Assassins Creed 3

While waiting in line for the live demo of Assassins Creed 3, I realized there were a plethora of awards for “Best of E3” or “Most Anticipated”, you know, awards of that nature.  Naturally, my expectations for the game were high and luckily I was not disappointed.

Everybody probably already knows the backdrop of what time period Assassins Creed 3 takes place, but for those of you who are living under a rock, allow me to give you the cliff notes version.  AC3 takes place during a very important time for the United States and helped shaped the super powers of today, the Revolutionary War.

Our assassin this time around goes by the name of Connor and he is part Native American, part English and one hundred percent badass.  For the first time in the Assassins Creed franchise, your main playground will be in the wilderness and not buildings.  Instead of flying from ledges and rooftops, Connor will be swinging from tree branches and rocks.  It's such a refreshing feeling to see our lead role in a wilderness environment instead of climbing rooftop after rooftop.   Just like the previous Assassin Creed titles; Connor jumps from branch to branch with fluidly one would expect.  Just as fluid as Connor travels; his fighting may even be more fluid.  After the ten minute demo, I was completely impressed on how Connor dispatched his foes so easily.  This time around, Connor is equipped with an array of weaponry and believe me, he uses all of them to his full advantage.  From the tomahawk, bow and arrow to your assassins blades you are familiar with, Connor has many different options on how to kill the red coats.  It was neat to see in the demo Connor chasing down an enemy and while running, there was a weapon stand with rifles just sitting there to be used...  While running, Connor nonchalantly grabs a rifle, stabs an enemy with the bayonet while shooting another one seconds later.  The fluidity of the combat is what has me excited about playing AC3.  Connor makes it look easy the way he can dispatch multiple foes.  Another new combat feature that is being introduced to the Assassins Creed series is Naval combat.  For the first time, players will get to fight against other ships and will have the ability to board enemy ships.  In a series that has been going strong for awhile now, it's nice to see new features and combat abilities being implemented into the game.

Even though AC3 looks incredible, something that still kind of bugs me is that when Connor is fighting multiple people, no more than two people engage Connor at a time.  It's your typical brawler in that not all the enemies engage at the same time.  They wait for their comrades to get killed, then they jump in and give it a go.  I understand developers have to do this for balancing issues, but with a game that has so much polish to it, you wouldn't think that would make such a big deal for me, I guess I'm just trying to find things to nitpick. 

Overall, AC3 looks like an amazing game and I have a feeling that it's going to be the best Assassins Creed title yet.  The new weapons and fighting techniques, the fact that the game takes place outside in the wilderness and at sea, being in a different time era than the previous titles all add up to the most impressive game I saw at E3.  All those awards Ubisoft received for "Best of E3" and "Most Anticipated" are much deserved.