It's confirmed. The newest chapter to the Assassin's Creed Chronicles series, Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China is coming on 21-April.
The new downloadable content brings players to 1526 China, where the last assassin of the Chinese Brotherhood, Shao Jun, goes on a quest for vengance against the Templars for her fallen bretheren. Trained in Italy under Ezio Auditore da Firenze, her new stealth nd combat skills are put to the extreme test to carry out her mission.
This new chapter is free for gamers who purchased the Assassin's Creed: Unity season pass. It will be downloadable on 21-April for the US and 22-April for Europe as per Ubisoft. It can be pre-ordered here.
Unlike the usual open worlds of the regular Assassin's Creed games, Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China is 2.5D making it a side-scrolling stealth game with very crisp art rendering of both foregrounds and backgrounds.
"They're all illustrative, and that brings them together," Assassin's Creed Chronicles' art director Glenn Brace said in an interview about the game design.
"For China, we took a 16th century influence - very flat, 2D illustration. We then melded a very contemporary Chinese ink take with it, so it echoes Shao Jun the character and how fluid she is. We end up with a romantic, impressionistic vibe. Russia's really exciting. It's 20th century, so we have photography, graphics, poster art, constructivism, and we fused all those together to achieve an even more stark contrast to the other episodes, he added.
"We took influence from lithographs. Color was a key component; we boosted that, and we mixed some Sikh-influenced patterns into the world," says Brace. "So again, it's a fusion of a traditional medium of the period with a very modern, contemporary take," the game director said about the India chapter.
Wait, did he say Indian and Russian chapters?
That's right. It is also official that Chroncles is a trilogy, the second part being an Indian chapter featuring Arbaaz Mir in the 1841 war era between the Sikh and East India Company, and the last part a Russian chapter with Nikolai Orelov in 1918 a year after the Bolshevik Revolution. Both characters were previously featured in Assassin's Creed graphic novels, Brahman and The Fall, respectively.
"There is a narrative link between the three games," said lead game designer Xavier Penin.
"As [the games] have to be independent, it's not huge. It's not central, but it's there, especially for the fans. And if you finish Russia, and you've played the other two, there's a special ending that's really interesting for the fans and ties the Chronicles together," he added.
While there are no official announcements on the release date yet, it is speculated that the next Assassin's Creed Chronicles will be out sometime on or before October 2015 while Assassin's Creed Chronicles China becomes available by April 21 in North America.
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