Product Features

Genre: Adventure
Publisher: Ubisoft
Release Date: October 31, 2012
Available Platforms: PlayStation 3

Assassins Creed 3 Exclusive Edition PS3

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A new assassin will rise as a new country is born Assassin s Creed III continues the stealth, action and open-world gameplay that is the series trademark, transporting the action to the American Revolution in the late 1800s. Our new Assassin is Connor Kenway half-English, half-Native American, and taking orders from General George Washington himself Assassin s Creed on PlayStation 3 features:The largest and most ambitious Assassin s Creed Game yetAction in the city and in the wild frontierMore missions with greater control on how you choose to playTraditional stealth and parkour gameplayImmense new Naval battlesThe final chapter in Desmond s storyPlayStation 3 Exclusive Content Assassin's Creed III promises the biggest Assassin's Creed game to date. The locations are much larger than in previous...

Dave Wallace November 18, 2012 PS3

****

Well, it's that time of year again. The time of year when gamers have only one question on their minds: what's going to be this Christmas's biggest title?

There have already been a fair few high-profile releases in recent weeks, such as Resident Evil 6 and Dishonored - and there are some big hitters that are only just starting to make their appearance on shop shelves, like Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and Halo 4. But for my money, the race is already over with the release of Assassin's Creed III.

Those of you who are fans of the Assassin's Creed series will be relieved to learn that this latest entry in the saga doesn't reinvent the wheel by completely overhauling the mechanics of the game. There's still the same winning mix of stealth, exploration, intrigue and free-roaming adventure to be enjoyed here, in a manner that will be immediately familiar to those with previous experience of the franchise. However, with the release of this fifth major game in the series (yes, despite being titled '3', there have actually been four AC games released before this one), the developers Ubisoft have obviously decided to switch things up a little.

Most noticeably, there's a big change in terms of the era and location in which the game is set. Just as the Assassin's Creed series previously jumped from the Crusades in the middle-east (in the first game) to Renaissance Italy (in the next three), Assassin's Creed III transports us to the American Revolution, opening up the franchise to a very different cast of characters and offering up some environments that are like nothing we've ever seen in the series so far. Whilst there's an initial concern that the townships and forests you get to explore in this game might not offer the same opportunities for high-altitude exploration and free-running acrobatics as the cities previously seen in the series, you soon come to realise that there are just as many towers, trees, rocky mountainsides - and even battleship masts - to clamber across and use strategically as you go about your stealthy business as a world-class assassin.

If anything, the new gameplay challenges offered by the new locations of Assassin's Creed III serve to freshen up a franchise that was in danger of becoming ever-so-slightly stale and repetitive. The two best additions, for me, are the outdoorsy-focused sections of the game - set in dense forests and on large, sprawling plains - and the sea-bound levels, in which you get to take control of 18th-century warships and engage in explosive sea battles with your enemies. Yes, there's a slight sense that some of the hunting and frontier-exploring that you get up to is a bit reminiscent of 'Red Dead Redemption', but - perhaps unsurprisingly - these sections look even more beautiful in Assassin's Creed III than they did in Rockstar's cowboy game (which, lest we forget, is getting on for three years old now).

And 'beautiful' really is the word when it comes to describing Assassin's Creed III. Benefiting from Ubisoft's ground-up reinvention of the core game engine, the title somehow enables the PS3 to deliver the kind of visuals that many gamers thought would only be possible with the advent of the next generation of devices. As the huge panoramic vistas of North America open up before you, you'll feel like you can see each individual rock, tree branch and leaf. The town areas feel also more detailed than ever, populated by a diverse mix of characters (both friend and foe) and displaying some distinctive modern architectural features compared with the older settings of the previous games. Costumes are also incredibly vibrant and stylish, contrasting the traditional white garb of your new Assassin - the mohawk-wielding Connor, who has native American ancestry - with splashes of bold red and blue from the military uniforms of his opponents. And less obviously, some of the games subtler effects really help to sell the reality of the world you're playing in - such as the smooth, surging motion of the sea as a wave rocks your boat, or the delicate sprinklings of ultra-realistic snow that makes you feel cold just by looking at it.

As well as featuring some new innovations and looking fantastic, the game also represents excellent value for money. Despite having bought the game on release and played it for a good couple of weeks, I still feel as though I've barely scratched its surface. This is largely because - as with the previous AC titles - I tend to spend so much time going off to explore the game's huge environment that it takes quite an effort of will to concentrate on completing the missions that actually earn you progress in the core storyline. It's not that these missions aren't fun, either - there's plenty of variety here, with the stakes escalating throughout the game as you're asked to undertake more and more complex tasks. It's just that running around and doing your own thing in the world of Assassin's Creed III is just so much fun that you could almost release it as a game in its own right.

Truth be told, the only bits of any of the AC games that I've found tedious have been the present-day sections that deal with Desmond Miles - but even here, those parts are given a new urgency, with a strong sense that the storyline is building up to a definite climax (as we get closer and closer to the potentially-apocalyptic end of 2012).

So what are my complaints with the game? Well, they're pretty minor, but they are there. Firstly, the hand-to-hand combat mechanics have been slightly altered from previous titles - which will be fine for those who are coming to the AC franchise for the first time, but which requires a bit of re-learning for those of us who are set in our ways from having played the previous instalments. Second, there appear to be some odd little minor irritations that have been added to this game, for no apparent reason other than to get in your way and trip you up at crucial moments (like being attacked by little forest animals for no apparent reason). Maybe I'm just not polished enough to defend against these niggles yet, but it feels like an unnecessary complication. Finally, Connor simply isn't as charismatic as Ezio Auditore da Firenze (from 'Assassin's Creed II', 'Brotherhood' and 'Revelations'). His story is reasonably interesting, and has some neat twists and turns as you get further into the game, but I'd be surprised if the character has the stamina to sustain a three-game trilogy like Ezio did.

But none of these niggles should overshadow an excellent game that builds on its predecessors' strengths to deliver what is perhaps the ultimate stealth/assassin title available today. It's rare that I'm enthusiastic enough about a game to pay full-price for it on release day, but this one is really worth it.

And if you're not a gamer yourself but you're looking for a good Christmas present for that console geek in your life, then trust me: no-one is going to be disappointed to find Assassin's Creed III under their tree.