Assassin’s Creed 3: A Diamond in the Rough

After the conclusion of Ezio Auditore’s story in Revelations, the fans of the franchise couldn’t wait to see what the next Assassin’s Creed title would bring to the table. Assassin’s Creed 3 was one of the fastest-selling Ubisoft games, but its reception was mixed to say the least. Some people liked it, while others hated it. However, many did not see the ways this title innovated the series.

Similar Design To Previous Titles In The Franchise

Let’s start with the weapon wheel. Connor has his signature tomahawk throughout the whole game, but we can use swords, daggers, and we can temporarily carry other weapons like rifles. This is very similar to the Ezio trilogy’s weapon arsenal. In those games, Ezio could carry different weapons with him, and there is a great amount of customization even though he mainly uses a sword during the cutscenes.

The similarities don’t end there, as the map design is quite similar to the first two titles. We can go to different regions that are separated by the countryside, but the countryside in Assassin’s Creed 3 has more detail when compared to the previous titles. Moreover, there are more activities to engage in.

While the newer games do have different cities, they lack the structure of the first Assassin’s Creed titles as we can seamlessly go from one city to the other without a loading screen. While this might seem great, it does limit the player to exploring one huge location instead of being able to traverse to different settings that have a great variety when compared with each other.

We can’t ignore Captain Kidd’s treasure missions either. While they were side objectives, the locations we went to for each mission were easily some of the greatest moments of the game for me. In these missions, we got to explore The Caribbean Sea, South America, and Canada. Keep in mind that these locations were inaccessible in the base game and were only available for side missions, which goes to showcase the lengths that Assassin’s Creed 3 went to offer the players a linear experience.

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood System

While it might not look as good as Brotherhood’s and Revelation’s system, Assassin’s Creed 3’s brotherhood system did try to innovate this particular feature as well. There are more abilities your recruits could utilize, like causing a riot and using social stealth with your recruits.

Additionally, they all had their own stories. For example, we saw Duncan Little during the Haytham sequence of the game in the opera assassination scene. Duncan goes on to mention this to Connor in an optional conversation. While the Brotherhood system is more fleshed out, I do wish that recruits could have changed equipment when they achieved a higher rank. That was possible in the previous title, but not here.

Naval

The biggest gameplay innovation of this game was the main selling point for the next game in the series, Black Flag. Assassin’s Creed 3 was one of the few games in the gaming world to bring a deep and sophisticated naval mechanic.

While I love Black Flag’s ship mechanics, I do prefer Assassin’s Creed 3’s more realistic approach to ship travel. The wind affected how fast we would be going, and the ship handling system felt more real when changing our ship’s speed.

The Templar Philosophy

The Templars were never morally gray during the Ezio trilogy. While we saw more about the creed of the assassins through Ezio’s perspective, we also saw the Templar way through Haytham’s eyes. There are many scenes where Connor and Haytham are arguing about who’s right, and Haytham seems to be always winning the argument about why the Templars are the better path for humanity.

In Haytham’s words: “There will never be a consensus amongst those you have helped to ascend. They will each differ in their views of what it means to be free.” Haytham’s words hold merit when you realize that he chose to be a Templar even though he was raised to be an assassin.

Assassin’s Creed 3: The Remastered Version

None of the Assassin’s Creed games received a remaster aside from Assassin’s Creed 3. The remaster did manage to bring in a better way to run the game on modern machines. It didn’t change the graphics as much, but it does run smoother when compared to the previous version. On top of that, the gameplay remains the same, yet as a whole, the remaster is the final, ideal AC3 version you want to play. It squashes some of the bugs, while still bringing you intense, fun, and engaging gameplay.

Conclusion

What do you think of Assassin’s Creed 3? Is the series not holding up to past titles or was it a step in the right direction? Leave a comment and tell us what you think.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage will be coming soon to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One & Series X/S