I'm surprised the user review average is this high and the critic review average is that low. This is usually the kind of game, part of a large series or not, that divides people completely. On the one hand, it's beautiful and cinematic and the story/characters feel fantastic. On the other hand, what a dreadful gameplay experience. If you think ACIII is going to be amazing because the past titles were done well enough and you were promised something better, don't feel bad as we all bought the hype. However, Resident Evil 6 was proof that even a high-budget AAA title from a company used to making quality titles could go from releasing super good games to "ugh, what is up with the controls and why did I just glitch through that thing and oh god my system is heating up" disasters. And ACIII is no different. Not only have some of the controls been remapped but the style of combat and exploration has also been greatly retooled for the worse. Riding horses is a nightmare, the new lockpicking minigame is a hassle, you have to chase collectibles, gone is the 'low profile' control set, guns have curiously gotten LESS advanced as time has progressed, and stealth seems to be not only completely optional but totally unnecessary except for those pass-or-fail missions where getting caught means a "try again" cutscene that plays into a loading screen. I loved the first 4 AAA titles in the series and I will complete this game as well because I'm a huge fan of the AC universe. But I will tell you right now, I won't enjoy it nearly as much as I was led to believe. I'm quite a ways into it and it just feels... unfinished and lacking in structure. ACII remains the best in the series by far.… Expand

This is the worst Assassin's Creed in the series (I think is even worse than Revelations...). The story of this game is absolute boring, specially the past part wich is the 80% of the game, but the Desmond story was even worse... Specially the ending which is specially bad, not to mention all the bugs that game haves, it feels like an unfinished game. If you want a real AC experience just play AC2 and AC:B instead of this game... About the online part, at fist looks good, but it doesn't have many variety on places to play, and most of them looks the same. Also all the customization parts for characters are overpriced, I already have played like 70 times online, I'm in level 31 and I still doesn't have enough credits to allow me to buy character stuff, only skills.. obviously they want us to spend real money on it, also the rewards (videos) for leveling up on the online game are not good as the ones in AC:R.

So, I'm afraid this is not an AAA title anymore. Not buying another AC on the release.… Expand

In Assasin's Creed III, you are someone who looks lile a drug dealer with something to hide. Despite that, you seem to be in the past as everyone looks like they're in the 1700s, except for you, of course. The gameplay is ridiculously boring and I claim this as the most overrated game of 2012.

I remember when i bought Assassin's Creed, it felt so different than an average game back then was.You could climb on rooftops in cool fashion, explore the lands of the Crusades or just kill guards in in a way that made you="OHHH! EWWW! WOW!" it was not a perfect game but it was very entertaining. Then it was time for Assassin's Creed 2, and oh my it was fabulous! it fixed most of the problems in AC1 and the setting was really interesting, The Renaissance...Beautiful architecture, interesting characters and this time actually fun side missions!
Let's get to the point already, Assassins Creed 3 has been out now for months and after playing it for 51 hours and 23 minutes i can safely say my opinion about it... You all know the setting already in this game which is the American revolutionary war....Which is not that interesting.... It was the first let down for me, Boston and New York are not just really beautiful places unlike Florence and Rome were in the previous games, the buildings are not very tall and it makes climbing really boring when there's like 100 houses after another which look exactly the same.... well i wish you luck staying on rooftops because of the guards on the rooftops... i mean WHY is there so many of them???! You are destroying the element that got me interested in AC years ago! So they almost force you to stay on the ground level all the time. The story is pretty annoying, mainly because of the protagonist, Ratonhaketon AKA Connor Kenway..He is annoying, childish, naive and the list goes on... Oh and you will be hearing a lot of "What would you have me do?" Lines from Connor...and that really tells you about the level of the dialogue. Disappointment after another....The soundtrack= No more Jesper Kyd with his ambient music, now it's just movie music you hear everywhere, it just doesn't stand out! And oh the BUGS, it almost literally drove me insane especially during missions where you have to achieve perfect sync... I seriously wish i could recommend this to you AC fans, but i just can't..... this was a huge game of let downs and it is a disgrace to previous AC games, i mean it.
Oh and did i tell you about the horrible, anticlimax ending? See for yourselves...… Expand

Assassins Creed 2 and Revelations are two of my favorite games of all time,,, This is not one of those............I found this game frustrating and annoying. The frustrating following and fail missions take away from the potential of greatness. It's also a sloppy mess. Game breaking bugs all over are inexcusable. Some or many of the missions are so linear with one path or fail way to play you wonder how they got away with marketing it as open world. I had to follow a guy in the city, had to start over so many times I cursed constantly at how they could do this to me for my hard earned dollars. Some of the combat is fun, the cities look great. I don't know if I'll play multiplayer as much of it is timed fail missions. I'm sorry, a lot of this game is not fun, frustrating and down right excessively boring... Starting over and over and over is the worst thing in gaming and cant get how they thought that would be fun...… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I would have given a better score, but am a bit disappointed in this title. It was one if the highly anticipated games for 2012. The graphics are the highest point for me. The storyline lacks, when compared to the other titles in this franchise. We all know the storyline of the assassins verses the Templars. But when I discovered the plot twist of the assassin and the lead Templar in this title, working together. I put my controller down, ejected the game from my ps3 console. That is exactly how disappointed I was. Not to mention the horrible control of naval vessels for naval warfare. I find it ridiculous that ubisoft didn't take enough time to develope this, and made a joke to the assassins creed series.… Expand

