Assassin's Creed 3 review

This review is a bitter sweet situation for me because of the incredible amount of love I have for this series. "Assassin's Creed 3" was my personal most anticipated title of this year. That being said, I'm going to have to be extremely harsh with it in terms of this review because there's no way my love of the franchise could possibly overlook the glaringly obvious problems with this game.

Of course, I will be speaking on the awesomeness as well, but just know that stuff's about to get really real.

I'll try to avoid spoilers if I can.

The good news is that this game is incredible. It's written well, the story does justice to the rest of the franchise and I'll be damned if it doesn't look better than previous "Assassin's" games as well. Everything has been turned up to 11 and Ubisoft spared no expense.

Both Boston and New York are wonderfully built and lovingly re-created in a way that is both impressive and expected in this franchise. You really do get to see what 18th century living was like, and for American fans this will be a treat to see the early colonization of their country.

As is standard in the franchise, several famous historical figures make appearances throughout the game. From Benjamin Franklin to Sam Adams and George Washington, each individual plays an integral, through-provoking part in the story. Except for maybe Ben Franklin, but he's the Leonardo da Vinci of the game.

Oh, and Desmond finally gets to go someplace other than the cushioned seat of  the Animus. We travel with him to New York, Brazil and even back to Italy where he was held in the first game by the modern-day Templar organization, Abstergo.

Honestly, the scale of the game and the sheer power behind it was extremely impressive and pleasing to someone who is a fan of the franchise.

With the addition of two new protagonists, Haytham and Connor Kenway, the game also has a deeper story line that breaches more on the topics of deception and right and wrong more than any other game in the series so far.

Pull out a dollar bill to see this guy from another angle.

Connor questions the propaganda that Sam Adams and his fellow patriots put out because it is dishonest and immoral, while Adams explains that it is necessary to combat the British rule. Connor also calls out the hypocrisy of their fight for freedom when they own slaves.

Haytham attacks the ideas of the Revolution at its core, and even provides completely logical reasons for George Washington to be replaced by a more capable individual. Clearly, the creators didn't want to pull punches and really wanted to expose a lot of historical truths much like they've done in previous games.

Where combat is concerned, the game is a little more streamlined, but also a little more complex.

 While your character can string together attacks, heavy enemies need to be slowly disarmed so that they can be killed more easily.

Also, guns are still available, but they require a long reload time, so the player can't count on just blasting their way through a situation like they previously could with Ezio. However, there are multiple ways other than the use of firearms to kill those around you that are just as effective.

With the silence of the rope dart that allows Connor to hang, pull and snare his enemies, you have an additional silent weapon to accompany your bow and arrow. The hatchet replaces the knife slot that was in previous games, and the weapon wheel is customizable so you can prepare yourself for any sort of engagement beforehand.

Did we mention that there is naval combat now? That's right, you can now sail the East Coast and Caribbean Seas to thwart pirates and stop evil doers. Not only that, you can upgrade your ship as well.

Connor's got a base of operations, like Ezio did with his villa, in the form of a settlement on the frontier. By visiting all the areas in the game, you can even recruit settlers from all around to improve your own settlement and up the amount of items you can trade or make to improve your home and the surrounding area.

Now for the bad news. I'm sorry to say that this section may even be longer than the good parts of the game.

Holy crap are there clipping issues with this game. I mean, really. I understand we've not really had steeple roofs in the franchise very much, but quite often I found Connor falling through them into nothingness. Be prepared to have a frustrating time running across these rooftops as the game often glitches when trying to climb all over them.

You'll find yourself avoiding the rooftops almost entirely during this game, unless you absolutely have to use them, because honestly, they're useless when getting away from enemiese.

Thankfully, the game has provided you with shortcuts through the buildings that you can exploit. But really, it's best to just avoid getting chased. You're better off standing and fighting.

The notoriety system has become more compartmentalized, giving you four levels. Incognito, Level 1 (where enemies sorta kinda notice you), Level 2 (where they will approach you quickly), and the incredibly tough Level 3 (where you are not safe no matter what you do).

Occasionally, you'll do these awesome three-person kill combos.

Should you find a town crier, you can be reduced to Incognito if you're Level 2. A Printer for wanted posters will eliminate Level 3 and only be available at Level 3. Wanted posters only take you down a single level. This would all matter if they were easy to find or come across. Which they really aren't. So good luck with that.

Too many collectables. Seriously. The pages of Ben Franklin's almanac, or almanacs depending on how you look at it, are super hard to collect. You know why? They freaking move. Yeah, when you spot one, you have maybe 30 seconds to try and get level with the piece of floating paper so that you can catch it. I mean, I was running directly under a page for four roofs because I couldn't get high enough to pounce on the flighty parchment.

