If you asked anybody who knows me what I think about the Assassin´s Creed franchise, they will probably say something like "I don´t know, the guy says he is not a fan yet he often talks about it", and that is certainly true...
I am not a the biggest AC fan you will ever see and I don´t even consider myself a fan; I actually think the games are somewhat boring specially considering I haven´t played much of them but does I have played have bored me to sleep... but why you ask? I don´t know that myself and yet here I am being able to talk with someone about the stories and their opinion on the series has a whole somewhat like an interested watcher.
I see many reasons to play and enjoy the AC series but every time I pick one up and play it, I find myself struggling with it´s extremely repetitive nature. Up until now it seems like I have been analyzing the series has a whole from my point of view, but I just find myself in the need to say all this before getting to the infamous AC3 considered by many to be the worst AC of the franchise, because I don´t want to come across has an ignorant idiot talking about a topic he dosen´t understand.
I remember when the first trailer was reveled and everybody on the internet was going nuts (literary); there was not a single person I knew was wasn´t exited about the game, so much in fact that I seriously considered buying the game day one; when the first reviews came up and said the game was good I really took it has some sort of mixed message; like is it very good or just... good? Eventually when it got to the publics hands is when the negativity showed itself, some independent reviewers were giving this game 6 and 5 out of 10; I was kinda flabbergasted. Just knowing that it was one of the most anticipated games at the time and disappointing that many people, I could only imagine if I was that big of a fan... when I ask people about their thoughts on the game many answer the same way pretty much, with "is ok, but is not the best" either if they really feel that way or they just say that to feel better about their full price purchase, I don´t know.
I have been skipping pretty much every AC game that has been released (At the time of the post the newest game is AC Unity, and I am not playing it... not even interested), I know that the logical would be that I play every game and talk about them all in one, but with Ubisoft announcing there will be a new AC game every year, I will eventually grow tired of this trend and be completely irrelevant to tackle every game one by one; I am not even playing every game and I feel like I am warmed out, I will keep an eye on the series, but maybe play all games in the future, but not every time a new game lunches.
Although in my somewhat awkward relationship with this franchise, I have only played a handful of games (more specifically Revelations, AC3, Liberation and a little bit Black Flag), non of them have really wowed me at all, in fact the only game I have played fully is Liberation when it was re-lunched for the PS3; I got it after playing Revelations and I was kinda curious about the fact that Aveline was the first ever female assassin to be playable in any AC game.
Quick thoughts on Liberation, it was actually pretty fun to play, Aveline´s story is kinda interesting, parkour is fun and more importantly, the persona gameplay is the best thing any AC I have played or seen has done (more so than the popular boat exploration of AC3 and Black Flag); I mean, how come nobody at Ubisoft has seen the potential of this mechanic, I will never know. Overall, my favorite AC game (for now).
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Now is time to talk about the game that has cause the biggest deception in the AC community, Assassin´s Creed III was released in October of 2012 for PS3, Xbox 360 and eventually Wii U and PC on November of the same year.
Set in the colonial times in north america, the hooded persona of this chapter is Connor, a native american of British decent who is fighting for the independence of his own people. The story itself is alright; I am not American so I can´t tell how historically accurate it is, but when seeing the moment when Connor is present during the signing of the declaration of independence... I can tell is really stretching many moments in the history of the united states. To be fair the games before it were also very exaggerated historically.
Gameplay wise there is no big leap forward, the boat mini game however was so well received that it became it's own major element in the fallowing year's AC4 Black Flag... is a testament to how sometimes a mini game can do such a big service to a video game. Because colonial america is a setting with a lack of major cities and locals, the wilderness is the most prominent place every player will most likely be wondering around... hunting and finding collectables witch is not really all that fun for me.
The prologue is one of the most infamous elements of the game and honestly is not a mystery at all why it is; has someone who plays plenty of video games, is annoying to have always to get an overly long tutorial for new comers, I may not be an AC veteran but I don't have to be a rocket scientist either to pick the game up and play it, I sometimes feel like the game exaggerates this moment to the point where basic gameplay elements are arbitrarily taken away until I progress through the story. I don't know about the audience but I like to explore and to do side missions and other activities while progressing through the campaign... specially in open world games like this one; but AC3 is very linear despite of the game stating the opposite.
Visually is fine and there is certainly plenty to do, in the story itself and in the world of colonial america has well... Connor has also gotten plenty of negativity has the least interesting protagonist in the series, I though he was ok... he is primitive, raise by a native american group and with actual little ambition or even little interest for the major war that is happening; he does appear to be humorless, but I don't think is about that but about his culture, he was not meant to be funny or cocky like the fan favorite Ezio; he has a noble goal and he is primitive. Overall, Connor is alright... no more no less.
Assassin's Creed 3 is ok, maybe a little rushed and somewhat unfinished but is certainly not bad at all, I have played much worse games in my life that's for sure; but there is no doubt that the game is rough around the edges.
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Thank you for reading, I will have more to talk about in the future and a new update on my project... I know it seems like I have abandon it but remember, I am a one men crew here.
Stay tuned for more content
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