Get Assassin's Creed III [Online Game Code]
CUSTOMER REVIEW
Pros:
* Combat system was fun to use, although I did run into difficulty using enemies as human shields. It would not always work as it should which was incredibly frustrating.
* Town graphics / rendering were upgraded from previous versions
* It's Assassin's Creed
* Connor is a bada$$ when the combat system is working properly and that is fun to see and do.
* Desmond's missions. Awesome. Finally got to see him in live action on missions which was great.
* Weather. The added rain affects were awesome. Wish these could've existed in Italy with some of those scenes -- would've looked great.
* Climbing animation was significantly upgraded which was great!
* They developed the game in DX11 for the PC. Very happy to see them utilize the vastly superior PC hardware instead of just direct-porting the inferior console version to PC as they have in the past. I have played the game on XBOX as well, and it is no comparison. To use a common car comparison -- playing this game on the XBOX compared to the PC is like driving a Ford Taurus (XBOX) compared to a Corvette (PC).
* "Tomb Missions". These are now replaced with what are called "Captain Kidd" missions. It is basically a mystery you are trying to solve which is actually pretty cool. You get some great visuals in these missions that look AWESOME on the PC in DX11.
* Naval Missions. As part of your Assassin career, you also Captain "The Aquila", a warship you revive during the game and go out and perform various tasks (rescues, escorts, attacks, etc.). These missions are pretty fun.
Cons:
* Music. The Music is a significant downgrade from games like AC2 / ACB. The magic the music created in those games is non-existent in this one.
* Story. Very scattered and inconsistent story plot. Also the story overall was way too....sad. At every turn you're being betrayed, having family members / friends killed or being forced to kill them yourself. Bad ending both for Connor and for Desmond. Very anti-climactic. I hate the direction they are going with the series as far as the storyline. Also the way the start of each sequence forces you into a cutscene absolutely kills the chronology of the side missions and when they should be completed. Need a far better tie-in. Should have had the primary sequences just be placed on the map so you could start the next sequence when ready as far as the main storyline and have a chance to complete side missions before seeing an urgent cut scene that made you feel like you had to rush off to finish the primary story.
* Connor's personality. They made him into a robot. He has very little emotional development throughout the game. Some people say he seems "dumb". I don't want to say that, but he definitely has no personality, making it tough to get attached to him the way we did with Ezio.
* Hunting / Frontier: Waste of development time. Added nothing in my opinion.
* Mission Design. There were a number of missions that were just AWFUL as far as how they were designed. You had to perform certain tasks in a very precise manner or you would desynchronize. The other AC games provided freedom in how you wanted to complete a mission, and that's something this game missed in many instances.
* Side Quests. I miss the Courtesan, Thief, and Assassination contracts from previous games. This game had pathetic Assassination contracts (I mean really, there is literally zero backstory to them to tie in to the game), and the Liberation missions were only mediocre at best.
* Limited relationships. Connor is 27 by the time the game ends and has no female counterpart. This sort of ties in to the "robot" reference I made before. No guy is 27 and has zero romantic interest. Another part of the Ezio storyline that was badly missed here.
* The ending. Both Desmond & Connor's endings are so anticlimactic. As a Desmond fan, I *hate* how they have chosen to "close" his storyline. I don't want to give away the specifics, so I'll leave it at that. Connor's ending is also very open-ended, and so far, I'm just not attached to him at all as a character -- I am really hoping they can do a better job of developing his personality in future games, because he doesn't have one currently.
Other Thoughts:
Overall, I'm pretty disappointed with the game. Given how much it was super-hyped leading up to its release, it's been pretty mixed in terms of overall reception from the fanbase. AC is an absolutely epic game series. In 30 years of gaming, it is probably #1 or #2 on my list of best game-series. I really hope the crew that did AC2 and ACB are recalled to work on future games because those guys and gals just "got it" and knew how to make a magical game. Really hoping we head to France next for the French Revolution. The backstory has been created with Lafayette meeting Connor.
You might be wondering why I gave it 2/5 eggs since I still had a good list of pros. The ending of the game is so epically bad (Desmond specifically) along with how bad the storyline flows that it's just not a good game. There are also numerous bugs in the game that should have easily been fixed before release. My hope is that the next game (the DLC is on its way, maybe it will help also) will reinvigorate the series without destroying everything that it has been able to stand for thus far because this series is frickin awesome overall.
Performance -- I've read that ATI / AMD video cards are having performance problems with the game currently. Given that I'm running a GTX 680 and NVidia released a beta driver a few days before AC3's release, I have had flawless game performance, so for you ATI guys, I'm hopeful they will release a hotfix / beta driver for you shortly so you can play the game. Performance for me was great though -- 1920x1200 with every setting maxed out with the exception of antialiasing, which I dialed down a bit.
Gaming Rig:
Vista 64-bit
ASRock 990FX Extreme4
16GB DDR3
Phenom II 955
NVidia GTX 680 (310.54 Beta Driver)