Assassin's Creed Rebel Collection - Review

Ubisoft have been big supporters of the Switch, since day one they have been releasing some amazing titles for it and while some of them have been from the previous generation, they have clearly been doing well, once such title was Assassin’s Creed 3 last year. While it launched with some performance issues, they were ironed out, so to learn that within 12 months, they were bringing two more games to the Switch, there were some concerns to pay attention to, but with the Rebel Collection out, how did it come together?

The Assassin’s Creed Rebel Collection is comprised of the excellent Black Flag and the overlook Rogue, both offering massive worlds to explore and characters to meet. Black Flag is the one title that most fans of the series will easily refer to as their favourite, it takes the sailing that was introduced as a side part in 3 and makes it the star, loses the bland Connor and instead inserts his grandfather Edward. The story and world are as fun to explore now as they were when the game first released, those who have already experienced will enjoy it just as much again, thanks to the charm that Edward is overflowing with. On the Assassin’s Creed Rogue front, the story tells the tale of Shay Cormack, a young and brash assassin who becomes disillusioned with the Assassins order and jumps ship, so to speak, to the Templars. This is not for a host of reasons, but rather one large and grand reason, which while caused by Shay, was ignored by the Assassins, causing him to leave, before being taken in by the Templars, both stories start out the same, with a man who cares little for others, but still will do right by them, only to see that their actions have caused chaos and destruction.

While Black Flag is the far grander story of the two, due to its much simpler connection to the existing games, Rogue has a special charm to it and while the gameplay is the same as the games that came before it, it still is worth a play. Of course, as the series took some time to reboot itself, with Origins and then Odyssey, stepping back to these older games does take some getting used to, especially Rogue. You are still tasked with objectives and while you can have many at once, the lack of a simplified way of tracking them on screen, without it becoming cluttered does not exist here, which is a bit of a shame. One thing that does exist are some additions based on the hardware, meaning that you can aim your guns with motion controls and the rumble is used well, though sparingly, even with the Pro Controller. There are some returning issues, like the random jumping or the climbing up a wall you had not intended, but they are legacy effects at this point and unlikely to patched out. In addition to the two main games, the collection also includes all the DLC released for the games and even more, with art, motion comic and such, it truly is one impressive collection and provides countless hits of nostalgia.

While both games emphasis the naval aspects, a lot, they still manage to feel different, thanks to the characters and the locations you can explore, while Rogue spends some time in locations we have previously experienced, there are a handful of new ones, that we haven’t. These new locations are fun to explore, even if some of them are very one note in their purpose, on the flip side, the locations in Black Flag can see repetitive, thanks to the small nature of islands and while some of the larger ones can be fun, the smaller ones can be a little tedious. Regardless of the size of the location, both titles are fun to play and taking to the water is just as amazing now as it was when the games were first released. As this is a Switch release, there are some uses of the hardware to consider, the most prominent is that the game supports HD Rumble, which while not a massive difference to things, it feels great, especially if your ship takes a cannonball. The games also support motion aiming, which is not genre breaking, but does feel a little more natural than just using a stick, but if you don’t like it, you can switch (ha) it off.

Of course, one area where people are likely to focus on, are the games visuals and its performance as a whole, which I am happy to say is a marked improvement from the release version of Assassin’s Creed 3. Both games have a dynamic resolution, which means I the action gets a bit much for the system, the resolution will drop back and while most of the time it does sit on 1080p, there are times when it drops down to around 900p. This might seem like a lot, but it honestly isn’t, there are some issues with Rogue, its performance being the wonkier of the two, but even that still runs at a solid frame rate. Characters in both games look a treat, with models looking a little sharper than I recall from the past generation of hardware, there are some clear concessions with visuals though and it comes in the form of shadows, both games have a solid lighting system and you will see that in action, when you step out into a bright sunny day, but when you stop and take a look at shadows up close, you will notice they seem to be incomplete, like the game is only showing half them. The other issue I noticed in the visuals, is that there is some pop in, but this only occurs in the far distance, and while you are unlikely to notice it while sailing the high seas, on land, you can simply walk a foot forward and back, causing mountains to flicker in and out.

The audio side is a little bit of an odder mix, the games, for the most part sound delightful, with ship combat, sword swings and the music sounding wonderful. Being engaged in a fight on the water, hearing the waves bash against your ship as cannonballs fly overhead, is truly a spectacle that never tires. On the downside though, the voices, while the performances are still amazing, Matt Ryan’s Edward is still a hoot, the problem stems from the compression used on the voices and while using the Switch’s speakers, is hard to notice, but dock the console, or throw on some headphones and you will find it. Because of the compression, there is a small hiss noise that lives behind the vocal tracks, be they in cutscenes or game, it is always there and is the most egregious performance related issue.

The Assassin’s Creed Rebel Collection is an amazing package, while Nintendo gamers have had Black Flag before, thanks to the Wii U, Rogue is fully new to the Nintendo family. While Rogue is treated a little like the red headed stepchild, given it was released on the older platforms, while the new ones were getting games like Unity. There are some issues with the audio and the occasional visual hiccup, but the games are in far better shape than you might expect and given the sheer amount of content in one game, let alone two and the DLC and the bonuses, the collection will keep you going for a long time.