplay environments sometimes have that contrast. India uses traditional colourful indian designs and its levels are extremely bright and vibrant. Russia uses iconography from old Communist Propaganda Posters. Part of me wishes these games went further with their aesthetics. Have China be entirely playable in this Oil painting style for example.

 

When I was looking up tutorials for the games online, I was struck by how much better the PS4 version looked compared to the Vita.  It's not just more detailed but so much more vibrant. Colours and details really popped more. Even guard vision cones and the desyncronization visual effect looked so much cooler.  Obviously the Vita version would look worse and it's not terrible. But man, I really missed out lol. Sound and music are also well done and I found myself really enjoying each game's take on The Ezio's Family theme. 

The Stories: 

Each of the 3 games follows Ezio's Precursor Box from the Embers Movie. China stars Shao Jun around the 1520s returning with the box. The game follows her using the box to get herself caught and starting a revenge quest to kill the Tigers, a Group of Templars.

 

China's story is...... really bland to put it lightly. This is the most cookie cutter Assassin's Creed story I've ever experienced. Poor Shao has the standard revenge arc but the presentation and characterization are so basic that it's hard to be interested. Like, if I didn't know about the wider series, this story feels like it's a spinoff story to something. Like, this is the Assassin's Creed 2 Discovery to the main Assassin's Creed 2. But like, this is Shao's main game. This is supposed to be her Assassin's Creed 2 yet it feels like filler.

 

Part of the issue is that Shao gets very little to work with in this game. She gets little time to mourn her fellow Assassins following their purge. She has few characters to bounce off. She doesn't even get Ezio's box by the end (nor is the box used. Even AC Rogue at least got to use the Box). The most interesting part of this story was reading the collectible Codex Entries that describe Shao's backstory about Shao's origins as a concubine's daughter and how her agility and grace allowed her to be spared getting her feet bound, her relationships with other concubines, her life after the emperor died etc. This stuff is legitimately interesting. I'd love to see a movie based on these or play a full AC game that explores Shao's life. 

 

But Chronicles China is arguably set during the least interesting part of her life. Everything before the game shows her life as an Imperial Concubine, Spy and Assassin in training. And everything after the game would have shown her rebuilding the Assassin Brotherhood in China. Chronicles China is like if you made an AC game starring Ezio but only included Sequences 9, 10 and Discovery in the story.  Plus, for people who haven't watched Embers, I imagine the game's story and Shao's connection to Ezio would be confusing.

I really can't think of a way to improve the story aside from shifting when it takes place. Starting with a younger Shao and moving forward to her training, meeting with Ezio, briefly covering the events of the game itself and then showing her later life. But then that's out of scope for a spinoff like this. Maybe instead, she has an ally or someone she has a personal stake in?

 

The next game, Chronicles India, jumps around 300 years later. By this point, Ezio/Shao's box wound up in the West Indies, Adewale used it for a bit and it's in the possession of the Assassins. It ends up playing a role during the events of Assassin Rogue and by the end of that game, the Templars control it thanks to Shay. The box then ends up in the hands of British East India Company Templars in India using it to find Isu artifacts. And that's the stage for Chronicles India..... a game that seems very uninterested in the box that's supposed to connect it to Chronicles China.

 

India stars Arbaaz Mir as the main character. And at first, the story seems more interesting and has more going on. Arbaaz has a romantic relationship with Princess Pyara. Both of them, along with the Assassins are also investigating the Templars using the Box and the Koh-i-Noor Diamond to find more Isu sites. Arbaaz' adventure takes him across Punjab and parts of Afghanistan. As a character, Arbaaz is a lot more lively and charming and has more to interact with. I was hooked. I was expecting a story where Pyara, playing the role of a supposed "neutral civilian that looks the other way" facilitates opportunities for Arbaaz while Arbaaz does favours for her like investigating some rebels. Maybe even have a conflict where Arbaaz' loyalty to the Assassins may be at odds with what his lover, the Princess, wants.

