Assassin’s Creed 3 is a frustrating experience from its introduction all the way to the end. It’s a rollercoaster of loving and hating it.

Faces and character models are probably the most noticeable issue with the remaster. They look like clay or plastic with weird eyes, in the case of Desmond everything is wrong. The models & faces also get worse when the remasters lighting gets overblown with everything being too bright or way too dark, although MINOR adjustments can be made in the settings.

Gameplay wise the Parkour system is something. It’s hold one button to do everything and when it works, IT WORKS but there were so many times where it just didn’t work. Connor would jump onto the smallest objects, jump to the wrong parkour point, go where I’m not directing, jump to a latch point, fail to climb, Jump to his death instead of doing a leap of faith (mostly seen in the frontier sync points) and more.
I found Parkour somewhat disappointing in certain areas compared to prior titles such as the frontier with its tree parkour having limited paths and while there is some variety it’s not enough for the time you spend there. As for city areas, rooftop traversal was not to the quality of Florence, Venice or Constantinople.
P.S: Haytham can’t climb trees. It's not a bug.

Combat took a while to get used to with its timing, combo & counter system that requires a little more thought than the mindless variations seen in the Ezio trilogy but once you get used to knowing which enemies can break your combo flow/how they react to a few attacks, AC3’s combat feels fluid and reflective of Connor. He is an angry warrior and it reflects in every way when it comes to his brutality and aggressive treatment of enemies with his weapons. It’s a sight to behold and satisfying to initiate. That being said it can also be frustrating due to the harsh notoriety system that at the highest level will have AI spawning constantly and endlessly until you try to escape and reach notoriety reducing mechanics.

Stealth absolutely sucks its better to just fight. It doesn’t work and when it’s needed it’s a pain in the ass. Enemy AI detection is on steroids (this doesn’t help with aforementioned) with them spotting you near instantly and even if you break vision & hide, they will track you down through walls BUT DO NOTHING but stare until you actually appear in their line of sight thus initiating a fight. If a unit is on a roof and spots you but you hide behind a building they will stare at you through the building for a hefty duration before returning to their initial position. It’s insane and it’s not fun.

Fast Travel does exist but outside of the frontier it will require exploration from the player to unlock further fast travel points in the cities via the underground system. Within the underground you’ll have to traverse tunnels via running & platforming while holding a lantern to find puzzle doors. These puzzles upon completion will open & unlock a fast travel point in the over world. Excess Fast Travel is not available just for the sake of it and while I can appreciate the unique experience and unlock method, it can get annoying at times to unlock something that can reduce tedium. Frontier fast travel points are tied to shops or forts and THAT IS VERY FRUSTRATING.

Hunting is available in the frontier with a variation of animals (bears, deer, elk, rabbits etc.) and is introduced during the story. It has side challenges linked to it so you can find yourself climbing through the trees (aforementioned issues aside) hunting from above if you're a completionist. The same applies for naval combat although limited to mission selection unlike black flag/rogue open world. Naval combat is GREAT!

It should be noted that Connor’s upgrades and the economy are tied to hunting & the homestead but the game doesn’t tell you about the upgrade system, so unless you google it out of curiosity after playing the previous games, you will probably end the game having sold your pelts and items for cash rather than crafting extra bag space, unique items etc.

Assassin recruits return in AC3 and while having a basic tutorial it does not elaborate by exploring the rank up/dispatch system, so google that if you can. Unlike past entries recruits are no longer overpowered, they can be useful but you’ll need to upgrade them through the dispatch system and they can't be used in the frontier.

Regarding the story. I just have to sigh. It does Connor dirty in a lot of ways.
From the get go, Connor is undermined by Haytham who has charm and swagger that rivals Ezio and you spend a hefty amount of time with him prior to your first experience with Connor, I believe it’s 3-4 sequences and there’s 12 total in the game. Throughout that time Ubisoft did a great job at making you invested in his character & goals, so when it swaps you to Connor and puts you in a child sequence without access to the open world, it becomes jarring and puts Connor on the back foot.

It doesn’t help that it takes a while for Connor to grow up and even then due to weird decisions that basically split his personality between Main Story & Side missions, Connor becomes a generic rage filled vengeance seeking child with little variation and the words CHARLES LEE. It also takes longer for you to connect and get invested because of this switch.

Connor also suffers due to a few time skips so that we can get to historical moments. He basically plays a big role in each moment and while they are awesome set pieces, we miss out on conversations etc. & personal events between characters that are crucial or important to Connor, only for them to be mentioned & referenced later in dialogue in a way that makes you question when that even occurred or how a character knew that information outside implication.

As I mentioned before, the big issue with AC3's Main story is that for some reason they split Connor by putting all of his charm, care, interest and depth into optional missions rather than showing an ounce of it in THE MAIN STORY, it leaves you with a negative view on Connor because he never really changes or shows any significant depth to himself outside of being angry & naive. This split also affects the main story because if one doesn’t play those optional Homestead missions (YOU SHOULD) any threat has no significance to the player because they don’t have a connection to those around the homestead or Connor's care for those people outside of Achilles.

Homestead missions provide so much to Connor that it’s a shame a lot of people will miss them. That being said Connor has his moments throughout the story with his anger & frustration about the treatment of his people and land, the stellar interactions he has with Haytham & Achilles (moreso in the homestead) & the interactions he had with the Templars during the corridor sequences. These moments were a blast to experience with especially Haytham but they were very short in regards to the overall experience and weren’t enough to showcase Connor on his own.

On that note, the speeches and conversations between Haytham & Connor about the Templars methods were brilliant, perfectly acted and just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ great. The Templars overall in AC3 were fascinating, there was ambiguity, they weren’t just bad guys for the sake of bad guys/pieces of Eden, they had causes they had reasons separate from each other.

At the end of the day Assassin’s Creed 3 is frustrating. Whether you will enjoy it or not I cannot say because there’s a lot to love and a lot to hate about the game and experiences will vary. It’s worth at least giving the game a try but of course it’s best to pick up on sale if you’re doing so.

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