You know what else? They disappear if you don't get them within the time limit, and respawn at a later time. So you can scream and shout at the game again and again if you don't get it the first time.

As for your settlement, I really found absolutely no need to do the trading system there, or even collect the settlers. I was there so little that none of it mattered. I was honestly there more times to do the naval missions (which are awesome by the way), than I was anything else.

Get this. If you send out a trading convoy, it has the possibility of getting attacked. If you don't go to the frontier, find the convoy, and protect it, you will lose the money and inventory. I'm serious. When I got there the first time I saw about 10 armed guards and shouted at my game, "WHAT ARE YOU HERE FOR IF NOT TO PREVENT THIS FROM HAPPENING?!"

Hunting is...pretty useless. I hunted a crap load of animals even before I got Connor to be an assassin and had 3,000 British pounds before I even had to really buy anything. The hunting, frontiersmen and brawler challenges all add spice like the Courtesan and Thieves Guild ones, but they're also just as pointless.

Again, you can recruit assassins and send them out to do missions and liberate states while training them to help you with missions. Certain assassins can be sharp shooters, brawlers and even start riots for you to cause a distraction. Too bad I never used them either. Seriously.

Oh, yeah, and remember how everyone complained about the traveling between locations in the first "Assassin's Creed" on horses and crap. Buckle up, that's back. Sure you can fast travel to certain locations, but be prepared for a five minute horse ride or a ten minute run somewhere. It's...painful.

The secondary objectives to get full synchronization range in difficulty from doable to completely asinine. It's not helped by the fact that the game itself is extremely unhelpful. Sometimes you'll do all the secondaries, and find that you don't get 100% because there's a hidden secondary of doing all of the secondaries in a single playthrough without starting over at a checkpoint. Seriously, it didn't tell me that during the mission that I had to do them all without restarting the mission to get 100%.

Sometimes the game glitches so poorly that the game won't even realize it's preventing you from continuing. The Paul Revere mission is a perfect example. During the mission, you ride with Revere to warn the patriots that the British are coming. Simple, right?

No. No it's not. Because Revere will have to follow you to each door to tell you if it's the right house. Guess what? Second time I had to do that? He just stopped telling me which house it is, so the mission would not go forward. I knew which one it was, but it wouldn't activate the door until Revere said it was the right house. We just stood in front of each door for several minutes, waiting for something that wasn't going to happen.

Those kinds of bugs will pop up every now and then. Sometimes the enemy will spawn so close a fire line will make it impossible to get to a location in the given time. Other times, things like the Revere incident will occur.

The problem with this game is that there's too much. Too many extraneous things to do.

Eliminate hunting, and no one would care. Why? Because a settler you get will hunt for you and you can sell those pelts instead. Or just limit hunting to the settlement entirely.

Eliminate the travel in the frontier. No one wants to do that.

Don't take out the naval missions, but get rid of the assassin recruits, or at least the missions for them.  Honestly, I rarely did those.

Get rid of some of the collectables, specifically the almanac pages. As the meme says, "Ain't nobody got time for that."

"Oh, let me just run right into this line of fire, no big deal."

If some of these changes were made, the game would be perfect. Unfortunately, it's not. This might be the most well written and creative of the "AC" games, but it feels like the most over-stuffed and poorly put together of them all.

I wanted to give it a 10. I really did, but I can't even give it a 9. It's a 7.5 or 8 if I'm being honest. A 9 feels too generous with the bugs and clipping that are too evident and frequent to be excusable. Especially when the bugs limit game progression. The annoyance I felt bumps it down a grade too. I've never gotten a headache when playing these games, but this "AC3" gave me one.

If you are a fan of the franchise, you need to buy this game because it's incredible. But, you will be disappointed in a lot of areas, frustrated beyond reason, and utterly furious at times. Be prepared for that, and enjoy what you can.

Eyes on Assassin's Creed 3

It is nearly impossible to describe how utterly excited I am for this game to be released. Of course, I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't analyze the game thoroughly from what has been released to the public through demos, trailers, videos and interviews instead of succumbing to rabid fanboyism.  
 
"Assassin's Creed" has been a pivotal game series in the last decade due to its innovative gameplay, stunning graphics, unique storyline and constant evolution. "Assassin's Creed 3" takes place during the American Revolution as Desmond takes what Ubisoft has stated is probably his final look into his past and become the British/Native American Assassin Connor. Wielding a tomahawk, pistols, saber, knives and a hunting bow makes Connor look like the deadliest and most versatile Assassin we have seen to date in the series.   

