Assassins Creed 3 | legendarygaming

Assassins Creed 3

Xbox 360 Version

With Assassin’s Creed 3 being the fifth consecutive console-based entry into series, one might expect the franchise to dwindle, but that’s far from the case. Assassin’s Creed 3 picks up where Assassin’s Creed Revelations left off, continuing the modern day story. Two secret societies: the Assassin’s Creed and the Knights Templar, have been at war with each other for centuries. The original Assassin’s Creed game had players starting out in the modern era as a captured member of the Assassin’s, named Desmond Miles. Desmond’s captors, who were a modern version of the Knights Templar posing as a pharmaceutical company (named Abstergo), wanted something very specific from Desmond called a piece of Eden. The pieces of Eden are powerful artifacts that the Templar’s plan on using to exert full control over the human species. In order to track down these pieces of Eden, the Templar’s force Desmond into using a machine called the Animus, which is designed to read the DNA of a human being like a blueprint, playing back memories of said person’s ancestors in three dimensional output. As one may assume, the majority of Assassin’s Creed video games (including AC3) primarily take place inside of the Animus during locations throughout human history. With that said, and like its predecessors, Assassin’s Creed 3 has more than one protagonist. In fact, it has three: Desmond Miles, Haytham Kenway, and Kenway’s son Connor.

Assassin’s Creed 3 is the end of the modern Desmond story, but the game begins with Desmond and his team hunting down a mysterious vault designed to protect planet Earth from an upcoming solar flare on December 21st, 2012. In Assassin’s Creed 3 and previous titles, Desmond (as well as his ancestors) had interactions with a species of beings pre-dating humanity known as the ‘ones who came before’. One of the most notable interactions was at the end of Assassin’s Creed 2 in the form of a warning to AC2 protagonist, Ezio. Further information revealed that these alleged “Gods” had the same problem in ancient history that Desmond is now trying to prevent: which is the complete annihilation of planet Earth by solar flare. With knowledge in his right hand and the fate of the world in his left, Desmond is now equipped to go back into the Animus to determine the secrets of this mysterious vault now staring him right in the face.

The majority of the game takes place inside the Animus during the American Revolutionary War. Players start out in 1754 England as a mysterious individual named Haytham Kenway. Haytham is immediately tasked with taking down a patron inside of a Royal Opera House who is in possession of a medallion. Haytham believes the medallion is a key to accessing a mysterious temples inner chamber, and upon securing the “key”, Haytham sets sail for the colonies in pursuit of the temple.

Despite the fact that Haytham is a temporary protagonist for Assassin’s Creed 3, he has some of the best character development in the series, even rivaling Assassin’s Creed 2 protagonist Ezio Auditore da Firenze. Haytham originally comes across as very mysterious, with a limited personality and motive, perhaps even subordinate to others. But as Haytham makes his quest for the Colonies in search of the temple, it clearly shows that this man is both dangerously intelligent, as well as charismatic.

Haytham Kenway doesn’t waste any time upon reaching the colonies, immediately networking with like-minded individuals and conspiring against his enemies both in Boston, and beyond. Reaching Boston is the first location in the game where the player gets to explore vast territory similar to previous AC titles. Like other successful gaming franchises, the Assassin’s Creed titles are constantly adding new features, gameplay tweaks, and abilities from one consecutive title to the next. Assassin’s Creed 3, however, has made some major changes. Both climbing and combat are now more intuitive than ever in the series. In addition to climbing the architecture of Boston, as would be expected in an Assassin’s Creed title, players eventually have the ability to explore and climb the city of New York, as well as more nature oriented locations like the “Frontier”, where players have the ability to climb mountains and trees. Movement when climbing doesn’t exactly make you feel like Spiderman, but it feels smoother than ever before in the series. Previous titles sometimes felt clunky, and you even needed specialized equipment to perform certain actions, yet the climbing mechanics and fluidity of Assassin’s Creed 3 is, hands down, the best in the series so far.

