Recent reviews by Hacktor

This DLC adds 10 Achievements to the base game.

It completely makes you re-think your colony giving you hours of more enjoyment.
Recommended

Sorry, But this DLC is pointless.
Adds 2 achievements to the base game.

I love the base game, The Frosty pack and Spaced Out are brilliant but this ads nothing.
Not recommended.

This DLC comes with 4 Achievements in the base game.

The game in this DLC is bugged, No traders ever visited my location, That means the last Book piece was never uncovered (I scoured everything else).
The game was stuck on repeat forever until day 60something.

A ♥♥♥♥ dev job.
Not worth it, I feel like those 4 achievements keep my main game hostage

Full disclaimer:
* I have been employed by Ubisoft for ~8 years (Up until 2021) and worked on the Assassin's creed series for most of that (multiple titles from AC 3 to AC Odysey, from quality assurance to level design and technical direction)
* I bought this game for 7.49E with my own money in 2015.
* This is my personal opinion, and nothing else.

Now with that out of the way:
Getting 100% was... a return to the ship combat i loved from AC4 but with a layer of empty virtue signaling smeared on top.

approximate amount of time to 100%: 10-15
Estimated achievement difficulty: 7/10
Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 1 (probably more than 2)
Multiplayer achievements: No.
Missable achievements: No. Level select available.
Grinding Achievements: YES!. Completionist frustrated me especially
DLC-Only achievements: No.
Time-gated achievements: No.
Speed-run achievements: Yes. 3/12 Missions are Speedrun missions, The rest don't care about speed
POint of no return: Each mission has sections where returning for extra stuff is impossible.
RNG-achievements: No.
Does difficulty affect achievements: Normal, Hard, Very hard. Some achievements require the later.
Is there a good guide: I used this one https://www.trueachievements.com/game/Assassins-Creed-Chronicles-China/achievements
First achievement unlock: Probably Slide Kill 30~ people ( mission 5 I think) I'm not super sure tho.
Unobtainable/glitched achievements: No. But in my case... see below *


Notes:
* I plugged in my original save from years ago and both steam and Uplay refused to grant me all the achievements. Some esteamed ex-coleague of mine decided to put the achievement unlock code on "Do X" not on "check if X is done" So now having collected all the Fragments and all the chests I found myself with none to collect. So I had to start the whole game again. ...yay.
* Mission select is available as well as frequent checkpoints (if you see a mission status you don't like simply reload checkpoint quickly).
* The game tells you the score you get but it fails to tell you on what difficulty you got it (each dif. has a different max score) And it also refuses to tell you the max score on the Level select screen, Instead telling you this only at the end of each level... so prepare for many many retries.
Infact here, since the very hard scores are nowhere to be found i'm providing them from my own research.. (and yes they require perfect stealth, no kills, and ALL side objectives)
Mission 1:2300
Mission 2:2740
Mission 3:2940
Mission 4:2600
Mission 6:1660
Mission 7:2000
Mission 8:1780
Mission 9:3300
Mission 11:3140
5 10 and 12 are speed run missions but the times are the same.

So yeah, this game doesn't use the standard assassin's creed engine, and it shows. There are a few bugs and inconsistency (notably the enemies not being predictable when the lures are used) But overall it's been quite stable. A decent options menu and a moderate amount of quality of life. You can see this is basically an indie game that "bought the AC franchise" .. and I mean that in a good way.
The story is not the focus of the game but it's nothing to write home about.
I also consider that this game is not overly-woke, nothing breaks the suspension of disbelief.

In my book the game scores above 51% despite the grind... I'll recommend it.

Full disclaimer:
* I have been employed by Ubisoft for ~8 years (Up until 2021) and worked on the Assassin's creed series for most of that (multiple titles from AC 3 to AC Odysey, from quality assurance to level design and technical direction)
* I received a serial Key for this game when I was developing AC4 Black Flag.
* This is my personal opinion, and nothing else.

Now with that out of the way:
Getting 100% was... a return to the ship combat i loved from AC4 but with a layer of empty virtue signaling smeared on top.

approximate amount of time to 100%: 5-10
Estimated achievement difficulty: 3/10
Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 1
Multiplayer achievements: No.
Missable achievements: No.
Grinding Achievements: YES!. Board 30 Ships being the main one.
DLC-Only achievements: No (if you buy the standalone DLC, yes if you play as part of AC4).
Time-gated achievements: No.
Speed-run achievements: No.
RNG-achievements: No.
Does difficulty affect achievements: No difficulty choice.
First achievement unlock: Rescue the first slave (10 minutes into the game or so).
Unobtainable/glitched achievements: Open-world jank leading to achievements breaking are possible (and reported by other users) but not in my case.

Notes:
* Mission select (DNA) is available.
* Despite being a console game, controller support is missing. This is because the Steam port team failed to register a correct controller layout. I found out later that it's best to disable controller layout entirely in steam and let the game use it's own.
* Multiplayer features (Not many, mission ratings and stats) Are now disabled.
* These days a lot of gamers are a bit sensitive to woke issues in games and this one... oh boy... OOOH BOY! Every 10 seconds the game reminds us how bad slavery is, how all white people are evil in a comedical way that's impossible to take seriousely. And I for one do not like being preached at by my entertainment. This is not the only game that does it (even amongst my favorite games) but this is the only one that keeps pushing it constantly... EVERY activity in this game, every main mission ,every side mission, everything is a lesson for 3 year old kids about how bad slavery is with 0 nuance and a binary black = good and white = bad nuance.
* the game reails for 15$ on steam right now but it's also included with AC4.

