Master Miller – Metal Gear Solid

Infiltrating deep into Shadow Moses Island was never a one man operation, since Solid Snake had help from a whole team of support. Though not all of them were what they seemed either, the point of focus here is the memorable moment in the middle of the classic tactical espionage action game where Master Miller, the one you call for gameplay tips suddenly disappears. The trick is that the antagonist of the game, Liquid Snake, had killed Master Miller before the events of the game had even began, and had infiltrated your mission from the start to see every move you made.

Ahead of the launch of Assassin’s Creed Syndicate later this month, we’ve decided to go and look at all the mainline Assassin’s Creed games – that’s everything that was originally released on consoles, and at retail – and rank them all. It’s going to be an interesting way to celebrate the series that has made history cool again.

8. ASSASSIN’S CREED REVELATIONS

The thing with Revelations was that it wasn’t necessarily a bad game, even back at launch- unlike future games in the series, it launched without game breaking bugs, unlike future games, it didn’t suffer from mechanics that felt too dated, unlike future games, it didn’t suffer from trite mission design. But it just didn’t do anything well enough to stand out. It had no ambition, it threw in some vaguely tangentially related activities that murdered the game’s pacing (hello, bomb crafting and tower defense), and narratively, it was the very definition of filler, stalling the series’ momentum from Assassin’s Creed II’s excellent ending.

That said, the game definitely deserves some browny points for integrating the story of Ezio and Altair together excellently well, for concluding the Ezio saga satisfyingly, for setting up Assassin’s Creed III very well, and also for potentially being a better conclusion to the Assassin’s Creed franchise than III ever was. If only it actually played well too.

7. ASSASSIN’S CREED

The original Assassin’s Creed is the most dated game of the bunch, suffering from mind numbing repetition and very limited gameplay. But back when it first came out, there was nothing else like it- even then, it suffered from repetition and a dearth of things to do, but the game’s unique (at the time) take on stealth, combined with an actual emphasis on assassinations (gather intelligence, plan assassination, assassinate, escape), along with its incredibly fluid parkour and movement system, and the great historically authentic atmosphere that it weaved, made everyone stand up and take notice.

It was also a technical marvel, looking better than almost anything else on the market at the time, and narratively immediately sunk its hooks into people with the story of Desmond Miles, who was forcibly being held captive and exposed to a historical conspiracy. Playing Assassin’s Creed today is an almost painful experience, but at the time, there was nothing else like it.

6. ASSASSIN’S CREED III

Assassin’s Creed III was, on paper, perfect- it had a great setting (the American Revolution), a potentially great character (a Native American who gets pulled into the American War for Independence, and also the titanic struggle between the Assassins and the Templars), a complete overhaul of the series’ mechanics that had, by that time, started to show their age, the biggest map in the series, and almost too much stuff to do. Unfortunately, the game swung and missed- Assassin’s Creed III’s legacy is, in hindsight, largely one of disappointment.

The new traversal controls were problematic, as they combined climbing and running to one button, the combat was clunky thanks to the addition of guns, the mission design suffered from a crippling reliance and overabundance of eavesdropping and trailing (a specter that has continued to haunt Assassin’s Creed ever since), it was a disaster of pacing, with a ten hour long tutorial, it was buggy as hell at launch, almost to the point of being game breaking, the much hyped conclusion to the series’ arc was a bust, and none of its various elements gelled together too well.

All of that said, Assassin’s Creed III still was a game worth playing- it had incredible ambition, the actual traversal and combat were best in the series, warts and all, and it did introduce naval combat to the franchise, which may be the best thing to ever have happened to Assassin’s Creed. It wasn’t a highlight or triumph of its generation, but it was a game worth giving a look all the same.

5. ASSASSIN’S CREED ROGUE

Poor Assassin’s Creed Rogue. It was actually a very good game, it just had the misfortune of no one actually caring. The final game of the Assassin’s Creed III trilogy launched last year, alongside the much hyped Assassin’s Creed Unity, and completely flew under everyone’s radar. This, in spite of it being a nice game regardless. A lot of that has to do with the game feeling like a total and complete retread of the previous year’s release, Black Flag, without actually adding anything new to the mix- to a lot of people, there was no reason to actually get Rogue. If you wanted more Black Flag, well Black Flag was more than enough Black Flag (seriously, that game was massive).