Sadly, this is a game that just doesn't feel fresh. There isn't enough new or exciting in terms of gameplay to distinguish this from AC2 part 4. After playing all the Ezio games I was not only beginning to tire of the same old stuff gameplay wise, but also very disappointed in how unlikable Connor is, especially when compared to Ezio or even Haytham. I wish I could have played as Haytham for the entire game instead. I did play the game through to the end, which is saying something I guess, but I really have no desire to go back and try to complete more side missions or unlock or explore anything else. The ending also felt like a real let down. I remember almost crying at the end of Metal Gear 3 because of how beautiful it was. The ending of this game left me feeling empty and thinking "That's it?"… Expand

I have been playing games and perusing Metacritic for years. ACIII is the first game to disappoint to such a degree as to drive me to comment. Wandering, lackluster, and frustrating. Ubi should be ashamed. This game can only meekly stand in the shadow of its predecessors. Go back, do it again, and get it right.

Game is okay. The story is the only thing saving it at this point. Don't be surprised when glitches occur often and you are able to kill a group of 30 enemies by yourself with ease.

Story was, by far, the worst of the entire series.

Conner was a mental midget who spends the entire game acting like a petulant six year old.

On the flip side, actual game mechanics were mostly solid, with some improvements over previous games in the series. Unfortunately, I love(d) the AC story, and Conner's story was so bad, and Desmond's "end" was so bad, I have to give AC 3 a 4.

After spending years studying the peninsular wars and American civil and revolutionary wars as a hobby I was absolutely bouncing off the walls waiting for this game. I'm British myself and couldn't wait to take on the relentless Redcoats and teach them a lesson in manners that apparently all Brits in the media are portrayed to have! This it would seem would be incredibly easy, every Redcoat in AC3 is simply obnoxious, now considering many army regulars were criminals or the lowest in social standing and many would have never seen a native american, a reaction for the worst would be expected, however considering that most 'Natives' sided with the British concerns me with regards to accuracy! You are repeatedly told the British are coming to take your lands, within hours if you actually watch the 15 cut scenes it takes to get you to collect a feather from a tree also bothers me, I'm certain it was colonial American expansion that worried the natives! Poor Charles Lee, he had a particularly bad war, he wanted Washington's job. history suggests he didn't get it, but to make him out in early scenes to be a lovable rogue and in later scenes to be a child prodding sycophant is pushing it, he died of a fever with his hunting hounds. Sadly inconsistencies are throughout this game, even the weaponry is incorrect, I know I'm being a nerd here but how long and how many people were studying the history for this game?The animation of loading is great though, I loved the (mostly) full loading procedure! Especially when it meant I got stabbed! It was realistic! The gameplay is ok, the free running thing is great but you hold a button and push forward, you sometimes have to press down, it looks pretty sweet though, however fall into combat and much hilarity ensues! Now I may be wrong, but I have not noticed a difficulty button, so it may be me making this combat system appalling. Press a button to parry when the screen slows down, then press kill, is not a challenging attack system! Sometimes they parry your parry and you might have to press x! The sheer cramp this failed to give my hand concerned me further! After single handedly taking on 40 Redcoats I should be jaded, not bopped the lot in exactly 80 very slow button presses! There were so many features in this game I wanted to be good, listening to, and solving frontiersmen challenges and filling my homestead, but making bloody barrels and nails isn't a trade system for an action game, give me something I can bury into Sir Howe's forehead and send us pesky Brits to the other 20% of the world they owned! If you want to have a game that has a pretty standard story that has some easy to digest history, albeit wrong, interest is better than nothing in my eyes! You can execute British troops all day in all manner of hilarious and buggy ways, double dagger to the face and leave them standing, check! Tomahawk to the shoulder and subclavian arteries! Watch him, he is going to parry you, and fantastically cliched cut scenes go for it!!! There's a lot here. Just everything seems to be ok, nothing makes you gawp at the screen or chuckle to yourself, or even make you think you achieved something beyond timing a button press! The naval battles though!! Do em, again and again, just please don't ruin Trafalgar for me as well with some end of world of witchcraft!… Expand

Unlike previous installments, this one doesn't really tell a story, it's just a series of strung together missions with minimal transition between. The numerous gameplay and graphical glitches make it a chore to play, and I find that I am forcing myself to play through and just not enjoying this game like I did with the previous installments. Even the original AC was easier to swallow than this because it had a cohesive storytelling mechanism, but this lacks the thought and polish of even the original installment. Had Ubi put even a modicum of polish into this installment that they had in any of the previous ones, or taken the lessons learned from any of the prior 4 major console releases, this would have been a masterpiece, but in its current state, this is almost a big a steaming pile as Duke Nukem Forever.… Expand

