Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection

Genre: Compilation / Stealth / Open-World Action-RPG

Players: 1

Game Company Bad Behavior Profile Page: UbiSoft

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Review:

Note: This game is included in Assassin’s Creed Anniversary Edition Mega Bundle along with Assassin’s Creed III Remastered and Assassin’s Creed: The Rebel Collection.

Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection, released on Nintendo Switch in 2022, is a Compilation that includes remastered versions of Assassin’s Creed II, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, and Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, originally released in 2009, 2010, and 2011, respectively on various platforms, and since ported to more modern platforms in the remastered version (or versions) that this Compilation is based on.

These remastered games are absolutely gorgeous on Nintendo Switch, looking even better than Assassin’s Creed: The Rebel Collection did in 2019. While the character models are still a tad blocky in places, and there’s still an odd texture here or there that’s a bit blurry, for the most part these games all feature gorgeous, highly-detailed environments, beautifully detailed character models, and some nice lighting. For a trio of games that were all first released over a decade ago, The Ezio Collection still manages to be on par with some of the better-looking games on Nintendo Switch. Likewise, the wonderful voice acting and epic music do a great job of selling the epic nature of these games’ story… or at least, the portion of the story that takes place in the past. Any Assassin’s Creed fan will likely agree that the historical portions of these games are far more interesting than the modern-day stuff.

While I normally break down and do a little mini-review for all of the games in a Compilation, that didn’t seem all that appropriate here – all three games in this Compilation play pretty similarly, and beyond the plot their biggest differences are minor additions and refinements to the Assassin’s Creed formula. I do feel like this de facto trilogy gets increasingly linear as it progresses, and I think that Assassin’s Creed II has the best pacing of the three, but the other games have some fun set piece elements that set them apart as well. I don’t think any of these games is a “weak link”, although I definitely think Assassin’s Creed II is the strongest part of this collection, allowing players to enjoy the Open World elements right from the start.

I would argue that this trilogy fares better than Assassin’s Creed III, which had pacing issues and isn’t helped by a sloppy port to Nintendo Switch. However, it can’t hold a candle to Assassin’s Creed: The Rebel Collection’s one-two punch of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and Assassin’s Creed Rogue, arguably the series’ best game and its solid follow-up. Plus, Black Flag’s piratey theme and excellent ship sailing elements truly brought something new to the series while the Ezio Collection was more of a solid but subtle evolution of what was already present in the first game in the franchise.

In terms of content, The Ezio Collection is a mix of good and bad. In the “good” category, this Compilation includes all of the expansion content released for the original games, including the promotional “Lineage” and “Embers” videos that act as a prelude and epilogue to the Ezio saga. Unfortunately, these videos don’t give players any way to control playback, and pressing any button exits to the menu, meaning if you accidentally bump the controller, you need to sit through the entire thing again if you want to watch it until the end.

However, the other bit that’s in the “bad” category is the fact that these modern re-releases contain none of the multiplayer content that was in the original games, and some of the expansion content requires players to go through the hoops of linking up to an UbiSoft account. To be fair, the re-releases on other platforms had similar limitations, so this isn’t a Switch-exclusive problem, but it’s still a disappointment that needs to be mentioned.

However, with a price tag of $40 for three excellent games, this is a pretty good deal. That said, be aware that if you get this Compilation, you’ll need to have a lot of space cleared on your MicroSD card – playing everything in this collection will require you to use somewhere around 35GB of space. This doesn’t feel excessive given what’s here, but that’s still quite a lot to make room for. Oh, and don’t expect the physical version to help too much in this regard – the physical version of the Collection only includes Assassin’s Creed II on it, and everything else requires a download.

In the end, Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection is a solid Compilation of three excellent Open World Action-RPGs, and a solid port as well. These games don’t seem to have suffered much at all in their transition to Nintendo Switch, and the games themselves have aged remarkably well. The biggest drawbacks here are the loss of multiplayer and the fact that none of these games is as good as what Nintendo Switch players already got in Assassin’s Creed: The Rebel Collection. However, if you already got The Rebel Collection and are looking for another collection in the same vein, The Ezio Collection is a superb choice.

tl;dr – Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection is a Compilation of remastered versions of Assassin’s Creed II, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, and Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, three solid Open World Action-RPGs that look and play great on Nintendo Switch. They’re missing the multiplayer content from the original games, they’ll take up a massive amount of space on your MicroSD card, and none of the games is quite as satisfying as what we already got in Assassin’s Creed: The Rebel Collection, but this is still an excellent Compilation well worth getting for any fan of the franchise wanting to play these games on the go.

Grade: B+

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2022 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Best Compilation / Collection, Most Underrated (75)

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