Assassin’s Creed 3 Review

Assassin’s Creed III

Difficulty Played:  Not Selectable

Platform: Xbox 360,PS3, PC (Played on PC with an Xbox 360 Controller, SUCK IT!)

Time: 27 hours

It’s taken me awhile to beat this game, but I finally said screw side missions, I need to beat this so I can get on to playing Minecraft and more Planetside 2. I was really looking forward to this game, as I was a huge fan of the first one (Engineering school kinda said F you to playing the other installments) and love the setting of the American Revolution, and the time period in general. The fact that they added naval warfare gave me a huge boner  as I read lots of historical naval fiction, as well as models of the USS Constitution. So yeah, to say I was excited would be an understatement. I finally picked it up on a Steam sale at 25% off, which dropped the PC collector’s edition with the DLC Season Pass down to a cool $60. I also got a wireless adapter for my Xbox controller to hook up to my PC on the cheap from Amazon, so there really was no trade off, just a whole lot of wins.

ACIII introduced us to a new protagonist with some new tricks up. He not only carries a bow, but also a tomahawk and pistol. Oh, and he can climb trees, leaping from tree to tree with ease. Not too shabby. I really enjoyed this game, but it was far from perfect. This game is pretty big, with two large cities to explore, plenty of hot naval action, a wilderness, and your own little village that you grow through side missions called your homestead.

Gameplay: It plays very similar to any other AC game, with the big additions being naval combat and being able to run through trees. There are some new weapon types, mainly the bow and the pistol. The bow is great for getting off quick ranged shots and being quite, however isn’t as strong as the pistol, requiring a few shots to take down tougher opponents. Naval combat is really quite awesome in this game, with forcing you to dodge rocks in heavy storms. That’s not to say it’s perfect though. I dislike the disconnect in combat when playing Desmond. While he controls the same, you don’t get any of the warnings that you do when playing as Connor, nor do you see your health. I prefer a consist experience in my games, and this just irritates me. Then there are the bugs. Oh, your doing this mission and need to perform this task? LOL, you can’t do that, I’m an AC game silly! I’m full of bugs!

Story:
The story in ACIII brings you to all the big moments during the American Revolution. The Boston Tea Party, the Boston Massacre, Lexington and Concord and the Battle of Bunker Hill are all here. You are in the middle of it, battling the Templars as they try to manipulate both the British and the Americans for their own gain. I rate the story as ‘meh’. It’s not a great story, but it’s good enough to keep you interested in the game. It’s really the openness and gameplay that keeps you playing. Connor also is very ‘meh’. He’s kind of a brat, and very Anakin Skywalker like. The naval missions are where it fails a bit in my book. There is a mission when you happen upon a fort that’s not supposed to be there, so naturally you decide to attack it by yourself with no plan whatsoever, because that’s real life. Oh, and look what it’s using against your mobile ship, mortars. You know, the things you use against stationary targets, like forts. I guess they don’t have naval batteries installed. I do like the nod to the USS Raleigh in the game though, which was a real life frigate in the Continental Navy designed by the same guy who designed the original six frigates of the U.S. Navy, including the USS Constitution. Ok, history lesson over. Ubisoft gets a ‘meh’ rating for the main story and a fail for the naval story.

Graphics: Graphics in the game are pretty damn good, especially on the PC. Naval combat is where this game really shines the graphics department. Huge rolling waves, men running around your massive ship. It’s quite the sight to see. Not to mention the cannon balls flying through the air and raining down on the enemy ship, or splashing in the water if your aim is off.Sound: No complaints when it comes to sound, it does pretty good. It’s well voice acted, and is one of it’s better parts. It’s not Battlefield quality sound, nor is it Master and Commander: Far Side of the World good, but it does it’s job just fine.

All in all, this was a good game, despite it’s bugs and it’s downfalls in the naval story. It’s a fitting third installment that I enjoyed playing, and will probably play again sometime in the future, if not for just doing the naval combat just because it’s pure fun, and despite it’s missteps, I can’t get enough hot naval action. Despite it’s delayed release on PC, the internet still says that I BEAT IT FIRST.