Before 2016 This game would have been recommended at a steep discount just cause it reminded me about how good AC4 was, but in today's cultural climate... Avoid.

!!! Requires active multiplayer community (10 different players) for certain achievements.

Getting 100% was... a quick and cute puzzler.

approximate amount of time to 100%: 0.5-2 hours
Estimated achievement difficulty: 3/10
Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 2
Multiplayer achievements: No.
Missable achievements: Yes! a few but easily obtainable on the same save file.
Point of no return: No.
Grinding Achievements: No. At most womp 100 guards.
DLC-Only achievements: No.
Time-gated achievements: No.
Speed-run achievements: No.
RNG-achievements: No.
Does difficulty affect achievements: No choice.
First achievement unlock: Womping a patrol (can be avoided).
Is there a good guide: zipeater ツ's excelent guide on steam is a good one if you need it.

Notes:
* It's possible to avoid all achievements until you get Pacifist/I hunger (arguably the 2 hardest). Just focus on the trees and escaping. Then cleanup in descending order.
* I found out cookies or pressing shift makes you faster :) but you don't need it for any achievement.


The game has an enjoyment to price ratio of infinite so ...Yeah, Over 51% = Recommended.

Getting 100% was... an interesting story with a disapointing ending.

approximate amount of time to 100%: 5-15 hours
Estimated achievement difficulty: 2/10
Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 1
Multiplayer achievements: No.
Missable achievements: Yes! multiple, Recommend a guide.
Point of no return: Yes! the game warns you before the last event.
Grinding Achievements: Yes! Trying to find pseudo-invisible things to activate.
DLC-Only achievements: No.
Time-gated achievements: No.
Speed-run achievements: No.
RNG-achievements: No.
Does difficulty affect achievements: No choice.
Is there a good guide: I used Velldanas's maps on steam for the maps, I strongly recommend it.
First achievement unlock: Story achievement shortly after starting.

Notes:
* There is no chapter select,
* There is no fast travel, you have to manually walk back-and-forth to the game's locations
* If you miss a collectible you can almost always walk back and get it.
* Some collectibles require unlocked ghost abilities you get about half-way through the game so don't waste time trying like I did.
* Some users have accused certain achievements not unlocking or bugs that doesn't allow the activation of certain ghost items so you can collect them but I've not had this problem.

The story was building up to something good, mystery-supernatural (more than the starting premise that is) but by the end I felt disappointing with the explanation they provided. Still, journey not destination, right?

My adivce, get it at a deep-deep sale if you can, since there's no way it's worth 20$ in today's market.
Overall a bit past 51% so I'm recommending this one. But if steam had a "neutral" status I'd have used that.

!!!Game features an un-obtainable achievement (added recently)
If the proper way to unlock it doesn't appear soon will look for "Alternative" ways of getting it. Done

And if you do this as a developer, i officially hate you. You have steam news, multiple forums and other channels to announce your updates.

Full disclaimer:
* I have been employed by Ubisoft for ~8 years (Up until 2021) and worked on the Assassin's creed series for most of that (multiple titles from AC 3 to AC Odysey, from quality assurance to level design and technical direction)
* I bought this game with my own money.
* This is my personal opinion, and nothing else.

Now with that out of the way:
Getting 100% was... an exercise in finding workarrounds for incompetence.

approximate amount of time to 100%: 30-50
Estimated achievement difficulty: 4/10
Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 1
Multiplayer achievements: No.
Missable achievements: No. (DNA select available)
Grinding Achievements: YES!. Multiple "collect all" type achievements that slowly unlock as you progress the main game.
DLC-Only achievements: YES.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DLC with 10~ achievements is no longer available for purchase !!!!!!!!!
Time-gated achievements: No.
Speed-run achievements: No.
RNG-achievements: No.
Does difficulty affect achievements: No difficulty choice.
Glitched/Unobtainable achievements: YES.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Had to restart a save file since achievements weren't unlocking anymore. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Note:
* You think you hate Ubisoft enough.. but you don't
* some (SOME, it's random) achievements synk from Uplay, but some don't ... as far as i know it's random. Good luck.
* The excelent guide on how to access The lost archive by .:Assassin:.wOw~ on steam works like a charm (requires nexus mod account). I recommend it if you are stuck getting 100%.
* Despire re-doing most of the missing achievements the game sometimes failed to grant them despite me being 100% sure i did the actual correct event.

Yeah i think it's the last time i fall for "ubisoft added achievements" trap.
These negative reviews just remind me of the pain i feel when returning to the AC games (arguably the first series to get me into completionism and achievement hunting) and being met with all this jank unworthy of the AAA Gaming company ubisoft pretends to be for years.

Under 49% (way under)... not recommended.