Although the Assassins Creed series has began to wane somewhat, I still held a candle for the franchise and eagerly awaited the release of Assassins Creed 3.
Assassins Creed fans will know Ezio is no more and the franchise has now moved onto the 1700s during the American War of Independence.
The game starts off with you playing as Haytham Kenway who is a bit of a nasty piece of work.
This for me dragged on for quite a while before we get to play as the main character Connor.
I’m not going to divulge any spoilers for the story, but there are a few surprises to come.
This game has frequent cut scenes and seems to be more video than actual game, fortunately you can skip these if you want.
The main character Connor is a half Native American, half British who has a grudge against the Brits and is recruited into the assassin brotherhood to fight against the Templars.
The Native Americans dialogue although trying to give the story some authenticity just comes across as monotone and irritating.
Then for no reason Connor starts talking English with an American accent without any explanation.
The hunting and trapping sections are just boring.
The other irritating element of Assassins Creed 3 is the constant travelling.
One minute you’re in Boston or New York, the next its off somewhere else then back again.
In the original Assassins Creed you had to achieve certain goals to open more parts of the city but in this game although the cities are beautifully rendered you never have enough time in them to enjoy them.
Connor has all the charisma of a wardrobe and he certainly hasn`t the depth of Ezio.
He’s one dimensional, like his modern day descendant Desmond and both these characters have no appeal at all really.
The actual graphics of Assassins Creed 3 are brilliant as usual with beautiful rendered scenery and buildings as we have come to expect and the new naval battle sequences are great and work really well.
The combat mechanics have improved since the last game and are more about countering than attacking and it is impressive yet can become boring after a while, especially the wilderness sections where you get to fight off all kinds of wild critters.
Instead of being allowed to dispatch the animal your own way you have no option but to hit the corresponding button when requested.
Free running again plays a big part in Assassins Creed 3 with the introduction of tree free running which is very nice but not much of a challenge really.
There are plenty of side missions to keep you busy and now with the introduction of added objectives this ups the challenge as you can return to try and beat these added objectives.
There is also the usual looting of bodies and trading elements enabling you to purchase various upgrades and weapons.
Another element that is often overlooked in Assassins Creed is the multiplayer part of the game it’s been tweaked with many new modes
Summary
This outing should have been the best yet but isn’t.
The graphics are yet the constant moving around and endless cut scenes spoiled it for me, it just felt like the game was in control and not me.
Assassins Creed fans will enjoy this as it is more or less the same formula as before, yet I came away from the experience with a feeling of something lacking.
Assassins Creed has always had this great open world feel about it yet somehow this version felt quite linear and constrained.
It’s still a great game, perhaps not as good as the earlier titles but visually stunning with good game mechanics and plenty of objectives and missions, but perhaps too many cut scenes for my liking
Assassins Creed 3
Developers: Ubisoft
Publishers: Ubisoft
Xbox 360®
Playstation 3®
WiiU
PC
Genre: Action/Stealth
Release Date: 31st October 2012
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