So, for the first time in my life I got a limited edition of a game. The swag for Assassin's Creed 3 was pretty sweet, but I'm praying that the game will be worth it. I was a little sceptical about the whole American Revolution setting...mainly because it's been done so many times. Granted, it's one of the major events of the period, especially in North America, and the majority of the target audience wouldn't care about say...Canadian events or anything, but still, I have my doubts. I'm always looking for something new on the playing field, so I pray that the game will deliver more than it has given me so far.
I'm a history major and so I've studied a lot of these events in school. Mainly, I have been studying history of Aboriginals and Metis in North America (Canada mostly, but I have knowledge of American groups as well). I am eager to see how "accurate" the game is in tone, setting, and interactions between people. I was extremely excited to see that the main Assassin for the game is going to be a Native American, but so far all I have been playing is some random British noble. I'd love to say he was foppish, but he's not really. Just something about his personality rubs me the wrong way. Maybe it was the first assassination and his reaction to the little boy that saw him. That was fucking creepy. Then the other characters so far are either unlikable or bland. The Brit grew on me by the end of my playing session last night, but so far I'm hoping that the other character arrives soon. I think I know where the story is going with this, but I'll have to wait and see.
The interface is awful. The best interface the game has offered so far has been in Assassin's Creed 2. From there it has gotten progressively worse. While in Brotherhood and Revelations I understand that there were more tools, weapons and functions to incorporate, it just got messy. I do not like what they've done for this game so far. One major fault is the guns. I got so frustrated last night because the player can't just autolock on a target the same way. Now British McAssassin must lock-on, which only improves accuracy and zooms in a little, then the player has to move to aim. It took me WAY too long to figure out how to blow up some god-damned barrels, right after it took me WAY too long to figure out how to switch weapons. I had to put up with British McAssassin pulling his sword out and flailing around like a moron for minutes on end while I just raged. There was another part where I had an ally following me and was supposed to make him hide so the guards wouldn't detect us. I got fed up with trying to target hiding places for him so I decided to experiment a little. I decided to just avoid the guards on my own, leaving my ally to flail around the guards and rooftops on his own. He wasn't detected, even when he walked right in front of the guards.
In addition, I couldn't figure out how to open "e-mails" that the player gets and I couldn't access game information (as in the info the player is given to give historical background or character profiles) until I was off the bloody ship. Half the time I was wondering what the hell I was supposed to be doing or pressing because the "tutorial" dialogues in the corner of the screen only appear for a few seconds, then they never appear again. Thank God I played the other games so I had an idea of how to play despite the new commands and features the developers put into the game. I cringe to think of what newcomers to the series will have to go through.
Lastly, this game is SUPER buggy (though I shouldn't be surprised...the game uses Havoc). The other games had minor problems, but so far in the 30-40 minutes I have played so far, I have seen horses standing on the sides of walls (as in they are VERTICAL to the player), floating guns, broken lip movements in cut scenes, mugs flying out of people's hands to rocket into the ceiling and curbs of the street launching British McAssassin up a couple feet. While this all highly entertaining, it is really off-putting. I can't get into the story when conversations involve characters staring creepily, speaking without moving their lips or other parts of their faces. I can accomplish the same level of immersion by playing with two plastic dolls.
Because of these elements, I have a bad first impression of the game. It doesn't do everything wrong however. For instance, I really like the way eavesdropping missions are handled. Pickpocketing got an upgrade from just ramming into people as the player passes them. Now the player must actively work around guards and sneak up from behind to pick pockets. Lockpicking was an interesting, but completely unnecessary (and a little annoying) aspect that the developers added. I appreciate the attempt to bring more skills an assassin would have into the game though. The small details are interesting too, such as the random (if sometimes boring) conversations you can have with various people and the little events that occur in the background (such as stealing fruit or someone getting tackled).
As for combat, I'd say it's about as good as the other games in terms of the melee. I saw little difference If anything, I thought it was a little more difficult as there weren't as many parry or deflect kills that Brotherhood and Revelations were notorious for. Though, I was disappointed that I couldn't pick up a broom I found and beat people with it. As for the guns and ranged...well I've already raged about that. Oh except the reload times. That was frustrating. Yeah, I get it's historically accurate and guns at that time actually took that long to reload, but this slows the game down too much. I'm glad that the enemy's aim is shit, otherwise Id be dead before I got halfway through reloading. I sincerely hope that better guns in the game have shorter reload times.
The freerunning is as awesome as ever. I forgot all the problems when I finally got on the roof and ran around dodging soldiers and leaping between houses. Running on the roofs also make A LOT of noise, which I find hilarious because I just imagine the people inside wondering what the hell all the thumping noises are. I haven't bothered to go after the pages yet as they always disappear before I can figure out a) what's going on, and b) where the hell the pages are.
Also, you can pet dogs, cats and sheepies. I haven't tried to pet anything else yet, but I hope that the player encounters other, maybe wilder, animals. I would love to try and pet a bear. Regardless, I thought that was a cute little addition. I just hope British McAssassin can't get tapeworm...
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