NO SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW Well, thanks god I'm not the only one who sees that this game is really bad. As more people here, I've been an AC fan since first day, I've all cómics, books and games, even the little ones for Android and IOS, I've beaten AC1 ( my favorite ) 18 times, AC2 12, BH 8 and Revelations 3 and I have all superior editions ( Black, Códex, Animus and Freedom ). Not much people can say that they love AC as I do, but this game, AC3 is such a s**t. It's like Ubisoft got all the ingredients, but they didn't know how to cook it, this game could have been the very best AC, they had the history context, they had the graphics, the maps, the varied missions, the best combat in all the saga, and they have screw it up. AC is not famous for his combat or varied missions, it's famous for the story that it has, one of the best stories ever on videogames industry, it's almost as epic as Metal Gear Solid ( which I love even more than AC ), but this game has ruined that history, I wish this game didn't exist, what a boring and EMPTY story, the "epics" moments in this story are empty, that's the main problem of this game, If an important character dies, it doesn't hurt, not like previous games when I almost cried, and the whole history has holes, it's not narrated properly.

So... I've been talking about Connor's story, but Desmond story is horrible too, I don't want to spoil you, but seriosly, what a bad story, It's ruined. And the bugs in this game are really upseting, fast travel points that desapear, NPCs that doesn't walk, NCPS popping in front of you as you walk on the city, game freezes, lot of secondary missions bugged, it's really horrible, please don't buy this game. I'm realy disappointed with UbiSoft, they did the worst work ever, they are really important developers and they have lost all my respects and all really fan's respect. And... you know what? The worst thing they did, it's that they have lied to all of us. They said that they would end Desmond's story and they didn't. When I was at the end of the game, I was like, well, after 5 years, finally I'm gonna give and end for this amazing story, but It doen'st end. If you say that this game is good, you have no idea about what you are saying, I can't handle a 7, but no more than that, this game s**ks, thank you so much UbiSoft, you have ruined one of the best sagas ever.… Expand

This game was a MAJOR disappointment. The characters are bland in my opinion, and you can't go into the major battles like in the trailers. You have to stay on a scripted path, and if you go off the path, you die. What happened Ubisoft?

This game would have been excellent if the amount of bugs didn't wreak havoc on the game play. Seriously, I couldn't play an hour without having to reload the game, or exit to the Animus, or restart at a checkpoint because I fell through the ground, or a hay horse drove me through the wall of a building, or I got stuck in a falling animation without falling. Some more? Cannon Balls stuck in the air, sound dropping out during an important scene, music stopping. Raiding forts and killing the captain just to realize the "dead" captain is still displayed as an objective and having to exit the fort and restart from scratch. I'm sorry, this game should've never been released. Get a new testing team or more of them. The game is unplayable crap and this will be the first one I did not finish. What a waste of 60 bucks.… Expand

This game was **** ON A DISC. I won't spoil the ending for anyone, because that's wrong, but all in all, start to finish this game was horrible. I was so excited to get this game, and once I had it, I couldn't wait to start! The beginning is already confusing as hell. The gameplay was terrible, especially the combat. The counter feature is completely shot, I've never had a harder time killing guards. There are so many glitches in this game that I don't know what to do. I've had endless guards spawn for fights, inability to complete missions because something isn't there that I need, and losing 100% synchronization because of a pebble I tripped over somewhere. I'm telling you, whoever is reading this, play at your own risk. The stealth factor in this game is horrible, there is nowhere to hide, and even if there is, guards can still detect you easily. There aren't any armor upgrades, and you have to do way too much upkeep at your "home base" in my opinion. Back in AC2 and Brotherhood, Ezio's side missions (which were a lot more inviting to play) increased the homestead. On top of that, money is scarce, unless you're willing to run through every god forsaken forest and pass every tree to find forts to conquer. Hunting is pretty pointless, and the animals are **** everywhere. I couldn't pass through the forest without having to fight several packs of wolves. In the end, I was so fed up with the hunting regions that I just fast travelled everywhere. The aspects of this game aren't satisfying, they just make you want to run through the sequences and finish (which is what I did). There is no incentive to spend time improving the lands or yourself, or trying on the missions, because you get so damn fed up with glitches, lack of combat, and the ultimately boring storyline. 3/4 of the game is all about bringing up the past, and it just seems like one big tutorial. You spend the first 1/3 of the game just figuring out who the hell Connor is, and the rest of the game, he's a rookie. After years of "supposed" training (that you don't go through, it's just a cutscene and suddenly he's an assassin) he still can't get **** straight. I didn't like his character. He was driven by revenge I guess, but his drive wasn't in the right places. He just seemed to bounce around with his thoughts too much, and not focus on being a kick ass assassin. Come on, Ezio wanted revenge, and he did whatever it took to improve himself. He didn't go blindly running after people. Connor just seems like a bitter, little boy. There was no part in the game where you got to bond with the character, like Ezio. I don't know about everyone else, but I felt like I was constantly waiting for a moment where I would feel connected to the game, like I did for AC2 and Brotherhood, AND Revelations (Even AC1 for that matter). It never happened. I'm clearly unhappy with this game, Ubisoft screwed up big time. I will say, I did enjoy the Desmond parts of the game, being in the different countries and all. I wish there was more Desmond involvement. One thing I liked about the AC franchise was the history. They go back in time, right? This game was so bad I preferred to be in the present. I could go on and on and on, but you get the idea. It was terrible. Like I said, **** on a disc. I can't believe I paid top dollar for it. Even the DLC didn't help. I won't spoil it, but that ending? Wow, takes the cake. Awful. Ubisoft, just stop.… Expand

