Because this is a review, and not a a discussion of the game, I'll do my best to make this spoiler-free, as their are several big moments that I wouldn't want to spoil. I'll be posting a separate article later to talk about the ending, as well as a few either important scenes from the game.
Continuing the tradition of picking up at the moment the previous game ended, Assassin's Creed 3 begins with Desmond & Co. arriving at the cave/hill that was shown at the tail end of Revelations. After a brief walking section (sorry, no acrobatics just yet) and a cutscene or two Desmond is thrown into the body of a tremendously classy Englishman who you quickly (and correctly) assume must be Connor's father, and who, I might add, will quickly become (and remain) my favorite character in AC3.
 |
| Haytham Kenway. He'll slit your throat with a knife in one hand and a wine glass in the other. |
The first thing you're likely to notice when booting up Assassin's Creed 3 are the much improved graphics. Rather, not so much the textures of buildings and trees (though these have improved), but the facial expressions and movement animations. You end up waiting a bit longer on one of the first loading screens while Rebecca talks to you, during which time I decided to run around to see if they'd changed the walking and running animations. I was immediately struck but how fluid everything looked; Connor/Desmond/Haytham even have separate animations for accelerating or decelerating into or out of running.
Adding to the improved visuals is a new, and wonderful soundtrack. From the sounds of it, Ubisoft went and got a real live composer for this game and it shows. Several times I found myself just sitting at the main menu for the game listening to the score, and when a live orchestra played it at SpikeTV's Video Game Awards, it sounded just spectacular.
 |
| Facial expressions have seen a dramatic improvement. |
After arriving in Boston, the first thing I did was seek out a patrol of redcoats to systematically slaughter. Fighting large groups of enemies is when AC3 is at its best. If you run headlong into a group of enemies, Assassin's Creed 3's new system of slashing and dashing means you can take out 1 or 2 with leaping sword thrusts or brutal slashes of your wrist blades before they're even alerted to your presence. You've also gained the ability to counter multiple attacks at once which play out in a variety of ways, all of them brilliantly gruesome. If there's a weakness to fighting groups, it's that there appear to be areas where enemies simply keep coming. I once fought redcoats clear cross Boston for around 20 minutes before I finally fled to the rooftops to evade them.
 |
| Muskets. Pitifully inaccurate and about as effective as a wool sock against Connor's blades. |
Speaking of running and fighting, the controls for AC3 have been simplified. No longer do you have 4 separate buttons that each have a 2nd function when the character is in high-profile mode. Now, running in high-profile is the same as sprinting in previous games and outside of quick-time events, the only controls you'll need are the attack button and an interaction button.
 |
| Yes, you could shoot that elk with a bow and arrow. OR you could climb the nearest tree and jump on it with an axe... |
Assassin's Creed 3 has also added an element called "The Homestead", a town/commune where Connor lives, along with an older Assassin mentor. The Homestead functions similar to the way Monteriggioni did in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. Throughout the game you'll meet various NPC's who will have some trade that will contribute to the area, which will gradually develop into a cozy little community. Various missions will open up as you progress through the DNA sequences which will upgrade your craftsmen and gatherers, which will in turn allow you to build goods; some of which you can sell, others which will upgrade your carrying capacity or that of your trade carts. Additionally, many of the homestead missions are part of minor, secondary story lines which I found quite entertaining.
 |
| Recruiting more characters will build up your community and present you with more opportunities to make money. |
Unfortunately, I found some of these secondary story lines to be more engaging than the primary one. The combination of a lead character who comes across as whiny and petulant and a historical storyline that I already know the gist of, meant that I struggled to complete the game towards the end, and frequently found myself playing other games. It's not so much that the game wasn't enjoyable (it was), it just wasn't compelling. The only real reason I completed the game is because the Assassin's Creed series has built a reputation for shocking finales.
This isn't the first time in the series that this has happened to me either. I remember playing the beginning of Revelations only to remember that I had stopped playing Brotherhood halfway through the game. And I liked Ezio, I can't say the same for Connor. I can't say whether it was his championing of a lost cause or his habit of waffling between being righteously non-violent and ranting about how badly he wants to kill this or that person. Ultimately, though, I think the Assassin's Creed storytelling has become a bit stale. When I play an AC game, I know, essentially, what I'm going to get. Desmond is going to be looking for something in the memories, the ancestor is going to have some cause of his own, and I'm going to kill a whole bunch of people until eventually my ancestor triumphs, Desmond finds what he's looking for, and at the very end Ubisoft will show us something
 |
| One of these makes a lot of noise and accomplishes very little...the other is a turkey. |
And the reason I didn't end with the preceding paragraph is that there's a rather large but. And that is that, while AC3 may not have the most riveting story, it presents one of the more interesting viewpoints I've seen in a videogame. By making the protagonist a native American, we're seeing the Revolutionary War from the eyes of an outsider. That, combined with some of Shaun's rants about the war, for an interesting point-of-view, that I doubt many Americans give a second thought about. Accusations are made that the rich and powerful were responsible for putting in charge a commander racked with self-doubt and with poor leadership qualities. Ben Franklin comes across as a brilliant, but perverted, old man simply by the character reciting a column that Ben Franklin himself wrote. The antagonists in the game are made that much more effective because their arguments seemed to make more sense than those coming from the Assassins.
Another reason I continued to play, when the story lagged, was the promise of more time with Desmond. In this game, more than any other in the series, you finally get meaningful playtime in the modern world. Every couple DNA sequences will see you suit up as Desmond to go on a mission in the outside world, along with extra dialogue with the members of your team. These missions consist primarily of platforming with a handful of fights with Abstergo guards in a few of them. These fights actually present a fun bit of challenge as they're essentially the same fights you face with Connor, but without the help of the Animus' UI telling you when attacks are incoming.
 |
| As Desmond, you'll travel the modern world on various missions. |
Assassin's Creed 3 marks a significant step up for the series, both in terms of gameplay and storytelling, though the series will need to continue to improve if it hopes to keep pace with other franchises. However, developments to the ongoing story of Desmond have me hoping that an overhaul to the way AC stories are told will be forthcoming. Until then, though, I'll happily go about killing redcoats and air assassinating unsuspecting forest creatures.
The Good:
Verdict: 8.5 / 10
- Much-improved graphics and animation
- More playtime as Desmond
- Killing redcoats is FUN
- Interesting POV of Revolutionary War
- Awesome new soundtrack
- Story can lag
- Connor can be incredibly annoying
- Graphical glitches with deep snow
- Ubisoft still forces you to use their frustrating Uplay app, regardless of which medium you used to purchase the game
Verdict: 8.5 / 10
Relevant Links:
Official Assassin's Creed III Website
No comments:
Post a Comment