In addition to the climbing improvement, the combat system has also substantially changed, but for the better. Players can now freely move in and out of combat at will, or even perform cinematically enhanced multi-kills. Perhaps the biggest change is the combat modification making it similar in nature to the Batman Arkham games. Any time an enemy is about to attack, there is a small red or yellow icon that pops up above the enemies head giving players the option to perform a one hit counter kill, which are done in fascinating slow motion detail. These one hit counter kills, in addition to the plethora of weaponry, tricks, gadgets and guns that players eventually unlock, make for some of the best and most intuitive combat in franchise history. But with the Revolutionary War environment, there comes a rise in firearm use by the opposition. The good news is that players have the option of utilizing a brand new feature; the option to use a nearby enemy as a human shield to protect against gunfire. This is an excellent addition to the combat system, since it gives the player the opportunity to quickly eliminate enemies; regardless of their rank, caliber or toughness. One more fantastic combat feature of Assassin’s Creed 3 is that the majority of individual weapons have their own unique kill animations, which keeps the combat fresh looking, and creates some dramatic kill sequences.

As Haytham Kenway conspires his way through the city of Boston, he eventually meets a beautiful Native American woman. Haytham’s pursuit of this woman eventually leads to a deal when she decides to assist him in locating the temple if he is to take down a designated target of her choice. As their fragile relationship continues, it eventually becomes romantic, leading to the birth of the games main protagonist: a half British, half Native American boy named Connor. Around this same frame of time, Haytham Kenway is socializing with his fellow conspirators in a local pub when he decides to reveal to you (the player) that he is actually the Grandmaster of the Colonial Templar Order. Yes, you’ve read that correctly… It turns out that the person you’ve been playing as the whole time is actually the Grandmaster of the Knights Templar Order in the Colonies. It happens so fast in the game that I, admittedly, didn’t even see it coming. As soon as this information is revealed, however, the game shifts focus to a child version of Connor; Haytham Kenway’s son.

The opening gameplay segments for Connor are spectacularly tragic. His small village gets burned to the ground while he watches his mother get burned to death. To make matters even worse, Charles Lee: a high ranking Knights Templar and Haytham Kenway’s right hand man, decides to emotionally abuse Connor in a very nasty way. As would be expected, a toddler version of Connor is now more lost and emotionally devastated than ever before, but an older version of himself has a destiny with far more in store.

The game jumps forward to a teenage version of Connor who is still somewhat curious, shy, and wholesome – unlike the focused and anger filled version that his enemies have the unfortunate pleasure of coming face to face with later in the game. Looking for answers, Connor meets with the elder woman of his tribe, who gives him a transparent sphere. This sphere helps Connor get in touch with a being named Juno, where Connor learns of his own importance, and that the duty of his tribe is to conceal the great temple. In this vision with Juno, Connor see’s the symbol for the Assassin’s Creed, which he then seeks to decipher the meaning of. Just after this strange vision, Connor finds himself on the doorstep of a member of the Creed named Achilles Davenport, who reluctantly decides to train Connor as an Assassin.

The rest of the game switches up the two playable characters between Revolutionary War America, as Connor, and modern day 2012 as Desmond Miles. Connor believes that it was Charles Lee who burned down his village and murdered his mother, so he and Achilles set out on a quest to take down the Colonial Templar Order one by one, including Connor’s own father, Haytham Kenway. In Connor’s pursuit of the Templar’s, he finds himself immersed in the Revolutionary War and founding of the United States, usually with Connor working alongside the colonists.

Assassin’s Creed 3 retells the events of Revolutionary War America as a battle between the British Crown, the Colonists, the Assassin’s Creed, and the Knights Templar. Each of these four groups has their own agenda, and Connor only chooses to align with the Colonists because their agenda is similar to his. Even though Connor mostly aligns himself with the “Sons of Liberty”, he occasionally finds himself butting heads with them if they end up not seeing eye to eye.

Setting foot on colonial territory feels very authentic in Assassin’s Creed 3. Red coats are marching through town and beating their drums in classical platoon format, while the average town folk are going about their business. The scenery isn’t as beautiful as it was in Assassin’s Creed 2, and in fact, it’s incredibly dreary looking by comparison. Although some of the town environments can come across as fairly dull looking, the American Frontier and its wilderness are amazingly gorgeous both graphically, as well as from a design perspective. Although Assassin’s Creed 3 features a solid musical score, the game comes up short compared to Assassin’s Creed 2 since the latter featured a more beautiful score while exploring the city and navigating its vast architecture. Aside from the musical score, however, historical figures like Sam Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and General George Washington are represented in excellent fashion; the latter of whom features one of the best representations I’ve seen in modern times, rivaling History Channel’s five hour special entitled “Sons of Liberty”. Washington comes across as strong, courageous, cunning, and humble; yet there’s this kind hearted spirit about him showing that his intentions are righteous.

