Assassin's Creed III is an Action/Adventure game with Stealth and Sandbox elements. The game was developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. As I mentioned, I was quite late to the party as this entry in the series was released in 2012 on Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii U, and PC.
It's sort of hard to describe the story in these games. If you haven't played any of the previous games, it would be impossible to do a spoiler-free explanation that would make sense to you. It doesn't help that the story line of the series has become more and more convoluted as it goes on. I'll do my best to remain vague, but to still describe what players picking up the game will be in for.
Assassin's Creed III picks up the overarching story of the series with Desmond Miles immediately after the ending of Assassin's Creed: Revelations. Unfortunately, Desmond and his friends quickly realize that they are in need of a key to open the vault hinted at in the final moments of Revelations. As in previous games, Desmond enters the Animus to relive the life events of his ancestors in search of the current location of the key in the modern world.
Strapped back into the Animus once more, Desmond experiences a period of time in the life of his ancestor Haytham Kenway. Haytham is just the beginning of one of the longest, most annoying tutorial sections in any game I have ever played. Story-wise, Haytham introduces players to the game's new setting, The English colonies in what would become the United States. Haytham also (spoilers omitted) introduces you to Assassin's Creed III's ACTUAL protagonist, Connor. Gameplay-wise, the section during which you play as Haytham serves as a tutorial. Players are reminded how the Assassin's Creed games play, and are introduced to some of the new mechanics of this entry. In an incredibly strange decision on Ubisoft's part, the Haytham tutorial section lasts for something like 3-4 hours. Making things worse, this section of the game is extremely linear and does not offer most of the activities in the game that were hyped up prior to the game's launch. Sure, why wouldn't it be a good idea to close off players from playing how they were looking forward to playing for the first few hours of the game!?
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| Shown: Ubisoft giving their fans what they want. |
By the time that the game allows you to play as Connor, many players might have decided to give up on the game. Luckily, those who have persisted through one of the lengthiest tutorials in history are rewarded with...oh...crap...ANOTHER TUTORIAL!!! No, really, you have to play another 2-3 hours of tutorial before the game actually starts. If nothing else, the tutorials work well to introduce characters and to move the story along. By the end of Connor's tutorial, players finally have direction and motivation for the remainder of the game. At this point, Connor has met an old Assassin who agrees to train him so that he may avenge certain events in his past, as well as combat the ever-present Templar threat in the new world.
One of the best parts of Assassin's Creed III was actually its setting. The game takes place over two decades in the New World which overlap the events of the American Revolution. Players will interact with some of the big names of that era such as Ben Franklin and Samuel Adams. Players will also take an active role in assisting the American revolutionaries in their struggles against the Templar-backed English. As time passes in the game (complete with changing seasons), and the story progresses, English controlled areas begin to be filled with blue-uniformed, revolutionary soldiers - sometimes as a direct result of players' actions in the game such as taking over forts. The changing dynamics of power during this time period make for an interesting backdrop to Connor's own story.
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| If only those 5 hours of tutorials had covered escaping from British soldiers... |
Assassin's Creed III plays very similarly to the previous games in the series. Since it's become the distinguishing feature of the Assassin's Creed series, it's no surprise that Connor can "free run" around his environment. By that, I mean that Connor can easily run, jump, climb, slide, balance, and just generally use awesome methods of movement to traverse the game. This mechanic really hasn't changed much at all since the second game in the series. In fact, the same exact issues I've ALWAYS had with the free running mechanics still drove me insane in this game. Don't get me wrong, it's still extremely cool to run full speed, slide under a cart, jump up, climb onto a building and run across the roof only to jump down onto a clothesline and tight-rope run to the next rooftop, but there are some real issues with the system. Generally speaking, the one-button free running system works pretty well to assume what move you're attempting to make with Connor. Unfortunately the same button that makes Connor "attach" to climbable objects is also the button that lets Connor run. I can't count the times I was running away from enemies in an effort avoid their attacks and accidentally ran into a wall or tree, causing the system to think I was trying to climb said obstacle. What resulted was always somewhat amusing to watch, but extremely frustrating as Connor attempted to repeatedly run up the tree or wall only to fall back down into the waiting group of enemies who would take jabs at him with their weapons.Other times, I would attempt to run along the rooftops and make a pretty easy jump only to have the game think that I meant to jump hundreds of feet down to the ground to my death, rather than to the ledge 5 feet away. Needless to say, I found myself yelling at the game a lot when these things happened.
Combat in Assassin's Creed III has changed a bit from previous games. Manually locking onto enemies has gone away - being replaced by a sort of automatic targeting feature while in open combat. This change seemed to make it easier to focus on multiple enemies at once, rather than focusing on one main target while trying to defend against other enemies in the area. Additionally, players can now use a manual look-aim feature to select targets with ranged weapons. Players also no longer have to hold down a button to stay in a defensive stance to block enemy attacks in open combat. Instead, you can either hold the B button to go into a parry stance, or press B right when an enemy attacks to counter the attack and leave the enemy open to your own jabs. Connor also has the option to disarm foes, or to throw them into other enemies or obstacles. Some new, context-sensitive moves such as grabbing an enemy and using him as a human shield when faced with a Brittish firing line have been added to the game as well. Connor will need to use most of these new features, as there are different types of enemy soldiers which each require a different strategy to combat.
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| What a strange looking bird up there on the ropes.. Ah I'm sure it's nothing. |
Assassin's Creed III also introduced some new weapons and items that can be used in the struggle against the Templars. Rope darts that can be used to menacingly hang enemies from trees, flintlock firearms, a bow and arrows, trip mines, poisons, and more can be used to strategically take out enemies.
