MCT
By James Herd
Reporter
Some were skeptical when Ubisoft unveiled the time and location of the latest “Assassin’s Creed” entry back in March, but this skepticism was entirely unwarranted.
“Assassin’s Creed III,” the fifth installment in the series thus far, takes us to the end of the world, and the end of British rule in colonial America.
In the game, we are introduced to a brand new assassin who is a Native American from the Kanien’keha:ka tribe named Ratonhnhaké:ton (he is nicknamed “Connor,” and will be referred to as such) as he becomes involved in the growing civil war between the British loyalists and the American colonists.
Much of the skepticism came from the thought that the story would make either Americans and/or British look bad. It does neither.
If anything, it makes them both look bad because of its native viewpoint, but even then it doesn’t take any sides. It’s culture-neutral, so don’t let that stop you from playing.
In between the very frequent Connor missions, you finally have the pleasure of playing as duo-tagonist Desmond Miles in the year 2012 as he goes through several missions to obtain power sources for a door that holds the solution to the end-of-the-world disaster of 2012.
Overall, the game is sound, solid and aesthetically pleasing. Some may find that the story was rushed overall, as it attempts to go through the entire American Revolution in a game that will take (give or take) about 10 hours to complete.
Some glitches still exist, and some characters in the beginning looked like they were telepathic with how their mouths didn’t move.
The Fast-Travel system was used a bit too often in my play, though, primarily because of this: The developers were beating a dead horse with the fact that travel in that time period took weeks, sometimes months. There were too many times when the cutaway would say “one month later” or “three weeks later,” so it grew to be a tad bit annoying when they’d drill that into our heads time after time.
Overall, “Assassin’s Creed III” is an amazing game with fantastic graphics (minus what was pointed out before), and spectacular story elements that are different than the other games, but that’s what makes them great: They evolve.
I’m truly left wondering where Ubisoft will take the series after the ending that they gave it. I guess we’ll find out next November.
