It’s easy to forget that Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Russia even happened. Released in 2016 as the final chapter of a 2.5D experimental trilogy, it landed right as the world was getting tired of the yearly AC grind. People were burnt out. They wanted Origins and massive open worlds, not a punishingly difficult side-scroller set in a bleak, monochrome Soviet wasteland.
But honestly? If you skip this one, you're missing the most mechanically unique game in the entire franchise.
It’s weird. It’s hard. It’s strikingly beautiful in a "Red Scare" propaganda sort of way. Most importantly, it actually tries to be a stealth game in a series that frequently lets you just punch your way through history. While China was a bit basic and India was a neon-soaked platformer, Russia is a gritty, sniper-heavy industrial nightmare that forces you to actually think.
The Story Most People Completely Missed
Nikolai Orelov isn't your typical Assassin. He’s tired. By the time we meet him in 1918, he’s an old man by Brotherhood standards, just trying to get his family out of a country that is literally collapsing under the weight of the Bolshevik Revolution. This isn't a story about "The Creed" being glorious; it's a story about a guy who is totally done with the secret war and just wants to retire.
Then he meets Anastasia.
The game does something really cool here by splitting the gameplay between Nikolai and the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna. It turns out she’s inherited some of Shao Jun’s memories through a Precursor artifact (the typical AC sci-fi madness), which gives her these glitchy, ethereal Assassin powers.
Playing as a vulnerable girl who has to rely on supernatural "Helix" abilities while her protector uses a custom Berdan rifle and electricity-based gadgets creates a dynamic that the main games never really touched. It’s essentially The Last of Us if it were set in a 1917 train yard and drawn by a Soviet graphic novelist.
Why the Gameplay Is So Polarizing
Let's be real: this game will make you mad.
Unlike the mainline games where you can mess up a stealth run and just counter-kill your way out of it, Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Russia is built on a "one-hit and you’re basically dead" philosophy. It’s a puzzle game wearing the skin of an action game. You spend ten minutes staring at a room full of Red Guards, timing their patrol patterns, and figuring out exactly when to use a winch to short-circuit a light fixture.
It’s slow.
- You have a rifle, but it's mostly for sniping distant switches or popping heads from a mile away.
- The winch is your best friend—you can use it to rip grates off walls or send a surge of electricity through a puddle to stun guards.
- Smoke bombs and whistles are mandatory, not optional.
The difficulty spikes are legendary. There are these chase sequences—usually involving a train or a collapsing building—where the camera pans out and you have to move with frame-perfect precision. One missed jump? Desynchronized. It feels more like Prince of Persia or Abe's Oddysee than Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. If you go into this expecting to be an unstoppable god of death, you're going to have a bad time.
But if you like the idea of being a ghost in a machine? It's incredibly satisfying.
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The Visual Identity of a Dying Empire
We have to talk about the art style. Climax Studios (the developers) went for a 20th-century Russian constructivism look. Everything is bathed in shades of grey, black, and white, with sharp splashes of crimson red for anything important—blood, flags, or enemy vision cones.
It looks like a moving propaganda poster.
The industrial setting is a far cry from the lush forests of the American frontier or the golden sands of Egypt. You’re navigating cramped apartments, muddy trenches, and steel-heavy factories. It captures that feeling of "The Great War" perfectly. It’s oppressive. It’s cold.
Even the UI reflects this. The menus and the HUD feel sharp and utilitarian. While Chronicles: China looked like a watercolor painting and India looked like a psychedelic silk rug, Russia feels like it was etched into a piece of scrap metal with a bayonet.
The Problem With the Modern Day Tie-ins
If you're one of those people who actually follows the modern-day Abstergo lore, this game is actually pretty vital. It links back to the Assassin’s Creed: The Fall and The Chain comic books. We see the precursor to the Animus technology and get more context on why the Templars were so obsessed with the Russian royal family.
The issue is that the game assumes you've done your homework.
If you haven't read the comics, some of the late-game reveals might feel a bit hollow. It’s a classic Ubisoft move—burying the most interesting lore in side projects while the main games focus on "Ancient Aliens 101." Still, seeing the "Precursor Box" finally play a major role in the narrative gives a sense of closure to a plot thread that had been dangling for years.
How to Actually Enjoy Playing It Today
If you’re going to pick this up on Steam or console today, don’t play it in one sitting. You will get frustrated. The levels are designed to be "Perfected." The game ranks you on a scale of Shadow (Gold, Silver, Bronze) based on whether you killed anyone or were seen.
The "Shadow Gold" run is the intended experience.
It turns the game into a high-stakes chess match. You aren't just a guy with a hidden blade; you're a saboteur. Use the environment. If there's a phone on a desk, call it to distract a guard. If there's a vent, use it. Don't engage in combat unless the game literally forces you to. The combat system is clunky on purpose—Orelov is an old man, and Anastasia is a teenager. Neither should be taking on five armed soldiers at once.
Technical Quirks and Flaws
Is it perfect? No.
The 2.5D perspective can be tricky. Sometimes you think you’re in the "background" plane and safe from a guard’s sight, only to realize you’re actually in their path. The controls can feel "sticky," especially when you’re trying to quickly transition from a slide into a climb.
Also, the voice acting is... okay. It’s not going to win any Oscars. But the atmospheric sound design—the clanking of industrial machinery and the muffled shouts of guards in the distance—more than makes up for the stiff dialogue.
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The Verdict on the Russian Experiment
Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Russia is the "weird" AC game. It’s the one that didn't care about being a blockbuster. It wanted to be a stylish, brutal, and historically grounded stealth-platformer.
It’s the closest the series has ever come to feeling like Splinter Cell.
In a world where every game is trying to be a 100-hour RPG with a thousand map markers, there is something deeply refreshing about a focused, 6-hour experience that knows exactly what it wants to be. It’s a grim, beautiful coda to a trilogy that deserved more love than it got.
If you want to experience the Russian Revolution from the perspective of a man who is just trying to find a way out, this is your game. Just don't expect it to hold your hand. It’s cold out there in the snow.
How to Master the Chronicles: Russia Experience
- Rebind your keys/buttons immediately. The default layout for the winch and the rifle can feel unintuitive during high-speed chases.
- Prioritize non-lethal. It sounds counterintuitive for an "Assassin" game, but the Gold Shadow rating is much easier to achieve if you don't leave bodies for other guards to find.
- Use the Helix Blade sparingly. Anastasia’s powers are cool, but they recharge slowly. Save them for the rooms with no obvious hiding spots.
- Watch the background. A lot of the environmental storytelling happens in the layers you can't actually walk on. Look at the posters and the propaganda—it builds a world that the dialogue doesn't always explain.
- Ignore the timer. Unless you're in a forced-scrolling section, take your time. Rushing is the number one reason people quit this game in a hov.