Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India

While the gameplay foundation here is still competent, Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India just finds too many petty, annoying ways to keep me from truly enjoying it.

The middle chapter of the Chronicles trilogy improves the formula, but doesn't perfect it.

The beautiful landscapes of India and a promising sense of movement aren't enough to save Chronicles India from hamstrung combat and tedious stealth. Close, but missed the ledge.

Unlike its predecessor, India is a slog that wastes its beautiful setting

Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India, isn't a whole lot different compared to China, which is either a good or a bad thing depending on your prior experience. It sports a slightly less interesting character and setting, but the core experience is replicated, and the addition of a few gameplay tweaks as well as the aforementioned challenge mode ensures that it's on the level.

Aside from the setting, Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India doesn't make much of an effort to distance itself from its side-scrolling predecessor. While its stealth system works well and its combat feels good, it's just more of the same. The dialogue is dull, the art style doesn't look good at all, and the game just doesn't have much appeal. It's certainly not bad, it's just so bang average that you'll have seen it all before.

If you liked Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China, then there's a decent chance that you'll have a good time in India, in spite of the problems outlined above. There's enjoyment to be had, but the main worry is that almost everything new that has been thrown in is flawed to the point of not being a worthy addition. With the Russian entry just around the corner, we're hoping that this is a missed step in the journey, rather than an inevitable and unalterable course.

The experience is also more exciting on the whole, due to a series of large set pieces. Most of these come in the form of harrowing escapes, and at one point you're asked to snipe enemies while still keeping in mind the stealth focus. Assuring guards don't notice that you're picking them off one-by-one from afar makes for a unique challenge not seen in most stealth games.

Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India makes some vast improvements over its predecessor in terms of style and gameplay while providing challenging 2D puzzles, but still lacks an engaging narrative.

Good ideas assassinated by terrible design