This lack of ambition, coupled with a lack of marketing, and a release on last generation systems after the PS4 and Xbox One were in full swing, all conspired to kill Rogue in its tracks. A pity, it was a nice game. If you get the chance, hunt it down and play it. Or, hopefully, Ubisoft will release it on PS4 and Xbox One, as they should.

4. ASSASSIN’S CREED UNITY

This one is just a can of worms waiting to be opened, but let’s get it done with. You see, all the launch bugs (now mostly patched out) aside, Assassin’s Creed Unity was not a bad game at all. It had staggering ambition, it promised the evolution of the series’ core design that had largely stagnated ever since Assassin’s Creed II came out in 2009, it had some great new emergent gameplay in the form of its drop in/drop out co-op gameplay, a great setting with the backdrop of the French Revolution, a nice sandbox to play in thanks to Revolutionary Paris, and a very different take on the Assassin’s Creed story, by foregoing a bigger conflict and emphasizing character interaction.

Unity still did suffer from a lot of game design related issues, even if bugs are removed from the equation- its map had too many things to do, with Ubisoft equating banal checklist completion for actual game content, and none of it played well, and all of it detracted from the main game. The main campaign itself suffered from poor quest design, and the stealth of the game was absolutely terrible. The emphasis on multiplayer appears to have guided the design process for a lot of the game, which made it a poorer single player (the primary form of engagement with Assassin’s Creed) game.

All in all, much like every other game on this list so far, it’s a mixed bag. What Unity did well, it did pretty well, and the sheer audacity of its ambition must be commended. But it did so much wrong, too. It’s not a game that can be lightly recommended to everyone- depending on where you stand with different elements of game design, your mileage with Unity will vary.

3. ASSASSIN’S CREED BROTHERHOOD

When Assassin’s Creed is good, it is very good, and nothing demonstrates that as well as Brotherhood, which may be one of the best open world games of all time. Releasing just a year after the excellent Assassin’s Creed II, Brotherhood expanded upon its predecessor in just about every way, and did so in a sensible manner, meaning that Brotherhood’s improvements were not frivolous- all of them were genuinely necessary, and Brotherhood played far better as a result. The Rome setting, the eponymous Brotherhood mechanic, the continuation of Ezio’s storyline, the great villains in the form of the Borgia family, some of the best mission design in the series, incredible music, and the perfect balance of side activities, which incidentally, all organically blended with the main quest instead of feeling forced, and led to great excuses to explore the very well laid out map even more… Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood was borderline perfect. In fact, within the series, it may just be the best, strongest release yet. Not a single element of the package was lacking, even the multiplayer mode was a hit.

It’s the context of its release that pegs Brotherhood down to number 3, but seriously, this is a game that comes with a full, whole hearted recommendation. Even today, five years after its initial release, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood is a joy to play, and represents the best of the franchise.

2. ASSASSIN’S CREED IV: BLACK FLAG

Arguably the most fun Assassin’s Creed game ever, Black Flag succeeds precisely because of how much it de-emphasized the ‘Assassin’s Creed’ part of the experience- its greatest triumph is in just how amazing of a swashbuckling, high seas pirate adventure it is. Following the roguish Edward Kenway, Black Flag ditches the traditional Assassin’s Creed trappings to give us a game that takes itself far less seriously than the series usually does- and it is a better game for that.

The naval sections of Assassin’s Creed III, which were just another side activity in that game, were expanded, and they form the backbone of Black Flag. Naval navigation and combat is beautifully handled, with deft, intuitive controls, and a seamless transition to on foot traversal and combat. Black Flag also offers a massive map, the biggest in the series, offering just about every single setting that you might want from Assassin’s Creed, and no shortage of things to do- and unlike every other Assassin’s Creed game sans Brotherhood, again, all of these things were actually fun to do. Black Flag was, in fact, at its best when you strayed off the main quest, and went whaling, or on a remote island to dig up some lost treasure or ancient Mayan ruins, or boarded a ship after pounding it into submission, and appropriated its crew and materials for yourself…

Black Flag did have some missteps, and those all came from the Assassin’s Creed part of the game. A maddening reliance on tailing and eavesdropping missions, and dated stealth mechanics bogged the experience down somewhat, but even there, Black Flag came through with a unique take on the franchise’s mythos, and a surprisingly engaging, touching story that might have the strongest conclusion yet in the series.

