Ubisoft

I think throughout history, certain figures become obscured, whether through time, accomplishments or even how said ideas were portrayed. When analyzing the Napoleonic Wars and the French Revolution, you add another level of anonymity. So when you bring up the unsung heroes like Etienne Claviere and his works, you are probably looking at the screen the same way I see some other journalists try to rationalize High School Musical. This is perfectly reflected by Ubisoft Sofia’s work on Assassin’s Creed Rogue. But to understand the hidden success of this Rogue, we must analyze the development and advertising campaigns prior to the release, the gameplay itself, and the visuals of the game.

Like I said before, Sofia was tasked to develop an Assassin’s Creed with their only experience being through the spin-offs for handheld consoles. However, little did they know, the game would be released alongside their heavily funded sister company, Ubisoft Montreal. Due to this, very little advertising was given to Rogue, with V/As being the only ones to advertise it via wearing homemade T-shirts at comic conventions. With this, and the whole story of Rogue being a bridge and teaser for Unity, it was completely trampled underfoot.

However, gameplay-wise, it was nothing but disappointing. With the change to the newer playstyle that Unity was presenting, they went back to flesh out Black Flag and even the third AC’s combat. They do a great job of molding the combat around the new and even dynamic enemies introduced in this game. Between this and revamps and redesigns of weapons, I feel like it was closer to this era of Ubisoft. With the addition of more things to do and collect in the open world, it felt super satisfying and also very easy to consume with its shorter run time. It really shows off the advancements and the true craftsmanship of Sofia.

The visuals do keep the same art style with a few polishes from Black Flag, aside from the color palettes. Since they are in the northern reaches of Europe and even Canada, they use blues and a lot of warmer colors. I absolutely love the horizons with this new application, and it kind of props up the “pirate” aesthetic to a whole new level.

Overall, the game is really underrated and was the truly fresh take on the series narrative-wise. I don’t think Unity is the one to blame, since it had a lot of problems of its own, but more to the point of Ubisoft. I heavily believe this was the first huge misstep that Ubi has kind of spiraled into in the past 10-ish years. But all we can do now is appreciate this game for what it is, and give credit where credit is due.