History YMMV / AssassinsCreedRogue

* AntiClimaxBoss: An in-universe one happens with Shay being ordered to kill a sickly old man with a month left to live. [[spoiler: Who just happens to be George Washington's brother.]] Later, Shay murders another Templar who can barely lift a sword and doesn't attempt to fight back if confronted directly. These events contribute to Shay's disquiet with the Assassins since they consider them great victories.

** The lack of a UsefulNotes/WiiU version hasn't been sitting well with people who own the system and bought the [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII previous]] [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIVBlackFlag two]] games for said platform. The fact that it'd be easier for Ubisoft to port ''Rogue'' to the Wii U instead of ''Unity'' (as other developers have stated that up-porting from UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 and UsefulNotes/XBox360 to the Wii U is easier than down-porting from the UsefulNotes/{{PS4}} and UsefulNotes/XboxOne) only makes this worse for Ubi, whose reputation amongst Nintendo faithful is already broken thanks to past incidents like the delays of ''VideoGame/RaymanLegends'' and the Wii U version of ''VideoGame/WatchDogs'', and outright admitting that they are holding a Wii U game hostage until the system "sees higher sales."
*** Ubisoft then said that after ''Watch_Dogs'', they wouldn't be making any more "Mature-rated" games for the UsefulNotes/WiiU, including ''Unity'' and ''Rogue'', due to poor sales (to be fair, this was before ''Mario Kart 8'' gave Wii U slight sales boost in its lifetime). Fan reaction had been negative.
*** This would later be rectified with the release of the ''Rebel Collection'' for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, giving Nintendo followers a chance to play this game at last.

** Is Shay a dishonorable traitor for turning against the Assassins or did he have good reason to do so? Is this a case of PoorCommunicationKills where the Colonial Assassins would have listened if he hadn't been so panicked? Did they judge Shay too harshly for circumstances they didn't understand? Was Shay motivated solely by [[spoiler: the Lisbon Earthquake]] or was it simply the last in a long line of WhatTheHellHero moments which culminated in his defection? Was Shay ever really a Templar or just allied with them against the Assassins? Hell, is it possible he's just suffering UsefulNotes/StockholmSyndrome after the traumatic events of his defection followed by his adoption into Colonel Monro's care? [[spoiler: Regardless by the ending, it doesn't matter anymore. Shay is fully dedicated to the Templar cause.]]

** Is Colonel George Monro the TokenGoodTeammate Templar who is a {{Antivillain}} and VisionaryVillain at worst or a cold-blooded ManipulativeBastard? Shay thinks of Colonel Monro as a bear friend and TheMentor. However, everything Shay sees of Colonel Monro is ''precisely'' calculated. [[spoiler: Colonel Monro placed Shay with a loving family, tended his wounds, showed him the dark side of the Assassin's activities, then arranged for him to kill his brethren without ever letting him know he was a Templar. Colonel Monro may genuinely believe he's doing the right thing but he makes ruthless use of Shay despite the man's disturbed mental state.]] It's entirely possible Colonel Monro was trying to induce the 18th century equivalent of StockholmSyndrome all along. Worse, it worked.

** Is Shay a dishonorable traitor for turning against the Assassins or did he have good reason to do so? Is this a case of PoorCommunicationKills where the Colonial Assassins would have listened if he hadn't been so panicked? Did they judge Shay too harshly for circumstances they didn't understand? Was Shay motivated solely by [[spoiler: the Lisbon Earthquake]] or was it simply the last in a long line of WhatTheHellHero moments which culminated in his defection? Was Shay ever really a Templar or just allied with them against the Assassins? Hell, is it possible he's just suffering StockholmSyndrome after the traumatic events of his defection followed by his adoption into Colonel Monro's care? [[spoiler: Regardless by the ending, it doesn't matter anymore. Shay is fully dedicated to the Templar cause.]]

* PlayerPunch: Essentially TheGame.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Bound to come up in a game where you play an Assassin who defects to the Templars.

* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRogue'':
** [[AntiVillain George Monro]] is a [[ColonelBadass colonel]] serving in the British Army and one of the most dedicated members of the Templar Order. Discovering the wounded Assassin, [[VillainProtagonist Shay Cormac]], Monro has Shay rescued and nursed back to health before formally introducing himself. The two would gradually retake New York from the Assassin-align gangs and rebuild it for the Templars, with Monro influencing Shay to ally with his side and supporting their cause as they continue to work together. When Monro is surrounded by French and Assassins forces, Monro surrenders Fort William Henry to them to [[AFatherToHisMen protect his soldiers]] before retreating to Albany, where he prepares for their next attack. Though killed by the Assassins, Monro’s words and [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe kindness]] inspire Shay to officially join the Templars, and eradicate the Assassins from the American Colonies in Monro’s name.
** [[AffablyEvil Christopher Gist]] is a brilliant explorer, surveyor, and frontiersman working for the Templar Order, using his expertise to expand their influence throughout the American colonies and secure alliances with the indigenous people. Gist also manipulates fellow explorer James Cook into helping Gist in this task. Assigned by Monro to infiltrate Fort Arsenal, which is controlled by the Assassin-aligned gangs, Gist gets rescued by Shay Cormac, after which the two fend off the gangs before taking Fort Arsenal as their hideout, where Gist then helps Shay reclaim his ship, The Morrigan. Gathering a crew for Shay, Gist gets recruited as Shay’s [[TheDragon first-mate]], resulting Gist reveals his allegiance with the Templars to Shay a year later and his willingness to kill Shay if he refused to join. Gist also helps Shay track down the Assassins to ensure that they are completely eradicated from the Colonies.
** [[TokenMinority Jack Weeks]] grew up being an elusive pickpocket thief until Christopher Gist, impressed by Weeks’ skill, introduces him to the Templars. Rising up the ranks to become the Templars’ [[TheSmartGuy smart guy]], Weeks helps Shay Cormac rescue George Monro and his forces from Kesegowaase’s ambush and prepare for Kesegowaase’s upcoming attack at Albany, while also formulating a plan to dismantle Hope Jensen’s criminal empire in New York. This plan involves Weeks and Shay disguising themselves as Hope’s gang members before stealing British soldiers’ salaries while [[FrameUp framing]] the Assassins for the heist, causing the British Army to eradicate Hope’s gang from New York, allowing Shay to kill Hope and learn of Achilles Davenport’s expedition to the Arctic Circle, where Shay goes to kill his remaining Assassins there.

** The game itself. Is it an AudienceSurrogate to the long running franchise that is VideoGame/AssassinsCreed? How Shay views the never ending war of Templars and Assassins just like gamers starting to get tired of the same gameplay of "play Assassin and kill Templar because he/she is a Templar"? How the fact that neither side has even tried to think of a way to work together.

* DesignatedHero: The story tries to paint Shay as a misunderstood victim who only wanted to protect innocence. Yet Shay does allows his anger to get the best of him, blames the Assassins for what was clearly an accident, and chooses to join an organization that wants to remove humanity’s free will. [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation Some could even call Shay]] the true BigBad of the game as the conflict is directly his fault.

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** A very unintentional example after the ''Unity'' launch. ''Rogue's'' well-received story and characters meant many fans got at least one good ''Assassin's Creed'' game in 2014 (although critics preferred ''Unity'').
** ''Rogue'' did many small but welcome adjustments to the collectibles system that was a huge pain in ''Black Flag''. Uncharted collectibles are now much fewer in numbers, and picking them up is more entertaining because many require a nice bit of freerunning to get to instead of just lying around in the open. The rowboats that return Shay to his ship are more numerous, especially in areas with freezing water where swimming is ill-advised. Shanties move much slower and are thus less annoying to chase down. [[LuckBasedMission Luck-based Abstergo challenges]] were removed entirely.
** The rerelease of the ''Rebel Collection'' on UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch would help remedy the lack of a UsefulNotes/WiiU release for Nintendo followers.

** The bounty hunters that show up when you kill too many civilians. They're basically the Jägers from ''[[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII III]]'' taken UpToEleven.

** The third and final installment in an informal "trilogy" of Assassin's Creed games, featuring a black-clad protagonist in contrast to the white-clad protagonists of the previous two, which doubles as a CrossoverFinale tying together the plotlines of two otherwise separate generations of assassins, and which ended up being criticized for being a MissionPackSequel and having an extremely short story, ultimately dooming it to be overshadowed by its incredibly popular immediate predecessor in the series? Are we talking about Assassin's Creed: Rogue or [[Videogame/AssassinsCreedRevelations Assassin's Creed: Revelations]]?

* NightmareFuel: Remember those [[SchmuckBait defensive]] [[KillItWithFire rows of light]] from Black Flag? They're back, and this time it's unavoidable to see what happens when a pour soul falls *cough* is shoved *cough* into one...