1. ASSASSIN’S CREED II

There really is no point in checking the top of any Assassin’s Creed rankings list, simply because we all know what game will be at the very top- Assassin’s Creed II is a monolithic presence in this franchise, a release that still remains the golden standard to beat, even after six years and seven games’ worth of iterations upon its formula. That is because Assassin’s Creed II got it all right.

It might be one of the best open world games ever made, and it gave us not one but three maps to play on, with Renaissance Italy’s flavor coming out strongly in all three. Ezio remains the best protagonist the series has ever had, and following his exploits from his birth through to the end of his journey for revenge made for a surprisingly well written, involving story. The music was great, and the game was beautiful, and the mechanics- oh, the mechanics! Assassin’s Creed II fully realized the promise of the original game, to the extent that the original now feels like a prototype tech demo to showcase the full release that Assassin’s Creed II would eventually become. The traversal was perfected, the combat got a good shot in the arm (though it still did remain the weakest part of the experience), the repetition was removed via extremely varied missions and possibly the best assassinations in the series, and a whole host of things to do by the side, none of which interfered with the main storyline, and all blended in organically, without detracting from anything else.

Assassin’s Creed II was truly a magical experience, and it wove an atmosphere around the player like few other games can manage. It is not only the best Assassin’s Creed game (perhaps destined to never be surpassed, now that the series has gone annual), but also one of the best games of the previous generation, and one of the best open world games of all time. It is a perfect example of a sequel, and a game that really should be in every PS3 and Xbox 360 owner’s library. There are no excuses for this one.

Today, Ubisoft announced a rather impressive video game collection that compiles the last three Assassin’s Creed titles into one single package.

This new collection that brings together Assassins Creed III, Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD and Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag in one single collection by the name of “Assassin’s Creed. Birth of a New World – The American Saga”. Whether or not this collection includes the DLC for the respective titles, remains to be seen.

Centred around three AC games that lead up to the birth of what we know as modern America, the pack includes:

• Assassins Creed III – Take Connor through a quest to counter Templar Supremacy during the American Revolution.
• Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD – Bring the fury of the Assassin’s to bear against the Spanish as Aveline de Grandpré in Louisiana.
• Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag – Take to the seas of the Caribbean as you do battle against the Templars during the height of Piracy.

Assassin’s Creed. Birth of a New World – The American Saga is going to be available on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC’s running on Windows when it arrives on October 3rd 2014. No Linux or 8th gen love, so stop crying.

So, after all the bad news about layoffs and departures that has plagued Sony’s premier first party studio Naughty Dog recently, it appears that there might be a little bit of good news for them- Jonathan Coope, the man who has worked on the animation of games such as Mass Effect 2 and Assassin’s Creed III, has joined the folks at Naughty Dog, according to his LinkedIn profile.

This is obviously very good news- the Assassin’s Creed games in particular have always been known for their impeccable and top notch animation, and Assassin’s Creed III was no exception. If that is the kind of expertise Cooper will bring with him to Uncharted 4 or The Last of Us 2, then we’re on board.

Naughty Dog is currently working on two announced projects- The Last of Us for the PS4, and Uncharted 4, also for the PS4. Both games should be showcased at E3 next month.

The modern day meta storylines of the Assassin’s Creed games are pretty bad and getting worse, but if you were paying attention to the, you would have realized that the ending of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood had teased the French Revolution setting… back in 2010.

Not only that, but the game had also teased the American Revolution setting for Assassin’s Creed III, which lends further credence to the often seemingly dubious statement that Ubisoft does in fact have a roadmap planned for the franchise and isn’t just making it up as it goes along.

Eurogamer asked Ubisoft about the ending sequence, which displayed the symbols Phrygian Cap, which is associated with the French Revolution, and the masonic Eye of Providence, which referred to the North American Revolution setting of Assassin’s Creed III.

“The symbols pointed to American Revolution and French Revolution,” said Ubisoft’s Jeffrey Yohalem, who would later go on to work on the excellent Far Cry 3 and the upcoming Child of Light.

Well I’ll be damned.

Far from being dismissive of the Tumblr works created by fans, McDevitt explained that, “That being said, it would be wrong to imagine that anyone is ‘brushing Connor off’ … we planned the Edward, Haytham, Connor saga more than 2 years ago, long before any of you had heard Connor’s name or learned his backstory. We had no idea how he (or Haytham) would be received, but we had our own long story to tell, and we embraced it. And it was our hope that — taken together — this saga would represent the story of a family… a migration, a mixing of cultures, and a dashing of ideals…

“Connor played his part, Haytham played his, and now Edward has had his say too. The fact that Connor’s story feels incomplete to you is unfortunate (and likely made worse by the cut dialog people found), but this only means there is more room for your imaginations to take over.”

