“Compromise. That is what everyone has insisted upon, and so I have learned it, but differently than most, I think. I realize now that it will take time, that the road ahead is long and shrouded in darkness. It is a road that will not always take me where I wish to go, and I doubt I will live to see its end, but I will travel down it nonetheless. For at my side walks hope, in the face of all that insist I turn back, I carry on. This.... this is my compromise.”





Every AC game so far has been really easy to articulate my thoughts on but considering the direction the series takes, this is definitely the diverging point in multiple ways.

This is the first AC game where its premises start clashing and the overall package feels deeply torn when it comes to what it’s trying to be.

Attempting to start an entire new animus storyline during the climax of the Desmond saga was a REALLY stupid move. If you ask me AC3 should’ve been a game taking place entirely during modern day, giving proper closure to Desmond’s arc and wrapping up his storyline in a satisfying manner which was a NECESSITY given the nature of how much build up each successive game had so far towards the conclusion of the modern-day plot.
As is we get a half baked and kinda awful Desmond storyline tacked on to a really cool new ancestor tale that connects very little to the modern-day scenario. The only connection really is how thematically in line Connor and Desmond are, both being forced to join the Assassins regardless of their own will and constantly arguing about the morality of such a thing when it’s fundamentally against the very Creed they follow.

AC3 is a mixed bag even if I do like it quite a lot. Its highs are REALLY high which is why I still personally put it above Brotherhood, it may have lower lows but it does strive for higher peaks instead of feeling satisfied with walking that middle ground. This game is ambitious and the shortcomings are genuine creative missteps.

Considering everything built up so far I’m pretty certain the original idea was to have a proper Desmond focused finale for this era of the series but AC had established itself as the “historical fantasy game” at this point so a solo modern-day Desmond entry was out of the question and with no Ezio to rely on they’d have to find a new time period to implement as the main draw. If a good excuse was presented, I’d be fine with it but it’s literally “Oh man Desmond we got to the final destination but the door is locked so we gotta fuck around for 10 hours and find a few mcguffins to open it later”. It’s not only lazy but a complete bore, the Desmond shit in this game is a pace breaker, Vidic is defeated in the lamest way, Daniel Cross is a joke (even with the far superior comic characterization to compliment him here) and the laughably unsatisfying finale does not help (I enjoy the moral dilemma Desmond has to face but the way everything is executed is so rushed that it really doesn’t matter much). Real wet fart of an ending and Desmond deserved a way better final go.

With all that negative criticism you might be wondering “Damn how do you even like this game?”.


Well, the animus storyline REALLY carries this one for me. It’s flawed but the ideas and overall storyline are SO GOOD.

This is the first game in the series that actually characterizes the templars in an interesting manner. AC1 attempted that but only succeeded with Al Mualim which I would argue is not a templar (at least not in the traditional sense). The main antagonists are set up wonderfully at the start, humanizing them in a way that makes you actually feel something when they inevitably become a target of Connor’s blade later. Their ideals are presented in a gray light and the ideological/ethical debates are stronger than ever. Calling Haytham in particular amazing is a whole ass free thinker behavior but yeah he’s fucking stellar.

A big issue people have is how long the tutorial chunk of the story is which I do agree with to some extent. It didn’t bother me much but having essentially 2 first acts is indeed wacky. The payoff for the Haytham set up is worth it tho.

I adore Connor Kenway. I think he’s one of the most misunderstood and fascinating characters in the series by far. I love his personal struggle against the destiny imposed towards him, his struggle to find a place in a war where no matter which side he fought for, he’s still fundamentally not in tune with his allies and his people will still suffer and be decimated. It’s all so tragic but the way he keeps going after so much pain and suffering is truly inspiring. This man fights a literal one-man war against an entire templar order that destroyed the previous assassin brotherhood and still succeeds through sheer force of will. His naive nature is constantly addressed and punished which just makes me so confused about the critiques thrown towards him. People who say Haytham just decimates him morally in particular are really stupid when THE GAME CLEARLY SHOWS HOW HAYTHAM’S WAYS ARE AWFUL IN THEIR OWN WAY AND CONNOR GETS TO CLAP BACK AT HIM FOR IT BUT NONONO HAHA “SOUR GRAPES AMIRITE”.

I do think sometimes the story feels contrived to follow certain historical events but overall, it’s a great time. I have no idea WHY THE FUCK they deleted Connor’s fucking stellar final monologue tho, if you’ve never heard it please do yourself a favor, it’s so fucking powerful https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_PsZ7nig4c.

