Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China (ACCC) is one of the first games I’ve completed in a long time. Since I’ve last written a review, I’ve started but lost interest in several games. Off the top of my head they are Darksiders 2, Fallout, and ENSLAVED: Odyssey to the West. I have also played some games on my phone, but I never got far before losing interest.

ACCC was a little bit of fresh air because it wasn’t entirely 3D (and therefore making me nauseous like ENSLAVED) and it was kind of fun playing a 2.5D game that wasn’t a platformer in the traditional sense–my character was able to grasp ledges, maneuver around corners, and swing up agilely. However, it did have its frustrating parts, like the need to have six or more fingers to be able to do certain moves. I’m glad it wasn’t a full AC game and I was eventually able to finish it, though I did get perilously close to not picking it up after a couple of weeks of putting it down.

What really snagged me into buying it was the story of an assassin based in SE Asia, more or less. That was followed by the Chinese-inspired artwork of brushstrokes and watercolor-like palette. This aesthetic did have the unfortunate side effect of having very camouflaged hints on where to go next as red marks on props often marked a shift in depth of the 2.5D world.

I found the 2.5D concept both interesting and frustrating. While it was neat to realize the background was also part of the explorable area, it was difficult at times to realize there were ledges you could maneuver around without having to pull yourself up and then dropping back down on the other side. Sometimes these were marked with red stains, sometimes they weren’t or I never figured out what the visual cues were.

The controls were also a little weird regarding maneuvering as I sometimes found myself going around a corner when I wanted to stand up on the ledge. One of my most frustrating moments was hanging from the ceiling and trying to get up onto a ledge without being spotted, but constantly going around the edge instead because I couldn’t map in my head the correct button to use.

The controls were easily the most distracting feature of an otherwise reasonable game. The game was not well-mapped to the keyboard. In order to slide, I had to use a combination of left-control, left-shift, A or D depending on which direction I’m going, and the spacebar. Sliding to the right wasn’t too bad, but sliding to the left had me mashing keys hoping it would do what I wanted it to do.

Then, there was combat. I avoided combat as much as I could because it was weird and generally just difficult. My most hated moment in the game was being forced into battle and having to basically use both hands on the keyboard to maneuver the boss into a certain position, then quickly switch to the mouse to aim something and hope it went well. My sister, who is well aware of my outbursts, was very amused at watching me curse and spit at this particular point in the game.

Otherwise, the gameplay wasn’t bad. There are multiple different ways to play through the game. You can be a true assassin and assassinate almost every enemy you come across or as few as you need to. Or you can be a ninja and complete your objectives without killing anyone, which gives you the highest score in the game. Or you can just be a straight-up combatant and meet your enemies head-on. I did my best to be a ninja, but there were times where I just lost my patience and went the assassin route.

There are 3 stages out of 12 that are entirely or mostly running. These were fun because it was a nice change from the typical observe-then-act pace, but it also got annoying because you were often chased by fire and there was no way to create a buffer to get ahead of it. The fire is almost always on your heels. Then there are guards who are apparently dumb as rocks and are blocking your escape route. The quickest way to get past them is to do some funny contortion with your hand so you can do a slide and assassinate them as you go by without losing momentum. If you don’t happen to do the slide successfully, then you and the guard get to die by fire.

The story wasn’t very engaging, but it was kind of interesting to learn bits and pieces of Chinese history. What parts were fictionalized and what parts were real I cannot say, but it was still interesting nonetheless.

In all, it was a good game to get back into the rhythm of PC-gaming. It was different from the typical 3D worlds and very focused without leaving you wondering too much about your next objective. But the controls were its main downfall. There is something like a New Game+ mode where you restart the game but with all the upgrades you unlocked, but I figured one play through was enough for me and I have uninstalled it.