Assassin's Creed III

The Assassin's Creed series has always been a point of discussion. The highly detailed historical settings have kept fans craving each installation, while technical problems and strange game play decisions have always kept the series from perfection. Assassin's Creed 3 is more of the same, and while many of the ideas at play are creative, it's the implementation of these ideas that falls flat.

From its opening moments playing as a new character in franchise fiction, one thing is made very clear, the visuals at play in AC3 are nothing if not stunning. The atmosphere of a crowded British play house is conveyed so well that I found myself stopping to admire the actors on stage ignoring the fast paced tension of the mission at hand. Characters in the theater lobby and throughout the rest of the game interact within and inhabit the world in a way that gives cities a "lived in" atmosphere. Dogs bark, chickens peck at food on the ground, and citizens go about their business with a natural look and feel. The crews of trade vessels sing folk tunes and red coat soldiers patrol the streets to the resounding pace of a drummers timing. The technical and graphical improvements don't stop with the AI though. Winter snow makes travelling by foot more difficult as the player character is forced to trudge knee deep through white powder. While making your way through the treetops of the colonial frontier gives a true sensation skill and precision exhibited by AC3's main character Connor Kenway.

As the main character, most of the player's time is spent playing as Connor, the native American assassin who replaces Ezio's cool wit with a quiet and angry attitude. Connor is a young man more obsessed with vengeance than the lofty ideals of the Assassins. Until situations force him from his home and into the service of an ex member of the Brotherhood named Achilles. His time spent with the old man forges an angry young boy into a killing machine, and before you know it Connor's quest for revenge is off and running.

The story has always been a point of contention with me regarding the Assassin's Creed series. The sometimes awkward balance between the stories of Desmond and his ancestors has in past games become somewhat of an issue for me when balanced against the worlds the AC games create for the player to live in. AC3 suffers from the same problems, constantly wedging historical personalities in at "just the right moment" for effect breaks the immersion I as the player have with the game world. Similar to my issues with DaVinci in AC2, characters like Benjamin Franklin show up to introduce mechanics and really have no weight on the overall story. Missions with these characters tended to be my least favorite parts of the game.

The Boston Tea Party scene loses its power when I'm struck with the realization that it's just me and a few other characters tossing boxes of tea off a ship with the occasional fight thrown in while the crowd cycles the same three cheering motions over and over again. The midnight ride of Paul Revere is almost laughably bad, with Connor piloting Revere's horse while he sits on the back pointing in the right direction to ride. The story seems to get weaker and weaker as the game goes along, and the mechanics at play cripple it. A chase scene with an assassination target went on for ten minutes as we ran in a circle, with me never realizing I simply needed to take a shortcut at the beginning of the chase to cut them off. While another mission had me running from cover to cover to avoid oncoming fire from the other side of the battle, a moment that seemed promising, but the on screen indication for when I could move and when to take cover was never explained and I found myself trapped in a never ending loop of running to three cover points and dying at the fourth. All of these situations become manageable after a few tries, but by the time I had figured out what I was doing wrong I was just frustrated at the games lack of explanation.

The real issue that broke me out of the game's immersion though are the mountains of game breaking bugs I encountered. A fellow on this sites forums summed it up best when he said, "Loading the game up to play is like playing Russian roulette." Some sessions I would have nothing but problems. Chugging frame rate that never seemed to settle, mission characters that would wonder out of the mission zone forcing me to restart, people falling through the environment or simply disappearing; the list goes on and on. These of course are all things that could be fixed through patches, but as of the last time I loaded the game up they persisted. Then, sometimes I would load the game up and have no problems what so ever.

With the complaints out of the way, I can get into what makes this game worth playing. While the story and the attached missions are all lacking in their own ways, it's the world that AC3 creates that makes this an experience worth having. The hunting is fun, simple yet complex, and a valuable source of income for Connor. Building up the homestead offers stories more interesting and diverse than anything in the main story. Naval combat is a gorgeous distraction that almost warrants a game all on its own. AC3 seems like a case of too many grand ideas, and not enough execution, as most of these missions are just happened upon by the player or just lightly touched upon within the main story. I felt like finishing the main story of AC3 is what opened the game world up and really made it something special. Freeing forts and battling at sea was a refreshing retreat after the rigid structure of the main story quests.

All technical issues aside the game's amazing world and interesting ideas offer up enough content to warrant a sixty dollar purchase. The game package really comes together when you add in the fantastically creative AC multiplayer experience. Pretending to be an AI character while hunting your prey (other players) is rewarding and builds real tension. The addition of sound cues to the game play pulls the experience together, ridding the multiplayer of the "cheap" kills in previous installments. Full character customization funded by in game earned currency gives each of the characters a personal touch and seeing them at the end of each round standing together or performing a little cut scene feels rewarding. It's a multiplayer mode worth checking out in a market over saturated by the type of run and gun fast paced game play in first person shooters.

TL/DR:

Assassin's Creed 3 is a game full of awesome ideas plagued by bugs/glitches and overly structured game play. A game that most players will enjoy more after the shackles of the games narrative no longer confine them and they are free to roam what is one of this generations best open worlds.