'It's a Video Game!" - Assassin's Creed 3

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve talked about some Assassin’s Creed stuff here… or anything here for that matter.  Right now, I’m kind of on a break from the Assassin/Templar conflict. I can only play so much of the same game for so long. Besides, I really wanted to play that new Spider-Man game. I stopped at my replay of Black Flag and my first playthrough of Unity. I did think about grouping these games together, but something tells me I’ll have a lot to say about these later installments.

Since I’ve got “The Adventures of Kenway and Son” on the mind, I might as well get this one dealt with. Assassin’s Creed 3 was released on consoles and PC in 2012 by Ubisoft. I didn’t play it until a couple of years later and it was only one playthrough. I’ll get to why below. Since I was going through the games again, I wanted to revisit it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the dang disc. Luckily, this game doesn’t cost too much these days, so I found it in a store in Columbia. I didn’t play the DLC, though, since I heard that it had some glitchy issues. Besides, I think I’ve already had enough of weird Presidents this year.

Assassin’s Creed 3 takes place right after Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. Thankfully, Desmond is back in the land of the living after that weird and dull detour in Revelations. This time, he, his father (voiced by John DeLancie!!!), and the rest of the team have to stop the 2012 apocalypse. Yes, the Mayan calendar’s date for the world ending plays a role in the franchise. They end up finding technology left over by the First Civilization, the Isu (essentially advanced humans) in America. In order to activate the device that’ll save the world, Desmond has to go into the Animus and use an ancestor to find the missing pieces.

That's right, folks! Desmond actually gets to do something other than going into the Matrix this time!!!

This time, you end up in the latter half of the 18^th Century in the US Colonies. There, you primarily play as Ratonhnhaké꞉ton or Connor Kenway. Connor’s a half-British, half-Native American man whose was raised by his mother’s tribe. She ended up getting killed by the Templars when Connor was a boy. When Connor grows up, he goes on a quest of revenge and that puts him on the path of Achilles, an former Assassin who’s retired. Connor gets trained and he uses his skills to protect his people, help the colonists in the Revolutionary War, and most important: find Charles “I Can’t Find A Mustache Trimmer” Lee. Oh yeah, he runs into his father, Haytham, who’s also a Templar and kind of more interesting than he is.

Yeah, I just spoiled one of the biggest surprises in an almost seven year-old game. Sorry.

PROS

While the game isn’t the best of the bunch, I do admire what Ubisoft was trying to do here. Last time, I said that their games were already getting stale with Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. I’m guessing they knew that too since this game definitely goes into different directions. We got a new Assassin protagonist, a whole new land to explore (18th entury Boston, New York, and the Frontier), and new things to do. Heck, even Desmond gets to do some different stuff here like be an actual Assassin.

The combat is really good here.

The present story is fine for the most part. Without spoiling too much, this is Desmond’s swan song in the series. Not only do we meet his dad, we also revisit certain characters from previous games. We also find out more about the First Civilization (the Isu) and how they fit into the Assassin/Templar conflict. We even get to kick some butt as Desmond and while I have some problems with those parts of the game, it was about time. As for the ending… I’ll get to that piece of crap down below.

The present scenes weren't too bad. That ending though... ugh.

As for the past storyline, it was interesting. As Connor and Haytham (you play as him for a bit), you get to interact with 18th century America. You run into the usual historical figures like Samuel Adams, Ben Franklin, Paul Revere, and George Washington. As Connor, you also engage in the American Revolutionary War and that was kinda fun. You get to explore early Boston, New York, and the Frontier. You even get a place to call home that’s similar to the Villa from Assassin’s Creed 2. Connor’s story is a bit cliché (“Revenge!!!”) but not bad. It helped that we got Haytham who was actually a nice villain for the game. There is one thing I don’t like about him, but I’ll get to that later.

Even though Haytham is an ass, he's kind of more interesting than our main protagonist.

The gameplay has been pretty much overhauled in areas. Since there’s no high architecture to climb, we got a lotta trees to run through. Combat has also been overhauled and made a little simpler, in my opinion. It took a while to get used to it, but I gotta say it was cool to fight as Connor. Since you’re a hunter, you actually get to go after animals in the game and that’s pretty cool. Since we’re so close to the ocean, you get to engage in some Naval battles. They’re few, but they’re pretty fun for the most part. Stealth is pretty much the same but has some modifications. The graphics also look pretty good. You could tell that Ubisoft was trying to get better in that regard and they mostly succeeded. Finally, the music is really good and on par with previous soundtracks.

CONS

This game wasn’t looked fondly upon back in 2012, and I can’t blame folk for feeling that. While Connor is fine, he’s not the best character. In fact, he reminded me a lot of Altair from the first game. Outside of Connor being an awesome warrior, that’s about it. He doesn’t really grow throughout the duration of the game and he doesn’t feel that Assassin-like. The lack of being an Assassin isn’t a bad thing, but things still feel off. It also doesn’t help that we’re Haytham Kenway for three hours of playtime either. That time could’ve been used to flesh out Connor some.

"Look Charles Lee! I know you're the bad guy, but you could at least clean yourself up! And do something with that 'stache!"

On the gameplay side, Those first three sequences were pretty dull. You play as Haytham and you slowly get introduced to the new style. I wish this got trimmed down to two sequences or something. The only thing that’s noteworthy about it is the twist with Haytham. By the way, that was pretty shocking to see an Assassin become a Templar. As for the present day’s gameplay, something about it just feels unfinished. When we do Assassin things as Desmond, we get no HUD or anything like that. They’re also so few and far between, but that can be a good thing too. The game would also glitch up at times and that did hinder some things. Lastly, some of the voice acting could also be underwhelming.

While Connor has one of the best Assassin costumes, there ain't much there character-wise.

Oh yeah… what the heck was up with that freakin’ ending??? I won’t spoil it here, but let’s just say that it’s an ending that’ll make you wonder what the crap you just watched. For a game that was trying to be a final chapter of sorts, it fell flat on its face with that ending. It goes so far in up its own lore it feels less interesting and more annoying especially with that cliffhanger! At least Connor’s ending felt somewhat satisfying because Desmond didn’t do it for me at all!

……………………………………………………….

In the end, Assassin’s Creed 3 is a good but underwhelming game. Luckily, the pros won out in this round. I actually had a nice time revisiting this one, but I don’t know if I’ll revisit it anytime soon. Besides, I got few more games I got to get to. It’s definitely one that should be checked out, though. Just be prepared for that ending and the credits that you can’t skip… again. I’ll cut if off here tonight. Until then, Peace, God Bless, and be careful out there.