* WhatAnIdiot:
** Shay just [[spoiler:escaped the Lisbon earthquake and reports back to Achilles]].
*** '''You'd Expect:''' [[spoiler: Shay, having spent possibly months of time traveling between sequences and missions (Earthquake happened early November 1755 to when they met again in 1756), would compile his thoughts and think of a calm and composed way to warn Achilles and try to convince him. After all, this is serious stuff and being hostile would make even the best message unnecessarily harder to swallow.]]
*** '''Instead:''' [[spoiler: Shay decides to explode and accuse Achilles immediately, needing his friends to break them apart. Apparently, he kept his anger bottled up from the Earthquake and didn't think about persuasion. Either that, or Shay decided that accusations would be more convincing. Achilles ends up ordering Shay to be removed from the room and Shay doesn't decide a retry (on Achilles or anyone else) after calming down. Given how Achilles eventually concludes that Shay was correct in the endgame even after Shay's betrayal, Shay might have even successfully convinced Achilles and avoided killing everyone if his approach involved less finger pointing and fury.]]
** Hell, while we're at it:
*** '''You'd Expect:''' [[spoiler: Shay continues to lobby Assassins, hoping to change their mind about the dangers posed by the first civ sites. Also, it's possible in an earlier sequence to overhear Achilles and Adewale discussing another earthquake that occurred, neither fully aware how it happened and only discussing the Templars, damages and relief work Adewale done. Maybe even Achilles could have been convinced with some time and effort.]]
*** '''Instead:''' [[spoiler: Shay decides to steal the manuscript (not burn it on the spot or anything. Just grab it like he's someone's errand boy) just to manufacture drama. Apparently, Shay doesn't think any of the people he grew up with would listen.]]

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: Wow, it's a twenty year old George Washington! Doesn't he look strange with red hair? It almost makes you forget that he's about to launch an attack on Connor's village and cause Ziio's horrible fiery death.

* DesignatedHero: Shay himself, the story tries to paint Shay as a misunderstood victim who only wanted to protect innocence. When in reality Shay allows his anger to get the best of him, blames the assassins for what was clearly an accident and chooses to join an organization that wants to remove humanity’s free will. [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation Some could even call Shay]] the true BigBad of the game as the conflict is directly his fault.

* EthnicScrappy: Between his atrocious Irish accent and tastelessly exaggerated Irish name (Shay ''Patrick Cormac!''), some fans think the protagonist is one step away from being a leprechaun. Nevertheless, an equally large section of the fanbase view him as one of the best playable characters in the entire series, despite the accent and name.

** Shay's repeating ad nauseam "''I make my own luck''" becomes about as endearing as "Where is Charles Lee?", especially since it's a reflex tick of his, at any invocation of luck, though [[spoiler:in the death conversation with Liam, Shay practically complains "''How many times do I have to tell you''?" before repeating the phrase once more]]. What makes it even more {{Narm}}y is that Shay doesn't actually make his own luck in the game, being a victim of fate and the protection of well wishers like George Munro.
** Reactions to the quality of Shay's accent have been this. Combined with the tastelessly too Irish name of Shay Patrick Cormac, many people have been left annoyed by the character.
** The Templars' speeches about bringing Order from both Gist and Munro feel less like visionary men and more like televangelists talking about the Lord and his works... though that might also bring a rather different interpretation to the story and Shay's evolution.
** Juhani Otso Berg is built up in the game as an EvilGenius and a tactical Templar and [[spoiler:the finale of his "plan" is to email and prank the Assassins with Shay's memories. More importantly he forces the player to join the Templars via gunpoint proving that he learned ''nothing'' from Shay's story]].

** The Whispers that you hear that means there is a Stalker nearby. At certain times of the game you will swear you hear them, only to activate Eagle Vision and see there is none around. Essentially, this is what Templars have to deal with on a regular basis.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Shay to a lot of players, see DesignatedHero above.

** The third and final installment in an informal "trilogy" of Assassin's Creed games, featuring a black-clad protagonist in contrast to the white-clad protagonists of the previous two, which doubles as a CrossoverFinale tying together the plotlines of two otherwise separate generations of assassins, and which ended being criticized for being a MissionPackSequel and having an extremely short story, ultimately dooming it to be overshadowed by its incredibly popular immediate predecessor in the series? Are we talking about Assassin's Creed: Rogue or [[Videogame/AssassinsCreedRevelations Assassin's Creed: Revelations]]?

** The third and last installment in an informal "trilogy" of Assassin's Creed games, featuring a black-clad protagonist in contrast to the white-clad protagonists of the previous two, which doubles as a CrossoverFinale tying together the plotlines of two otherwise separate generations of assassins, and which ended being criticized for being a MissionPackSequel and having an extremely short story, ultimately dooming it to be overshadowed by its incredibly popular immediate predecessor in the series? Are we talking about Assassin's Creed: Rogue or [[Videogame/AssassinsCreedRevelations Assassin's Creed: Revelations]]?