I am gonna get right to the point here. This game is NOT good. It has some redeeming qualities like the graphics and cinematics. But there seems to be a continuing theme for so many AAA titles. They just want so badly to be liked. They put cinematics and set pieces above everything else. This game is no different. It is basically cutscene, 2 minutes of gameplay, cutscene, 4 minutes of gameplay, cutscene, 3 minutes of gameplay. AND then you consider that the gameplay is usually walking around or riding on a horse. This is pretty bad. The game also starts off incredibly slow. Conner, the main character, is not nearly as likeable as Ezio or Altair, and his motives seem at times either predictable or just iffy. When the game picks up though, you notice just how simplistic the combat is. It is clear that they wanted to ripoff the Arkham games, especially if you pay attention to the music that plays during combat. It is nearly the same exact music found in Arkham City. BUT the combat found in AC3 is no where near as fluid or polished or fun as the Arkham games. Not even close. It fails hard. Glitches also plague the combat, as well as the overall main game. Horses glitching out, muskets flying around, enemies teleporting, some clipping issues, and dialogue glitches are forgivable I guess, but freezing camera glitches and getting stuck in terrain forcing you to restart is just pushing it. Add to this, braindead AI that is some of the worst I have ever seen in a video game, and you have a very pretty game that is anything but good. PLEASE don't be fooled by the marketing. This is a failure from Ubisoft. Not recommended. 3/10… Expand

Normally love the Creed... but really didn't like this game at all. It has so many bugs, online servers offline a lot. forgettable boring characters and the story means nothing to me as an international player. The game keeps talking about people like i should know who they are... game tries and fails to rip off Red Dead Redemption. Americans might get something out of this...

The game is a disgrace to the franchise. I couldn't finish the game because of some of the flaws with the game. Returned it, got my money back. Good
1. The game is very large. For awhile I was complaining about how ACB and ACR had small maps, well this game would surely shut any of those complaints up. 2. There are a lot of missions in this game. Plenty of things to do. Bad
The fact that I can't think of more than 2 good things about the game is a bad sign

1. The combat is horrible. Basically the combat is circle to counter and square to attack. Even the first assassins creed game had more than 2 buttons used for combat. Certain enemies are nearly impossible to kill because you have no clue how to fight because it is completely counter intuitive and way too far from the other games.

2. To make matters worse, the game doesn't have enough assassination missions. The game is basically you running around butchering people in broad daylight. There have been moments where guards will just randomly start attacking you, maybe it was because I killed too many guards, I don't know because there is no indicator for this like in the other games... 3. They took out abilities in the game for no reason at all.

Want to jog? Nope can't do that! L1 = sprint, not L1 + X
Want to kick your enemy? Nope, remember circle and square are the only 2 actions
Want to air assassinate? Nope, never opportunities to air assassinate since the game is basically a bunch of wooden houses spread far apart.
Can I leap while climbing? NOPE

4. Quicktime events. If you played RE6 before this game, you probably never want to see quicktime events ever again. Well bad news, they are all over the game. Random wolf attacks you, QTE, fail you pretty much die. THIS IS ALL OVER THE ENTIRE GAME. 5. You have no clue what the hell is going on. I actually found that I no longer cared, Connor is a boring character with no development at all. He is basically Jack the Ripper.

6. I liked assassins creed 2 the most because the game offered a ton of beautiful maps. Florence and Venice are great locations. Sure they aren't as big as the maps in this game, but they are more dense and full of more life. I think it was a mistake to approach the american revolution as the setting. I want to go back to the renaissance era. Summary

The game is garbage. I gave RE6 a 4/10, the fact that this is getting a 3/10 means that the game is basically unplayable. Sure RE6 had **** quicktime events, but at least the game mechanics weren't absolute **** 50% of my score is based off of the controls, and if the controls suck ass then the game is basically worthless.… Expand

Boring game... 0 Gameplay... Every little part is automatic. I hope, for the next episode, to have an automatic control, so i can only watch the game and don't play it.