So if you miss Connor, tough bones, because he’s not coming back. For the rest of us, there’s the phenomenal Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and dashing Edward Kenway. Check out our review of ACIV here.

‘Assassin’s Creed III is is a triumph and definitely one of the highlights this year. Buy it.‘

That was GamingBolt’s review for Ubisoft’s third entry in its flagship franchise last year; while the game definitely has not held up as well in hindsight, and has suffered from a plethora of issues, here we are again, just a year later, with the release of another Assassin’s Creed game right around the corner.

The new title, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, is set in the same general timeline as the previous game, except this time it takes on one of the best aspects of the previous game- the naval combat- and runs away with it, with a full fledged pirate theme for the title.

The new game will apparently have a fully open, free roaming open world on the seas, as well as several islands which will be fully explorable (and provide the kind of urban parkour the series originally came to be known for); in the newest Black Flag developer diary, which you can see above, the developers talk about creating an open, living, diverse world.

Personally, I’m taking the hype around this game with a pinch of salt. It’s a classic case of once bitten, twice shy. Assassin’s Creed III was eventually a good game, but it did not deliver on what was promised. We’ll see if the fourth entry is any different.

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag hits the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4,  Wii U, and PC later this year. Look out for our review for the game.

In response to an analyst, Guillemot stated, “To come back to Assassin’s Creed IV, in our numbers we have…we expect less than last year.

“We are actually pushing to achieve more than last year because we think the pirate segment is a great segment that can generate a lot more on a worldwide basis than what was achieved last year. But we wanted to be prudent on our expectations so that it can probably be a bonus if it comes.”

As such, Black Flag is already looking far more appealing than Assassin’s Creed III with its epic scope and expansive world. Let’s see if gamers respond accordingly and are willing to give the game another chance.

Critically acclaimed Far Cry 3 has sold more than 6 million copies since its release in December 2012. The title has performed beyond Ubisoft’s initial expectations, both digital sales and retail purchases.

Chief executive Yves Guillemot has also stated that the Far Cry 3’s ’90s-drenched spin-off, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon has become the “fastest selling downloadable title in Ubisoft history”

Assassin’s Creed III continues to sell very well and has finally hit the 12.5 million mark. Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag will be coming out later this year on October 31st in North America and November 1st in Europe for Next-Generation platforms, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and Wii U.

Ubisoft’s next big-title is Watch Dogs, which will be released in time for PlayStation 4’s launch and on November 19th for the US and 22nd for Europe.

A few weeks ago, I was really excited. Assassin’s Creed 3, the biggest game in one of my favourite franchises was but days, nay hours away from release. I had heard so many good things about it- the trailers looked great, the previews said it was amazing, the information revealed by Ubisoft had me excited. Hell, I even wrote an article on how AC3 could be the best game in the series.

When I played Assassin’s Creed 3, I wasn’t disappointed. I was expecting a great, exciting game, and that is what I got. Assassin’s Creed 3 is a game worth buying. But now that I look back at it, I realize that it’s actually pretty disappointing. Is it because of my unrealistically high expectations? I don’t know. Probably. Assassin’s Creed 2 and Brotherhood rank amongst my all time favourite games, and I’m a big fan of the first one and Revelations too. So obviously, there was a part of me that wanted so much more from Assassin’s Creed 3.

Now, before someone misconstrues my words and goes on a curse-spree, let me make something very clear- I think Assassin’s Creed 3 is a great game. I think it’s worth buying and playing through, regardless of your history with the franchise, or even if you don’t have a history with the franchise. When I say Assassin’s Creed 3 is disappointing, I don’t mean it’s a bad game. I just mean it isn’t half as good as I thought it would be, and it has plenty of issues. But it still is, and always will be, a great game. Hell, GamingBolt’s own review gave it a 9/10.

So what exactly was it that makes Assassin’s Creed 3 disappointing? Let’s break it down, point-by-point.

1. The characters aren’t very interesting

Take a moment and think back to the Ezio trilogy. Think about Leonardo Da Vinci. Think about Machiavelli. Think about Bartolomeo. Think about Mario Auditore. Or even think about Revelations’ Yusuf Tazim. Those were characters that were interesting to watch, that had an emotional attachment with the player, characters that we all cared about. But somehow, I couldn’t bring myself to care about anyone from the Assassin’s Creed 3 cast.

