Assassin’s Creed is really a long-running series; its games happen to be through a lot of iterations and lifecycles across three console generations and nearly 15 years. For some fans, Assassin’s Creed is Assassin’s Creed whether you’re fighting Templars in Jerusalem as Altair, beating up bullies in London as Jacob and Evie, or you’re raiding Christian villages in Cent as Eivor. But for many, Assassin’s Creed’s halcyon days weren’t spent in Elesiam as Kassandra, they were spent in Italy and Constantinople as Ezio Auditore da Firenze. And now, original fans and beginners alike can dive in to the Ezio trilogy on Nintendo Switch with The Ezio Collection. But what’s it like returning mid-7th generation console games all these years later?
In short, mostly as satisfying because it has ever been. For fans and players from the more contemporary Assassin’s Creed games, or even a few of the games that have emerge in between, the appearance, feel, and overall gameplay of The Ezio Collection is quite different, but nonetheless relatively simple and easy to leap into. You use multiple buttons at once to freerun instead of just one button, and combat involves chaining together reversals and instakills but it’s not really a jarring return to yesteryear by any means. It’s simply a different gameplay scheme and something that plenty of folks may even would rather today’s ubiquitous dodge and parry mechanics. You’ll also discover the maps more concise and compact, with a heavier emphasis on climbing buildings and different structures across large maps that occur within single cities. It’s a real joy to revisit some of these easily recognizable, famous structures nearly as much as it is to climb all throughout the city streets themselves.
If you’re comparing the visuals towards the original games, certainly The Ezio Collection makes improvements so far as fidelity go. I had been actually awed through the lighting and reflections especially in Assassin’s Creed II, considering the collection is actually just an up-resing from the original 2009 game. However, if you’re comparing the Switch edition towards the console editions of The Ezio Collection, you’re likely to find a marked difference in the visuals, especially during cut scenes.
The character models don’t look bad necessarily, but you can literally see the polygons on their own faces in the last games. The sunlight also feels just a bit dimmer as the game’s definition shows wear and tear. However, playing in handheld mode, the sport does look a great deal smoother, as if the fidelity was created with handheld in your mind over docked. I don’t mind personally, when i almost exclusively play my Switch in handheld mode, but it could be a bit distracting throughout the endless unskippable cutscenes of Assassin’s Creed II. The tradeoff of playing in handheld mode, however, is the substantial audio condensing. If you’re playing sans headphones, the dialogue may sound like it’s originating from underwater.
The great news though, is that The Ezio Collection plays in addition to ever around the Switch. returning to these games over a decade later, you’ll find lots of story to be intrigued and confounded by, collectibles to wrangle, villas and gear to upgrade, and minigames to best. It’s one of the best smatterings of content the Assassin’s Creed franchise has to offer, minus the cumbersome multiplayer that plagued the early 2010s.
If you’re seeking to replay these classics or get somebody new into the franchise and the Switch may be the console available, it’s well worth getting your Assassin’s Creed fix here. It’s perhaps not the very best choice so far as fidelity, but it’s definitely a good and convenient choice.
Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection is available now on Nintendo Switch.
