Assassin's Creed III (PS3)
an inconsistent and somewhat bland experience.
Gameplay:
melee combat is largely the same. they rearranged the controls for shooting, and countering.
free running can be fluid (depending on how predetermined your path is) or plain godawful if you deviate too much. this is my main gripe with the game. i would've liked to have two separate buttons for sprinting and "free running" since they added so many little things within the cities that will throw your character off with one flick of your thumbstick. it gets highly frustrating with all the glitches involved.
free running in the Frontier pose the same problems but to a lesser extent. you'll find yourself jumping from one identical tree to the next.
the horse mechanic is clunky and damn near useless when you're off the roads. a small rock or a fallen log will stop it completely and, if that wasn't bad enough, the X button (of all buttons... if you play RDR regularly this will PISS YOU OFF) spurs OR rears the horse which serves NO purpose other than to fail your mission when you're chasing somebody and there's a time limit. i have no idea why it's there.
upgrading your ship, and the naval battles is an absolutely amazing experience however. it's the highest point of the game for me, which says a lot for a series that's supposed to be about assassinating folks. perhaps there should've been more of it. Ubisoft could totally make a full game out of it.
Graphics:
relatively the same as it's predecessors; nothing in particular stands out as an improvement. it's color palette is VERY similar to Red Dead Redemption. in fact, it could be mistaken for RDR at times.
there's lots of little glitches here and there that nibble at your feet like: NPCs randomly disappearing, clipping into objects, your character getting stuck/unresponsive, environment "holes" etc. the day/night cycle was cool but like many things in the game, it's not seamless. when you initiate a mission during the day sometimes the following cutscene will be at night.
the two major cities available (Boston and New York) are identically bland. lots of brown and well... more brown. most buildings are short, small, and sporadic to a point where free running on rooftops seem pointless. they're much more organic and interactive compared to previous cities in the series i suppose but the overall setting lacks a "wow" factor. nothing so far has compared to how simply amazing Venice was.
Story:
it takes it's time and develops itself well but, overall i didn't care for it. the revolutionary war setting, and the characters weren't that intriguing for me. you're often jumping from one place and time to another which made the middle parts somewhat convoluted.
they throw a lot of prop characters at you by the way and nobody memorable. Ezio was a better developed, well rounded, and lively character with a brilliant voice actor, Connor however was um stoic? his wooden delivery from beginning to end bored me to tears. awful character.
there was no urge for me to chase and kill the bad guys this time. ACII clearly had the better set up and pay off at the end. i was just going through the motions with this one.
an inconsistent and somewhat bland experience.
Gameplay:
melee combat is largely the same. they rearranged the controls for shooting, and countering.
free running can be fluid (depending on how predetermined your path is) or plain godawful if you deviate too much. this is my main gripe with the game. i would've liked to have two separate buttons for sprinting and "free running" since they added so many little things within the cities that will throw your character off with one flick of your thumbstick. it gets highly frustrating with all the glitches involved.
free running in the Frontier pose the same problems but to a lesser extent. you'll find yourself jumping from one identical tree to the next.
the horse mechanic is clunky and damn near useless when you're off the roads. a small rock or a fallen log will stop it completely and, if that wasn't bad enough, the X button (of all buttons... if you play RDR regularly this will PISS YOU OFF) spurs OR rears the horse which serves NO purpose other than to fail your mission when you're chasing somebody and there's a time limit. i have no idea why it's there.
upgrading your ship, and the naval battles is an absolutely amazing experience however. it's the highest point of the game for me, which says a lot for a series that's supposed to be about assassinating folks. perhaps there should've been more of it. Ubisoft could totally make a full game out of it.
Graphics:
relatively the same as it's predecessors; nothing in particular stands out as an improvement. it's color palette is VERY similar to Red Dead Redemption. in fact, it could be mistaken for RDR at times.
there's lots of little glitches here and there that nibble at your feet like: NPCs randomly disappearing, clipping into objects, your character getting stuck/unresponsive, environment "holes" etc. the day/night cycle was cool but like many things in the game, it's not seamless. when you initiate a mission during the day sometimes the following cutscene will be at night.
the two major cities available (Boston and New York) are identically bland. lots of brown and well... more brown. most buildings are short, small, and sporadic to a point where free running on rooftops seem pointless. they're much more organic and interactive compared to previous cities in the series i suppose but the overall setting lacks a "wow" factor. nothing so far has compared to how simply amazing Venice was.
Story:
it takes it's time and develops itself well but, overall i didn't care for it. the revolutionary war setting, and the characters weren't that intriguing for me. you're often jumping from one place and time to another which made the middle parts somewhat convoluted.
they throw a lot of prop characters at you by the way and nobody memorable. Ezio was a better developed, well rounded, and lively character with a brilliant voice actor, Connor however was um stoic? his wooden delivery from beginning to end bored me to tears. awful character.
there was no urge for me to chase and kill the bad guys this time. ACII clearly had the better set up and pay off at the end. i was just going through the motions with this one.
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