Of course, what "AC" game would be complete without historical figures for the player to interact with? None other than George Washington and Benjamin Franklin have been confirmed to appear in the game. This fits the trend of major historical figures such as Richard the Lionheart and Leonardo da Vinci appearing in past games.  

While a pre-rendered, CGI trailer from Blur Studios is nice, and quite frequently better than a major film trailer, they don't quite do games justice when it comes to the actual gameplay. Thankfully, attendees of E3 and San Diego Comic Con were treated to live demos to sate their curiosity. Haven't seen them? Don't fret:  
 

Fans of "Assassin's Creed" will note subtle differences to the gameplay this time around just from this snippet of gameplay. Obviously there was much focus on the tomahawk and bow and arrow usage. Likely because they're new and Ubisoft wanted to show off. That's just what you do when you've got a new game. Oddly enough, the tomahawk is so visceral and violent it seems to work with the somewhat cold and dirty look of the game. 

Connor's guerrilla tactics allow him to take no prisoners and show no mercy in his drive to get to his target. Plus, hanging that guy from the tree was pretty awesome. The bow and arrow replaces the crossbow from previous installments in the franchise, or at least it appears to do so, and really that doesn't seem to be that big of a deal. The crossbow was an excellent long distance stealth weapon for the player to utilize, and if your main character doesn't have access to that type of technology, then the next logical thing would be a basic bow. Although he does have pistols, but let's not split hairs when the entire basis of the game is science fiction anyway.   

Something else to take note of in the very beginning of the demo was the cover system in the tall grass. This mechanic is clever since there might be a shortage of hay bales in the deep woods and in fields. If Connor is supposed to be a hunter and tracker, then he would use such tactics to stalk his prey and pounce without warning. Speaking of prey, PETA might be a little upset at the large amount of animal killing. *audience laugh*  

The character animations and details are of a level we have come to expect from this franchise, having evolved from "AC: Revelations" accordingly and looking beautiful. From the way the deer limped and staggered after being shot, to the conversation Connor has and the way he fights, everything looks superb and seems to flow effortlessly.  
  

Free-flow combat returns in "Assassin's Creed 3."

Now that combat's been mentioned there's the little matter of multiple takedown moves and grabbing weapons on the run. "AC" is known for it's innovative free-flow combat and was one of the first games to perfect it from the style that was "Dynasty Warriors" and "God of War." Few games successfully emulate it now. To see it now you'd not blink twice, but it's good to see the company still providing something that works. 

The crowd at E3 cheered pretty loud when Connor snagged that rifle at the end and jumped to kill his target with it.  Free-running and climbing seems to be the same as in past games, but adding trees into the mix is a sigh of relief after fans constantly complained about not being able to climb trees with past heroes Ezio and Altair when they were easily able to scale the Vatican and other huge buildings.

What you don't see in this demo is the naval combat that was displayed on the show floor of E3. Looking vaguely like the system in "Empire: Total War" and "Napoleon: Total War", the player is able to steer the ship, target the enemy vessel and command the crew to fire at their pleasure. Unfortunately, the demo faded to white when the boarding of the enemy ship began, but hopefully there will be ship to ship combat to go with the cannon fire.
 

Assassins at sea.

Also on the show floor of E3 was a live demo of an in-game Boston, Mass. in which the development team took attendees on a tour through the streets of the city to show what urban gameplay would be like. It didn't seem much different from past games - sneaking through crowds, running on rooftops and assassinating soldiers in alleyways. What was impressive and fun to see was the ability to run through certain windows and come out the other side of buildings to evade capture. This was a little funny and I'm pretty sure I heard a woman scream in surprise as Connor trampled through her bedroom.

There are a few issues that should be addressed from previous games in the series that I hope the developers of "AC3" address. Enemy AI needs tweaking. Always always always. Sometimes it's downright stupid, only one man attacking at a time in a group of soldiers ten strong. Other times it's almost as if the guards are clairvoyant and can sense trouble from three blocks away, making things far more difficult than one would think they'd be. There never seems to be a happy medium. Perhaps this is Ubisoft's way at telling the player he needs to try a different approach, or maybe it's just one of those things that slips through the cracks. Who knows?  
 

Connor must have inherited his fashion sense from Ezio.

Also, for the love of all that is holy, can someone please fix the jelly-body bug? Yes, everyone loves ragdoll physics. They're creative and very life like. But after four games, you're still able to walk over a corpse and watch the body roll across the ground as if it's made of helium or watch it bounce as it falls from a death blow in a horrifically unrealistic fashion. Either the bodies aren't weighted correctly or there's just something wrong with the coding, I'm not sure. I'm not a programmer. But you'd think that after this many years someone could figure that out and fix it.  

