Assassin's Creed Chronicles gets all the best locations

Well, would you look at that? More Assassins! Announced last year as part of Assassin’s Creed Unity’s canned season pass, it turns out that Assassin’s Creed Chronicles China is now only the first in a trilogy of 2.5D side-scrolling stabbing. As three standalone episodes released this year, Chronicles will travel from 16th century China to India in the fall of the Sikh Empire, and then onto 20th century Russia in the aftermath of the Red October revolution. Seriously exciting settings that mean these are no mere mobile style spin offs and each has its own artistic style as well as a full Assassin's experience .

The trilogy stars three hooded heroes who although haven’t been playable in the games aren’t new to the franchise. Chinese Assassin Shao Jun starred as Ezio’s protege in the short animated film Embers - *sob* - while member of the Brotherhood in 19th century India, Arbaaz Mir has previously starred in graphic novel AC: Brahman. The rifle wielding Russian Nikolai Orelov also has his roots in book-form in AC: The Fall and excitingly gives us the most modern playable Assassin to date.

“Two, almost three years ago, we had the idea in Montreal. We saw Metroidvania and other 2 and 2.5D platformers and saw that as a wonderful genre to expand the Assassin’s Creed universe,” explains lead content manager Carston Myhill. “To bring potentially new fans to Assassin’s Creed but really look at it as a great opportunity to expand on existing Assassins that we have with existing stories rather than new settings and new heroes.”

Chronicles is being developed for PS4, Xbox One and PC by UK based Climax Studios in collaboration with Ubisoft Montreal. Shao Jun’s 2.5D beautifully blood splattered adventures will be released on April the 22nd and will be free if you bought the now-cancelled season pass. If not, there has been no confirmation of price from Ubisoft just yet. Chronicles India and Chronicles Russia will be released in autumn of this year. See below to see Chronicles China in action.

Louise Blain is a journalist and broadcaster specialising in gaming, technology, and entertainment. She is the presenter of BBC Radio 3’s monthly Sound of Gaming show and has a weekly consumer tech slot on BBC Radio Scotland. She can also be found on BBC Radio 4, BBC Five Live, Netflix UK's YouTube Channel, and on The Evolution of Horror podcast. As well as her work on GamesRadar, Louise writes for NME, T3, and TechRadar. When she’s not working, you can probably find her watching horror movies or playing an Assassin’s Creed game and getting distracted by Photo Mode.