Review of Assassin’s Creed 3 (PS3)

There are several new features in AC3 compared to previous titles. One of the most notable (after playing a while) is the seasonal change. It is now possible to tread through knee-deep snow in the Frontier and leave a trail for enemies to pick up. Summer has fantastic foliage and rainstorms with thunder and lightening.

The Frontier also offers two other features – animals and free running through trees. The animal interaction is just amazing! I once caught myself watching a raccoon eating for several minutes. Sometimes large elks fight each other with their antlers. Wildlife also has the ability to attack enemy soldiers.

Free running on tree branches is fun for a while but there is very little use for it during missions. It feels as if it was added more for fun than a means to get close to targets for assassinations.

Speaking of animals. AC3 has “pets” – stray cats and dogs within New York and Boston. Cows, goats, chickens and turkeys can be found in various places, and they can all be interacted with.

Combat is different in that it is much more fluent than in previous titles. The R1 button on the PS3 controller no longer puts the character in a defensive stance. Instead, the new Counter button (O) serves the option of combo attacks. Hitting it at the right time and then pressing either square (attack), X (kick) or O (grab/release) triggers different counter attacks.

The other notable part of combat is that Connor is much more brutal compared to Altaïr (AC1) and Ezio (AC2 series). He also has the ability to assassinate enemies with other weapons than the hidden blade. Sneaking up on an enemy from behind can now trigger a leap attack and smashing a tomahawk into the back of the enemy. It is so very wrong to find this amusing, but I do.

Restoring a city to get a steady passive income from banks is no longer an option. Instead, there’s a crafting system that allows you to make items and food to sell in general stores. However, to be able to craft items artisans need to be located during the game. After assisting them they will be able to create higher-level items.

I would argue that the moneymaking system is much more realistic and balanced now. It is not as easy to build up wealth as it has been.

Many crafting items require killing animals for material. I am personally not fond of killing animals for sport and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the game is built to make Connor value each kill. There is a possibility the game will de-synch if not all spoils are collected. A full inventory is not an excuse.

The last, but certainly not least, new feature is sailing. The run-down ship Aquila becomes available about halfway into the game and serves as a means of completing naval missions, opening up new trade routes and quick travel point between Boston, New York and Homestead Davenport.

Sailing is easy to learn and offers a great challenge at the same time. Imagine sailing through rough waters in pouring rain, switching between half speed and full speed while choosing the right type of attack for the different vessels. I don’t think sailing could have been done any better.

Several of the missions available made me feel completely incompetent. It wasn’t that I couldn’t figure out the best strategy to complete them, because the missions of Assassin’s Creed 3 are very linear and doesn’t offer much choice in execution. What made some of them utterly frustrating were the secondary requirements and their insane difficulty level. Coupled with failing game play mechanics at crucial times, my controller met the wall in relatively high speed.

Completing all the requirements in one go is the ultimate requirement of getting the Perfectionist trophy.

The missions have an increased amount of cinematics, and in some instances they ruin the mission ending by not allowing the player to make the final kill.

There is also a severe lack of sneak kills and assassinations available throughout the game. Going head on was much easier than being stealthy, despite the consequences of attracting more enemies.

The very first patch of AC3 was ready to be installed right away after inserting the disc. It fixed a few instances where the character would get stuck, game crashes and several mission related issues where they wouldn’t be completed or saved properly. For more information on the exact bugs: read this article.

The Thanksgiving Patch was released on 15^th November 2012 and fixed 21 Multi-Player issues and nearly 90 Single player issues. One of the issues was an entry in the DNA database where Kaniehtí:io’s (Connor's mother) fate was given away too early in the game. Another made players fall through the ground (and the map) and get stuck in a loop unable to restart the game from a previous location.

For more information about these fixes: read this post on the Ubisoft forums.

I give this game a 6/10 prior to the Thanksgiving patch. The reason for the low number is the initial amount of bugs as well as the difficulty in missions. The story is interesting but it feels as if there’s more emphasis on the survival of Native Americans and killing colonists loyal to King George than fighting Templars.

Assassin’s Creed 3 looks good, feels good (for the most part) and I do recommend it to fans – with the suggestion to wait until the price has dropped a smidge before buying it.