Assassin's Creed III Remastered

I finally got back to continuing my Assassin's Creed franchise run. The next game on the list was Assassin's Creed III (2012) and specifically its 7 years newer Remastered version. I was previously perplexed why Ubisoft had remastered this particular one but the reason really is obvious. It's the same as always: money. They had a good window to sell the same game again on a newer console generation.

Demastered

I had heard bad things about this re-release. Apparently it introduced new bugs and lighting got worse. I can't comment on the original's bugs as I haven't played it but this one has its share without a doubt. Lighting is definitely darker too; some dark areas are pitch black. I noticed that when watching a video of a side mission because I couldn't find how to get to the chests on the map. I literally couldn't see the routes because in the remaster the place is so much darker than in the original release.

In AC3's present day, Desmond Miles and the rest of old assassin crew are trying to stop a solar flare from wiping out life on Earth using Precursor technology. It is locked in a Precursor vault and to get to it they need a key. To find it, Desmond once again enters the Animus.

The game has an unusual past time beginning for the series because you don't initially play as the actual past protagonist. The prologue is rather long too, even when beelining the story -- which is mostly what you can even do. In fact, you should completely avoid picking up any collectibles because they may not properly count when collected as Haytham Kenway, which will then lock you out of 100% sync.

A related pro-tip I happened to read on Reddit: Catching a flying page can be almost effortless if you keep it out of the camera when approaching it. Turn to look as directly from above as possible and then run or jump at the page just before it appears on your screen. Most of the time you will catch it right there. This also applies to AC4 Black Flag in which you gather sea shanties by this way. The flying things (tattoo designs) returned in AC Valhalla as well but in that you can simply use Blinding Rush to slow time. (Once you've acquired the ability of course.)

Another side note: There is an NPC in the prologue, so minor that it's surprising Ubisoft even gave him a full name. But that name is James Holden which I found an amusing coincidence due to it being also one of the main characters in The Expanse. Due to AC3's setting, the NPC's name made me look up if Captain Holden's name did come from a historical figure but I don't think that's the case.

Protagonist downgrade

AC3's lengthy prologue does justify itself in the end and you get to the actual main character, half-Mohawk, half-English Ratonhnhaké:ton. His eventual mentor, Achilles Davenport, figures the Native American name is too difficult for Colonials (including himself) and dubs the would-be-assassin as Connor.

Connor as a protagonist is a massive stepdown from the upbeat Ezio of the previous three games -- even the initial Haytham was more likeable. Connor is such a typical depiction of a Native American man: he is sulky, stubborn, naïve, doesn't talk much, and is quick to anger. Admittedly Ezio starts off somewhat similar -- they're both young initially -- but I feel Connor doesn't get nearly as much character growth. He doesn't change much over the game.

AC3's time period is far from my favorite ones as well: late 1700s Colonial America. It's too late from the more interesting European rise-from-the-mud times and too early from the sufficiently advanced period. Gun technology is in a particularly annoying spot: yet in its baby shoes. Guns fire once per barrel and then take half a day to reload. Also: didn't Ezio have more advanced hidden guns and crossbows? It's not that I want the game to turn into a third person shooter; I just dislike the character going into a long-ass muzzle-reload animation in the middle of things.

American War of Independence

For Americans, AC3's the location and time may be closer to the heart, being the stage for the Revolutionary War. You as Connor get to meet various founding fathers of the USA and take part in key events like dumping tea crates into the Boston Harbor and fighting in the first battles in Lexington and Concord.

My stance on the events is very much indifferent. However, I found the locations amusingly familiar after I eventually realized where I was -- this is where Fallout 4 takes place in its alternative, retro future! For some reason, my brain had buried the connection between Boston and Fallout 4 despite the game being my most played one on Steam and even having watched Noah Caldwell's travel logs of visiting the real life locations. I experienced a sudden enlightenment at some point when playing AC3 and then excited rode around the Frontier, to end up at the bridge beyond which Sanctuary Hills would be in Fallout.

Before I had listened to Mr. Caldwell's many thoughts on the Fallout series, I hadn't considered the significance of Fallout 4's location. Fallout 3 being set in Washington was clearly because it's the Capital after all. And I thought the local history in Boston was closer to a coincidence than being the source where Fallout 4 drew its inspiration from -- even the factions: the Minutemen and the Railroad. I hadn't understood how important Americana as a whole is to the Fallout franchise; it feels silly in hindsight to have missed it. But I suppose there is a difference between being aware of something and truly understanding that something.