Achilles was a criminally underused character. He was really interesting to watch during the little screentime he had. His father-son relationship with Connor had glimpses of brillance, and there was some real potential there. But the game left him and his relationship with Connor underdeveloped. We needed to see way more of Achilles. We needed to see just how his relationship with Connor developed. Those time jumps just didn’t work for me- I wanted to see him training Connor, I wanted to see the foundations of their relationship, because I just wasn’t buying his fatherly attitude towards him. Sure, it was interesting to see at times, but it rang hollow.

There were others too- Connor’s friend Zio was largely a nonentity. The game had a real shot at creating and showing a meaningful relationship of their friendship here and developing a bond between the players and at least one of the characters, but Zio appeared briefly for only a few scenes, and always as nothing more than a messenger who triggered an angry, impulsive reaction from Connor.

Even other characters like George Washington were underutilized. The game often hinted as his shortcomings as a leader and as a human being, and yet never cared enough to explore those and delve deeper into his character. Maybe it was because of a fear of backash by the American community, but whatever the reason was, it resulted in something that frustrated me, at the very least.

Even the negative characters of the game weren’t as well developed as those in the Ezio trilogy. Thomas Hickey and Charles Lee were forgettable antagonists. They were practically mannequins, robotically carrying out so-called evil tasks. They will never reach the evil heights of Lucrezia Borgia or Cesare Borgia.

But I have to say, Haytham was absolutely excellent. He was the standout point in the entire game, and one of the best developed characters in the entire franchise. I wish to see him more in future games, maybe in a game showing how and why he became a Templar.

But Charles Lee just wasn’t convincing enough, he wasn’t formidable as an enemy. We rarely saw him all throughout the game, and we didn’t know what drove him to do what he did do. He was a mechanical, forgettable villain, and we all know Assassin’s Creed can do way better than that.

2. Connor isn’t very interesting

Assassin’s Creed games have always had strong protagonists. Excluding Desmond- who, ironically, is the main protagonist of the franchise (or was, till now)- we have been treated to some really interesting characters so far. Altair wasn’t exactly well developed- he didn’t have much of a backstory or emotional depth to himself. He was just sort of… there. But he fascinated us, because of how coolly efficient and badass he was.

Ezio was that and more. There’s just too much to be said about him- he is possibly the best character of this generation. Sure, he came across as a whiny idiot during the first half of Assassin’s Creed 2, but once you’ve played all three of his games, you see what a memorable, charming and exciting character he is. Saying goodbye to him was the hardest thing you will do in years as a gamer, and playing as someone else in AC3 other than the Italian ladies-man just felt off.

Connor- well, he’s a good character. He’s brutal and very efficient, like Altair, and he has depth to himself like Ezio, but somehow, he never achieves the heights those two did. His efficiency is never really shown properly, and you never feel like the badass Assassin you usually feel like while playing AC games. And you just never feel as attached to him as you did to Ezio. He really isn’t that much of a character- there’s very little intimate moments to give you insight into who he is, and very little development of his bitterness towards everything that has happened to him, so much so that sometimes, his motivation feels amiss.

He just isn’t as interesting as Ezio was, or even Altair. Hell, I thought Haytham was by far the best character of the game. I was actually rooting for him at some points, and the parts where him and Connor teamed up were easily the highlights of the game. I just know that if Ubisoft were to make a new game in this Assassin’s Creed sub-universe, I’d want it to focus on Haytham, not Connor.

3. Free-running in cities is no fun

Remember why we all fell in love with Assassin’s Creed in the first place, back in 2007? Well, there were lots of reasons. But one of them was how much fun it was to scale the buildings of the perfectly recreated cities. Jumping from rooftop to rooftop and climbing up tall skyscrapers without even once touching the ground was a thrill and a joy in the original AssCreed, and has since become a hallmark of Assassin’s Creed’s gameplay.

And sure, Assassin’s Creed 3 sports that as well. Free-running in the Frontier is an absolute joy- running from tree to tree, springing from branches and looking for footholes in the surrounding foliage is still a thrilling ordeal, but what Assassin’s Creed III lacks in is the verticality of cities that impressed us all so much as AC1, 2, Brotherhood and Revelations.

