Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Assassins Creed 3 manages to live up to the hype of its runup, provided you are willing to overlook a bit too much cutscening, way too labyrinthian tutorials, and a large portion of graphical glitches. While I applaud the attempt of Ubi to push the envelope, their flagship title probably isn't where they want to do the first breakout of the "new and improved" Anvil engine. Graphics (5-10/10): Graphics of the environments are simply stunning. Water flows like water on the sea, clouds and landscapes are pristine and crsip, and fog flows naturally and blocks just the right amount of vision. Trees and buildings feel natural and organic, and nothing is left feeling out of place. People graphics are... very unsettling. The eyes especially always look like polished stones because of a persistent reflective effect. Clothes and weapons go through objects and people rag doll way too much when killed. Stutters from officers are the worst, with partolling officials getting trapped on railings, shimmying like they are doing the ants in the pants dance, or sinking into the floor but somehow spinning like tops to stare directly at you. The cutscenes are fantastic, but its almost that they're too detailed. The new engine is great, but leaving it at 60% of capability would've removed a large portion of the problems but still allowed for improvements. Characters (2-10/10): The characters can make or break a story. Alitair was distant but just involved enough that you felt something for the character. Ezio was entertaining, funny, well developed, and flowed organically from one game to the next, plot hole leaps forward in time be damned. Desmond is like a pair of dress pants you dont like. You wear them when you have to, and they're annoying, but they do serve a purpose and you can have a quite enjoyable experience in them provided its brief. In other words, perfect. Desmond's story draws to a well deserved and entertaining close, but thankfully he's not the central character. Haytham Kenway therefore is like slipping into a pair of your favorite jeans: broken in, comfortable, and wearable anywhere. He's erudite, cultured, polite, and willing to rip your heart out through your back after finishing his High Tea. Connor Kenway... Connor Kenway... ... one must pause long and hard before putting words to this creation. Connor is not something that can be easily shoved into a pants based metaphor. He's frustrating, incredibly naive, stupid and brilliantly intelligent, and willing to put his money with his mouth is. All of his positive and negative aspects sum up to almost zero. He's never truly likable, but never annoyed you enough to make him a legitimate detraction. The fact that they've already leapt to a new ancestor is proof that Ubi at least picked up on that. Audio (7/10): Audio continues to be top notch. However, while it was great that they got a dozen Mohawk to voice characters, after ten minutes, it was unnecessary in the extreme. Gameplay (8/10): Improvements abound here, but for one place: the 6 hour "tutorial." Did you know you can choke out a guard instead of kill them if you are empty handed? I didn't, and the game never told you, or that you had a horse summoning whistle, and left you plodding throuh 4-foot deep snow. AC1's tutorial was seven minutes, all in the Animus. Having one mission explain one new command at a time was a ghastly experience, and it still didn't cover everything that was critical. The naval portion has to be seen to be believed. I could play a whole game like that and be content. Between bording actions and cannon warfare, its like watching a naval war movie. New side missions are well placed and a nice addition rather than being a crucial waste of time, ala Codex pages. They help and they're useful, but the game won't screech to a halt so you can go collect them all. Story (10/10): If you see some of the twists coming, you are probably psychic. Not much more can be said without spoilers. Overall (8/10): Packaging and unbelievable glitches are the only spots where this game stutters. Suspension of disbelief is great, but when you ride on a horse with a musket sticking through it, it's kind of like being on a plane during takeoff that sucks in a flock of ducks. They're all small things, but you can't ignore how much bumpier the ride suddenly becomes. A few patches and this'll quickly crawl up to 9-10 range. By the time they make the War of 1812 installment for Connor, they'll have the system nailed down. Update: The Tyranny of King Washington DLC (5/10): The alternate history DLC was very poorly thought out. The first episode is on an entirely new map, an almost nuclear winter New York, and follows a surprisingly bland and boring plot, where Washington is corrupted by the Apple of Eden. New abilities are shoe horned in pretty hard and are absolutely necessary to proceed through the plot, which is a pretty bad thing, as you're supposed to be able to get through on your wit and guile rather than your "spirit power." The future episodes appear to hold more promise, but so far, I'm unimpressed. I've already purchased the season pass, so hopefully this will improve. In addition, MP content continues to be added. Not just player purchased items, if you have money that you absolutely have to flush-I mean spend, but cutscenes and "glitched" cutscenes, which can be pretty entertaining. A seroius Gold star for actually adding content rather than just another ten billion prestige levels.