Assassin's Creed: The Rebel Collection is a generous package and a well assembled Switch port, throwing together Black Flag and Rogue onto Nintendo's current hardware. Fans of the series are guaranteed a good time, whilst offering newcomers a great point to jump in.
Ports of current and previous gen games to Nintendo's hybrid wonder box have been the very definition of a mixed bag. Janky graphical compromises and lazy optimisation are rife, but for every half measured effort, there's a ton of examples where stuff has made the jump in glorious fashion.
The Doom games, Skyrim, Rocket League... there's some magical work being done, and we're happy to report that these two Assassin's Creed titles have leapt across relatively intact.
Of course, sacrifices have been made, but the impact is minimal. Texture detail is slightly reduced, and the framerate dips ever so slightly when panning the camera across massive open areas or when combat really escalates.
But these are very minor quibbles; for the most part, both Black Flag and Rogue run exceptionally well (particularly in handheld mode), and the art style, flow of traversal, and fighting mechanics are present and accounted for.
And in all fairness, both games still look great overall, particularly Rogue, which placed a much greater emphasis on ship combat. Speaking of which, it's a testament to both titles that the naval elements have aged so well. There's pace and stakes to each tussle, with a simplified control set that prioritises fun over realism.
Ubisoft
Black Flag is definitely guilty of holding your hand a little too much in its opening moments. Once you're left to your own devices, things definitely fall into place, but the pacing of the initial half an hour doesn't land. Too much time is spent with tutorial instructions, rather than trusting you to get cracking and figure things out.
Rogue fares much better in this regard, propelling you into the action after an introductory narrative sequence. You'll be scaling boats and beating unsuspecting foes to a pulp before you know it. If you're coming off of Assassin's Creed 3's painfully languid sense of momentum, this will feel mighty refreshing indeed.
It should be noted that multiplayer is not present in this package, although all single player DLC is indeed bundled in. The physical edition includes Black Flag on the cart, but Rogue is provided as a digital download (which totals roughly 7GB).
Despite mild instances of visual tweaks to bring it into line with the Switch's hardware, we can confidently say that Assassin's Creed: The Rebel Collection is the real deal, and absolutely a viable way to experience both Black Flag and Rogue on Switch.
Ubisoft
8/10
Assassin's Creed: The Rebel Collection is available now, exclusively for Switch.