As in previous games, Connor can recruit other characters into the assassin ranks. Once recruited, each character has his or her own special ability that Connor can make use of - such as the ability to start a riot as a distraction, or the ability to call in snipers to take out a mark. Players can also send these recruits off to complete missions. These missions award money and experience for the recruits, allowing them to level up and increase their effectiveness.
I found, however, that most of these items and recruit abilities weren't useful enough to bother with. For the most part I always used my trusty hidden blades, a sword, and a flintlock pistol to take care of every situation I ever found myself in. In fact, I found myself quite disappointed with the variety of combat and stealth situations in this game. I really wanted to be a stealth assassin - you know, sneaking around eliminating enemies one by one without being detected until I found my target and silently took it out. I feel like previous AC games allowed me to play that way, but III made me feel like I was forced to run right into situations, use the chaos of battle to shield my approach, run directly to my target to kill him, and then deal with the enemies afterward. Sure, a few times it felt like I could sneak into a place, but then open combat would inevitably start and I'd be right back to using the same charging to my target strategy. I'm not sure if this was just the way I was playing, or if the game really did change the way you were supposed to go about hunting your enemies. Either way, I definitely missed having more of a stealth option.
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| Outta my way, I'm just here for Steve. |
The events of Assassin's Creed III take place in four different areas in the game. Players can explore Boston, New York, an area of wild frontier, and even construct a home base at Connor's homestead. The two cities offer similar gameplay to that found in previous games. Connor can undertake missions by traveling to their icons on the map, visit shops, collect items, and generally explore. The game's frontier area adds the possibility of hunting to the game. This area is split up into regions, each of which has a set of animals that can be found roaming around inside of it. Connor can hunt these animals using various weapons and traps, skin them, and sell the items for a profit. I didn't really hunt too much during my playthrough, but when I did, I found it to be kind of silly. I can't say I've ever heard of someone jumping out of a tree, knife in hand, onto a deer or elk killing it instantly the way Connor does in this game. Finally, players can complete specific missions to add characters to their homestead - a sort of home base for the assassins. These characters often have a specific trade that they ply such as lumber milling or tavern keeping. When recruited, each character builds a new building at Connor's homestead which adds new options for crafting and trade. Again, I didn't bother too much with either of these systems. I just never found myself short on money and didn't have much use for more than a few specific weapons. Still, there is an option to use resources that you either buy, collect in the wild, or get as a result of recruiting characters to your homestead to create new weapons and decorations for your base or to send caravans to sell your items to other areas.
Another addition to the AC series seen in this game is the introduction of ship sailing and combat. To be honest, this was probably my favorite addition to the game. Players can now undertake naval missions in which they sail and command a frigate as they assist allies and combat enemies. These missions are started at Connor's homestead and teleport you to the helm of your ship as you begin various scenarios such as guarding merchant ships or protecting a harbor from the British. Controlling the ship is relatively easy, with three speed settings and two weapon options. Most naval levels consist of sailing to an area while avoiding rocks and obstacles until finding enemies and fighting them off. I don't know why, but there was something very satisfying about sailing up to an enemy ship and unleashing a full broadside cannon attack into their hull. While some of these missions are required to continue the story, most are optional and give small rewards. As Connor amasses money, he can upgrade his ship with more weapons or armor as desired.
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| Raise the black fla....oh wait...not yet! |
Overall, Assassin's Creed III looks pretty good for a 5 year old game. I found myself thinking that the graphics looked a little rough, but had to remind myself that I've become used to next-gen graphics and that I shouldn't compare this game to newer ones. I did, however, encounter a huge number of bugs and glitches as I played. I saw anything from cutscenes, during which Connor was unplayable, being interrupted by hostile animals that killed him while he was helpless, to NPCs popping up inside and through solid objects, to falling through the world, to even more bizarre happenings. For the most part, I found these problems to be hilarious, though they were often extremely frustrating when they caused me to have to replay sections of the game. These bugs really give Assassin's Creed III a feeling of being unfinished or rushed. There's no way this game could have been play tested and found to be bug-free.
There is a lot to do in Assassin's Creed III. The game offers story missions, optional side missions, homestead construction, collectibles, naval missions, hunting, challenges, and more to players looking for a time burner. I completed the game in around 30 hours. I collected most of the collectibles and did all missions offered, but I did not spend time completing challenges or hunting. I could see this game easily lasting completionists around 50 hours or more. The game also offers multiplayer, which as I said, I did not partake of more than checking out the menus to get an idea of what was offered. With a ranking system and unlockable items for character personalization, I can imagine that multiplayer would last just as long as some other full-length games.
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| Remember kids, don't drink and ride. |
Assassin's Creed III brings many changes to the Assassin's Creed series - some good and some not so great. After feeling so burnt out with the AC series, I was pleasantly surprised by this game. Sure, Assassin's Creed III has many of the same problems that plagued past entries in the series, as well as some new ones, but I actually found the setting and some of the new features of the game to be refreshing. I was definitely very frustrated and annoyed at times with the game (especially with how long it took to get into the game proper), but overall I find myself looking forward to seeing where the series goes in the next few games that have been released but that I haven't played yet. It seems to me that the designers of Assassin's Creed III had a lot of ideas for the game, and unfortunately decided to attempt to include all of them at the expense of each individual feature. As I've mentioned, a lot of the new features in this game felt like they were unnecessary, so I didn't bother with them. Most of the new additions struck me as interesting ideas, though. With a bit more love and care I could easily see them becoming extremely useful and fun inclusions to the game. Mostly though, I'm just looking forward to more naval gameplay!
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