this may be the most directionless spaghetti-on-the-wall game in the series. an unnecessarily complex trading and crafting system with the clunkiest ui ever devised. taking over forts lowers the tax rate, just in case connor needed to be motivated by bourgeois concerns too. an annoying lockpicking minigame. an underground maze game to unlock fast travel. a bunch of surprisingly challenging minigames. the boat!
the story is somehow even more of a patchwork mess than ac2. once again there are a bunch of awkward time jumps where character development seems to happen offscreen, most notably in sequence 9 where connor suddenly reveres washington and the ideals of the revolution, rather than incidentally crossing paths because the templars are involved. connor has six different motivations and juggles them from scene to scene. the haytham conflict doesn't work because they just talk past each other. daniel cross is wasted. desmond's ending is an awkward comprimise clearly borne out of internal arguments at ubisoft.
mission design is generally highly scripted, and the ui really pushes constraints such that they feel less like bonus objectives and more like stage directions that would be embarassing to fail. this generally works when it encourages slow careful play, but is annoying when it demands getting a certain amount of a certain type of kill. mission design tends to get worse as the game goes on, and the final sequence is just wretched. the captain kidd missions are dollar bin uncharted.
despite all this, the game really won me over! for one, the environments are detailed and beautiful. there are lots of cool little bespoke animations for connor and npcs (my favorite is npcs holding doors open for you). crowds are more varied, and blending is more organic. dangerous rooftops in cities encourage navigating crowds, while dangerous ground in the frontier encourages treerunning.
the weather system is cool. connor and haytham are both incredible character designs. a lot of sound effects and voice lines are strangely compressed, but overall there is a great audio atmosphere that makes up for the lack of ambient music. i loooove the boat, it's a relatively simple game of positioning and timing that explodes with the sound of waves and cannon fire and screaming.
in general i would say ac3 has fantastic base mechanics. the parkour is the best in the series, the routes are easy to read and allow for smooth horizontal and vertical movement at speed, without sacrificing the ability to do slow precise movement. the little sidestep you can do on the ground maked it much easier to navigate around corners and crowds. treerunning showcases the strengths of the system, with the modular trees making it easy to trace a path without looking too inorganic.
combat dispenses with the idea that ac is about anything other than an animation showcase for counters, and lets you build fast killstreaks with the combo system. if assassin's creed is to be a game about chases and arena fights, you can't get better than the ac3 model.
these mechanics are often let down by the main mission design, with the best missions being eavesdrops and tails that let you enjoy the atmosphere and animations. the paul revere mission also really works as a game about navigating around patrols. crouching in the bushes is balanced well with good old fashioned social stealth and observing guard movements.
but the side content is where the game really shines. hunting requires patience and careful positioning, making for better "assassination" missions than the actual contracts. almanac pages also require a more carefully planned approach than most collectibles. investigating tall tales in the frontier adds a lot of texture to the world. the boat is just awesome and it's no wonder they started building a whole game around it a year before ac3 came out.
and the homestead! the homestead is where the story is truly unlocked. connor often comes off as stubbornly naive in the main story, but it all made sense once i did the homestead. he is living in an idealized schoolhouse rock vision of american colonialism, so of course he believes in the patriots. suddenly he acquires a paladin swag: he is a guy who truly believes in something and refuses to be beaten down no matter what. it's a good flavor to mix with the mostly fatalistic tone of the main story and desmond's story, which was carried over from revelations. all the striving of men may be little more than theatre in the incomprehensible machinations of the gods, but connor is going to get a baby delivered and a wedding organized.
the story is somehow even more of a patchwork mess than ac2. once again there are a bunch of awkward time jumps where character development seems to happen offscreen, most notably in sequence 9 where connor suddenly reveres washington and the ideals of the revolution, rather than incidentally crossing paths because the templars are involved. connor has six different motivations and juggles them from scene to scene. the haytham conflict doesn't work because they just talk past each other. daniel cross is wasted. desmond's ending is an awkward comprimise clearly borne out of internal arguments at ubisoft.
mission design is generally highly scripted, and the ui really pushes constraints such that they feel less like bonus objectives and more like stage directions that would be embarassing to fail. this generally works when it encourages slow careful play, but is annoying when it demands getting a certain amount of a certain type of kill. mission design tends to get worse as the game goes on, and the final sequence is just wretched. the captain kidd missions are dollar bin uncharted.
despite all this, the game really won me over! for one, the environments are detailed and beautiful. there are lots of cool little bespoke animations for connor and npcs (my favorite is npcs holding doors open for you). crowds are more varied, and blending is more organic. dangerous rooftops in cities encourage navigating crowds, while dangerous ground in the frontier encourages treerunning.
the weather system is cool. connor and haytham are both incredible character designs. a lot of sound effects and voice lines are strangely compressed, but overall there is a great audio atmosphere that makes up for the lack of ambient music. i loooove the boat, it's a relatively simple game of positioning and timing that explodes with the sound of waves and cannon fire and screaming.
in general i would say ac3 has fantastic base mechanics. the parkour is the best in the series, the routes are easy to read and allow for smooth horizontal and vertical movement at speed, without sacrificing the ability to do slow precise movement. the little sidestep you can do on the ground maked it much easier to navigate around corners and crowds. treerunning showcases the strengths of the system, with the modular trees making it easy to trace a path without looking too inorganic.
combat dispenses with the idea that ac is about anything other than an animation showcase for counters, and lets you build fast killstreaks with the combo system. if assassin's creed is to be a game about chases and arena fights, you can't get better than the ac3 model.
these mechanics are often let down by the main mission design, with the best missions being eavesdrops and tails that let you enjoy the atmosphere and animations. the paul revere mission also really works as a game about navigating around patrols. crouching in the bushes is balanced well with good old fashioned social stealth and observing guard movements.
but the side content is where the game really shines. hunting requires patience and careful positioning, making for better "assassination" missions than the actual contracts. almanac pages also require a more carefully planned approach than most collectibles. investigating tall tales in the frontier adds a lot of texture to the world. the boat is just awesome and it's no wonder they started building a whole game around it a year before ac3 came out.
and the homestead! the homestead is where the story is truly unlocked. connor often comes off as stubbornly naive in the main story, but it all made sense once i did the homestead. he is living in an idealized schoolhouse rock vision of american colonialism, so of course he believes in the patriots. suddenly he acquires a paladin swag: he is a guy who truly believes in something and refuses to be beaten down no matter what. it's a good flavor to mix with the mostly fatalistic tone of the main story and desmond's story, which was carried over from revelations. all the striving of men may be little more than theatre in the incomprehensible machinations of the gods, but connor is going to get a baby delivered and a wedding organized.