 The repetitive nature of "AC" has been addressed in the past, and often times in games it seems fixed, while at other times it's just plain annoying to fetch this, look at that, deliver this and kill four of these guards.  Will there be more command of the Assassin's Order in this game? If not, that's a whole game mechanic removed that took a lot of time up for players and there should be something to replace it, or at least use players' time more effectively to ensure they don't miss leveling up their students.

Bugs, glitches, annoying pedestrian AI that blocks your path when you're trying to move stealthily through a crowd - there are numerous things that have popped up in their last four games that should hopefully be addressed and dealt with. "AC3" might be a perfect game if the rest of it is as good as it looks. If not, well, it will be enjoyable, but it might be a little disappointing compared to the other fan favorites in the franchise.
 

E3 2012: Ubisoft Press Conference

So if you didn't watch the Ubisoft press event, we're going to give you a recap of what happened! This marks the start of our E3 2012 coverage!

After a somewhat fog-filled and anxious wait in the venue, the crowd was greeted by a cacophony of sights and sounds of music and dancing. A very energetic preview of the new music and moves of "Just Dance 4" was accompanied by a performance from rapper Flo Rida which was...interesting. There seems to be a theme going around of celebrities making appearances at E3 press events.

While the dancing was entertaining, we really didn't see anything more than what a person can see online via trailers. It just seemed to be another dance game.

The first actual shot of gameplay footage we had was during the "Far Cry 3" portion of the presentation. I hadn't actually done any sort of research on the title, and apparently I needed it as I had absolutely no idea what was going on in the demo. What I did see was that there were people on an island, the player character had a bow and a gun, and he shot a lot of people while another person seemed to yell at him from off-screen.

Despite my canonical confusion, the footage was beautiful and apparently there's an entire system of islands you can explore in the game. The gameplay seems very reminiscent of "Bulletstorm," which means a lot of shooting but some close-quarters combat. There was a moment when a tiger was released from its cage and it ran amok on some of the enemies while the player picked them off from afar, but other than that there seemed to be an overwhelming sense of indifference to the game. It was impressive, but it was just another shooter.

What really picked the audience up was the new "Rayman Legends." Three players cooperatively working together on the Wii U gave us all quite a show. While two players controlled Rayman and his buddy, another used the touchscreen to cut ropes, lower ramps and move obstacles out of their way so they could continue on their path.

The grand finale was all three players working on some sort of constantly moving chase scene where the player using the touchscreen hit points on the path which created the music to the entire portion of the level. It was a beautiful show of streamlined gameplay and a fun design of old platforming. The audience cheered and clapped not just for the pleasant surprise of Rayman, but also for an excellent demonstration of the Wii U's capabilities.

There were several more trailers featured during the event, including one for Wii U exclusive survival-horror game "ZombiU" and an Avengers game as well. While those were interesting ideas, a lack of gameplay footage made us just feel like we were watching clips from any press-packet we could get online.

Then the big gun, "Assassin's Creed 3." A trailer and then a gorgeous demo from the team working on it wooed the crowd. The environment, the fighting, the character models and even the voice acting was spot on. Building upon the framework of past installments in the Assassin's Creed series, subtle - and not so sublte - changes to the gameplay could be spotted during the demonstration. A bow and arrow replaces Ezio's crossbow for the newest protagonist, most likely implemented to keep in theme with his Native American heritage. One of the smaller additions to the game that we all noticed was the ability to pick up weapons on the go and seamlessly transition from a kill to running. It was beautiful to watch, and of course we're still eagerly awaiting the game to see if it lives up to what we've seen.

The newest assassin, Connor, has a more sleek fighting style than his predecessors.

"Shootermania" followed "Assassin's Creed 3," which seemed to be a letdown for the crowd. The blatant battle of the sexes that was put on between girl "Counterstrike" stars and male "Counterstrike" stars was a little awkward to watch and we really didn't see all that much gameplay. I'm not sure if the game is just player versus player or if there's a story, but really it just seems like Ubisoft is creating a competitor for the online gaming gun circuit for E-Sports.

The best was saved for last. The crowd was built up with "Rayman." It was on the edge of its seat after "Assassin's Creed 3." Now they got what Ubisoft was holding back with. "Watch Dogs" seemed to be an amalgam of "Assassin's Creed" and "The Bourne Identity." The combination of stealth, technology and narrative had the crowd cheering and asking for more than the demo could give us. Just watch:

I can't even begin to describe it. It's just so amazing looking. I just hope the game itself is as good as the demo we were shown.