The Importance of Assassin's Creed Rogue

When Ubisoft released ‘Assassin’s Creed Rogue’ on November 11 2014, it was overlooked for several reasons, mainly because it was a simultaneous release with the more anticipated game, ‘Assassin’s Creed Unity’, which was also released on November 11 of that year. ‘Unity’ gathered more hype from fans since it was the first new ‘Assassin’s Creed’ game to be released exclusively on the next-generation PlayStation 4 and Xbox One gaming consoles, while ‘Rogue’ was seen as more of a filler for the final ‘Assassin’s Creed’ game released on the older consoles and perhaps a farewell to the console generation where the series was born back in 2007, on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. ‘Assassin’s Creed Rogue’ was released exclusively to the last-gen consoles, and was good for those who were still unable to upgrade their gaming consoles. ‘Rogue’ was fun and a great alternative to the fans waiting to upgrade and be able to play ‘Unity’. Due to its release timeline, ‘Rogue’ is very often possibly the most forgotten ‘Assassin’s Creed’ game still to this day, nearly ten years since its release. However, gamers who may not be familiar with most ‘Assassin’s Creed’ games, would likely not believe that ‘Assassin’s Creed Rogue’ was the most creative and influential game in the entire series. Somehow a game that is somewhat forgotten at times, and it happens to be Ubisoft’s most daring story. 

For one, ‘Rogue’ is often overlooked due to its more familiar gameplay seen in the game a year prior to this one, ‘Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag’. It followed a very identical formula that was actually very well received by fans, so repeating a very similar style was only just adding onto an already great gameplay style that fans grew to love so much. ‘Rogue’ was another naval combat based game in the series. The combat on your ship in the game is nearly identical to that of ‘Black Flag’, and the hand to hand fighting formula was very similar to its predecessor as well. Specifically wielding a variety of weapons like cutlass swords, the famous hidden blade, pistols, and a ranged device to knock out or confuse enemies. The two games had a lot in common, but in the eyes of gamers and ‘Assassin’s Creed’ fans alike, it continued to work. In ‘Rogue’ the device to disorient enemies was a rifle, while in ‘Black Flag’ it was a blowpipe with darts, so a lot of familiar gameplay aspects returned, but still unique in its own way.  In a way, Ubisoft was really just giving players more of what they loved. The gameplay, however, isn't the main important difference in ‘Rogue’, it was instead its storyline. 

Since 'Rogue' released alongside the much more anticipated 'Assassin's Creed Unity', it was already at a major disadvantage, and it got even worse when 'Unity' launched in a broken, bug-filled state. The game quickly turned into a internet meme. With pictures of ridiculous glitches of both the characters and the environment. The poor initial reception to 'Unity' only made things worse for 'Rogue', even though the game launched in a graphically stable state, the damage had been done already from the failures of 'Unity'. Fans already labelled 'Rogue' as a glorified DLC, and discouraged its full game price tag. 'Rogue' however, did have some unique connections to 'Unity'.

Both games had similar timelines, so once 'Rogue' ended, it led directly into 'Unity'. The prologue of 'Unity' showed Arno, the protagonist of the game, arriving in Versailles with his father, Charles Dorian, who had to leave his son temporarily and told him to wait for him. Arno then meets Elise, who was also a main character throughout the game. Both Arno and Elise are children at this time and around the same age. The story takes off after that when Arno's father, Charles, is mysteriously murdered while Arno was exploring with Elise. That point in the game was a mystery, until the very end of 'Rogue', when we play as Shay Cormac, who's mission was to enter Versailles and assassinate Arno's father, which connected the two games together. We even see Arno and Elise talking together in the hallway while Shay walks past them and finishes his job to kill Charles. The crossover between the two games was a pleasant surprise, and some gamers did not even know about this connection for some time because of how badly 'Rogue' was overshadowed.

‘Assassin’s Creed Rogue’ did the unthinkable, playing the game as a character who sides with the infamous Templar Order, the main antagonist group throughout the entire series. Ubisoft decided to show gamers the perspective of  a Templar for once, and not that of a member of the Assassins Brotherhood. The story showed how there are always two sides to a story. For the longest time ‘Assassin’s Creed’ fans were only accustomed to, of course, being on the Assassin’s side, and never the idea of following and understanding the viewpoint of the enemy, as all Templars were considered evil and power-greedy. ‘Rogue’ however showed us the story of a man named Shay Patrick Cormac, who initially was a member of the Assassins Brotherhood, but was turned to the Templar Order after a major disagreement with his mentors.

The story explained how the Assassins were looking to capture and obtain certain artifacts in history, but they were unaware that the artifacts were not supposed to be meddled with. Shay finds this out the hard way, and so he leaves the Assassins and becomes a member of the Templar Order, with Shay knowing he’s made the right decision for himself. This viewpoint change showed us that the Assassin’s can very well be wrong for once, and that the so-called evil Templars could be on the right side of history. This idea would’ve never made sense to fans of the games before ‘Rogue’ released, because realistically we have been shown from the beginning that Assassins were the heroes and Templars were the enemies. Fans couldn’t believe the Templars could actually be right, which is very understandable. 

Ubisoft clearly took another major risk with this game. Having the main character betray and hunt down members of the Assassins Brotherhood. This choice could clearly upset some fans, but the importance of showing that not one side is always right and winning every single time was vital to the narrative of the ‘Assassin’s Creed’ series, and to other game franchises as well, showing major depth to the story. ‘Rogue’ may very well be a less heard of and underrated game, but in a way it may have the most important narrative angle in the entire franchise. It shows Ubisoft’s job at creating stories for games isn’t predictable or repetitive, and instead shows risky, but very wise storytelling and creative depth. A lot of game developers and gaming franchises are unable to create and show the importance of dual sided storytelling, but Ubisoft took this path and proved their brilliance in the narrative arts. 

It is ironic that a game like ‘Rogue’ could be this important and be so less talked about compared to the other major games in the series. This game did an excellent job being a bridge to the next generation of ‘Assassin’s Creed’ games, as it marks the end of a historic generation of gaming consoles for the franchise, but also ends on a strong note and successfully set the stage for the then-hyped PS4 and Xbox One consoles. Maybe Ubisoft was onto something here. Storytelling isn’t supposed to be one sided, and often is in need of narrative depth. There might always be fans who disagree with the direction ‘Rogue’ took, and may not like the turncoat side of the story, but there is no denying its evident importance. Ubisoft took an angle to this story that we may not see again in another ‘Assassin’s Creed’ game, but for now we can be thankful we were able to experience the important idea of having two sides to a story. Ubisoft knew exactly what they were doing when creating this game, and still to this day it remains a creative masterpiece for the ‘Assassin’s Creed’ series.