Thursday 29 January 2015

Assassin's Creed 3

New characters and beautiful maps really make the game worth exploring again.

It's great having first played Black Flag then going backwards to see the development process for the naval ship idea. In Revelations there was a segment where Ezio had to break out of a harbor which was pretty cool. The whole sailing part was already introduced here as sort of a side game, one of many given that there are board games and QTE hunting to do too. It's no secret the sailing segments are my favorite, but what else did I like?

The killing! Wait, you mean apart from the killing?

The many huge maps to explore, not just cities either. The open frontier is awesome, especially on horseback. At least when they give you the horse whistle ability. I also quite liked Desmond getting a chance to do more than just sit in the Animus, more than usual anyway in modern settings. Obviously they were testing to see how that could be done with the lack of haystacks these days. The solution is one they looked to be testing here: BASE jumping. I also quite liked the story of the whole thing and found the voice acting to be superb.

Having six unique recruits with their own abilities was also a lot better than the bunch of hard-to-remember throw aways added in Revelations, but ultimately unnecessary. After getting used to the slightly different controls it is business as usual for the assassin heroes who are like gods that can't even be put down by enemy firing lines as you regenerate quickly over time. Well, I still got thrashed by someone named "Rope Beater" a few times but he was a rare (and honestly, refreshing) exception. :P

This also seems to be where they worked on the notoriety system though it is a bit flawed in the execution here - why bribe criers or newspapers when pulling down three wanted posters is just as easy? Oh well.

On to the things I didn't like: There is a whole chapter in Native American. Yep. For some reason, the Animus which translated Altair and Ezio almost fully to English, fails to do it here. Why? That whole bit felt alienating but whatever. As a result I really disliked one of the main protagonists (Connor), not just because he's a douche bag but because of that. When he finally speaks English it's almost like I'm being introduced to a new character. One I don't really give a stuff about.

Moving on, the lock picking mini-game - stupid and a waste of time since there is really no threat to you while you do it. It's just there to slow you down. On the same vein, spelunking in large underground maps devoid of life is annoying (yet I still did it). Yes, I know they were trying to get the scale right or whatever but I'm just equating it to my maps in Neverwinter Online, no way would anyone get away with making such a sprawling and simultaneously boring place. 15 minute quests man. 15 minutes tops.

More to add to the useless list are: Hunting, Crafting and that god awful mini-management game. Why do they insist on putting that shitty management game? I know it continues on to Black Flag but I'll be glad if it is destroyed entirely. Fortunately it's not needed here and can be skipped, just like in the next game. I hope that people wise up and spend resources on something better than this crap. You also get a TON of tools you can use, but really you just need a sword, pistol and horse and you are set. Everything else is fluff.

Also, the Homestead missions. They are both really cool, and exceptionally stupid. Unfortunately, more on the stupid side of the scale. Oh, I could go try stop/win a war or you know, I could take the time to pick some flowers. The game also suffers from a long, unskippable credit roll and once again has some sort of PvP multiplayer attachment which instead of Abstergo training their own people is now better presented as an entertainment game. This sits a lot better and is followed through in Black Flag's main story, but is still just on the side content I'm not really interested in. If only they made a coop multiplayer version... I think that one is called Unity, right? :P

A definite improvement over Revelations but still nowhere near as good as Black Flag, I give this game three and a half arrows out of five.

6 comments:

  1. Haha, funny, this. Somehow AC3 totally failed to get me immersed. I'm super impressed by the historical feeling and the looks: as an archaeologist I have an idea about how hard it is to reconstruct such things (even with a lot of imagination). But I just can't stop hating the main character. I found him so ignorant and irritating that I really need to drag myself into this game. I still need to finish it, as I do want to play the later titles and need to know how the Abstergo story ends.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Can't disagree with you there. I would have much preferred to play as Haytham the whole way through. Have you played Black Flag? It's the latest one in the series I've played and I really, really liked that one. :)

      Your like of it will really depend on if you like the sailing bit though. Hehe!

      Delete
    2. I haven't played Black Flag, but I've seen Conrad play it and he was a big fan. I'm not a huge fan of the gameplay myself, so I can always let him do the sailing if necessary. :P I really sucked at the flying in the Ezio titles, but luckily that wasn't too often and I did manage in the end.

      I'm trying to play them all in the correct order, though, so I'm really looking forward to Liberation first from what I've seen of it. Partly because you finally can play a female character, I guess.

      Delete
    3. Oh, and I hated playing Haytham with even more of a passion than what's-his'name, so I doubt that would've helped. :P

      Delete
    4. Oops with the Haytham part, and oops with me not realizing there's another AC game in between this one and Black Flag! :P

      I don't have any more of the AC series at the moment so I guess I'll wait to hear what you think of the other stuff first. ^_^

      Delete
  2. And yes, the hunting is an interesting idea but I really can't be bothered with the crafting and mini-quests either. At this point I just want to run through the main story and be done with it.

    ReplyDelete