Guy In Hood The Third, essentially

Played me some Assassin's Creed 3 recently. *sigh*... Where do I begin?

So, I have never played any of the other AC games before, and coming into this, I thought to myself "wow, after two installments and other extras, this series must be quite polished. I'm so lucky!" And then I slapped myself multiple times as I went through the game.

Right, so the series is about the Assassin Brotherhood, who advocates complete freedom, going against the Knights Templar, who upholds peace through control. This is a really interesting concept, I have to admit that. It is pretty much philosophical, and on a personal note, I am a bit of a Templar myself. Once you have reached a certain age, you just grow bitter. ANYWAY!

The game revolves around Desmond Miles' effort to stop the end of the world, who does so by accessing his Assassin ancestors' memories through The Animus, in hopes to find the key which will unlock an artifact left behind by the First Civilization. Lots of jargons, lots of confusion when I jumped right in. It is pretty simple though, after the first hour.

So in AC3, Desmond has to go through the memories of his ancestors back from Colonial America. That's a time when people lined up in a row with muskets for a firing line, only to be cut down by the enemy's fire should they be quicker. Should a platoon fall, another comes to replace it. *sigh* Why were they so stupid? Damn.

Right, so the Assassin you play as in AC3 is a half Native American, half British dude, whose name is Connor. He has a Native name, but I sure can't spell that, or pronounce it even. So, I got to control Connor and uncover the Templars' plots to get control of America. He assists the Colonies, in hopes that his people's freedom is preserved along with the Colonies' victory.

Throughout the game, you get to do stuff like climb stuff, free run atop of trees, hunt animals, collect collectibles, expand your homestead (like a village?) and craft stuff. Heck, the BEST activity, in my opinion, is sailing. You get to have naval warfares and navigate through rocks and cliffs and stuff. Things were pretty hype, no wonder Ubisoft's next AC game is about pirates. *yarrr!*

In between Connor's memories, Desmond wakes up to the present and you have to play as him. Your job is to get the power sources/batteries for the ruins Desmond needs to unlock (save the world, get the artifact?). The gameplay gets a little tougher here for people who rely on visual cues when countering enemies, so yeah... Pretty much no problem for me. *heh*

Game's pretty fun to play, in an overall sense. Chaining your kills after deflecting a blow, running around town to dodge guards and formulating strategies to achieve maximum efficiency in killing/running... Fun times!

I was quite into the game for the first few bits, until the game started to reveal its ugliness. It is afterall, a Ubisoft game, so don't be surprised! Things started going wrong during the prologue (not good).

Like Splinter Cell: Blacklist, the game's frame rate goes nuts after a while. Loading times are insanely inappropriate, as they can be found in between dramatic sequences. Textures can FAIL to load at times. Heck, cutscenes are inappropriately ended sometimes as well (guys, fade outs are used for reasons). Just a lot of questionable directions, y'know?

Some bits of the gameplay can be iffy. Running around can be a hassle because the run button enables you to climb as well, so your character jumps up walls sometimes because you didn't control well enough. Some bits of the terrain which look climb-able, are not quite so (ship's rudder, anyone?) The SIDEQUESTS grant you bonuses which can help your gameplay. No, main missions do little to nothing for your gears, only the sidequests grant proper boons. WHY? It's like they are forcing players to do all these extra bits. Not cool man.

In all honesty, I enjoyed the game's storyline and its intended questions about morality. I can see where the writers wanted to go with this, although there are bits which are badly presented. So, even though I kind of enjoyed it, the bad elements of the game made my experience horrible. It's like watching a movie you love, and the cinema's projector flickers, its sound system is clipping, the screen did not open fully and the audience is talking. Imma be like "movie/game, I love you, but not like this. Not like this."

So, should anyone get this game? If you are willing to abuse yourself a little, yes. Get it while it's discounted, please.

I want to give this game an 8/10, but damn the poor integrations and presentations... make it a 6.5/10. I mean, it's supposed to be a AAA game, dammit!