Assassin's Creed III

One has to be careful of taking the beauty in Assassin's Creed 3 for granted. This is a thought that occurred to me about 10 hours in as I piloted the franchise's newest protagonist through a sun-dappled forest glade en route to completing my latest side mission.

Because Assassin's Creed 3 is bursting with activities, my attention to detail had shrunken somewhat. I caution against a blinkered approach – stop and take in the view sometime.

This is because once one steps back and bothers to survey the game's environment, one can't help but be bowled over. In the brief moment I hurtled through the trees towards my destination, I gazed across a pine forest expanse, over a rock-encrusted river that spilled into a glistening lake by way of a waterfall dropping off a sheer cliff face.

It was like something out of a Terence Malik film. And not only is the world encased in Assassin's Creed 3 an intricately presented breathtaking marvel to behold, it's age and region specific too.

It's worth pointing all of this out because, by now, aching beauty and painstaking attention to historic detail – both visual and temporal – have become calling cards of the Assassin's Creed series. That's why they're so easy to take for granted.

The series fans will certainly love it, and those who are new to it, will be captivated by it, it's an amazing game, and deserves the GOTY.

AC III is a giant step within the AC series of games. It is easy to understand why Ubisoft designates this game as the third instalment of the series; Bortherhood and Revelations are mere expansions by its side. The main feature of AC III is that the game takes backs its primordial ideas, transporting us to a region in which you can not only travel between cities but the lands between them also have a lot to offer the player. After the Holy Land and Italy, we now travel to the forests of New England and the cities of Boston and New York. It might seem that these nascent cities have little to offer compared to cities like Damascus, Venice, Rome or Constantinople, and at first glance the cities of New England may feel repetitive and boring. However, the multitude of novelties presented by AC III as well as the new engine developed by Ubisoft, make the new cities full of life, in constant change, and a real challenge for the player.

The chosen historical framework, the American Revolution, may hook the player more or less, but the historical events are well presented, described and linked to each other. The pace of the game, without being slow, allows you to get acquainted with the characters, places, and historical landmarks. In addition, the main campaign gives us a wide variety of missions, something remarkable compared to the previous games in which the missions used to be reduced simple murders. On the other hand, the development of this new family of assassins, the Kenways, is masterfully carried out, and has nothing to envy to Altair or the Enzio's saga.

The great novelties of the game are the new main role of firearms, and the addition of naval missions. Regarding firearms, they do not alter the gameplay by unbalancing combat or making murders easier. Their use is correctly limited by reloading times, noise, and bullet availability. In addition, sword combat has been deeply renewed. One still has the feeling that the character is a kind of superhero, but the movements, blocks and lunges make each combat different from the previous one and unrepetitive. As for naval missions, one is surprisingly left longing for more. The idea of being able to visit secluded coastlines and having missions on them is a very successful. If the player gets tired of the cities or of jumping through the forests, he can always throw himself into the sea and enjoy a completely different experience, while still being fun and entertaining. Undoubtedly, the naval section gives the game a new dimension that I doubt Ubisoft will leave aside in the coming games.

Having said all this, AC III is a completely recommended game, which has improved the aspects that made AC a success, adding new features that makes the game even more complete. Some glitches in the game engine, especially when horse riding through the forests, as well as some bugs in certain missions, are not enough to leave aside what is, without a doubt, the best AC at the date of its release.

Where to start really? Ubisoft Montreal just keeps getting better and better.Assassin's Creed III has been crafted very sincerely. Each and every cut scenes are well acted.This game is superior to it's predecessor in terms of gameplay length,story, game world, character building etc.The frontier is gorgeous, so are the cities. And for the first time there is epilogue gameplay. The fighting mechanics are more brutal and more fluid than ever, and the parkour has been improved. Although Jasper Kyd(Composer)from previous games was missing, Lorne Balfe did an amazing job with the soundtrack. I was looking forward to this Connor guy,and I must say he is SERIOUS(Like Altair). Mission variation is awesome. This is a must buy.

