Silence is a virtue
On to the game and all begins briskly enough. For me, one of Assassin's Creed's flaws has always been in its posturing – yes AC2’s Ezio was an action man for all seasons, capable of decimating a city's watch singlehandedly, but is that really the point?
Cliffhanger
Surely assassins aren't about confrontation, they're about the quiet kill and soundless escape. Without spoiling AC3's interesting opening, that's exactly how things kick off, with a silent, efficient assassination within Covent Garden, of all places.
Soon enough, we're firmly on American soil and from there, well, it's back to business as usual. The series largely distances itself from its stealthy beginnings and plumps for all-out warfare as the Revolutionary War heats up.
Cannon fodder
The breadth of AC3 is immense and Connor's missions are ever-changing to keep the player guessing. One minute you’ll be chucking buckets of tea into the docks in an RTS-lite timed challenge, the next you’ll be duelling with your next assassination target – the tweaked swordplay makes the latter more interesting too. And then you'll be heading off to the high seas to play ship's captain.
And that's not counting other myriad tasks such as side missions, building up the tradesmen at your base and upgrading your weapons, armour and the like.
Taken from behind
In a nod to Red Dead Redemption we're handed huge areas to explore this time around and, as in Rockstar's western, the best means of transport is on horseback. Here, riding into dramatic sunsets rarely feels as smooth, the horse's animation never quite dovetailing with its environment in the same manner as Red Dead, making trotting through the forested wilderness something of a chore despite the beauty of the environments.
Next page: Hit the town
COMMENTS
Re: Still playing the last one
Take your time.
I have played all the (released on the PS3) Creed games and was pushed by the wife to buy this one on release day.
Verdict: I'm sure it is good, but the bugs are annoying the hell out of me.
They seem to have released this too early. It blatently has not been bug tested to anything like the level it should have.
The first 2 days loading times were horendous, and gameplay frequently crashed or didn't work properly (like a mission to fight 8 soldiers where the attack button would not work) Another time we walked around with a random sword sticking out of our chest and 80% of the ladies seemed to lose their skirts when we went close to them (I quite liked that one actually).
It has got better the last couple of days, due to the obligatory patches, but still remains very, very buggy.
Just because companies can fix bugs with patches should not mean they can also release games that are patently unfinished. Does Sony or Microsoft have no quality control measures in place to prevent such things? It seems not.
Re: Anything like Dishonored?
Assassin's Creed (the main series) does have a focus on stealthiness. Some of the later games in the AC2 branch even require stealthiness to achieve "100% sync". I suppose that particular feature is present in AC3, which I haven't bought yet.
Anything like Dishonored?
I just finished Dishonored and loved every minute of it. I haven't played any of the Creed games though. Is this game anything like Dishonored, in terms of the stealth and sneaking around aspects, where it's best to avoid a fight outright?
I have enjoyed all of the AC games immensely from the beginning. However, I feel a little jaded that they have gone to the US for this one.
Of course, it had to happen at some point, it just feels to me that there are so many other places and points in history that could have given a much more satisfying backdrop for anyone who isn't from the US. Take Scotland for instance, Edinburgh and the surrounding areas have a very deep rooting in the Templar mythology as well as the south of France and India etc.
However, I am sure this entry in the series will be just as riveting as the last four games, I will even give Liberation a go as well (was suitably impressed by Uncharted on the Vita).
I'm sitting this one out
Although it was entertaining, and quite good, 'Brotherhood' left me with a very unsatisfied feeling after I finished it. The end fight really ruined it for me. The assassins I had carefully trained until they reached their maximum level were gone; unusable. I didn't get the swordfight I had been anticipating and preparing for. Nor did we ever get a scenario in the entire game which closely (or somewhat) resembled the teaser movie.
Instead you were running about with the apple which could do nothing more than turn enemies on each other. Sure; if you let it run long enough (and you had the health for it) you could kill someone instantaneously. But as such close range and such high costs that it was basically useless.
As such I skipped revelations, also because of the reviews pointing out the somewhat misplaced sections where you'd have to defend your structures against an armada of vehicles. That sure doesn't look very assassin like.
It looks like they made something quite interesting with this one, but with the experience I have so far I'm going to sit this one out. So that should I decide to pick it up the bugs will be fixed and the price will have dropped. I just hope it will be more satisfying than Brotherhood was.
