Looking at Assassin's Creed 3 as an outsider

I recently picked up Assassin's Creed 3. This was strange to me because I hated the first one and only played the multiplayer for Brotherhood for maybe 10 minutes. The series always seemed to repetitive and clunky for my tastes. The combat was cool, and the story was neat but everything else about it just turned me off.

Then I saw the stuff for Assassin's Creed 3 and had to get it. I bought it, and played a lot of it (Not quite done yet.) And this game has reminded me why I never got into the series in the first place. But this game does enough stuff right I can look past it (Mostly.)

The combat is SUPER fluid and awesome looking, definitely better than what it used to be. The storyline and time period is awesome as well. I get to kill red coats! Some of the Desmond stuff has me confused since I didn't play the others. I looked up some recap videos so I know what is going on, somewhat.

Now, the game is huge and ambitious. But...it's still very frustrating and glitchy. Some missions you can't beat because it decided to glitch. I've killed flying beavers, I've been stuck inside people, my horse freaks out, people's mouths stop moving during cinematics for no reason, a lot of clipping, etc. etc. It's buggy as all hell. AND THERE WAS A DAY ONE PATCH! And it's not fixed?! I can't imagine the game before the patch. Ugh.

Now, the intro of the game DRAGGED on. It was a good 4-5 hours before you even became an assassin. I get it, you need to get up the character, world, and story. But the pacing was done poorly.

Another annoying part is the sneaking. Good lord. It's done so poorly. I LOVE sneaking in games. Sometimes you get caught, and you gotta fight your way out of it, or run and hide. Dishonored did this perfect. In Assassin's Creed 3 someone can somehow see you across the map and all of a sudden MISSION OVER. And it can happen over and over. Oh, you got stuck on a fence? Cool. MISSION OVER. Oh, you randomly quit moving? MISSION OVER. They really should have given you the option to run away and let stuff cool down, but the game is so bugged it makes the sneaking TERRIBLE. Whenever I see DESYNCHRONIZED: DETECTED I get SO mad. UGH.

The game is a roller coaster. Some parts are unbelievable cool. And others are terrible. The naval fights are awesome, commanding troops to kill red coats is sweet, and hanging out with George Washington is cool. But the glitches are so bad and the weird design decisions hurt it a lot.

Stuff like that makes it hard to keep going. But coming from someone who doesn't normally like Assassin's Creed, this game IS good. Am I underwhelmed? Sure. But, I will be skipping next year's Assassin's Creed game.

- Doug