Despite confirming that early images and details reported by Kotaku were accurate, Ubisoft has yet to take the wraps off this year’s inevitable big-budget Assassin’s Creed game. But today, the publisher announced that it has way more Assassin’s Creed in store for 2015: it will be releasing a trilogy of 2-D, download-only games throughout the year under the banner of Assassin’s Creed Chronicles. Each entry focuses on a different setting and assassin. The first, set in China at the fall of the Ming Dynasty, will be released on April 21 and will cost $10 on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Players who, for whatever reason, bought the Assassin’s Creed Unity “season pass” will get it for free. The second game is set in 1840s India amid mounting tensions between the Sikh Empire and the East India Company. The third game takes place in early 20th century Russia during the civil war. (According to Ubisoft’s official plot summary, your character defies history and saves Anastasia. Did you really think a video game would pass up a real-life princess in distress?) Release dates for the Indian and Russian installments of the game have yet to be announced.
You’ll still be climbing buildings and stabbing (and if you’re the Russian guy, sometimes shooting) innocent guards. Now, there’s just one less dimension to worry about. As Ubisoft tends to do with its 2-D games, though, Assassin’s Creed Chronicles is taking an interesting approach to its visuals. Each game has artistic flourishes influenced by its setting. China, for example, inherits the look of Ming Dynasty art, with minimal coloring and varying brushstrokes on an underlying beige handscroll-like background. Meanwhile, Russia is rendered in its signature oppressive palette of black, white, and red.
[via IGN]