i really wanted to like this game. i liked the ones that came before and was hoping it would at least come close. but really, the glitches, bugs and AI are a total PITA. riding a horse on top of a house is funny the first time but it gets old fast. in fact, riding a horse in general gets old fast. you're walking around incongnito and get ambushed by 30+ guards but later on you practically jump a guard and they barely notice. wha? and what's with the screwy controls? why make 4 games the same and change the last one when your audience is most likely going to be made up of the ones that liked the first few games? and by "change" i mean "make totally sucky". the main missions are pretty linear and boring and don't leave much for the player to think about. the menus are a labyrinth to navigate, and that's not a compliment. accessing the map alone is a drag. and why are there more cutscenes than gameplay? at least that's how it feels most of the time. and how boring and pointless were the guild/trading elements? it seems to me that ubisoft just tried to cram in too much into one game, not really developing anything except for the scenery, which is the only reason it got any points at all. in a nutshell: a pretty, but boring and frustrating game.… Expand

The Good The story elements were great (if a little slow and protracted). While it would have nice to have some aspects more fully fleshed out (more climactic boss encounters and more insight into character motivation), we both enjoyed where the story went and are interested to see how they proceed from here. The Bad Combat was not improved at all. If anything it was simpler and more boring. Yes there were more ranged combat choices, but there was no visible way to really improve or customize your weapons. Combat has never been particularly deep tactically, but this installment was actually a step backwards. The game made it far too easy to successfully counter and there was almost no variety in opponent type… Expand

I LOVED AC2 and Brotherhood. AC3 was torture. I did finish the game, but it was a masochistic exercise. Gone is the wonderful openness and joy of exploring. AC3 feels like a series of mini-game tasks, requiring precise movements at exactly the right time to complete the task. Each new task is more frustrating than the last. There is no organic game play at all. You either play the game on rails, or you don't play. The game has way to many game systems, that are poorly cobbled together, and each a poor copy of better implementations in other games. e.g. the whole survivalist/frontier track robbed from Read Dead Redemption. In addition, the game has many graphical glitches and bugs throughout. I am SO HAPPY that I did not pay full price for this. Ubisoft should be ashamed of releasing this. AC3 just isn't fun. There is no joy in this game, only torture.… Expand

The result of when a franchise with so much potential becomes a yearly cash grab like so many others in this day and age. After months of hype and build up, ACIII is a shell of what was promised to us. An uninspired story that forces players to clock in at least 3 4hrs gameplay until you even get to play as the protagonist, and even when you take control of this character, he is nothing more than a whiny errand boy with so little to like that I found it hard to watch cutscenes.
The "refined combat" we were promised is the same one button counter system, just mapped out differently on your controller, and so combat is just as bland as it has been in the last 4 games.
I very rarely get as excited for a game as I was for this one, and it was for that reason that it won top place on my WORST of 2012 list. A massive letdown from start to finish. And with the newly announced AC4 on the horizon, my hopes are dim for this franchise to redeem itself.… Expand

I don't really know what to say for this, but I think the word "Boring" is right for this game. I really thought we would get a "fun" Assassin's Creed game after Revelations. Instead, I got a useless excuse to learn a new history lesson. MP is still crap and should be removed from the franchise for good reasons.
Note: I didn't even bother playing the game after chapter 4.
(sigh) Well, on to the next one.… Expand

