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‘Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection’ Is A Mixed But Full Bag [Review]

By David Cornell
Published on: 05:00 PST, Nov 16, 2016

Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection might be the best thing Ubisoft has released in years. Very little of what is included is new unless you buy a brand-new copy by about mid-February.

The collection includes three of the most-loved titles in the franchise for the price of one full modern game. That isn’t all it includes, though, as Ubisoft threw in a couple of short movies on the same disc, as well as a coupon code for $8 off a ticket to see the upcoming Assassin’s Creed movie starring Michael Fassbender.

The latter is really the only thing noticeably new in this bundle of goodness, and it’s a great way to get true fans into theaters at a discount on December 21, 2016. The coupon expires on February 17, 2017, but it’s not suggested that you wait that long. If the movie fails like most of the ones based on video games, it probably won’t be in theaters for more than a month.

From what they did with the short movies, it seems Ubisoft knows what they’re doing on the big screen. Lineage, the first title included on the disc, is a three-part TV mini-series that tells the story of how Ezio’s father, Giovanni, became tangled up in a Templar plot to overthrow Venice. If you’ve played AC II already, you know what it led to and why Ezio had to finish the job. The cast is brilliant and features most of the same people who motion-captured the characters from the game.

Embers is a computer animated story about Ezio’s final days as he plays mentor to a young Asian female assassin almost against his will. A little less action-oriented, it deals with his failed attempt to leave his decades of fame behind him and the feelings that came from it.

Ubisoft also brilliantly included Uplay actions that involve actually exploring the discs — and unlockable game content after having done so. Unlike most remasters these days, the collection is all accessible through a menu within the bundle, so there won’t be any individual purchases of the games included.

You are rewarded for actually watching the short movies. The games themselves are arguably among the best “remasters” to hit the PS4 and Xbox One, suffering from minimal issues even on the collection’s release date.

There will be moments when Ezio will suddenly look down a set of three steps as the game glitches and acts like it’s the edge of a roof. There are also moments when you’ll be stuck in place waiting for the game to acknowledge that the mission has been completed. Hopefully, these minor glitches will be patched soon and won’t mar the gameplay for late-comers.

A welcome addition to the games themselves is an almost unnoticeable upgrade in the environment. You’ll see paintings adorning the walls with more detail and other clues that show that at least AC II finally equals the original Assassin’s Creed in overall detail. Many gamers may have noticed Ezio’s first adventure had been visually downgraded from that of Altair, and Ubisoft used the power of the current generation consoles to ramp up the detail. It’s mostly unnoticeable unless you stop and look around. The facial animations in the cut scenes seem to have been given slight upgrades as well, although some look even worse than they did originally (Lucy).

It’s probably a positive that Ubisoft didn’t give the games a complete graphical overhaul, as it might have resulted in a frame-rate drop, the very thing which seems to have riddled Batman: Return to Arkham.

Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection is a solid buy if you don’t already own the games on a previous console. If you do, it might still be worth it for the inclusion of the short films and the discount coupon to see the upcoming movie in theaters.

[Featured Image by Ubisoft]

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