Assassin’s Creed III Review

Assassin’s Creed as a franchise was in desperate need of a breath of fresh air.  This was readily apparent to everyone.  A lot of the developers liked to place the blame on people simply getting tired of Ezio.  The real answer was always that people only got tired of him because his character got driven off a cliff.  After last year’s disaster known as Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, the franchise was at a critical point.  Another poor offering this year would likely tarnish the brand to an unrecoverable point.  Major change was needed and fan excitement shot up when it was revealed that the next installment would involve a new, Native American protagonist and be set during the American Revolutionary War.  So is Assassin’s Creed III the great redemption that was needed?

The first thing that becomes apparent when playing is that this game was not something that was rushed and put out by the studio’s B-team.  It is very evident from very early on that a great deal of effort was put into trying to make a great game.  Everything from the new controller layout to the new ways you can interact with the world speak of how much thought was put into Assassin’s Creed III.

For the majority of the game you play as Connor, a Native American whose way of life is on the brink due to the ever-expanding colonies.  In his quest to protect his tribe and promote freedom he stumbles upon and eventually joins the Assassin Order.  He ends up getting very involved in major events during the Revolutionary War as part of his mission to take down the Templars.

For the most part the level of story telling is great.  You get to watch Connor progress in life from a small child up until he is a grown man.  His growing maturity over the years is readily apparent.  You also get to relive major parts of the Revolutionary War.  It is a very tricky feat to be able to take these historical gems and try to weave a fictional person into all of them but it turns out very well.

While overall things turned out well, at the end of the day this setting and context doesn’t seem to fit in with the Assassin vs. Templar theme as previous settings.  The original Assassin’s Creed which was set in the Holy Land during the crusades really set the stage for the conflict.  Renaissance Italy then seemed like a natural progression.  Now with the American Revolution, even though the freedom vs. control motif is present, it just doesn’t seem as natural a fit.  This feeling was probably compounded by the fact that the connections leading Connor to become an Assassin, hate Templars, and help the Patriots all seemed pretty loose.

Even Connor himself seemed a little out of place as an Assassin.  Running through the forest with a tomahawk was definitely fun, but his personality just didn’t seem to fit the mold.  Previous Assassin protagonists were intelligent, cunning, and resourceful.  Connor’s best traits are his loyalty and devotion but his naivete is so pronounced it almost makes him seem unintelligent.  His resourcefulness is also lacking as evidenced by the fact that he often fails to act when he encounters people he has been hunting to kill.

The overall flow of the game is a little stilted.  The beginning and end were very heavy on Templar vs. Assassin plot points but a large portion of the middle seemed pretty disconnected.  The middle of the game includes most of the missions where you are caught up in the historical points of the Revolution.  While interesting and very enjoyable to play through, this portion of the game felt somewhat detached from Connor’s overall objectives.

Luckily Connor is not the only fully fleshed out character.  The game actually begins with you playing as Haytham Kenway who leaves England for the American Colonies in search of artifacts from the First Civilization.  Haytham is undoubtedly the most interesting character of the game.  The most compelling parts of the game are those which have to do with him.  He seems much more similar to Altair and Ezio but his conclusion in the game is anticlimactic and disappointing.

One of the more enjoyable additions to the game is the new naval combat.  You actually get to control a large ship and engage in full-scale naval battles.  These battles are so well designed that every time the story takes you to a new naval battle you begin to smile.  This is exactly the type of side activity that adds to the overall experience.  Other side activities such as the assassin recruit missions and the collection quests have been redesigned to make them more enjoyable, less penalizing, and more embedded in the overall story.

Thankfully the Desmond story progresses during the game.  The developers did a good job spacing out the interactions and always giving you just enough so that you stay interested in what’s happening.  Assassin’s Creed is known as much for its shocking endings as anything else and this game continues the tradition.  It would have been nice if the ending had a bit more substance as it felt a little rushed.  When you spend 20 or so hours playing a game it’s nice to have an ending that takes more than two minutes.

One aspect that seems to have faded from Assassin’s Creed games is the mystery of everything.  There was so much work done in the first couple games by the protagonists trying to figure out what was going on.  As the player you always felt like you were peeking through a crack in the blinds and were only ever getting a snippet of what was really happening.  I remember trying to rush through missions so I could get some new piece of the puzzle.  That element of the game seems to have almost completely vanished.

An example of this is that in previous installments you would be given puzzles to solve during the game.  I’m not saying I want to solve puzzles, just that the puzzles seemed to be an outward expression that there were things that needed to be figured out.  It showed that the developers viewed what they were creating as a mysterious puzzle.   In Assassin’s Creed III everything is presented in a very straightforward fashion.  You, as the player, already know the gist of what Assassins are, what Templars are, that the world is on the brink of ending, and that there was a First Civilization.  No effort was made to imply that there is still more to figure out (maybe there’s not?).

Assassin’s Creed III is a very fun and enjoyable game.  All of the tremendous effort and thought by the developers has rejuvenated the franchise with a new breath of life.  It wasn’t perfect in its execution, but it did very well in all the important areas.  If future Assassin’s Creed games are like this, I will be playing them for a long time.

88/100