Characters are great. Connor and Haytham stand out the most but others like Achilles and all the homestead residents are fucking great too.

Speaking of, some of the side missions in this game are quite average but DAMN THE HOMESTEAD IS MAYBE THE BEST SIDE CONTENT IN THE WHOLE SERIES. THEY’RE SO GOOOOOOOD.

Gameplay had a big overhaul. Combat is a trillion times better than in the previous 4 but parkour is more mixed, some improvements are welcome but other changes feel like downgrades. Boat combat is introduced here and it honestly kinda sucks, the Aquila definitely doesn’t play nearly as well as the Jackdaw or the Morrigan. Hunting and crafting are straight up awful tho and idk how the hell that happened considering Ubi made Far Cry 3 the same year.

Tyranny of King Washington has some cute ideas and the premise is insane in a fun way but it’s disappointingly boring at times, the animal powers are sick but they don’t carry enough.

The OST is a banger, I twerk to “Trouble in Town” daily.

The setting is top notch as always, roaming through the frontier is wonderful and the nature aspect is so beautiful that I’d be stopping to contemplate the visuals all the time.



Assassin’s Creed III feels like the beginning of the end concerning what this series represents but as a die hard fan it’s hard for me to be mad about it. The way Desmond’s story wraps up will forever be lame but I adore Connor’s tale in a vacuum and it’s just a really fun game. Pondering on what this could’ve been will forever be intriguing but the final result is still very much a worthy entry.

For once I want to write something lengthy

• Combat is some of the best in a third person shooter, menu herb mixing while doing context sensitive finishers and crowd control never gets old. Mercenaries shines as is just a few open maps with all of this in mind

• The campaigns made me realize that the game hates itself? Driving sections, walking segments, puzzles while in combat, narrow corridors, QTEs that make you fail instantly, I know they were trying to appeal to literally everyone but it makes everything a jumbled insufferable mess to play

• Story is madness: a dude that is such a gooner for Ada that he ends up cloning her, then the clone starts international apocalypse and everyone gets caught up in it. The lost son of Albert Wesker who knows super jujitsu has the cure on his blood so time to get him. It's funny and the direction is almost as stylish as the Paul Anderson movies, and I say almost because 4 campaigns of varying quality (Jake's the best) plus repeated cutscenes make me feel exhausted by the end and a good chunk of them are such a slog because they built the story around key moments while disregarding all else. Plus the bosses. won't dieeeee aaaaaaaa

A game so nice to play that I never want to play again, if it makes sense. No Jake-Sherry sequel but we got first person games with a faceless dude. Ok poopcom

This game has a special place in my heart, because it came at a time in my life when everything was going to shit. It was my means of escape and in a way it saved me from doing something I would've regretted.

That aside having poured many hours into this game, I still believe there are some elements in the game that people will not invest in like the chain system, trust me it takes a good while to get a good flow with it but it can be done, and it's a great system for levelling up weapons and characters quick. And the story is very easy to pick up (never played the first game until later on). There's a character for every playstyle that you can main if you get tired of the other three (not until Playthrough 2 though when you can play as all four), worth mastering them all though and feels great when you can take on any enemy with any character it's one of the best feelings ever.

Forgot to add I love Weapon Lore, and this game has that in spades and some of the stories behind some of the weapons can either be really satisfying, depressing or both. And some weapons are a little tongue and cheek take Nobuyoshi for example I bet the devs had a field day with that one looking at the weapon traits.

And a final point, a certain boss battle on Playthrough 2 and 3 may cause panic and stress if you hate timed missions.

Have fun.

God of War is either a severely compromised action RPG or an absurdly slow-paced character action game. That said, the game looks incredible. The presentation is immaculate and surpasses even a lot of PS5 games. The filial follower premise is fairly well-written, although it suffers a bit from repetitive dialogue triggers. The first time I finished a gruesome overkill combo and Atreus said "I, uh, think you got him" I laughed out loud. By the fourth time I could only roll my eyes.

This repetitious padding infects the gameplay as well. Even in my relatively short time with the game I faced multiple redux bosses. There's an enormous amount of short backtracking to solve perspective-puzzles. I understand that loading screens are often hidden in traversal sequences, but there are just way too many of them. Level design demands exploring every dead end but loot rewards were hit-or-miss.

The voice acting and story are pretty compelling, but not quite good enough that I want to drop the difficulty and still suffer through the mediocre puzzle design. This is lowest-common-denominator gaming at its finest, with no rough edges and minor distinguishing features at best.