The cities are still immaculately created, perfectly giving off a late 17th century rural America vibe, dripping with atmosphere- we expect no less of Assassin’s Creed. But you just can’t string together impressive, gravity defying jumps in Boston or New York the way you could in Venice or Constantinople or Damascus. Free-running feels a bit off in the cities- there’s not enough height to them. They’re huge and sprawling, I’ll grant them that, but the buildings are shorter than the shortest building you would come across in Rome proper in Brotherhood.

Sure, it’s historically accurate, but one of the most core aspects of Assassin’s Creed has been taken away from us. I know, you can still run around like crazy and pull of impossible, death-challenging parkour stuff in the huge, expansive forest regions on the east coast of Colonial America, but the joy and rush of jumping across narrow, tight streets is no more something Assassin’s Creed can boast of- not with AssCreed 3.

4. For a game that’s based around the concept of being discrete, there’s not enough stealth

Assassin’s Creed- the original one from ’07- has to be one of the best stealth games ever. It was probably the only true stealth game in the entire franchise. It focused solely on stealth and punished you if you were detected- yes, it sounds a little restrictive and linear, but it was actually very true to the game and what it stood for. It stood for the assassins- an order that is centered around the idea of getting in, doing your thing and getting out (in bed *immature giggle*). One of the most important tenets of the Creed that assassins lived by was to always be quiet and discrete. 

This feeling of being a quiet, discrete badass who does his job efficiently and never lets anyone even notice his presence gave a real edge to AC1, and made Altair feel like the awesome character most of us think he was. While Connor was modeled a bit like Altair, what with his righteous and stoic nature, he wasn’t as quiet or deadly efficient. While Altair was all “Hi. You’re dead. Okay, see ya,” and Ezio was “You’re evil and you deserve to die, I’m going to stab you in the throat,” Connor was more like “Motherfucker, take this, axe in your face, canon in your butthole, boom boom, die motherfuckers!”

We wanted a Jason Bourne in the 1700s, instead we got a Marcus Fenix in the Revolutionary War. It’s a good thing the combat in Assassin’s Creed 3 was excellent, because that’s all it was centered around. There was practically no stealth, and the little there was was poorly implemented, and completely unneeded. The game encouraged going all out and slicing Templars’ faces with your tomahawk.

Seriously, Ubisoft should have called the game Badass Soldier’s Creed instead of Assassin’s Creed. If you were always punching dudes in the face and kicking them in their groins instead of attacking them from the shadows like a real ninja, Batman: Arkham Asylum would be called The Incredible Hulk: Arkham Asylum. I want stealth with my stealth games. You’re giving me a game about assassins? Make me feel like an assassin!

5. The ending sucks ass

You knew this was coming.

Okay, so we’ve had some pretty bad endings this year. Well, there’s been only one, but it was enough to make everyone go nuts, and not in a good way- Mass Effect 3. An excellent game all throughout with a horrible ending. That’s basically what it’s like with Assassin’s Creed 3, except for the fact that the game itself isn’t “excellent”. It’s really good, but not good enough to be called “excellent”.

The ending really sucked in Assassin’s Creed III. Because it didn’t end. It just stopped. Assassin’s Creed 3 is like a bullet train, running at a solid 300 miles per hour, going at an excellent speed- well, after the lengthy prologue which I have no qualms about- when suddenly, the driver pulls the breaks. It doesn’t take a few minutes for the train to come to a dead stop, not even a few seconds. It suddenly just stops moving. And there’s not even any recoil or jerks or anything. One moment, it’s moving like crazy, the other moment, it just stops moving- it’s just standing there, motionless, and the people inside are confused and angry.

Halo 2 fans know how frustrating that is.

Let’s not even talk about Connor’s ending. Let’s leave it be, because it isn’t all that important or memorable anyway. It is a little sad, though, but whatever. Connor’s a little sad.

The worst part of the ending was Desmond doing what he did- when the game showed Desmond facing a dilemma at the end- should he let the world be ravaged, or should he hand over all control?- I got excited. I thought I would get to make this choice, that everything I’ve done would come to a conclusion spectacularly. And what does Desmond do? He decides what he wants to do all by himself, ignoring me like that girl in High School. The worst part? He picks the worst fucking option available. He decides to override the free-will engines and gives all control.