AC3 is largely disappointing. There's no improvement over previous iterations in any way that matters and it, in fact, fails where prior games didn't. To start, the first six sequences are literally a drawn out and exceedingly padded tutorial. Every minute game mechanic gets its own mission. It's unforgivably stupid, particularly given that game plays exactly like previous AC games in every regard and that the mechanics are incredibly simple to begin with. I can't imagine ever wanting to play through this game again simply due to that. The game is only twelve sequences long and five of them are tutorials. It's ridiculously blatant padding. Combat is exactly the same in most regards though you're even more powerful that previous games. It's prettier but that's the most that can be said for it. There is absolutely no reason to ever buy new weapons as your base set can handle every foe in the game with ease. Like the entirety of the game economy, it's pointless and cosmetic time wasting that in no way effects the game. Equally superfluous is the Assassin mechanic taken from Brotherhood. Not once ever in the game will you need to use it expect when the game forces you to. That brings me to the biggest gripe: the missions. They are the least imaginative and most frustratingly rote main missions since the first AC. What game designer in their right mind thinks eavesdropping is a fun and interesting mechanic. Worse, there are missions that require it along with other requisites. Given that there is no real stealth mechanic and the checkpoint system is senseless you will be forced to listen to same conversation a lot. And about the stealth mechanics? Exactly the same as previous games but now you can lean around corners. "Stealth" still only involves hopping from cover to cover as opposed to, you know, being stealthy? In this day and age the mechanic is so dated it's an insult. It's incredibly jarring to be hiding then try to move to the next cover and Connor pops out and walks around like he's taking a Sunday stroll. Also, the main missions are so scripted it removes all player agency to a ridiculous degree. What's the point of a sandbox game where you can't apply creativity and the supplied tools to the task? Chasing someone? Don't bother doing anything other than what the game tells you. You'll start over. Catch up with your target prior to the subscribed time? Don't bother. He's invulnerable until the game says so. Don't bother thinking, just go from point A to point B like the game tells you to. The vast majority if the main missions are incredibly constricted like this, not to mention uncreative and dull. Many are outright misleading. Don't listen to NPCs when they tell how to order your men in the major battles. You'll get overwhelmed. Just run back and forth like a fool giving the order to fire as soon as able and your fine. That's just the game designers talking to you through an NPC trying to give the impression they put a lot more thought into they did. The naval battles on the other hand are quite fun. They are also the only reason to bother with tedium of the incredibly clunky convoy mechanics. The ship upgrades are fairly expensive and, unlike everything else in the game that you buy, they actually effect gameplay. Everything else you do to upgrade the homestead is cosmetic and you'll have to slog through incredibly bad designed menus to do it. All the menus are horrible actually. Like previous games you can instantly look at the database entry for historic tidbits. You'll quickly tire if that though as you end up in a giant nested hierarchy that requires you to back out of all of it to get back to the game. Your weapon menu? There's a minor load every time you use it. Want to use any of your many tools? Same menu and you have to wonkily scroll through and ever growing list to even switch through staple things like whistling for your horse. In other words they somehow found a way to make the controls more clunky that prior games. Not everything is bad. The world is pretty though the cities naturally lack the verticality of prior games. It's not even that everything is bad, it's just more of the same. Same dodgy stealth. Same bizarre AI that can't detect you in a two foot bush but can spot you from miles away otherwise. Same lack of meaningful economy. Same senselessly placed guards hanging out on rooftops when no guards ever historically did that. Same guards that climb as well as you. What's so special about your abilities if even lowly militia can do everything you can? Same combat rhythm with the same trope of certain guards needing certain counters to hurt them. There's no step forward here like Ubisoft claimed. The mechanics have dated for years and they just put shinier window dressing on them. So if you liked the old games you'll likely enjoy this one. For me, I too often felt like a pawn running from one cutscene to the next.… Expand

I loved all of the previous AC games and was really looking forward to this one.

Unfortunately, this game is bad. If it were the first in the series it would be the only one made.

Like most of the previous games, they changed the combat controls. Where these changes previously made combat more fluid and enjoyable in previous titles, the combat in this game is clumsy and unrewarding. The stealth aspect has also been changed for the worse- the cues you get as to whether or not you're in stealth are minimal, and the open world areas are simply annoying- once you finally get to them after playing a third of the game. Getting to that point feels like a chore, however, since there are so many cutscenes that you aren't really playing the game as you are spending a couple minutes fighting a horrible camera and clunky controls until you stumble into the part of the game that triggers another five minute long cutscene. I'm not kidding. The first third of the game is more cut-scenes than actual game play.

The things that made the previous games great: the fluid combat, the entertaining side quests, and the open-world parkour-like climbing have been replaced with large open areas where you just run forever along boring repetitive flat ground, and then they threw in some QTE sequences and the ability to... kill bears, deer and beavers.

The graphics are not as good as the previous games in the series, and the plot is so boring that a third of the way through I honestly stopped caring if any of the characters actually lived or died.

They took all of the annoying parts of the previous games and built an entire game around those then threw in a water-thin plot and a horrendous camera then changed the controls to make them even more cumbersome and called it a day. Rather than buying this game, you should just play the earlier titles in this series and hope that if they make another AC that it's actually good.… Expand

AC3 is like an aging wife whose flaws get harder to ignore as she takes more than she gives. Slow pace, slow loads, slow movement. Broken and heart breakingly, simply not fun. I never cared about the inane and muddled sci fi storyline, I fell in love with AC2 and Brotherhood for tower sieging and breakneck horse rides through Italy. This game forces the cruddy story on you while stripping the fun away. After controls improving through each title, 3 inexplicably goes backwards. Your many escorts get stuck in walls, the "stealth" is shatteringly broken, enemies are dumber than ever and the only time a fight is interesting is when you can't find your character in the jumbled frenzy. You have to pause the game to access the former weapon wheel... how?! Why take a modern function to replace with a 1995 inventory?

This is inexplicably a bad game. Disgusting. I still love synching viewpoints, managing double assassinations, and petting cats & dogs. Had I not cared, then meh, but I'm sad that 3 is such a failure.… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The UI is terrible, very confusing. Crafting, Buying Menu is causing headache. The menu is very annoying. The character is easy to forget. Not a good character. The story is terrible. I even don't know or remember what the story really taking me. Some bugs (ex. Character talking but the lips don't move) . I'm a big fans of Assassin Creed series but this one is disappointing. It is not fun and even frustrating. The graphic is worse than Assassin Creed: Brotherhood. It should have been better. The designer is lack of creativity. This is the reason: 1. Now, there is 'Analyze Clue' when hunting -> I think this copying Batman game where you can analyze something, 2. The combo fight also copy Batman game, 3. The weapon Menu (press and hold R2) it is copying Metal Gear Solid game weapon menu, 4. The interactive game play when facing wild animal (hunting) is copying God of War. WHERE IS ORIGINALITY? Where is the Assassin Creed Game that I love? Where is the AC game that is fun? Something that I love to play over and over again? The last series (AC III) is just very frustrating and not fun. When I play this, the boredom and frustration is cancelling the fun. I give 2 score for this. 1 is for the effort for developer to make the last installment of the AC series. And 1 is because I'm the fans of AC series. For the game play, character, design (the first time I see the city design it's like WHAT? it's nothing compared to AC:Brotherhood city design like Venice, Rome, etc. It's definitely lack of the atmosphere of AC game that it should be), story I will not give any score. It is just so disappointing.… Expand

