Assassin's Creed III Review

WARNING: SPOILERS ALL OVER THE PLACE!!!!

If you don't know what Assassin's Creed is, you probably shouldn't be reading this blog. But I'll try to give a short summary just in case people are rusty. In the Assassin's Creed series, you play as Desmond Miles, a no-good, do-nothing bartender who ran away from his crazy, hippy parents. Turns out his parents were part of the league of assassins and have been fighting the "good fight" against the nasty Templars who (obviously) want to dominate the world. He gets kidnapped by Abstergo, a company formed to do the Templars' bidding. They put him in this crazy, Matrix style machine called the Animus. The Animus lets the user play out memories of their ancestors. Turns out Desmond isn't the only one who was kidnapped, but a whole slew of people were kidnapped and put in these things. Abstergo's main purpose is to find the "Apples of Eden" that give the user the power to control minds and bodies. With all the apples, Abstergo would be able to dominate the world via forcing everyone to do what they want. Turns out everyone Abstergo kidnapped led to dead ends, most likely, and Desmond was the only guy who had assassin ancestors that came in contact with the apples. Up to this point, Desmond has lived through two of his ancestors lives: Altair ibn Al Ahad during the crusades and Eizo Auditore during the Renaissance. Eizo was probably the more significant ancestor since his career lasted three games to Altair's one. To make an already long story a bit shorter, Desmond is trying to find the Apples to save the world. Yes, as cliche as it sounds, the world is going to end. It will "end" on December 21st 2012. How does Desmond know that? Aliens of course! Oh but not tentacle like aliens. No, just humanoid creatures named: "The Ones Who Came Before." All of them have Greek God or Greek Mythos names and seem to only be women...for some reason. Anyways, Desmond, Altair, Eizo, and even Connor (the newest to the series) all come to contact with holographic versions of "The Ones Who Came Before" after successfully finding an apple.

Desmond's life, however, is not static. He has his own team of rag tag assassins. After the end of Assassin Creed I, a double agent named Lucy breaks him out of Abstergo and gets him underground along with the rag tag assassins. They help him get used to the Animus and also help him cope with the "bleeding effect." The bleeding effect is when a person starts inheriting what he sees from his ancestors memories. It's like when Keanu Reeves "learns kung-fu" after it being downloaded into his memory. So Desmond kinda just "becomes" an assassin through osmosis, really. He also falls in love with Lucy and then kills her later because he was compelled to by Juno (The main mysterious humanoid character in the game). It's unclear why, but it becomes apparent that Lucky was actually a triple agent and was working for the Templars all along. I'm still confused about that. Anyways, onto the review.  

ASSASSIN'S CREED III: 6 out of 10

Let me start off with all the good things Assassin's Creed III is. Assassin's Creed III is good at creating breath taking vistas, believable forests, and intricate towns. Assassin's Creed III has some pretty cool fictional integration into factual history and has some very memorably characters. Assassin's Creed III also has a more fluid combat system than its predecessors and has some neat game mechanics that don't nearly happen as often as they should. Assassin's Creed III also has a lot (and I mean a lot) of content for people to get wrapped up in.

But sadly, Assassin's Creed III is not a great game. It simply sits in limbo as being a cool game with many minor flaws that stack on top of each other to create one huge and frustrating flaw. It simply tries to do too much and falls flat on its face. Not to mention that many of the flaws that were in the older Assassin's Creeds carry over. Running is still a chore, especially when chasing someone. Parkour is still a problem when trying to do something quickly or when trying to make precise jumps. I still find myself frustrated trying to get off of a certain stack of boxes only to jump onto a window nearby instead of the floor next to it. The system hasn't progressed much since the beginning and each iteration of the series has me more and more frustrated.

Look at my horse, my horse is amazing...

Now we can add on the other layer of problems with Ubisoft's new AnvilNext Engine. I have to give it credit, there is always a lot going on in Assassin's Creed III. Lots of people doing different animations and it really does make you feel that your walking around in downtown Boston or New York City. But all of that goes to hell when guards spot you and become hostile. And it happens pretty much all the time. Sometimes, I found myself being chased by guard for no reason. I wasn't in any restricted zone and I wasn't doing anything wrong. I was simply minding my own business and some Red Coats decided to pick on me. And losing them is almost impossible. Fighting them is also quite hard because as they gather around you, more guards approach to join the fray. This makes every alert frustrating  and nonsensical rather than simply annoying and justified. If you're ever spotted, take my advice and jump in the nearest body of water and swim. It's the easiest way to lose them since (thank God) guards can't swim.

There used to be a lot of clipping in the previous Assassin's Creed games, but it was mostly minor and also forgivable. I don't know if it's because I played ACIII on the PS3, but the amount of clipping issues I had were outright embarrassing. Lock picking became a hilarious event since the picks would go in the top of the chest rather than in the keyhole. People would go through walls. Escort mission characters would clip through objects and become stuck which would require me to restart the mission in order to progress. Markers would lie to me and spots on the minimap would give wrong information. The game would freeze at random times. People would be speaking but not moving during cut-scenes. People would be speaking and not even in cut-scenes. The list goes on.

Despite all the qualms I had with the game, the most frustrating would be the new systems they developed. In the previous AC games, you would be able to buy fast travel points. In ACIII, you have to navigate a terrible underground maze and solve stupid Masonic puzzles in order to get them. It becomes a chore because you either have to run everywhere on foot or spend a few hours navigating through the mazes. It made the game that much longer for no reason. In ACIII, Ubisoft implemented a really cool hunting system. Sadly, the reason you hunt is to be able to make things. In order to make things you have to find the recipes. In order to find the recipes, you have to collect collectables or complete various side quests. Once you get recipes you need people in your little village to make those recipes. In order to get those people, you have to do more side quests. Sadly, I went through the game and did as many side quests I could do, and was only able to make one damn barrel. Then sold a barrel for a measly 200 pounds. The whole system was just too involved and wasn't needed...ever.

And lastly, the game just takes too many turns that deviate from what I think an assassin should be. A lot of the game is now less about assassinating and more about participating in history. It used to be that the assassin just worked in the timeline of history. In ACIII, Connor has a direct hand in changing history. Rather, he is a public figure who leads armies I might even go out on a limb and say that Connor was the reason we won the American Revolution. Which makes Connor less of a ghost assassin and more of a General who dresses funny. The only time I felt anything like an assassin was at the end when facing the main villain. The ending of Connor's tale was subtle and pretty cool, however.

Assassin's Creed III takes too many steps backwards in the series and also stumbles as it tries to step forward. ACIII is an example where bigger isn't always better. I haven't touched on the multi-player because I haven't played it. I'm sure it is every bit as fun as the predecessors, but that was not my intention when I picked this game up. I'll still be following the major Assassin Creed titles because I still find the story- line and concept fun and refreshing. It's also very cool education tool if you take the time to read the tidbits they give you about all the events, places and people from the setting. I just wish the execution of the game was as good as the story behind it.

Beast.