Assassin’s Creed 3: An Imperfect trip to the past

“Assassin’s Creed 3,” the fifth installment of the popular franchise, takes players to the beginning of the Revolutionary War. Connor, an American Indian, must fight to protect his home and, in doing so, realizes that his life will never be the same. As the continuation of an established franchise, “Assassin’s Creed 3” builds upon the previous games, providing some new features, but in other ways falling short.

For example, the single player story does not live up to its predecessors. The graphics are not anything special. On a PlayStation 3, the game looks the same as the others in the series. However, the main problems come from the multitude of glitches. Many of the single player missions must be done just right to be completed even if there are multiple ways to achieve the objective. Even worse, the story is too predictable. The few plot twists break up the monotony, but they cannot make up for the story’s simplicity. Sadly, the shortening of the single player mode throughout each new installment has continued as well. The main storyline in “Assassin’s Creed 3” is simply not long enough. A lot of parts could have easily been expanded, which would have made this game much more enjoyable.

Although the single player is something of a disappointment, the improved multiplayer somewhat makes up for it. The addition of a cooperative mode, Wolfpack, really brings another level to the game. In this mode, teams of four players kill various targets in an effort to complete 25 sequences. Along the way, optional objectives, such as getting an aerial kill, offer chances to increase the scores. This mode is a nice break from the competitive modes, which have not changed very much since their beginning. However, Steal the Artifact was removed from the lineup and Chest Capture was replaced with Domination. Domination creates a unique challenge for players. The goal is to capture and hold territories, which is vastly different from the usual objectives of simply killing other players.

In addition, Ubisoft added many new abilities to the lineup. Many of these, such as glimmer, which makes a player invisible for a short period of time, provide many new ways to achieve the objectives. Old standbys, such as poison and smoke bombs, still exist, but the level required to unlock them is somewhat higher than it had been in previous games. If players do not want to wait to unlock certain abilities, then they may use Erudito credits, which provide a way to get around the level locks. This holds true for ability sets as well, which also had an upgrade. Instead of two abilities per set, a player may assign three. The third spot is reserved for a ranged ability, such as throwing knives or the hidden gun. This is a nice change in that players have more available to them. However, sadly, there are not many new places to use these items. The game comes with only four base maps. Although this is interesting in the beginning, a few more would make this game much more enjoyable.

One of the nicer upgrades to the game is the character customization in multiplayer. In addition to clothing unlocked as a player levels up, each character has many costumes that can be used from level one. Some characters even have costumes from previous games. Players can also add war paint to their characters, so no two are alike.

The multiplayer portion of Assassin’s Creed 3 shows a lot of thought on Ubisoft’s part; however, it simply does not make up for the problems in the single player campaign. The multitude of glitches take away from the gameplay, and the short, predictable storyline leaves a lot to be desired. Future updates may make the campaign run smoother as well as extend the story, but, as is, Assassin’s Creed 3 only shines as a multiplayer game.