Assassin's Creed 3

Platform	OVERALL
PlayStation 3	7.90

Overall

7.90

Assassin's Creed 3 is the first major shift for the series in years, abandoning the Italian settings and jumping through time to colonial America. Other changes brought about the inclusion of more wilderness like environments complete with animals to hunt. These changes were mostly needed but heavy critism of the game remained, and rightfully so. For all the new features that are great there is this general feel throughout the game that AC3 was simply not ready to be released.

AC3 is the buggiest and sloppiest of any AC game I have played. Odd cosmetic glitches occur throughout. I've had missions glitch simply cause I maybe interacted with an NPC I was not supposed to. In some areas I could see the game world literally break, a door way would lead to a bunch of random colors. The structure of some side quests and how new mechanics are introduced are so obtuse that I actually thought my game was glitched and yet it was fine, the presentation is so bad it feels like a glitch.

For some, issues like that will ruin the entire experience, that's fine but that is not me. The game itself is still very playable and I never encountered a bug that actually broke a mission or ruined the entire game (TES and GTAV had these). Once I got used to the occasional oddity I simply let myself enjoy a new kind of AC game and had a blast. The change in setting is exactly what the series needed. Being American the events portraid in this game are extremely interesting. Despite what some say I found the characters in this AC to be extremely compelling especially the villains which are the best the series has seen.

The core gameplay is mostly unchanged. Combat is the same simple counter based dance where almost no skill is needed to murder a whole platoon. Sadly it feels like stealth is becoming less and less needed, there are a few of the go there and find a way to kill that man missions. When there is a base to infiltrate and the need to stay stealthy the gameplay comes alive but that is rare. Most missions have you follow a set script.

What I did love was the sheer variety of the missions in the game. Sure some of the missions are creppy but at least this isn't a copy past AC game like the last two were. The largest new gameplay addition is the naval battles which I absolutely loved! I could play a whole game about sea battles (and they made one!!!). There are hunting missions which are not as compelling as the ones in red dead but I still find assassinating a bear to be fun. Many missions have weird mini games in them like the large scale battle missions which have Conner be in charge of different platoons to fend off British troops. Major events in American history have their own unique mission like the tea party mission has you dumping tea while fighting off British hordes. There are also some missions taking place in the future for a nice change of pace. I never knew what I would be doing next and that was my favorite part of this game.

I also greatly enjoyed the homestead where Conner invites random folks to live in his land. As you grow the community they all have missions which tell stories of their life. You will see families have a baby, and some will date and eventually get married. I enjoyed the more simple basic stories of life in that era. The games world remains populated with all sorts of things to collect and things to do. The actual cities are rather boring to traverse. Boston and New York felt like 5 buildings copied over and over again, no where near the beautiful vistas of Rome. The wilderness makes up for this by having cool tree hoping gameplay.

AC3 has a very compelling story because it shows the American revolution from a neutral point of view. George Washington gets shit on in this game as you get a lot more viewpoints, not just the American hero version. This is mainly cause you play an Native American and we all know what happens to them. It shines a big light on the cruel deeds our founding fathers performed. I also enjoyed the extremely sarcastic encyclopedia entries which felt like I had Foolz writing parts of the game.

I found there to be a lot to enjoy with AC3. Yes it's technically a mess of a game, those who like their games to run smoothly and be error free will be driven insane. But I rather play a buggy interesting game than one that runs great but has been done to death. I feel this was a step in the right direction for the series it just needed more time to polish up.

Posted by Dvader Sat, 22 Mar 2014 21:19:12

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gamingeek

Mon, 24 Mar 2014 16:02:13

Lies! *goes to change score*

Dvader

Mon, 24 Mar 2014 19:08:29

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