Having internalized it myself now, I wonder how well the developers on the Fallout 4 complete overhaul mod, Fallout: London (coming out in April), understand the franchise. What will be the basis of that? Also to consider for them is the tone. The Fallout games from Bethesda Game Studios lack the bite in their commentary compared to the original Interplay/Black Isle ones and New Vegas from Obsidian. Bethesda's Fallouts are more celebratory. The final "--because war... War never changes." in Fallout 4 is more a hurrah than a lament. But to get back to the actual topic of this post...

Seasonal changes

While Assassin's Creed III's setting wasn't terribly exciting for me, I did at least like the changing seasons. Wadable snow (you leave a path in) must not have been as common back in 2012. It is kind of an annoying feature, though, slowing you down so much. At least you can often avoid that by climbing up trees where you'll find long branch paths tracing across the map. It's always cool for me to see a parkour object introduced for the first time in the series when I had been already familiar with it from the later titles.

Apart from the tree-running, I didn't enjoy the level design. I felt there wasn't much room for stealth; everything is so flat and simple. The fortresses in particular are disappointing. In too many of them I didn't see a way to enter inconspicuously so I just ran in and started murdering. At one point I realized I should try if the prisoner escort feature of the assassin recruits would allow me to just walk to a fortress's commander for an easy assassination. Regrettably I was detected soon after I entered the fortress despite the disguised escort. I'm not entirely sure if that's how it's supposed to (not) work or if the game glitched out. I found stealth in general to be very challenging. You get detected so quickly if there's an unobscured line of sight.

Fast travel points are still way too scarce at this point of the series. In the city maps of Boston and New York, you can unlock more fast travel locations by mapping the cities' underground tunnels and discovering entrances. I guess the undergrounds are some sort of refence to the Underground Railroad which helped slaves to escape (but wasn't literally underground nor a railroad). As a gameplay element, the mazes are tedious -- reminded me of too much AC Odyssey's tombs. The remaster's poor lighting doesn't help either.

Completionist's woes

100% sync in AC3 is not an easy task; quite a few missions have annoying secondary objectives. The good news is that unlike previously, you can most of the time reload a checkpoint because failing to meet all goals doesn't tag the whole memory as imperfect. However, checkpoint saves are prone to being glitchy. The most hilarious one I encountered was while trying to escape a cave in a Davenport Homestead mission. Thanks again to the poor lighting of the remaster, I couldn't see where to go and fell to my death. The checkpoint save put me outside the cave, hundreds of meters away with no chance to "escape" the cave before it collapses.

The most time-consuming optional goal for a 100% sync for me was the naval mission The Giant and the Storm. To complete it with perfection, you have to take out each of the three ships at end of the mission by shooting at their weak points. Exposing the weak points is the problem because it's so easy to just end up destroying the ships right away. As per its name, the mission has a storm that makes precision aiming difficult due to all the massive waves going about.

I knew about AC3 having naval missions before starting it but for the longest time I thought AC4 Black Flag was the first game in the series to have sailing. It's probably not as much talked about because it's not as novel in this game yet. There's no seamless boarding of your ship; you basically just play as the ship in the naval missions. The few ship-to-ship boarding battles are specific to missions and happen after a cutscene.

The consistently buggy feature of AC3 is its HUD: enemies don't disappear from the minimap, mission goals get stuck on screen, and subtitles are weirdly ahead of spoken dialogue and cut mid-sentence between screens. Menus are also unnecessarily complicated to use. Selecting weapons and items for quick use is a hassle.

One thing where Ubisoft Montreal put some hilarious effort was the AI for the boardgames: NPCs play Checkers, Nine Men's Morris, and Fanorona at a competent level. It's another obstacle for completionists but luckily these days you can easily find the games around the web to have a computer play them for you at a master skill level, whose moves you then copy to your AC3 game. There's no need to become skilled at them yourself. Each of the boardgames is so poorly designed (whoever came up with them back in the olden times), easily ending up in a draw. I think that entirely skill-based tactical minigames shouldn't be a thing. Even Dominos (like in Far Cry 6) is better due to having an element of chance to it.

In addition to the boardgames, there are a lot of features I feel were unnecessary to the game. They're like some sort of historical authenticity additions that don't make for interesting gameplay. About everything in the Homestead; the trade supplies crafting and caravans. Assassin's Creed III just isn't a great game. Jesper Kyd also stopped composing for the series (until returning in AC Valhalla, I think) and the soundtrack is by someone else.

I did a 100% clear of the 3-episode DLC, The Tyranny of King Washington as well. It was a terrible experience; entirely uninteresting, and even glitchier than the main game. You guess quickly what's going on because things are so odd. Ubisoft got a lot better with these fantastical DLCs in the later entries of the franchise.

A familiar looking bridge