Assassin's Creed 3 - Review

In my previous post, I mentioned several things about Assassin's Creed that was driving me nuts.  The monetary system is an unnecessary grind, the combat is rich with ever respawning guards that hinder your escape, and Connor is a novice of an assassin.  Now that I've finished the game, do I feel the same way?

All of that and more.

Say what?

Assassin's Creed 3 picks up where Revelations left off, with the main character, Desmond, knowing where the next part of the puzzle is because of time he spent at the end of Ezio's lifespan in the Animus, a machine that allows you to relieve ancestors memories. 

The twist to the beginning is very well done, and I don't want to spoil anything here for anybody that hasn't picked it up yet, but it's very evident as soon as you start playing in the animus.  Once you become a full fledged assassin, the game takes a turn into the sub-ordinary for the series. Gone are improving the town, and building a stronger armor and weapon set.  Now you can hunt wild animals for seemingly no reason at all other than to show that you can.  Sure, you can sell their parts, but for a pittance unless you have tons of bear skin.

I shall carefully hunt my prey for less money that I would get for pickpocketing a guard

Combat is still dodgy.  And by dodgy I mean that you will still counter-attack the entire game.  This is expected at this point in the series, but what's not expected is the seemingly endless supply of guards.  As you're forced into combat, the guards take more notice of you and if you so happen to hit level 3, well, good luck getting anywhere in town without having an army chasing after you.  It's not that it's so much different from previous versions, it's that there's SO MANY guards roaming around now, and they instantly spawn nearby and rush into combat.

There are some beautifully done moments in the game, particularly the sequences that replaces the old tomb raiding with new interactive exciting scenes that aren't impossible to do on your first try.  Additionally, I really liked the sequences with Desmond this time around.  More like this, UbiSoft.  To counter this, there are some particularly horrible sequences involving chasing characters that run exactly as fast as you do, so you have to either know the route they're taking, or hope the eventually trip up on somebody.  Good luck with those.

There are some amazing bugs in the system, and some of which I think were done on purpose.  The first such instance I ran into was immediately after speaking with Sam Adams, he tells me to follow him to an underground route.  Except he doesn't move.  No, you're expected to lead him to the route that is heavily guarded and you're either forced to leave him on the streets while you take the rooftops, or you'll be in combat the entire time.  Other bugs include becoming stuck on terrain, falling through terrain, missing eagle vision points and an over abundance of not explaining how anything in the game works.  This game needed another two months of polish before it was sent out.

I did try my hand at multiplayer, and it was fairly decent, much like previous iterations of the series.  I can't speak TOO much about it, but VG30 contributor Brian has asked that I mention that it's very well done.

Assassin's Creed 3 is a series of really cool events strung together by a story that doesn't hold at all true to the Brotherhood, side missions that fall flat, and an ending that feels like the studio was told to get it done quick because they have to ship.  Ubisoft, I expect much much more from your teams than what's been offered here, and I certainly expect more from the Assassin's Creed license.