Assassin’s Creed 3 Review (PS3)

Is the new series evolution prepared for the revolution?

Ezio, we loved you. If I could, I’d like to spend even longer rooting around your past. However, the Templars are fast approaching and the players are demanding a new character take your spotlight. Enter Assassin’s Creed III, an entirely new era for the franchise as a whole, and one should be celebrated… especially as it’s been acclaimed as Desmond’s final swansong. With the end of the world just around the corner, the team of time tearing assassins have resorted to dwelling in a cave, making Desmond an even grumpier ******* than he usually is. The best solution to this? Put him in another Animus induced coma to explore the world through the eyes of another one of his ancestors; Connor, a Native American thrust into the American Revolution, who is forced into this adventure with a grudge to bear and a land to save. The first 5 minutes you spend in this game are wonderful, building up a world that completely take you by surprise. It engages you with so much heart that the next few hours…ultimately become a bit of a disappointment. Without trying to overload you with spoilers, it’s like the game has plonked you in the sea, but before you can explore you’re hooked by the nostril by a sadistic fisherman. After hours of dangling there in pain, you’re finally released into a colony of Jenifer Lawrence mermaids to do whatever the hell you want. The pacing in this game can be just as obscure as that analogy, especially in the beginning stages: stick with it. When it does kick off, Assassin’s Creed III smacks you in the face with a dose of what I like to call Skyrim Syndrome, a condition that freezes you whilst you compile a list of in-game things to do. The beauty of it is that, despite the sheer size of the lands you explore and the amount of things there are to do, it all feels rather streamlined and easy to commit to. At its core, Assassin’s Creed III is more than just another revolution in terms of the franchise. Fundamentally, things have changed a lot, beyond the Colonial setting. The sandbox field elements of the original have been brought back and reworked to actually make interesting, with tons of tasks to complete and animals to hunt. The Animus interface has cleared up, no longer aligning one button to each limb. The array of new gadgets available force you to re-evaluate your tactics. The simple addition of climbable trees can even stump you. I’ve got an array of platinum trophies in these games, I didn’t think I’d spend 5 minutes analysing tree structure to meet my demands. And yet, it all feels wonderfully familiar. After each moment where you dabble with the hunting of wild creatures or building up your base, you can return to the things that made you love this series. Taking on the story, completing multiple optional objectives rather than simply one. Taking back countries by sending out fellow assassins. Simply plonking yourself on a synchronisation viewpoint becomes satisfying as you clear up the games many, many goals. There’s lot’s to do and lot’s to learn, and the way each element flows so smoothly with each other makes the entire experience feel rather refreshing. When you’ve finally learned how to master climbing ‘that tree’, you can’t help but just stop and take in the world that has been created for you. Whilst II can be commended for its sterling attention to detail in each city, III takes you aback with some stunning environmental effects. In fact, I appreciated my time in the great outdoors far more than any city. It’s a frequently stunning sight, and one that you won’t find hard to appreciate even several hours into the game. What’s very evidently new is the new sea-bearing missions, where Connor becomes Captain of a ship for a day and is set free to blow up lesser ships. Initially, this is confusing for all the wrong reasons, plonking you in dreary tutorials that can easily bewilder. However, once left to your own devices, it all comes naturally to you, and such missions genuinely do become very fun. Blistering action is guaranteed when up close and personal, but slow slogs can be involved in reaching said action; the feature shines as something of an overarching metaphor for the game. Multi-player returns for some of the dismayed, however Assassin’s Creed has always proved that it can pull off the feature rather well with its new approach to the subject. Classic sneak-’em-up modes remain, but new mode ‘Wolfpack’ aims to facilitate to those who aren’t a fan of killing other human beings. It takes advantage of the ever popular ‘Horde’ mode by chucking waves upon waves of NPCs at you or a group of friends. It’s pretty much tension piled on tension, as both gameplay modes clash to make you an extremely wired individual, but nevertheless a happy one… though I might just be saying that, as you can play alone too. Ubisoft really have poured their hearts into every element of this game, and it shows. However, that isn’t always a good thing in each aspect. Perhaps I miss Ezio, but I don’t find Connor as endearing as I did the charismatic Italian. Perhaps it’s because the opening segments warmed me to characters I perhaps shouldn’t of. Connor is rather respectable as a character, and a worthy wearer of the Creed’s signature outfit, but I just don’t see a flair in his personality. The opening sequences don’t help this, stretching out some rather dull moments as long as they can, with the occasional decent mission thrown in.

It’s an inconsistent epic, a test of patience that eventually explodes into a montage of assassinations, ships and bears

It seems this years’ Animus can’t quite keep up with the ambition of Ubisoft, however, as glitches are a-plenty. Sure, the game can get away with spawning grass as you step on the ground and Desmond’s ever changing race, but Connor morphing into a tree? No. Connor getting his robes stuck on a thistle and forcing me to restart the game due to the fact he’s using that very thistle as some sort of seizure inducing drug? No. If Shaun Hastings mentioned anything about a glue factory exploding in this time period, I might have been more forgiving of the glitches I encountered. Assassin’s Creed III is a stark reminder of how much the franchise has progressed over the years, but also a blast to the days when II graced shelves for the first time. If it weren’t for some foibles here and there, this would be a downright fascinating must-buy. As it stands, it’s an inconsistent epic, a test of patience that eventually explodes into a montage of assassinations, ships and bears, and no matter how long it took to get to that point, it’ll be a hell of a lot longer until you get out of it. ‘MERICA…and all that jazz.