It's a concept both straightforward and yet seemingly non-sensical: the experience of fully-fledged Assassin's Creed epic shrunk down to become a free-to-play experience on a mobile phone. But after hands-on time with Assassin's Creed Jade (now its final title, without the "Codename" moniker) today at Gamescom, I came away surprisingly impressed.
Jade is still in closed beta testing, with cut-scenes still missing and feedback from its first player test still to be implemented (more on that later). But as a smartly-made smartphone translation of Ubisoft's blockbuster franchise, it importantly feels like it ticks all the boxes.
As with other smartphone blockbusters like Genshin Impact, Jade is planned to be released for free with story content and further areas of the game added every three months - again, without charge. Optional cosmetics will be provided that you can buy with real-world money, however.