“Assassin’s Creed III” is probably the worst game I have ever played for the longest length of time. Now that does not mean the game is explicitly awful, just that it is very poorly designed and I feel ashamed for playing it for as long as I did. And there is something very wrong with that. I should not feel shame when playing an Assassin’s Creed game. I should be feeling childish glee as I hack and jump my way across ancient locales riddled with the world’s forgettable guards. Sure, we got some of that in AC3, but it just does not feel right this time around.
In AC3, Desmond Miles, the glorified framing device from the first two games, is taking control of an ancestor who lived during the American Revolution so he can find a key and maybe save the world because Ubisoft could not figure out anything blander for him to do. He is good enough acting as a method for the developers to immerse players with, but putting most of the game’s focus on him reveals the inherit boredom that Desmond possesses when compared to his far more interesting ancestors.
Not that it matters this time around anyway because Connor, the half-Native American assassin to be added to Desmond’s ever-increasing gene pool, is trying his hardest to be even blander than Desmond is. The past assassins in the franchise have had some great compelling motivation for their treks across ancient city rooftops: Altaïr’s redemption for being an arrogant jerk and Ezio’s raging revenge rollercoaster of good times. Meanwhile, Connor is motivated by a duty given to him to protect his people’s lands for Desmond to eventually use down the line. I suppose it works well enough if it were properly executed, but it was not and Connor instead comes off as being a Colonial-era Batman wanna-be. There are a few bright spots in the game, but those moments are few and far between and the biggest problem in the game constantly takes away from these moments.
This game is buggier than a termite mound with glitch after glitch assaulting the player’s enjoyment. These bugs are not endearing like the ones in Skyrim can be. They are only frustrating and constantly break the immersion that the franchise is built upon. And the mission design does nothing to aid the situation either. There are some pretty big historical events Connor takes part in, but the execution in showing us these events is just all wrong. “Assassin’s Creed III” is a cake taken out of the oven far too early.
