EU copy played via the American Saga release on a PlayStation 3 Super Slim.
I think Assassin's Creed III is by far the most frustrating game of the original Desmond era for the franchise - it attempts to introduce new gameplay elements, new characters, new settings, and all while trying to tie up a lot of plot threads the series had been toying with for 5 years. It succeeds, just, but the entire journey from start to finish in this game was a mixed bag of confusion, relaxation, and out right frustration.
First the good - I think this is by far the best the franchise has looked up to this point. The art assets coupled with technical elements such as dynamic weather and seasons bring the world of the early American colonies to life. As a huge apologist for the original AC, it felt at times like a step back to that game's world design with a lot of open wilderness to bridge the cities together, and I absolutely adored it for that.
Another positive is the music - the score takes great strides to distance itself from the three previous games of Italy and Italy-adjacent motifs and the more bombastic orchestral backing alongside some indigenous folk flute tracks and Connor's theme makes for a nice change, even if a lot of it automatically falls into the forgetful category.
It also has a lot to do, which admittedly felt extremely overwhelming at first. The first third of the game focuses on throwing the gameplay elements at you in small tutorial stages that manage to do everything in their power to discourage you from ever touching them again. I hated the hunting, I hated the ship combat, and I certainly didn't enjoy the way it tried explaining combat and specifically counters. It never does explain it's new combat system properly but taking the time to explore these other elements on your own, you might be surprised at what you find. I did learn to enjoy the ship battles in the end and am curious to see what Black Flag does to expand on the concept. Also the underground sections are definitely boring but also offer a nice spooky away time exploring old city tunnels which was kind of neat.
Now, the bad. Parkour has received an overhaul here and not for the better. Gone are the precise, if finicky movements that II, Brotherhood and Revelations had expanded upon over time in favour of a more streamlined and automated approach. There's no button presses to reach specific handhelds or fancy maneuvers you can pull off to make your movement faster - it's all just been boiled down to holding the analogue stick in the direction you want to go and it feels like a huge step back. The new tree-climbing moves are nice to see, especially in the Frontier and even in suburban areas but the overhauled movement becomes a large hindrance, often refusing you the ability to do things you know you can do and making completely wrong decisions. I know the parkour mechanic has always been a bit iffy in these games but I would expect a change in how they handle to be accompanied with improved maneuverability, not keep it at the level it was before, but now with all your options taken away.
The story frankly is a bit of a mess. Maybe it wouldn't feel quite so bad in literally any other medium, but placed in video game that has a million and one activities screaming for your attention and thus drawing the plot beyond stretching point was more than a little frustrating to witness. I enjoyed the prologue and the character of Haytham but it simultaneously rushed through the plot beats whilst feeling like it dragged. By the time you control Connor you're feeling a bit exhausted alongside the narrative whiplash of the prologue's twist and it doesn't make for a good mix.
Let's talk about Connor for a moment because his character is beyond disappointing. He has absolutely zero personality in all the main story sections and you could easily boil his character down to his two favourite quotes "what would you have me do" and "where is Charles Lee". He displays no emotion other than anger or indifference at any given time and due to the fact that no other character besides Haythem is remotely interesting, the story just becomes a blend of boring faces, boring voices and a monotonous sequence of sneaking to questioning to stabbing to sneaking again. No-one stands out, not one performance in this game aims to try and grab your attention besides the modern characters and that is a damn shame. Connor only becomes interesting through the lense of the Homestead missions, helping settlers build a community focussed on helping people through unique and entertaining problems. His frustrating indifference even becomes comedic at times in these sections and the game almost endeared me to him here.
For once in an Assassin's Creed game it's actually the modern plot that steals the show. Having the break from it in Revelations turned out to be a god send in a way, giving us a break from the fairly uninteresting scenes of its predecessors so that III could deliver an engaging narrative with fun gameplay sections. For once you can play as Desmond on Assassin missions, going on a bit of a globe-trotting adventure between his Animus stints in America. The characters are also fun to follow, with a nice fleshing out of Shaun, Rebecca and Desmond's father. It's incredibly satisfying to see as someone who started following this series in 2007 which makes it all the shame that the ending completely misses the mark on any sort of emotionally satisfying goodbye to Desmond and the gang.
I think that's everything I wanted to say about this game - it has it's moments and if you want a game to turn your brain off fulfilling mission markers and such then it's a nice relaxing game to play while you have a podcast or something in the background. But as a narrative, mechanical and emotional culmination of the series up to that point, it disappoints on nearly every level. There are times when I thought this could have been my favourite game in the franchise up until the game whirled its head and denied me that pleasure with stupid mission requirements, bugs, and a general unpolished attitude. But the fact that both Connor and Desmond's stories end in such emotionally unsatisfying ways with "...eh?" final cutscenes for both was the ultimate disappointment.
