I am a fan of Ubisoft’s videogame-series “Assassin’s Creed” – don’t get me wrong with this: I am not a violent person, and I don’t find much satisfaction in sneaking up at people and stabbing them in the back (at least not in real life), but I love games which come with a good story, like some of the Assassin’s Creed-games do (for example “Black Flag“, which is set in the Caribbean). Furthermore, the Assassin’s Creed-games have another great feature: You get to walk around in a foreign city and climb onto historical landmarks without leaving your own sofa. When I was in Istanbul for the last time, I downloaded “Assassin’s Creed: Revelations” simply for the reason that I wanted to climb onto the Galata Tower.
Now, there’s an Asssassin’s Creed-game which is set in India.
“Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India” is part of a trilogy that is set in three different countries – China, India and Russia – and which is very different from the other games of the series: Whereas the previous Assassin’s Creed-games were in 3D, these are 2D-games in which you can basically only run from point A to point B and murder some people on the way. In that sense, it reminds me of the early “Prince of Persia”-games which I used to play as a kid on my dad’s computer while we were living in Bombay.
After playing the game for roughly an hour, I have decided that I like it. The gameplay is rather simple. The soundtrack is Indian-ish. The voices are done well: The protagonist’s voice has an Indian accent, with a tender touch – a great discrepancy to his violent behavior. The story seems to revolve around a beautiful princess – again, a reference to the videogame-classic “Prince of Persia” – and the famous Koh-I-Noor. However, the most beautiful par of the game is the fact that India is integrated into it.
There are elephants – and you can climb onto them, and jump from one elephant’s back to the other. And there are tigers, which alert guards if you get to close to them. And everything is full of colors: You see Mandalas painted onto walls, colorful curtains hanging between doors… and if you stab an opponent in the back, he doesn’t bleed – instead, red colors coming out of his body reminds you that the Holi festal is approaching. That may not be very realistic, and the game is also full of clishés – but I guess that falls under the category “freedom of the artist”.
After all, Ubisoft isn’t known so well for having a lot of realism in its games. As a friend once said to me: “I’ve been to Nepal. And, believe me: Unlike the story of “Far Cry 4“, there are no arenas for gladiators there.”