Assassin's Creed 3: Remastered Review

AC3 is a game I do have some major nostalgia for, I remember playing it around the time of release and while I certainly recall critics at the time who enjoyed the game, months if not weeks afterwards more people were starting to turn on it. I was heavily defending it at that point but after that, I was slowly starting to get more and more apathetic towards the franchise due it not consistently not being the "social stealth game" that was promised since AC1 and the series after that game drifting further and further away from that. However, I recently have gotten a little softer on the series and saw some of the cutscenes on Youtube and I bought a massive AC bundle on Switch so I decided to jump back into AC3 again through the remastered version. All in all, I just feel a massive sense of indifference towards it, nothing terrible but nothing great either.

I'll start with the story and this is where the game shines and also could be better. It's hard to say if AC3's story is consistently enjoyable. There are some who love it and those who can't stand it but I'm somewhere in the middle. There are parts of AC3's story I really enjoyed, Haytham Kenway is a great character and works as both a hero and a villain due to how likeable he is, but not only that but he also acts heroic and shows signs of weakness despite him becomeing a villain later on. His voice actor and dialogue does a great job at selling him as this witty and charming fellow. The twist with him and his group being a Templars is great and is pretty decently done in how it doesn't spell it out to you right away and with how likeable, heroic and vunerable Haytham can be, the player wants him succeed despite him being someone the player has to stop later in the game.

Connor is a character I'm mixed on, some aspects of his story I do enjoy like how every time Connor kills his targets, it's never a triumphant victory but a hollow one, every time Connor gets a kill, the Templars believe they are doing the right thing barring the exception of Thomas Hickey but even with him, he's so honest about what he does that at the very least you can't call him a hypocrite. The AC1 story fan in me was losing his mind at the time and even now seeing the series go back to this style of storytelling as opposed to the dull action movies and 80s action cartoons the Ezio trilogy tried to be. It was nice to see Ubisoft due this.

However, some issues I have is that the Homestead missions are intregral to the story and show more of Connor's character but the thing is, these are entirely optional. Many who like Connor are the ones who did the Homestead missions. I mainly just watched the cutscenes on Youtube since the gameplay in these missions are rather dull with less bombast and excitement compared to the main campaign. Achilles' death is even in these missions which making them optional even more bizarre.

The prologue is also a little too long while the Haytham parts are charming, the Connor sections take him about halfway through the game to become an actual Assassin which makes a good half of AC3's campaign a tutorial, which makes for a dull experience for someone who only does main missions which is also probably why the Homestead missions are optional since the game would feel even longer.

There also seems to be too much knowledge on American history to understand what is going on in the plot. There's events like the Boston Tea Party and the Battle on Bunker Hill, which seems like it would be more significant for people who know the history of it. A big issue I have is that Geroge Washington's inept ability to lead is told by Charles Lee and the Templars which is hard to take seriously since they are the characters the player is trying to stop and it seems you need to know the actual history of him to properly understand or how stuff like the Crown making their moves and the aforementioned Washington stuff is shown off screen.

I have talked a lot about the story, but the gameplay is honestly just too little of note to write about which is why so much of this review was about it.

Combat is pretty basic, there is a little going on but you mainly just need to counter and occasionally guard break then win. Health also regens fast when out of combat.

Stealth is still not good since you still have no dedicated crouch button and when an enemy sees you slightly you can't hide back in the bushes again.

Parkour while I like you keep momentum after an assassination is still basically, "hold the trigger to do everything" which can lead to you climbing on things you never meant to. The environments are also too big making getting from mission to mission a big annoyance especially in the cities since there is no fast travel.

The missions feel scripted and less free form like they are from a Rockstar game. I got used to it after a point but if you try to anything not in the script, it's a game over.

Overall, AC3 is just an "okay" game. I don't love or dislike it.