Video Game

Assassin's Creed III

Overly Dramatic Review in One Sentence

The finale of Desmond story is the start of the complicated beginning of the American Dream from a Native's point of view.

The Actual Review

Gameplay

///Note About Mods// No mods were added to this. The only one that I almost added was for ultrawide support, but that made the aiming off center.

///Note about AC Liberation// This game was made for the Vita and the PC ports feels like it. The controls are terrible and are backwards to every previous game in the series so far to the point that it made no sense mechanically and the city layout was awful. I was unable to finish it, but I did want to mention it since it is part of the "Remastered" version of this game.

Let us start with saying I could not play most of the naval combat missions. The controls on the PC port for the swivel shot are broken. I had to look to the far edge of the screen to get it to lock on and even then it was a guess at what it was locking on to. So none of the side missions for naval combat where done. The story missions took me extra time because I couldn't actually put up a decent fight. I tried both mouse and keyboard, as well as controller, and it didn't work. That was the only real issue I had with the game, minus a couple weird hiccups with it minimizing on startup, but I was able to fix that by clicking on the screen when it first popped up. I used zero mods as the only ones I would have want were to get rid of some stupidity in the game design, such as the horses stamina being so low and not being able to gallop in towns. This moves us to the actual gameplay issues.

So some main things in the previous games was the exposure of the map when you hit a synchronization point. That didn't happen here. I am honestly not sure what the point of them was other than maybe exposing things to do on the map, but not the map itself. I figured that out pretty quickly so I stopped doing them, and it honestly didn't make the game any better or worse. For the introduction of fast travel points, which I greatly appreciate, and the placement of those makes sense from the city perspective.

The collectables are stupid along with the whole homestead portion. I remember when I first played this years ago, I worked so hard to build all the new stuff and accidentally sold something that you could only get once. This time I didn't sell anything, but I also didn't build anything. I used the base tomahawk the ENTIRE GAME. This extra stuff, while the people and stories are decently cool, I just feel they took you out of the main story more than people complain about the modern day.

This easily has lived in my mind as one of the best games in the series because of the fighting. Conner is aggressive in his attacks and brutal. While it does keep the combo counter kill fight system, you don't care as much. There is a ton of new movement in the attack sequences and the bigger fighters can block it, so there is still a sequence that has to be done. This means that the tomahawk has power and speed which makes Conner fluid in his attacks.

The new parkour system introduced is outstanding. The ability to be more free allowed for some great scripted chase sequences that felt more real and much less predictable. I almost forgot to mention the new running which meant that you pushed and kept running without falling over making it easier to chase people.

Graphics and Sound

The only sound issue I had was when the "crowd" would randomly get loud when entering the markets near the harbor. Not sure what it was about that area in Boston that did it, but it did and always made me cringe from the hard increase. The rest of the sound was a nice change from Assassin's Creed Revelations. You had attack sounds that matched the impacts and sounded squishy. You had animal cries in the background as you ran across the frontier. The sound design was great.

As I didn't add any visual mods, I played vanilla, and it feels dated from time to time. What I did like was the snow seasons. You had different trails to see and your movement through the snow made sense. It was wonderfully done. I am not mad at the way it looks, but it isn't stunning. There are just some cool tricks that help it feel less like a 2012 game.

Story and Characters

This game is 14 years old, so I am not really spoiling anything from saying that this is the end of the Desmond modern day. It is also the most important modern day section we have since we get to play mission as Desmond. You also spend a lot of time getting those puzzle pieces from the Isu, a.k.a. Precursors, from the previous games that explain more about what is going on. There isn't as much exposition in the story telling. It is direct, making it easier to follow and easier to put the bow on that story piece. It also helps to explain more about the technology they had and how it was used by them, not just what was taken by the Humans. Furthermore, it is because of these interactions that I have always argued that the Modern day game was just as essential as the historical period.

Speaking of the historical period, I saw so much more about the truth of the characters you meet in the game as compared to the stories you are told in school this playthrough as compared to when I first played it. What I mean is that there is a solid undertone about how the Founding Fathers are not the saints that we expected them to be. The Frenchmen, Marquis de Lafayette, is that guy, but Sam Adam and Washington not so much. There is a conversation with Sam Adams and Conner early in the game about how Conner thinks that freedom should be for all now, not just some now. While I know that this is a fictional conversation, I do think the sentiment is on par with their beliefs at the time. Not trying to get political, but I think as an adult playing these games, not in the fervor of my Marine Corps career coming back from a deployment, and full of Red, White, and Blue, this is more accurate to what the truth is. We know most if not all, of the signatories has slaves. That didn't go away with the Constitution, it could have, but it didn't. I say all of this to point out the authenticity of the game and the different perspective it provided.

Ok, enough soap box, back to the character and story. The Haytham twist in this game is crazy. This is a pre-mass social media game so you didn't have people spoiling ever corner of the game so it was a HUGE gut punch and surprise. I really like the opening scene that held mystery and stealth in it. Most of the Templars were very tonal or stereotypical to the point of annoying. The dude with the cockney accent is the worst. I remember people saying Conner was whiney and he for sure has an air of entitlement in the beginning, but I don't think he is whiney without reason as the game goes on. Doing everything for the Americans and they constantly hide the truth. There are these layers of hidden pieces in the plot that change how you feel, and it is why it is the best and worst story so far. The best because you have a layered story, but the worst because there is absolutely zero growth for any character. Who they are in the start is who they are in the beginning. No one changes. The world does change. All that happened is the change of the guard.

My Rating

Every time I watch The Patriot, I want to play this game. I find them so intertwined that watching that movie started the playthrough of the Assassin's Creed Series. This game was so fun to play from a fighting perspective that it was honestly the only gameplay item that kept me playing. I skipped a lot because I found most of it just a distraction from the game and story to the point of nausea. The story provides a depth that I wish we got for the rest of the series. I want this game to be a "Get this Game," but I do not think that it fits that criteria.

Parental Rating

That brutal fighting I love? Mom would never allow it in the house. Even if we are possibly, not really Cherokee. The story is important, but she wouldn't see that, and I am not sure if I could speak to it eloquently enough for her to justify the violence. Dad on the other hand, might be interested in the historical time frame enough that he could look past the language. I think.