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Shay may perhaps be one of the most divisive characters in the series. Fans were intrigued at the prospect of finally getting a game told from the perspective of the Templar Order, especially after how well received Haytham was in ''III'', but to say they were divided on the final result would be an understatement. Particularly in regards to if his switching of sides was actually ''justified'' or not. Not help matters that the game is rather short, so there are those who, while they find his motives sympathetic didn't think the story provided enough content to properly flesh him out. And finally, there are those [[spoiler: who consider him a KarmaHoudini.]]

*** Ubisoft then said that after ''Watch_Dogs'', they wouldn't be making any more "Violent" games for the UsefulNotes/WiiU, including ''Unity'' and ''Rogue'', due to poor sales (To be fair, this was before ''Mario Kart 8'' let the Wii U sell like hotcakes). Fan reaction has been heavily negative.

** The redcoats can still be fought and ''will'' pick a fight with you if you make a scene, even ''after Shay joins the Templars''. They might be working for the Templars but don't seem to show it much.

*** '''You'd Expect:''' [[spoiler: Shay, having spent possibly months of time traveling between sequences & missions (Earthquake happened early November 1755 to when they met again in 1756), would compile his thoughts & think of a calm & composed way to warn Achilles & try to convince him. After all, this is serious stuff & being hostile would make even the best message unnecessarily harder to swallow.]]

*** '''Instead:''' [[spoiler: Shay decides to explode & accuse Achilles immediately, needing his friends to break them apart. Apparently, he kept his anger bottled up from the Earthquake & didn't think about persuasion. Either that, or Shay decided that accusations would be more convincing. Achilles ends up ordering Shay to be removed from the room & Shay doesn't decide a retry (on Achilles or anyone else) after calming down. Given how Achilles eventually concludes that Shay was correct in the endgame even after Shay's betrayal, Shay might have even successfully convinced Achilles & avoided killing everyone if his approach involved less finger pointing & fury.]]

*** '''You'd Expect:''' [[spoiler: Shay continues to lobby Assassins, hoping to change their mind about the dangers posed by the first civ sites. Also, it's possible in an earlier sequence to overhear Achilles & Adewale discussing another earthquake that occurred, neither fully aware how it happened & only discussing the Templars, damages & relief work Adewale done. Maybe even Achilles could have been convinced with some time & effort.]]

* ThatOneAchievement: The game has multiple achievements that wouldn't be bad per se, if they wouldn't require so damn many repetitions. The Camper achievement for instance forces you to loot 20 supply camps, which isn't difficult but ''very'' tedious to pull off. Another achievement of this sort, Supplier, unlocks once you've looted 10 large supply camps[[note]]and it's not exactly clear which camps count as "large" and which don't[[/note]] while the Veteran cheat[[note]]cranks up the number of EliteMooks everywhere, plus all enemies deal much more damage[[/note]] is active. Arguably the worst one is "What's yours is mine", awarded for looting 20 ship convoys (you can OCD the entire game to OneHundredPercentCompletion without encountering more than one or two convoys). Further examples include things like countering 20 smoke bomb attacks or 15 hostile air assassinations, all of which will require some amount of grinding to get for pretty much no reason. Five of each would've sufficed.

** The level where you have to [[spoiler: kill Hope]] is this in spades. It's annoying enough that you have to keep in motion or else you lose health, but there are stalkers everywhere and [[spoiler: Hope]] has a one-hit-kill move, but desyncronization resets you back to the mansion!

** Some gamers felt that the story would have been better if instead of an Assassin-turned-Templar we played a full Templar, and likewise had gameplay that felt closer to what Templars could concievably do, rather than a reskin of traditional Assassin gameplay. Others also point out that the game's contrived portrayal of the Templars as "Good" via MoralLuck is not a true exploration of the Templar's WellIntentionedExtremist worldview which was explored in all the previous games and in ''Unity'', and which ''Black Flag'' writer Darby [=McDevitt=] [[https://twitter.com/darbymcdevitt/status/576478898512363520 noted also]] contradicted with Shay's story:

*** '''Instead:''' [[spoiler: Shay decides to explode & accuse Achilles immediately, needing his friends to break them apart. Apparently he kept his anger bottled up from the Earthquake & didn't think about persuasion. Either that or Shay decided that accusations would be more convincing. Achilles ends up ordering Shay to be removed from the room & Shay doesn't decide a retry (on Achilles or anyone else) after calming down. Given how Achilles eventually concludes that Shay was correct in the endgame even after Shay's betrayal, Shay might have even successfully convinced Achilles & avoided killing everyone if his approach involved less finger pointing & fury.]]
** Hell, while we're at it.

*** '''Instead:''' [[spoiler: Shay decides to steal the manuscript (not burn it on the spot or anything. Just grab it like he's someone's errand boy) because fuck you we need drama. Apparently Shay doesn't think any of the people he grew up with would listen.]]