Reviews// Assassin's Creed III

Hunting is another way to make money. Connor can kill animals and trade their pelts, teeth, claws etc. While in the frontier territories, Connor has his pick of wild animals to hunt, and there are various ways of capturing (and killing and quite graphically skinning) each. A cleaner kill will render the pelt more valuable.

When you first encounter animals such as bobcats, mountain lions and bears you'll probably be quite unprepared for it, and they seem to attack relentlessly during these early sections. This made me worry about performing any mission in the Frontier, since it seemed that you would have to keep a constant watch for wildlife.

But these early levels seemed merely to introduce me to the wildlife and show what danger they could pose should you later choose to hunt them. Later, when you are on other business in the frontier region, the animals pose much less of an ever-present risk.

I mentioned earlier how free running on the rooftops is not always possible in the cities, due to the sheer number of British Redcoats present. But AC III introduces a new aspect to the free-running part of the game.

Due (allegedly) to his Native American heritage, Connor can climb trees like some kind of Spider-Man/boyscout hybrid. This ability comes in very useful, for hunting and also for evading detection by British patrols when in the rural areas.

Tree climbing also proves invaluable for collecting Eagle Feathers - a trivial side-game for completists, that players of previous AC games will be familiar with. A final use for free-climbing tree-climbing is for hunting. There are many ways to catch animals, but perhaps the most fun is an air-assassination from a tree.

I could go on and on but I want to get back to the game... and there's also the annoying factor of an editor and a deadline (and an embargo and release date).

Ubisoft has done it once again… produced a game that I literally cannot tear myself away from. Despite early tedium that may put some off this game, like Assassin's Creed II it rewards perseverance. I've often argued that if a game doesn't grab you in the first five minutes, it's not going to. Assassin's Creed in its many guises is the exception that proves the rule.

Let's be clear, if you hated the previous games, you're not going to love AC III. But if you were one of the very many fans of those games, you will love this. And if you were sat on the fence, the new historical timeframe, hunting, trading and naval battles may sway you in AC III's favour.

AC III is so huge, so immersive, so varied that there is surely something here for everyone. There are so many side missions, it's mind-boggling. Even if you ignore them all and play throughout he main storyline line exclusively, there is well over 20 hours of gameplay.

Once you go back to achieve full synchronisation on each Memory, you'll probably double that. But to bully through the main story would be to miss many opportunities. You'll want to defeat all the forts, and mine the huge potential of the many side missions. Then there is hunting, trading and naval warfare to be explored. This is one of those games that renders the concept of "completing" almost nonsensical.

Pros
+ Huge highly immersive game world
+ Beautiful looking
+ Almost endless gameplay

Cons
- Some frustrating and tedious early missions
- Combat difficulty is dialled up from previous games
- Mainly a re-skinned version of earlier games

SPOnG Score: 9.5/10