Anyway, that basically just blows the entire philosophy of the Assassin order to pieces. Free will is what they fight for, it’s what we’ve all been fighting for for five games now. And Desmond decides to make everyone meat puppets. So have we been idiots this entire time? Were the Templars right? Did we just waste five games doing what we did for no reason at all? We probably did.

But let’s forget about that too, because I’m in a weirdly forgiving mood toda- NO, I’M FUCKING NOT. Why was there no aftermath at all? Fine, Desmond is an idiot who doesn’t care about free will. But still- don’t we deserve to see what happens after that? No scenes showing the somewhat partial destruction of Earth, no scenes showing what became of Rebecca, Shaun and William, no scenes showing what Abstergo is up to next. I mean, for a game that was supposed to end this story arc, it left a bucketload of threads to tie off.

In before “endings don’t make a game bad”- I know that. Hell, I say that fiercely when someone bashes Mass Effect 3. I don’t want to come across as a hypocrite. I think Assassin’s Creed 3 is a great game, despite the finale, or the lack of it. I just think the last 5 minutes of the game suck more than a New York City prostitute.

6. Loads of technical issues

This isn’t really a huge issue, but it’s enough to take away from the immersion. We all knew Assassin’s Creed 3 would have glitches, and even before it was released, we were forewarned that it has many of them. So we all knew what we were getting into. And seriously, being as huge as it is, you can’t blame AssCreed 3 for being a glitchy game. It’s an occupational hazard, shall we say, of being an open world title with tons of stuff to do.

But I don’t like it when my horse gets stuck in a haystack and starts having a seizure. I mean, what the hell? It’s either a maniacal horse, or a guy who can fly and fall without hurting a single bone, or swords that are invisible, or people who bump into walls repeatedly, or dogs that appear in front of you out of nowehere and start barking to scare the shit out of you. Once, I threw my tomahawk in a guy’s face, and when I went to get it back, it was buried beneath bodies that the game wouldn’t let me pick up. Needless to say, I played the rest of the game without my favourite weapon. Thankfully, I was on the second last sequence when that happened.

It’s not just that- the facial animations are a bit dodgy. Especially the lip syncing. Sometimes, characters speak with each other telepathically. Their lips don’t move at all. And sometimes, their lips move so much, it looks like they’re having a passionate make out session with some invisible person. And sometimes, the characters don’t say their lines at all. Their mouths just move and no sound comes out. The first time George Washington did that, I freaked out and thought Thomas Hickey had succeeded in his plan to kill Washington, who I thought was having a stroke. I’m not kidding. Then I read the subtitles for the dialogue that hadn’t been spoken and realized it was a glitch.

The visuals themselves aren’t too impressive either. There’s rough edges everywhere, and sometimes you wonder if that fog is there for a visual effect or to cover up the not so impressive draw distances. I mean, sure, the game looks great when you look at it as a whole, from a macro point of view. But up close, it’s full of issues. A bit like Skyrim, but not as extreme.

7. Something just doesn’t click

You know that feeling you get when you play a really good game? When you play any Assassin’s Creed game? The feeling that makes you want to keep going back to the game, the feeling that makes you realize that this game is something special- that X factor. Assassin’s Creed 3 just doesn’t have that. It has some great ideas, but those ideas never come together properly to deliver a proper experience. It’s like the English football team. Full of great players, yet never gelling together all that well- but still a good team.

The fact that so many great features have been removed doesn’t help. For starters, no throwing blades. That flat out sucks. Throwing blades were the best weapon in the entire series, and AC3 just removed them. But that’s very minor. Other important stuff also didn’t make it into AC3- the entire RPG feel you get when you level up your armour, the ability to deeply customize your equipment and weapons, the focus on buying new equipment and weapons. There’s just so much missing here that we loved in the previous games.

I don’t know whether it’s because we’ve all gotten just too used to Ezio and his universe, or maybe if the game actually is all over the place, but Assassin’s Creed 3 isn’t the addictive game that its predecessors were. Something’s missing. That spark. It was that spark that made Assassin’s Creed games so special, and Assassin’s Creed 3 lacks that spark.

So is it even worth buying?

Of course it is! Assassin’s Creed 3 is, despite all its flaws, a great game. It’s not an amazing game, not an excellent game. But it’s really good. It’s just that it’s not on the same level as Assassin’s Creed 2 or Brotherhood- or in some areas, even AC1- were. It’s a great game that’s, in the end, disappointing for a hardcore Assassin’s Creed fan who has loved the series ever since he took his first step into Masyaf.