Assassin’s Creed III review

In November 2007 Assassin’s Creed was released, the first chapter of a series that has become the symbol of this generation. Since then, three other main chapters have been released (Assassin’s Creed 2, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations), each more acclaimed by critics and the public than the other. The latest video game in this series has also been released these days, Assassin’s Creed 3, the final chapter, the most awaited. Will he have managed to maintain all the expectations created around him and conclude this series with dignity?

PLOT

It’s difficult to talk about the plot of a game like Assassin’s Creed 3 without falling into the very famous and hated spoilers, but, as much as I can, I will try to avoid them.

The game’s story picks up right where it left off in Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, with Desmond Mileswho, having understood what to do to avoid the destruction of the world, heads towards a cave hidden in a forest. From here he can access the memories of his ancestor Connor or dedicate himself to exploring the cave and missions that concern him more closely.

As for the plot it revolves around Connor it takes place before, during and after the American Revolution and concerns, as is now customary, the eternal struggle between Assassins and Templars.

GAMEPLAY

Once you get into action, it doesn’t take long to understand that the gameplay is the one already consolidated in the other chapters, even if in Assassin’s Creed 3 it comes with several changes and additions that improve what has already been done in the other episodes. There race of Connor and Desmond is now much more realistic, fluid and dynamic: our character shifts the weight of his body onto the support leg when he has to change direction and if he finds an obstacle in front of him he slides under it or leaps over it, making everything similar to what happens in reality.

To make up for the flatness of American towns of the time (very low houses and wide streets), the boys of Ubisoft they created the Border. As in the first Assassin’s Creed, where there was a small piece of land that united Damascus, Jerusalem, Acre and Masyaf, here the Border it carries out the function of uniting the various cities, but not only that. In this territory you can help some inhabitants in difficulty, attack the English forts or collect the usual feathers, but the real novelty in the Assassin’s Creed game universe is the possibility of hunting different types of animals with bait, traps or with a bow and arrows. In these cases the new tree climbing system comes to our aid, which allows us to jump from one trunk to another without being detected by animals or possible enemies. The killed animals must be skinned and their valuable parts become part of our estate. There estate it fulfills the function of the villa in Monteriggioni (present in Assassin’s Creed 2), but with some additions: here we can recruit new inhabitants who will help us with various jobs (carpenter, plantations, etc.), we can beautify the house with paintings, weapons and armor and from here we can send a carriage containing various goods from the estate, such as the valuable parts of animals, to an emporium.

Also in the area where our estate is located there is also a small marina. Here we can take part in several naval missions, from chasing a ship to actual battles, all very fun and well done. Once at sea, you must pay attention to several factors, such as the direction of the wind or whether to use half sail or sail under full sail or how to time the cannons to prevent the shots from breaking against the waves. The “special” missions also return, following the gameplay style of the crypts and tombs that could be explored in previous Assassin’s Creed games.

So far it seems like an almost perfect video game, but unfortunately there are some missing defects. First of all is the combat, here made even more spectacular and dynamic, but without correcting its chronic defects. The enemies still attack one at a time and the fighting will be reduced to a mere use of counterattack. The need to move or take cover from the riflemen’s line of fire changes the substance little, which unfortunately has remained the same for five chapters now. Another critical issue can be found in the menus, which are really confusing and require several steps to get to the desired object or area. Finally, a note must necessarily be made to the AI, which will make all our attempts to approach missions in a stealth way go up in smoke: several times I happened to be discovered while killing a guard, even if in that At that moment the only ones present were Connor and his victim.

MULTIPLAYER

The multiplayer is the same as Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, except for a few additions. One of them is the call mode Pack which sees us engaged together with three other friends of ours in the search for targets to eliminate in the crowd. The competitive modes are always the same and are divided into individual (such as Deathmatch, Wanted, Assassination) and team (such as Assault on the artefact, Manhunt, Domination).

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

The graphics engine that drives Assassin’s Creed 3 isAnvil Next, an updated version of the one used for all other Assassin’s Creed games. The engine update can be seen and how: much more expressive faces, increased depth of field, more realistic animations, different atmospheric phenomena, more defined textures and contained pop-up phenomena (always present in the other video games in the series). Also, in Assassin’s Creed 3 the seasons are constantly changingand the graphics engine perfectly recreates all the climatic variations and even the furrows in the snow after someone passes by.

As for the audio, here too there is nothing to complain about. The environmental effects they perfectly recreate the peace and tranquility of the border or the chatter of the crowds in the cities. The Italian dubbing is very good as regards the main voices, otherwise it is normal.

AUTHOR’S COMMENT Assassin’s Creed 3 is the perfect evolution of the series created by Ubisoft. Changing the setting and going from the narrow and high European and Asian cities to the low and similar ones of 1700s America was risky, but thanks to the addition of the Frontier and the possibility of climbing trees the experiment was a perfect success. Unfortunately, some of the defects that have always plagued the series remain, but compared to the vastness of this video game they are of little importance.