I think Assassin's Creed III is by far the most frustrating game of the original Desmond era for the franchise - it attempts to introduce new gameplay elements, new characters, new settings, and all while trying to tie up a lot of plot threads the series had been toying with for 5 years. It succeeds, just, but the entire journey from start to finish in this game was a mixed bag of confusion, relaxation, and out right frustration.
First the good - I think this is by far the best the franchise has looked up to this point. The art assets coupled with technical elements such as dynamic weather and seasons bring the world of the early American colonies to life. As a huge apologist for the original AC, it felt at times like a step back to that game's world design with a lot of open wilderness to bridge the cities together, and I absolutely adored it for that.
Another positive is the music - the score takes great strides to distance itself from the three previous games of Italy and Italy-adjacent motifs and the more bombastic orchestral backing alongside some indigenous folk flute tracks and Connor's theme makes for a nice change, even if a lot of it automatically falls into the forgetful category.
It also has a lot to do, which admittedly felt extremely overwhelming at first. The first third of the game focuses on throwing the gameplay elements at you in small tutorial stages that manage to do everything in their power to discourage you from ever touching them again. I hated the hunting, I hated the ship combat, and I certainly didn't enjoy the way it tried explaining combat and specifically counters. It never does explain it's new combat system properly but taking the time to explore these other elements on your own, you might be surprised at what you find. I did learn to enjoy the ship battles in the end and am curious to see what Black Flag does to expand on the concept. Also the underground sections are definitely boring but also offer a nice spooky away time exploring old city tunnels which was kind of neat.
Now, the bad. Parkour has received an overhaul here and not for the better. Gone are the precise, if finicky movements that II, Brotherhood and Revelations had expanded upon over time in favour of a more streamlined and automated approach. There's no button presses to reach specific handhelds or fancy maneuvers you can pull off to make your movement faster - it's all just been boiled down to holding the analogue stick in the direction you want to go and it feels like a huge step back. The new tree-climbing moves are nice to see, especially in the Frontier and even in suburban areas but the overhauled movement becomes a large hindrance, often refusing you the ability to do things you know you can do and making completely wrong decisions. I know the parkour mechanic has always been a bit iffy in these games but I would expect a change in how they handle to be accompanied with improved maneuverability, not keep it at the level it was before, but now with all your options taken away.
The story frankly is a bit of a mess. Maybe it wouldn't feel quite so bad in literally any other medium, but placed in video game that has a million and one activities screaming for your attention and thus drawing the plot beyond stretching point was more than a little frustrating to witness. I enjoyed the prologue and the character of Haytham but it simultaneously rushed through the plot beats whilst feeling like it dragged. By the time you control Connor you're feeling a bit exhausted alongside the narrative whiplash of the prologue's twist and it doesn't make for a good mix.
Let's talk about Connor for a moment because his character is beyond disappointing. He has absolutely zero personality in all the main story sections and you could easily boil his character down to his two favourite quotes "what would you have me do" and "where is Charles Lee". He displays no emotion other than anger or indifference at any given time and due to the fact that no other character besides Haythem is remotely interesting, the story just becomes a blend of boring faces, boring voices and a monotonous sequence of sneaking to questioning to stabbing to sneaking again. No-one stands out, not one performance in this game aims to try and grab your attention besides the modern characters and that is a damn shame. Connor only becomes interesting through the lense of the Homestead missions, helping settlers build a community focussed on helping people through unique and entertaining problems. His frustrating indifference even becomes comedic at times in these sections and the game almost endeared me to him here.
For once in an Assassin's Creed game it's actually the modern plot that steals the show. Having the break from it in Revelations turned out to be a god send in a way, giving us a break from the fairly uninteresting scenes of its predecessors so that III could deliver an engaging narrative with fun gameplay sections. For once you can play as Desmond on Assassin missions, going on a bit of a globe-trotting adventure between his Animus stints in America. The characters are also fun to follow, with a nice fleshing out of Shaun, Rebecca and Desmond's father. It's incredibly satisfying to see as someone who started following this series in 2007 which makes it all the shame that the ending completely misses the mark on any sort of emotionally satisfying goodbye to Desmond and the gang.
I think that's everything I wanted to say about this game - it has it's moments and if you want a game to turn your brain off fulfilling mission markers and such then it's a nice relaxing game to play while you have a podcast or something in the background. But as a narrative, mechanical and emotional culmination of the series up to that point, it disappoints on nearly every level. There are times when I thought this could have been my favourite game in the franchise up until the game whirled its head and denied me that pleasure with stupid mission requirements, bugs, and a general unpolished attitude. But the fact that both Connor and Desmond's stories end in such emotionally unsatisfying ways with "...eh?" final cutscenes for both was the ultimate disappointment.