Review: Assassin's Creed 3

Howdy folks!

Now the fifth installment in the series, Assassin's Creed 3 has made quite the impact on the gaming community. With this all said, the final game of the series sees us as Connor Kenway AKA Ratonhnhake:ton (Pronounced Ra-doon-na-kay-doon), the closest ancestor to Desmond Miles we have ever seen. We follow his story. While Altair's story was of redemption and Ezio's being one of revenge, Connor's story is a mix: he seeks revenge for the death of his mother, he seeks freedom not only for his people but the people of the new nation and also honour for the fallen Colonist Assassins.
What is first off out the gate is the new stylised gameplay. New controls means that veterans of the game series will struggle to adapt and sure enough, it took me a while to stop pressing A to jump everywhere! Free running is completely controlled by holding RT, everything from running, sprinting, pushing guards out of your path and jumping from one rooftop to the next. Combat has made Connor definitely the most destructive and deadly Assassin yet. While many fans will argue whether Altair or Ezio is better, Connor's simple yet brutal kills can take down multiple opponants with everything at his disposal; from his Tomahawk to even ripping an enemy's throat out!
Sound effects are quite imaginative; squaking seagulls at the docks eventually fade away as you make your way into town; quickly replaced with soft chatter and the various voices of animals. Pigs, chickens, cats, dogs, the list goes on from what you can hear and interact with.
Graphics look pretty great, especially during cutscenes and gameplay. Smaller cutscenes and the promised larger battles are quite brilliant but the AI's lack human movement as they all move in the exact same order or in the same motions in order.
Voice acting was not only effective but quite well done. Connor (Noah Watts) gave quite a good performance but lacked the strength in emotion for many of the harder scenes. The same can be said with AC veteran actor Nolan North (Desmond), a stillness in his voice 80% during his cutscenes. Many of his personal scenes relied on the secondary cast such as John De Lancie (William Miles) and Danny Wallace (Shawn Hastings) for comedic relief. Neil Napier (Charles Lee) was the man of the hour, his character development quite noticible from quiet and respectful to boystrous and utterly evil. Without revealing many spoilers, Connor's story will definitely be more satisfying for new comers than the Desmond story. True, it is great to finally play more of the game but the game doesn't explain many of the plot twists revealed in the other media such as DLC, books, Indie games ect and it's hard to still stay in the storyline when you don't know the backstory.
Multiplayer, while with fantastic graphics and gameplay, sadly offers nothing too remotely new. The same previous game modes remain but little more other than new maps and characters. While the gameplay is fun and creative, it doesn't take long to get repetitive.

In summary, Assassins Creed 3 is definitely the best game in the series thus far, but its storytelling needs a little more work. And while the fans of the series, such as myself, will continue to wonder where the game will go from here with the rumoured AC4 already being in the works, all we can say is prepare for a game that becomes addictive, fun and laugh at how the world becomes your toy.
Out of 10, I give Assassin's Creed 3 an 9/10

Good Points:
+ Fun gameplay and style
+ Connor's story tragic, yet greatly made
+ PET ANIMALS! ^.^
+ Mutliplayer can be fun....

Bad Points:
+ .....but gets old fast.
+ Desmond's story not fully fleshed out
+ Game never fully tells backstory of specific characters

Assassin's Creed 3 is out now for $78