Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Mixed reactions"

Okay, I admit that I am a huge Assassins Creed fan... which should make me biased, but I am not going to heap big praise on the latest installment in the series just because I am a fan.
In fact, I loves me some Assassins Creed so much that I even struggled through the nearly pointless DS and PSP games.
Yes! Really!
Avoiding spoilers in a review is the hardest part of writing a review, especially since it's the spoilers that caused the most concern in the game... but I will do my best.
I will also try not to nit pick at minor things like the ink splatter shading which takes away the realism of the characters and floaty sparkly cobwebs everywhere to indicate your next objective.
The opening to the story and subsequent early missions are both exciting and fun, but also a bit too linear and easy. There were times when I was wishing it would cut me loose so that I could just wander around instead of going through tutorials on how to play... again. But the plot holds up and the adventure at sea and to the new world were entertaining.
My first major concern was during this first part of the game. There is a mission where you attempt to kill a bunch of guards at a camp without being detected and release three sets of indian prisoners.
Whistling at soldiers to get one to come near so you can kill him attracts a dozen or more soldiers. If you kill fast and then stand next to the beige canvas tent in your bright red British uniform, NOBODY will see you as they walk right in front of you... Funny.
Furthermore, this mission is glitchy and frustrating to the point that the easiest way through after multiple "detected" failures is to sneak in and free the prisoners as fast as possible without dealing with the sub objectives before you end up throwing a controller through a window.
Even then, a funny thing happens with the cut scenes. If you wait for a guard to see you, right before he alerts the others, push the button that releases the prisoners. The guard will appear nearby hopping around like mad in the prisoner release cut scene, then disappear like magic once the cutscene is over!
The story goes down hill fast just after you are done playing with the main character prior to Conner's birth. (good non-spoiler activity there!)
The revelation itself was obvious, not a shock at all and shortly afterwards we see a "tragic moment "so contrived and pointless that it puts all the animated Disney parent deaths combined to shame.
What was ubisoft thinking? A tragedy of this type worked for Ezio effectively and made his character grow, but Conner's was just plain retarded. It isn't even a motivating factor in him becoming an assassin. During the cutscene in question I actually shouted at the TV , "Well quit talking about stupid stuff and do something!" (expletives removed)
Apparently the plot hadn't arrived yet when the scene was made or it was tacked on afterwards.
Same goes with much of the plot, from here on. It took very little time to warm to Hayden but I still haven't completely accepted Connor, prefering to dress him in my downloaded Ezio costume and pretending he isn't Conner while I play.
I wish I could blame the stereotypical indian garbage slapped on at the start of Connor's story... including the constant drone of indian chant music, but that doesn't affect my personal attachment to the character... or lack thereof.
Conner has very little motivation to be an assassin, or much of anything to be honest. His character is not driven by any real need or urgency to save his people, free a country, find a treasure, make babies, or even watch TV. The character suffers greatly from him being rather uninterested in the world going on around him. Rather, he is just involved because a glowing bird told him to.
Back to the indians. The indian thing does bring down the overall game a lot. I think they based the entire race and their storyline on what a couple guys at ubisoft saw in the movie "Dances with Wolves". At least they all don't look like Kevin Costner!
The indian stereotype stands out poorly as the modern hollywood depiction of Native American Tribes. It would be like making Ezio a greaser in sunglasses that shouts "Mamma Mia" chases lots of tail, and eats-a the pizza-pie. Or worse, make him Mario.
Since I am part Native American, I can assure you that much of the tribal customs legends and such that people have been spoon fed over the years is just as made up as any other racial stereotype. Since they have normally done extensive research when dealing with other races in previous games, I expected much more from ubisoft than to whittle down a diverse race of people into one narrow viewpoint. If it weren't such a politically correct depiction, it would be considered racist.
But we, fortunatley, don't stay with the indians too long, so I'll shut up about that. Also I won't go into the depiction of America's founding fathers.
Suffice it to say that this is a fantasy world based loosely on real events. Also, the political views expessed are those of the creation team and not guesstimations of what the historical figures presented within the game believed or thought.
The controls themselves are a bit wonky in places, ubisoft adding yet another truckload of commands that don't exactly work smoothly. Killing civillians has been removed, as well as other elements that made the series more free roaming and less linear. With the "kill anyone" ability gone, sometimes locking on and killing the person you need to kill can be a frustrating ordeal. Many times Conner will jump up in the air instead of performing an assassination, which alerts the person you were trying to kill.
Glitches aplenty! Ridden horses get stuck everywhere. Conner falls through the map, gets stuck under a rock, stuck behind a wall, stuck in a barrel, stuck in the water, and so on. Not as bad as some other games, but not up to the normal (Post AC1) standard.
So AC3 is a bitter sweet game. On the plus side, it is more of the same with a new world, a new cast of characters, and some great new side missions like sailing and hunting.
On the negative side, the end doesn't conclude the Desmond story properly, Conner is uninteresting, and some of the glitches haven't been fixed yet.
One other thing worth mentioning is that ubisoft has really gotten into multiplayer and downloadable content. This time they are offering a season pass to all the potentially upcoming extras. This worries me as I liked my ubisoft games shipped mostly complete, with only minor add on content offered for sale and multiplayer as an option. Now, it looks as if they are just like call of Duty and all the others.
If you are an obsessed fan like me, you will play it and like it dammit! But for the uninitiated gamer, it's difficult to jump in at this point. Fortunately, all the (important) previous chapers have been on the current generation of systems, so backtracking the games is very easy for noobs.
It is hard to follow on after a beloved character like Ezio, and I have applauded ubisoft for taking this huge gamble when Altiar was dropped from the series in AC2. Hayden (lord, am I spelling that right?) was interesting and exciting but Conner leaves much to be desired. Perhaps he will develop in further spin offs, DLC, and potential future Vita games (I don't have a vita so I know little about AC Liberation). My question is, will I invest the time to get to like the character, or continue to pretend he is someone else?

Score 7.5