Very, Very, Very Disappointing. The game play gets very old if you are only a Single Player sort of person. Multiplayer is basically whoever has played the longest is going to win, and coop was rushed and thrown out there and should have been just left out.
VERY disappointed!

Really disappointing. Have played all the other AC games, and this seemed like a return to the bad points of the first game. Quite repetitive and constrained, and also really annoying how you can't fully upgrade your homestead if you miss an upgrade during an earlier sequence. Hope the next one is an improvement...

Talk about disappointing. What's up with games today that release awesome bad ass trailers where the character is portrayed doing sick things like charging into enemy lines through cannon fire. Then you get the game, expecting those epic moments but are shattered because they are not in the game. Instead of actually putting you on a big battlefield during an important time in American history, it's back to the same old same old. You easily take out your marked targets and then continue on your way. You can even walk up and stab them and just skip being sneaky about it. I really thought this game was going to take a different step from previous titles. I guess I just shouldn't trust trailers but I was hoping to be participating in giant battles against British forces. Maybe you have to break through enemy lines to carve a path to the general. Instead, you have some dinky event where you press the trigger to order some men to fire, then run over to some other men and order them to fire. Rinse and repeat, die of boredom. At another point you are on the battlefield, and you have to sit behind cover. Cannon fires. Sit behind cover. Cannon fires. Sit behind cover. Really? It makes me long for another Viking:Battle for Asgard, sure that game was boring as all get out leading up to the big battles. But the big battles were there and they were epic! This just continues on the path of "one man army". Another huge point for me is who the hell cares? Once again I find myself hating Desmond, and the fact that I am forced to play as him and his god awful storyline. Connor (animus character) is just as lifeless, where I find myself saying, who the hell cares!? I couldn't even bring myself to finish the game because there was just absolutely no point. Where the game does shine is the naval battles. Commanding your ship, is well executed and by far the best part of the game. The controls are streamlined and easy to take the helm of. Everywhere else though this game is complete phooey. Definitely the last "Assassin's Creed" I'll ever purchase. (It gets a 2 for the naval battles)… Expand

I really would like to know if the guys whom are making these games are destroying the games just for fun, or just out of greed!
Because wow, Assassins creed 3.... well
The first assassins creed made me a hardcore fan for sure. The second one made me drool. Brotherhood and revelations were ok, but then I began to suspect something because bringing out one game per year kind of smells fishy.
And yes, with assassins creed 3 I got the confirmation that they don't give a about their fans or buyers because this is by far the worst assassins creed so far.
It has got NOTHING to do with assassins creed!
Climbing in the trees was a nice thought, but it actually turned out to be a joke. Every single time you get up there, it's always the same five to ten trees you get in.
The thing with the animals is just ridiculous. I mean come on!!!! I had just finished red dead redemption and you all know what that meant, right?
The guys from assassins creed must have been thinking, 'hey, I haven't got any inspiration', 'I have an idea, let's copy paste stuff from red dead redemption. Those gamers are so stupid they won't even notice.'
That's how they think about us.
I'm still playing the game and man I'm so so frustrated!!!! The game freezes at least once every time I play. Most of the time when a tree is lying down and (that retarded killing machine) connor bumps against it. He just can't seem to jump over them You know, the same action as when he is standing with his hand palms against the wall. I really hate that! They must have thought, 'O well, it, they'll take anyway'. Sometimes when i want to get on a horse, the x button just doesn't work (o and no, it's not the controller because that has been tested).
Every single time i play the game I also get stuck at certain parts. Like yesterday I threw my controller through the room because after killing two guards at a door. Connor just went through it and got stuck inside. The day before I got stuck between a little ditch and bush. I literately got stuck at knee hight.
And talking about bushes...... Man if you consider the times in Venice where the details were extremely well done, now it is like I'm playing an eight year old game. No? I'm exaggerating? O, please do look at the bushes, plants and all that. Man the bushes are 2d planes. What's with that? That is so ugly... you can't even begin to imagine, you have to see it for yourself. O, and 'bushes', well, they look like cardboard pieces they took from a d-movie from the seventies.
And the biggest part is that you can't even get through the bushes and plants. They don't even move. Just, bam, I'm walking against walls in the forest more than half of the time and there is no way to get through two plants or bushes where the leaves almost touch. Hey, it's a big no no guys because two leaves almost touching each other becomes impenetrable.
And what's the deal with the sudden switch of character? Wasn't it possible to maybe actually implement how we came to have another character? Look, when I begin to play an AC game, I always make sure I get some money and do quite some side quests. Do you feel my frustration when all of a sudden the character is gone, along with all the gathered money? that!!
And where is the stealth? Hello-o? It's all about hacking and slashing in this game. No subtlety at all.
And why do you guys take us for idiots? And I thought the fighting system from batman was for kiddies. Well, compared to AC3 it's quite 'complicated' because you have several different ways to make combo's and have different knobs to use.
With AC3 I can eat, look at a movie, and meanwhile kill every single soldier with just hammering the square button. The fun is just gone.
No nice gameplay, a dull story, brainless characters, graphics from the nineties (well, you know what I mean). And what's with the music? No more ambience and chilling while wandering around? O, talking about sound. Sometimes when I'm in a fight, the sound of the slashing and hacking drops away. Very, very funny! (It does come back after five or ten minutes or so). The times that I was rofl laughing with the little things you heard the people say in the street with AC2 (or the others for all I care) is gone! Here and there there is something, but now I laugh because it's a joke.

