Assassin's Creed III: Now With Bears

I finished Assassin's Creed 3 and I'm going to talk about with as few spoilers as possible. If you want to go in completely fresh and you've been avoiding reviews for it because you're waiting for Santa to drop it down the chimney, then don't read on.

It's definitely one of the best games, if not THE best, in the series. I played the first one and it was alright. Incredibly repetitive, but great concept. This one is a huge leap from that. With all the side missions, the homestead, the crafting, the trading, the recruits, and the naval missions, it keeps you engrossed in the world. And I love killing all those fucking bears. (Hint: Bear pelts bring a lot of money in the convoys.)

I wasn't sure how I would feel about the naval missions, but by the end I loved them. They were my favorite non-main-story part. I hope that future games have the naval missions, or better yet, an entire game using that naval battle system - interactive Master and Commander. I also really liked the way they revamped Assassin's Guild. It was nice to have before, but it was too time consuming. Now, things are a lot easier. The best part in this game, is that your Assassins don't die. They just get injured and sit out for a while.

We also get to spend a bit more time with Desmond. The first game, I kind of forgot he was who I was actually playing and in the most meta-video game ever, I was playing him, playing someone else. We've spent more and more time with him, but there were nice little interjections where you got to play him in the real world and see that he was actually becoming an Assassin.

Now, this is where it will get a lot more spoilerish. Story wise this outing was a little mixed. I love this game series because of the historical stories and their attention to detail. In talking about the Revolutionary War, they were surprisingly accurate aside from throwing Connor into huge moments. Assassins apparently helped a lot more than Miss Martin told me in fourth grade. Connor apparently helped Paul Revere on his ride. I like to think in an alternate universe, they were a buddy cop movie.

It was nice how they included historical characters to explain the other viewpoint of events. Why the Loyalists wanted to stay with England and why the War wasn't necessarily the best thing for everyone. It made you think.

 Outside of the historical story, this one left me wanting more. This game marks the end of the current story arc. If you've been playing the other games, you know there is a huge solar flare coming that is threatening to wipe out the Earth. Well, that happens at the end, so we know this little arc is over. But it was a little anti-climatic. I was hoping for more, but Assassin's Creed is too popular to just end, so I understand that they have to leave it open for more.

What I'd like to see, is maybe tackle the Civil War. There's a nice scene towards the end where Connor witneses slaves being auctioned off. Connor would be too old to get involved in the Civil War, but maybe he has an apprentice? Maybe even two Assassins on opposite sides of the conflict. Connor is still pretty young at the end of his story so I could see a sequel telling the rest of his tale - unless that will be addressed in DLC.

I also think Feudal Japan would be good. Take the story to Asia to get ninjas and samurais involved. The French Revolution might be a good time. Perhaps something in South America? Russia? I think enough time was spent with Ezio and Connor focusing mainly on the western world, that I'd like to see some time spent with Assassins in the eastern world. 

Achilles has also definitely seen some shit. Maybe it'd be cool to go back and discover his backstory. How he started as Assassin, how he came to the Colonies, then how he got to the Homestead. I'd like to see a young Achilles just butchering Templars. Whatever the next game will be. I imagine we'll find out soon. 

Hear more talk about Assassin's Creed 3 in Episode 48 of But You're Wrong: "Pigeon's Creed Part 1."