Welcome to recap city population you; Desmond did a bunch of
stuff including sitting in a chair and then walking about a bit, maybe a bit of
climbing and very little stabbing but hey that could change in the all new
faffing-about creed.
From what you may gather, I didn't really think the last few
assassins creed games were all that and a bag of fair-trade organic peace
crisps. I thought the first game was ‘interesting’ when I say interesting I
mean their take on stealth was certainly ‘unique’. Ask anyone what their
definition of stealth is and stabbing someone and running away won’t be
high on their list. You could remove all the important assassinations and
lengthy monologues and it could be renamed Muggers Creed. (Not to mention in this game you collect trophies from
your victims; Serial Killer Creed?!)
Now the titanic stinking elephant in the room; what was up
with those bloody spin-offs? ‘Oh you hate Ezio well maybe you just haven’t got
to know him enough. We’ll make two more games where he does pretty much nothing
except buy everything in the country and fight an inconceivable wall of money
buying paintings and maps to find treasure!?’ I played brotherhood and
revelations and it’s never good in a game if you prefer organising a
spreadsheet of fictional assassins carrying out imaginary missions than the
actual main missions.
I’d come to the realisation that Ubisoft were trying to
bring about the return of the great old ones by draining our money with poorly
made games about messing about and stabbing people in silly hats, slowly
lowering our expectations of games and storyline and life in general, preparing
us for the return of Cthulhu.
So it came as a surprise to me, that I absolutely adored
Assassins Creed 3.
First impressions of this game is; why is Desmond the only
assassin to wear jeans? How does he do all that climbing in them?
The story (although the last two games made a bloody mess of
Desmond’s side) is incredibly engaging, the characters are very nice. The game
looks and sounds great especially with the addition of snow that crunches
satisfyingly under foot. The combat as always is fantastic and it’s got even
better surprisingly. The controls have been made a lot more user friendly. You
no longer need to hold R1 to scratch your balls, just to run or free run and he
has only one run as opposed to a million like the last game only two types of
swim; fast and slow as opposed to the bazillion in Brotherhood. I like also how
they tell you about all these improvements in an email within the game telling
you that they've improved the animus, I like little touches like that, sort of
messing with the fourth wall.
The first mission in the animus is in London which is really
cool. You play Haytham Kenway an English gentlemen/ruthless stab merchant. Yeah
he’s not the Indian on the front cover you play him later it’s all a bit
complicated and spoiler territory so I’ll try to tip toe that as much as I can.
It just has lovely pacing, lots of games these days just seem to want to get
the introduction to the game out of the way to get to the action, which is a
mistake. In any form of narrative the most important parts are always the
beginning and the end, it has to hook you at the beginning and leave a lasting
impression at the end. This game just doesn't feel rushed, but also doesn't get
boring, they've struck a nice balance and it just feels right.
They've added a lock picking system which is good because
that made them decrease the amount of treasure boxes. So there’s less faffing
about collecting them all, there are just less with more stuff in them and
they’re a bit harder to get to. Then you need to pick the lock, so it’s a bit
more satisfying than just opening a million deal or no deal boxes in quick succession.
Also there is less synchronizing, I feel like they've streamlined the game, they've tried to reduce all the annoying time wasting in the last games. Not completely eliminating them, just reducing them and I think it works. Also they got rid of that bollocks when they ask you if you want to continue as if there’s another option; ‘Oh no Assassins Creed I don’t want Ezio to enter the ancient tomb of awesomeness, instead I want him to go home and eat digestive biscuits’. Also there’s no annoying health system just a nice thumb-suck system, I’ve got nothing against health systems it’s just in AC it was more of an unnecessary annoyance than something that added tension.
First thing to impress me was that the currency of the game;
good old pound sterling and there are kids and animals in the game. First thing
to disappoint me is that you couldn't stab said children and animals. I think
it’s the first game to actually have kids and domesticated animals just there,
which I really like. I think it really hurts realism when a game is entirely
populated by adults and old people like a reverse Logan’s Run. The kids are annoying, they take the role of the
beggars in the first game and the minstrels in the second; the annoying shits
that get in the way hence my annoyance at not being able to stab them.
Another improvement I think was a crucial failure in the
last games was the economy. The balance between earning and spending was not
right. You need to be constantly chasing money and new items and weapons if you
can just save up and buy everything and create this tidal wave of money it
makes having money pointless because you can just buy everything and there’s no
challenge. I love the trading system in the game, having to balance buying
ingredients and crafting and trading goods as well as finding new craftsmen and
recipes is really fun for anal people like. There’s also a really nice hunting
system which a lot of the time is your main source of income. A bear pelt for
instance is a lot of money because of how much effort it takes to kill one.
It’s just a nice change from the other games, because if you needed money in
that game you just waited or went treasure hunting, in this game you actually
just get on your horse and jump on a bear.
Another vital improvement from Assassins creed 2 was
improving the homestead. Now in 2 this was just a soulless raising of numbers.
You just invigorated the economy by opening more shops which improved the town
and you felt no real connection to the town or the people and didn't really
notice the changes. This game is the complete opposite, instead of buying new
businesses you invite or hire tradesmen to live on your land. So instead of
dealing with just shops, it makes it more about the people and you get to know
them and help them grow their business and you realise you’re not fixing a
broken down town you’re actually building a thriving frontier town. You don’t
feel like you’re raising numbers on a chalk board, it feels like you’re
actually improving the quality of the people’s lives, people have their homes
taken away by the English you give them a chance to come live with you.
Now for the best part of the game; the naval missions, the
missions where Desmond sits about picking fluff out of his belly button... I
mean the bits where you get to be a pirate! I started playing this and I thought;
‘Bloody hell, another Assassins Creed mini game disaster’ but it was amazing. Fun
and so different, a really great change of pace, from running in the streets
and stabbing cockneys to strategically commanding a huge naval vessel, with a
rag tag crew of misanthropes. It reminded me of star wars rogue squadron but
with cannons and sails instead of proton torpedoes and s-foils. You can disable
ships and board them all while weathering stormy waters or cruising the Caribbean.
I honestly love it, why aren't there more pirate games?! GTA Manowar!
Also weirdly I loved the Desmond bits as well because they
don’t have a hud or any attack telegraphing so it makes the animus stuff feel
like a video game which makes Desmond’s levels more ‘real’, they draw a line
between the two, they’re the same but they’re so different killing someone in
Desmond’s missions holds a lot more weight than in the animus because it’s like
that already happened.
So in conclusion buy this game and try to forget the last
two ever existed.
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