Difficulty:

Very Easy

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"Mixed reactions"

I am Sophie Madison and I would like to review this game.

I played it for ten hours on my boyfriend's PC, somehow attracted by the game's beautiful landscapes and atmosphere. Before playing AC3, I had played AC Brotherhood only, and I really liked it a lot. Let me be absolutely clear here: I had way more fun playing ACBrotherhood than AC3. I will explain why.

We all know the good things in AC3: the world is vast and we are to explore it. The landscapes are beautiful and it is always a joy to stand up a tree and enjoy a nice view on the Frontier.

However, I will have a hard time defending AC3. Here are the negative aspects I noticed throughout my ten hours of gameplay.

- The game pace is excruciatingly slow.
Starting to play the game with Haytham, then switching to Young Connor, then to restless trainee Connor, then to Connor, then to Connor The Assassin is painstakingly long. And, even worse, boring.

I like playing a game where the characters have a strong presence. It can be ridiculously silly, like Travis from No More Heroes, or eerily close to life, like in Heavy Rain. I will like it, whatever happens.

But in AC3, I had a hard time "liking" the characters, for the game forced me to spend way too much time with characters whose destiny I do not really care about. Why forcing me to play for two hours with Haytham Kenway, only to remove him after that? Why forcing me to play hide and seek a Young Connor, if it's a reason to forcefeed me with his youth?

Also, can anybody explain why the game is constantly hacking the pace of things? Let me give an example: I play for five minutes, then I have a long cutscene (where characters could speak in Norwegian about Mexican food - I could not care less, it's boring), then I take control of my character again, then I play for one minute, then another cutscene.

Repeat ad nauseam.

With former AC games, I was expecting what I was given to see on the game cover: an assassin character, wielding powerful weapons and getting straight in the action. With AC3, all I have is... boredom! Hence the "lie" on the game cover.

When do I get to play the game?
When is it that the game stops harrassing me with long and yawn-inducing cutscenes?
When will I get to play with Connor The Assassin, just like in the other AC games?
When is it that the game stops taking me for a fool? I may be a girl totally unskilled in video games, I DO have a memory of things. I remember the basics and concepts from former AC games. Then why oh why forcing me to run through a giant, long, boring, slow gigantic two hours and a half long tutorial?

Who looked down at this and said: "It's alright, it's fun, it's not going to bore players!"

I can understand that the developers made an effort to raise the game's dramatic tensions. However it falls flat, to me. I expected fun, action and story - all I had was short period of boring objectives sandwiched between cutscenes.

2- The game will desynchronize for no reason.
Sometimes, when playing missions and taking my time to explore the surroundings, the game desynchronized me for absolutely no reason at all. Then realoading the former checkpoint can be tiresome, especially when the game controls are, for an unknown reason, absolutely not responding. Quite frustrating!

3- Too many useless informations blacking out the very little necessary informations.
Let me give an exemple: many, many, many times, I have pondered over my boyfriend's computer, looking at the screen and saying aloud: "WHAT do I have to do for this quest? WHAT is my objective? WHERE do I go?"

The Start button (provided you play with an xbox gamepad) brings up multiple and confusing menus, with informations everywhere, which confused me even more because I could not find the proper objectives (if any was there).

Of course, I am a girl, this may explain... But still, I would have appreciated a more simple and straightforward objective system. All I had were those orange and green onscreen markers that I followed aimlessly, apparently guessing that those markers would lead me to my objectives.

The game contradicts itself sometimes: your allies during missions urge you into doing something, while the game prompts give you a different objective, contradicting your allies orders/wishes... This happened to me many times in the Haytham and Young Connor/Connor sections.

4- The game is shallow.
It is not a shallow grave, though! But I quickly found out that the promise of an open world is only blacking out its emptiness.

Of course, I love going in the forest to hunt rabbits and other animals. But is there a purpose to that? I still haven't found out. The result is very simple: I just stopped doing those side occupations because it does not warrant me with... anything at all!

Why giving me such an open world, if it is to reward me with nothing?
There are interesting side missions but way, way, way later in the game! This does not help the game (a slow pace, remember?) shinning as interesting and/or captivating. I truely hate it when a game tells me: "Do not worry, it is going to start... but in ten hours from now." I want fun right now, not in ten hours.

5- The player is a quiet and almost passive spectator.
During the ten hours I spent playing, I felt like a brainless girl playing an interactive movie, just like Heavy Rain. There is not a lot of freedom of action, indeed. All I had to do was follow some markers.

It is the same for combats! I brainlessly mash the X button to attack the bad guys but the game performs whatever it wants to. I cannot really chose what move I want to make with my character.

I believe that simplifying the game controls that much is not a good idea. It made me feel like AC3 helps me way too much... but I do not need help! I want to play!

As a conclusion, AC3 is a disapointment. Of course, the game is very beautiful but it failed to stir my interest beyond ten hours. I stopped playing it and I understand now why my boyfriend stopped playing it as well!