 

But no. There's no real central arc or conflict for Arbaaz besides "get the box". His individual interactions with other characters and even Templars and British officers are engaging but that's it. Even the ending is while the Templars have kidnapped Pyara and Arbaaz has to trade the box for her, she just stabs her captor and they still lose the box. Arbaaz even says "oh well, other Assassins will deal with it". My man, why are you so uninterested in a magical artifact made by Time Travelling Super Aliens lol!

 

The final game, Chronicles Russia, jumps about 80 years to July 1918 to Russia. And this is easily the best story of the trilogy (not a high bar but still). We follow Nikolai Orelov. A veteran Assassin tasked with one final mission before he can flee Russia with his family. To recover this Isu Box from the Imperial Romanov Family. During his infiltration, revolutionaries (and some undercover Templars) storm the place and execute the royal family. The only survivor is Tsar Nicolas II's youngest daughter, Anastasia, who is in possession of the box. Orelov saves Anatasia but as he approaches her, his necklace and her box interact and hit Anastasia with the Bleeding Effect. Giving her the memories, personality and abilities of Shao Jun. Anastaisa ends up in a Bruce Banner/Hulk situation where in periods of stress, she "blacks out" somewhat and Shao Jun takes over. Anatasia has limited recollection and control over this.

 

Orelov takes pity on her and delays his plans in order to escort her to the Assassin Brotherhood in Moscow. While there, the Assassins pull a The Last of Us and schedule a surgery to extract Anastasia's brain, killing her in the process. Orelov overhears this and makes his way through the Assassin facilities, avoiding and fighting his former Assassin brothers who now have orders to kill him. The game ends with Orelov giving Anastasia the false documents originally intended for his wife and a new identity of Anna Anderson allowing her to leave and start a new life in Germany. The 2 tearfully part ways and Anastaia believes that she can now keep Shao Jun's memories under control.

 

First off, just as a premise for an AC game, this is absolute gold. Yeah, it resembles The Last of Us, but the idea of Anastasia grappling with Shao Jun's memories is so cool.  She's a playable character but can't KO enemies or carry bodies. She instead viciously stabs guards and even remarks how horrified at both what she's doing and how easy it is. Even mechanically, the Helix Abilities are integrated into the story. Orelov doesn't have access to any of them. But Anastasia does because she "blacks out" and doesn't remember how she somehow blended her way past so many guards and is amazed at this. From her perspective, she might as well be breaking all known laws of physics. We the player both use our experience from controlling Shao Jun back in Chronicles China and the Animus to help a character that has the abilities but feels like someone is puppeteering her. 

 

My biggest complaint is that the story barely goes past this premise. Imagine if this worked like a 2 souls/mind thing where Shao Jun and Anastasia were inhabiting the same body. You now have Shao Jun, teleported nearly 400 years into the future, into a strange new world, in a body she doesn't recognize, with a new Assassin Brotherhood that's more alien to her. How does she react and grapple with this? What about Anastasia? The royal now forced to inhabit this new personality? What about scenarios where the 2 personalities disagree? None of that ever happens in the story.

 

We also get little from Orelov here. How does he feel knowing he's next to a master assassin and technically his superior? The 2 never get to chat or discuss their lives and experiences as Assassins from different worlds.

 

The issue is the format of the game. Being a linear 2D side scroller, the game can't really accommodate both Orelov and Anastasia/Shao Jun at the same time. But even if this were a typical open world AC game, the format of the story is a Last of Us style Point A to B journey. So it wouldn't really work for that.

 

I suppose what I am saying is that out of these 3 Chronicles games, Russia is the most I want a remake or adaptation of. 

 

 

-Conclusion:

 

In closing, playing the Chronicles games casually was fun if frustrating in places. They do a great job in translating AC to linear 2D Side Scrollers. Their unique aesthetics and settings are cool and they focus more on Stealth and Platforming than their main series counterparts. But their more puzzle and trial and error design end up hurting the experience and is only worsened going for the Platinum. Needing to replay and grind so much became draining by the end. Worse is that their stories (aside from Russia) fail to be engaging or interesting. Often feeling like filler DLC. I don't think I'll ever play these games again.  If I wanted my fill of 2D Stealth, Mark of the Ninja and CounterSpy exist.