Coma-Desmond and Co. continue their treasure hunt, with yet another exotic location and something to retrieve. Enter ancestor Connor, son of a Brit(who unfortunately provides the white-bread half... he's astonishingly bland) and a Native American, thus giving us an immersive look into their culture - voice actors of that ethnicity, dialog in their tongue(subtitled for the rest of us), music and the respect shown for the animals you kill(you hunt rabbits, foxes... and can take on bears and wolves in QTE's where, as with much else in this, the window of opportunity is so wide you may at times press too soon, expecting it to be, well, a challenge... nope, still not in these, not in SP; you do get universal bait and a snare(that works if left alone, they will be scared off by you), and there's a decent range of different ones... almost a dozen total... still, it boils down to different targets to sneak up on(an aspect that is largely drowned out in action in this, too), and yet another way the extra stuff to do is busywork... you earn money by skinning and selling off the meat and the like, no longer just "waiting" for money to come in... at least they realized that aspect needed addressing). He gets pulled into the conflict between the two hidden groups when he seeks to keep his village safe, leading up to going up against the villain... wait, *that* was the main...? Huh, OK. And this does "conclude" some overall story, with as abrupt an ending as usual, and setting a new standard for how disappointing and anticlimactic it is. Did I mention this only took me 27 hours for me to complete? Granted, that's with only 56% overall(I've yet to determine how on Earth to Craft, for example... I think that's for $, too, and getting unique items), still, that's two and a half less than Revelations(with 98%, to be accurate), one of the two "essentially expansion pack" titles... and 37 and a half less than Brotherhood(which remains the benchmark for the closest to good the franchise has gotten)! The plot, characters(including one key relationship, that is done well) and development of such remain effective, engaging and interesting. Atmosphere is built well, largely due to the weather(with snow physics(your foot going deeper into it when it's thick), fog and rain - and it will gradually shift between these, in a natural manner) and night/day mechanics. The visuals are great(they've got nothing on Hit-man: Absolution, mind you), other than the occasional Zemeckian dead eyes. Oh, and the rugs that must have been hit repeatedly with carpet-beaters made exclusively from wood off the much-mentioned, but hitherto unseen, Ugly Tree. Yes, it's in a lot of the forest. We're talking early 3D, and that's not an exaggeration. And that shows what's wrong here.

To reach excellence, one thing that one must do is to admit what you have to work with, what you can actually achieve and cover up failings or stop short of them, make compromises instead of leaving scars in the final product... Ubisoft failed to do so, and the result has a heap of glitches(as well as several bugs... don't go near window panes, you'll stick to them and have to load), bad design choices(which, along with excessive streamlining, is the actual nemesis of this series... I didn't realize that it could get this much worse, it is genuinely outright dumbed down at this point), and you can literally see the line they crossed of where the little graphics engine that almost could. Just. Couldn't. Take. It. Anymore. Freerunning lacks roofs(never an issue before) and Jump Key doesn't need to be used for most of it, meaning that you can't run over an edge... you'll hop, and you don't climb "almost" up, no, now it's all the way... like the wall-hugging, the fact that it's automatic ruins it, taking away strategic opportunities for no reason and leading to frustration when stealth, already here neglected in favor of action(did they forget the creed they themselves wrote?), fails merely because you didn't know(nope, they still don't deal with that) what acrobatics would be employed when you moved in a direction(and how far). And yes, you can do it in trees and the like, too, now(not *that*... get your mind out of the gutter). It's entirely linear, rendering its name an oxymoron. While I can appreciate that this was the way it was inevitably going to turn out(how else would one approach it?), the lesson to take away from that is that it wasn't that smart of an idea to begin with. MP gets countless tiny fixes, mostly for the better. Getting rid of Escort, Steal the Artifact, Corruption and Chest Capture, this gives two new modes, both of them very potentially lasting something other than 10 minutes, mixing things up(as does the Animus Shield, blocking 1 to 3(Craft it) other things, like the Gun or Throwing Knives). They are Domination(exactly what you think it is... and one can take a Checkpoint away from 4 enemies! Taking them requires less than defending them, keeping it tense, as whoever holds it for the longest, wins... there's a meter at the top of the HUD showing which team is currently doing best, and if it gets pushed entirely to one side, that will finish the match) and Wolf-Pack, where 2-4 people have little time to score enough to buy more time, to... you get the drift. Your targets are all AI, and they may run off or go for a stun, they have a set perception, and some of them have abilities, same as you(including Smoke Bombs!). It forces coordination and tactics. There are 7 levels, all with 3 ambiances(sunny/starry/overcast). Seafaring is one of the few examples where the many elements in this come together(rather than feel separate from one another). There is a lot of bloody violence and some disturbing content in this. I recommend this only to tremendously forgiving fans. 7/10

So I have loved the Assassin's Creed franchise since the first game came out. My favorite was Brotherhood so I was excited to see if this would exceed my love for Brotherhood. Within the first hour of playing this I must say the organization of this game is amazing. The graphics are pretty damn good. The premise is the revolutionary war. You play (and I won't give this away).. let's just say.. both sides of the story. They do an excellent job in putting the player into the situation and into the game. Another great thing is their is a pretty decent amount of gameplay. Obviously, most Creed games do, but they are more in depth and it is sort of time consuming. I played this game for over 5 hours and only was 23% done.

Pros: Graphics, great gameplay, pulls player into the game, fun missions, weapons and action are awesome.(its why we play these games!), Cons: The audio for some characters are annoying and obnoxious due to repetition... there is a mission you do where literally you read subtitles for 20 minutes. lots of glitches (Get ready for your game to freeze during loading screens), lots of cut scenes.

Again, don't let these cons sway you from getting this game. they are minor when it comes to how addicting it is. You get to chill with George Washington, Sam Adams, Ben Franklin... everyone who is a tank in history. Developers worked hard in this game, enjoy their impressive work.