More additions to Assassin’s Creed 3 make its gameplay some of the most diverse in franchise history. Little things like the exclusion of health medicine (it now regenerates), and the addition of seasons make for a better game. Interestingly enough, some of the seasons can affect gameplay. For example: when winter season rolls around, players may find out that they aren’t able to move as fast through deep snow. In addition, the falling of snow can provide cover when trying to approach a target using stealth. One feature that hasn’t carried over from previous series entries is the ability to kill random citizens, and I would argue that this is a good thing, since it always felt like a pointless feature anyways.

One of the most appealing gameplay additions is the fact that Connor has the ability to acquire his very own warship later in the game, called the Aquila. There’s a few story missions here and there that require the use of the Aquila, and those are the only ones that I personally completed. However, players still have the option of taking on more missions than what is required. It’s certainly interesting piloting a warship in the Assassin’s Creed franchise. Although this particular feature wasn’t exactly my favorite aspect of the game, the ship still controls smoothly, its weapon systems function accurately, and navigating the high seas looks gorgeous.

In addition to the main story of Assassin’s Creed 3, there’s no short supply of side missions and other tasks to keep the player busy. Shortly after Connor meets his mentor, Achilles Davenport, players can begin upgrading the homestead in various ways. Players also have the ability to take on Liberation missions, recruit members to the creed, hunt wild animals, or even investigate rumors about UFOs. With the click of a button, players can also travel from one location to the next using the “fast travel” option, or they can travel by horse. A very mild change to the game, compared to previous entries, is how the viewpoints operate. In previous AC entries, the lead character would stand on a small perch during this iconic Assassin’s Creed feature, whereas in Assassin’s Creed 3, Connor or Haytham tend to stand upwardly on a cross (or very tiny access point). This particular animation looks similar to a balancing act, and it comes across as a little goofy looking.

Although the ending of Assassin’s Creed 3 isn’t exactly the best in the series, it still does a fair job of closing out the five game Desmond saga. To the contrary, however, Desmond sometimes comes across as a confused teenager more than anything else, and his overall character design as a lame attempt at mimicking historical assassins in the franchise. Nonetheless, Assassin’s Creed 3 easily features the best modern day action sequence in the five game saga, where Desmond is tasked with climbing a skyscraper.

Assassin’s Creed 3 multiplayer is more of the same from previous entries, but this is a good thing. Although technically imperfect, Assassin’s Creed competitive multiplayer has always been unique compared to other titles on the market. Players have the ability to compete online in seven different gameplay modes: with Deathmatch, Wanted, Assassinate, Manhunt, and Artifact Assault all making their return but with the addition of an all new competitive mode named Domination. In addition to these seven competitive modes, there is an all new co-operative mode, called Wolf Pack, in which you and three other players team up to target NPC’s (no playable characters) through various stages. Some of the brand new maps are gorgeous, and the character designs, which are exclusive to multiplayer, are just as creative as previous titles. Not only can you customize the time of day in online matchups, but you can also modify the weather.

Even though Assassin’s Creed 3’s multiplayer is another solid and unique entry into the series, I can’t help but feel like there’s too many customization options. That’s just my personal preference, however, since many players may prefer even more customization. But I’m the type of player that likes to jump into an online competitive shooter and square off against people on a level playing field. With AC3, however, you unlock certain abilities as you progress through the ranking system, which means that a person who’s played longer than you may have an advantage. Although this would be my only complaint, both with Assassin’s Creed 3 as well as the series multiplayer overall, another minor gripe would be the complex layout and interface of the multiplayer menu itself. It’s not exactly the most complicated interface that I’ve seen, but it’s still enough information to make me feel like I’m having a system overload.

Assassin’s Creed 3 is another BRILLIANT entry into the history of this great franchise. In fact, where previous titles may have caused the series to dwindle, Assassin’s Creed 3 picks up the baton and rekindles the fire deep into the heart of the series giving it a breath of fresh air. The multiplayer is smooth, polished, and has just enough gameplay modes for competitive diversity. Although I wasn’t a fan of the games ending, the dynamic twists and turns of the story were enough to give a long time series fan chills down their spine. It’s unfortunate that Connor wasn’t the great lead character that he could have been, especially since I enjoyed playing as Haytham far more. But with Assassin’s Creed 3, it really is the little things that made this game great: the improved combat system, better climbing mechanics, and the epic moment when an adult Connor comes face to face with his Templar father for the first time. With a dramatic musical score playing in the backround and the fierce determination in Connor’s eyes, you’ll know for certain that you just purchased your very own ticket to a roller coaster ride.

Overall Rating

8.5/10