Recs.
Updated
Assassin's Creed III is an action-adventure game. You play as Connor, a Native American assassin who fights in the Revolutionary War while dealing with the templar threat against his own people.
SpecsUpdate
Pros
Pro Cool naval combat out on the open seas
Naval battles with your own ship and crew are an exciting new addition to the franchise. There are a good handful of missions where you get to navigate a huge frigate out in the open waters, getting hands-on with the full mechanics of steering while firing off cannons at enemy ships. There's a full crew aboard with you, helping to give plenty of liveliness to your surroundings as they shout in anger and cheer in victory as you go along, along with dynamic weather like raging storms that adds to the realism and intensity. It's a lot of fun and serves as a nice way to break things up from the usual stealth missions on foot.
Pro Interesting story of Assassins versus Templars
The story in Assassin's Creed III is full of intriguing ideologies and philosophies about the American Revolution. It's a familiar tale of liberty and freedom on the Assassin side of the American colonists and law and order on the Templar side of the British, but it still feels fresh. Playing as Connor, it's up to you to assassinate certain templar targets who oppress the masses and horde power for themselves. As you take them down, you learn about their views on controlling the populace, encouraging you to question if the assassins are truly on the right path. Thankfully, the game doesn't tell you what to think, leaving you to draw your own conclusions.
Pro Innovative multiplayer with online co-op for up to four friends
The multiplayer in Assassin's Creed III offers a unique experience. It mixes the series' stealth mechanics with cat and mouse gameplay through a few different multiplayer modes.
Manhunt is the most interesting one, where you play one round with one team of four as the hunters and the other team of four as the hunted. The hunters have to kill as many of the opposing team as possible in the allotted time, whether it's through pure speed that offers fewer points, sneaky doses of lethal poison for tons of bonus points, and plenty more. The hunted, if they spot their hunters, can use certain defensive abilities like smoke bombs and disguises to outsmart their opponents, stun them, and then run away.
Other modes like Wanted offer a pure PvP experience with you against the full lobby of other players, where you try to stay hidden while making kills. For all gameplay modes, there's the neat, but chilling effect of hearing whispers as an opponent gets closer to you; trying to distinguish which way they're coming from while staying hidden. This and the sheer unpredictability of the gameplay makes the multiplayer incredibly addicting and fun.
Pro Intuitive stealth gameplay
The stealth mechanics feel natural and fluid in how strategic they are.
While tracking your targets, you blend in with each city's citizens or climb up to the tops of buildings to perch there and avoid getting spotted by the templar or their guards. You can either wait for the perfect opportunity to strike with a hidden blade up your sleeve that silently assassinates your target, or you can go all-out and have a sword duel with them if you'd rather take a more aggressive approach. After they're dead, you make your escape and become incognito again.
Everything goes together nicely in a way that feels satisfying.
Pro Strong opening and first few hours of gameplay
The opening mission up to the end of the first act are incredible. It's a strong first impression where you play as a well-dressed and well-spoken man named Haytham, sneaking through a fancy theater during a performance in order to reach a target. The music is a perfect blend of atmospheric, tense sounds for stealth and the right tone for the high-class setting you're in.
Following that setpiece, the next handful of missions where you play as Haytham are a wonderful setup for the rest of the story. There's also a bold and clever plot twist at the end that's more surprising if you played the previous games in the series. Even though this setup is almost too good, since the rest of the game doesn't live up to the quality here, it's still great in its own right, doing its job to hook you into the story.