Before I get started with this review, there is an important question that many people ask...and that is, "Do I need to play the previous Assassin's Creed before I play Assassin's Creed 3?" Well, to answer that question...In my opinion, if you want to understand and get the most out of the story thus far, then yes, you should play the previous Assassin's Creeds. Plus, they are great games. If you do not have the time and resources to play the old entries, then I guess you should at least watch or read a plot recap somewhere online. With that aside, lets take a look at Assassin's Creed 3.
Assassin's Creed 3 is a sandbox style action-adventure game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is the fifth main entry that continues the story from Assassin's Creed Revelations. Same as the previous Assassin's Creeds, you follow Desmond Miles on a journey into his ancestors' past to unravel hidden artifacts and more information on the events between Templars and Assassins through the guidance of the first civilization. The memories are all separated into sequences just like before, and you are able to attain full synchronization upon fulfilling the more challenging conditions the memory requires of you.
The game takes place between 1753 and 1783 during the American Revolution. And there are three vast areas you are able to explore which include Boston, New York, and the American Colonial Frontier. If you have a brief knowledge of history during this time period you will first notice that the developers concentrated a great deal on accuracy with the real historical events and people. You will be guiding the protagonist, Connor and a bit of Haythem Kenway, from forests, cliffs and rivers all the way to the settlements of Lexington, Concord and Charlestown, while encountering historical figures such as George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. After every encounter, information of the location or person will be added to the animus database which can be viewed by bringing up the pause menu. The amount of people featured in this game would not mean anything without good voice acting, which this game does a great job of. Not only do characters vary in personality, but the voice actors also brought life into the characters. With the developers creating the game using the AnvilNext engine, you will experience some impressive environmental changes such as rain, fog, and snow. During winter, certain lakes and rivers will freeze and turn into ice. Visually the game is quite appealing, but not without some glitches such as texture pop-ins and floating objects.
Well, what about the gameplay? Are there new features? To answer that question, Yes, the gameplay in Assassin's Creed 3 is great overall, with new and improved techniques and mechanics and also returning features. The game starts off slow, refreshing you with the basic techniques such as leaping, climbing, eagle vision, and stealth assassinations. And throughout the first few sequences, majority of your tasks will be scavenging items and tailing people. Some may find it a bit tedious, but that's based on your personal preferences. The first new aspect you will encounter is lock picking in the first mission, while controlling Haythem Kenway. As opposed to simply walking up to a chest and holding a button to open it like in previous Assassin's Creeds, you will be required to pick a lock utilizing a couple of tools. As you board your first ship, you can find the first board game player, which is one of a few mini-games you can trigger optionally throughout your journey.
One of the biggest additions in Assassin's Creed 3 is animals and hunting. Shortly after you start off Connor's story, the game will show you how to catch a variety of animals in the wild including deers and hares using tools such as snares and bait. Upon capture, Connor will kill the animal and harvest it's body parts, which can be sold at markets. You are able to pick up clues to find certain types of animals in the area. Doing so will highlight regions on your map where the type of animal can be found. There are also bears and wolves which cannot be caught, instead they act as hostile animals that will attack you. Not only are there animals in the wild, you will also find some dogs, pigs and hens roaming about in the cities.
As the game introduces you to combat in the first few sequences of the game, you will notice quite a few major additions to the mechanics of it. Firstly, counter works relatively the same with some tweaks. You must press a button right before you are struck to block it. Upon blocking...the animation will go into slow motion, and you are required to input your next move. Different enemies require different methods of defence, such as using defence break. A neat little cosmetic addition is that Connor will be covered in blood after a huge fight.
As for weapons, you will notice there are a number of new ones and also the absence of old ones. Crossbows are now replaced with muskets and arrows. Though guns will usually delivery an instant death from far range on normal opponents, it takes a good five seconds to reload after each shot in order to prevent spamming, which is good. Other weapons include tomahawks, daggers, smoke bombs, trip mines, rope darts, and poison darts. All of these weapons can be bought from a general store. Speaking of general stores, I don't know about you guys, but it was a pain in the ass for me to track down some of these stores. Well, anyways... A couple of features that are absent which I loved is bomb crafting and the hook blade from Assassin's Creed Revelations, which kind of sucks.
Not only is there ground combat, the game offers naval missions where you will be able to control an entire ship, including the ship's guns and canons. At first I was a bit skeptical about this feature, but after completing the game and a number of the naval missions, I found this to be an excellent addition. Steering the ship feels accurate, and being able to control the sails to change speeds was intuitive. Also, controlling the guns and canons was a great deal of fun.
There are many returning gameplay features in Assassin's Creed 3 which include pick pocketing, looting bodies, eavesdropping, fast travel, and climbing high buildings to synchronize with the area. All these aspects work pretty much the same.
As for notoriety, you are able to bribe criers and remove wanted posters to decrease your notoriety...while doing socially unacceptable actions will increase your notoriety...There is an addition of a mobile assassination while you are inside of a moving haystack. Other than that you are still able to assassinate from ledges, fixed hiding spots, sneaking and from above. After a stealth assassination Connor can throw bodies into the water or hide them inside of a haystack or a bush in order to avoid suspicion. When Connor assassinates a high rank target, the good old white animus background pops up, followed by confessions and last words from the dying target. I absolutely loved those sequences, and find them to be very important to the story.
Another great returning feature are recruits. Similar to previous Assassin's Creed, you are able to recruit and level up a team of assassins ready to back you up upon your request. Throughout your journey you will run into a number of oppressed civilians, and the game will give you a choice whether or not, to help them. Some of these situations include unjust executions and theft.
Some things that you will not find in Assassin's Creed 3 is the little "defend your castle" mini-game that was in Revelations. Also, you will not be exploring any ancient caves and caverns like in many of the previous Assassin's Creeds, which some may find disappointing.
After completing the game, there are a ton of things to do for some great replay value. You can finish collecting almanacs pages for Benjamin Franklin...collect all the eagle feathers...complete all liberation and courier missions...and taking over templar forts. Connor also has a number of alternative outfits which can be unlocked after completing certain tasks. But the thing that you will be probably be going back the most for is the multiplayer. The multiplayer is lots of fun with modes including free-for-all, team objectives, and the new wolf pack mode.
Overall, Assassin's Creed 3 packs in a lot of content and puts you inside a vast historical world to explore, even after the campaign. There are new and improved gameplay mechanics, while some old ones are removed. With great voice actors breathing life into each character, this game offers the player an immersive experience. Though, I felt the game could of used better pacing and picked up the game a bit faster in the beginning, but some may enjoy the slower introductions.