And the biggest most hilarious thing about the game (but it's not such a big a deal) is when connor is raising the American flag.
Like Chandler from friends use to say, 'could it be any more ridiculous?' Yeah, they wiped out his whole town and family, but he's loyal to the U S of **cking A.
And the riddles? Where are those genius riddles from before? Again, you think we're idiots right? Man, those riddles I was sometimes having a really hard time, but it was fun. REAL fun! It gave you something. It was like the hidden history was being revealed little by little. All this tension is gone. No more feel of mystery.
By the way, I'm only at sequence 4...
2/10… Expand

This is the worst game in the series. I have more frustration than fun playing this. First is the performance, the texture pop-in is ridiculous in the city. Second thing is the counter system, the new counter system doesn't work, if I counter a guy with a hidden blade, it should be instant kill. Why the f can they counter me?! NO! Just no! The third thing is the main character, Connor is just some generic angry guy, Altair and Ezio were much better main characters. Fourth thing is the lack of customization, there's no armors to buy for Connor, combine that with the broken counter system, the combat is frustrating and not fun. Fifth and this is the reason that made me quit playing the game and give this game such a harsh score, the fking Thomas Hickey chase! I hope your bonus is tie in someway to Metacritic scores, whatever team that designed this mission, you deserve to get your bonus reduced for this damn mission! In all other AC games, you're a damn assassin, you run faster than the target you're chasing, but I've been playing for more than 15x, still Thomas Hickey runs faster, wtf?! This is with patch 1.01 btw, so if anything, the patch should've fixed well known issues like this. Don't buy this game, save your money and watch the ending on YouTube, that's what I plan to do. F this game.… Expand

I just started it but so far i hate it. The Gameplay is the only thing that covered everything else. I hate the new system for everything. Animus Messages .. The **** and the gameplay itself is **** it was to fluent and you could barely control what was happening. In the last 5 games (including the one for the psp) the game felt stabilized and calm but in this ugh..... I wish they didn't change that up the game is honestly a sack of **** and i Loved this series sooooooo much but the control's like changing the counter button to be and the camera angles when you're in combat is why i hate this game. Also the menu. OMG it's to ****ing retarded the way how you have to use the right stick ad thing's like that, this is a bad way to end a series.… Expand

What the hell did they do to this series? Whoever was the lead director of this game is a complete fool. Shame on Ubisoft for allowing the Assassin's Creed brand to get **** on so hard. Long time fan, but this is it. I'm done with the series. That ending, are you F'n kidding me? What a joke, this is what we waited so long for? The game is boring, the pacing is horrible, it feels like the majority of the game is just a tutorial, the atmosphere is a bore compared to previous titles, the main character just lacks any sort of personality, the music, where the hell is the music this series is known for? ugh, the game sucks, if your a fan and just want to know how the story ends, then watch cut scenes on youtube or at least wait for a price drop and buy used, it won't be long, trust me. But prepare yourself for a huge let down, from gameplay to story, Revelations which was considered a cash in by many but was leaps ahead of this game in terms of being an Assassins Creed game. This, well this just stinks. This game isn't a 0/10 to be honest, it is fun at times, but I want this series to either end, or go back to what it was known for, and that was being a great franchise, not a polished turd. 1/10… Expand

okey one gud thin abowt this gaame is the kniphes (even tho they copeed cod obviosly) anyway

theres guns in the game but al the enormies hav them lyk wtf?!?! i want to shut the noobs!! an sometyms wen i try to knyf them they spot me lyk WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IM AN ASASSAIN TEY CARNT SPOOT ME srsly not an assasasin wen dey spot me lol also no ninga/comando perks pffffffffft evry1 noes dat any oober bakstaber neds those perks and they guy is like HUH and runs an stufs an doosent use guns lol
wat a lord of rubish 1/10 only for stabs… Expand

Very disappointing. Like others, I'm frustrated by the lack of immersive gameplay and cut scene after *&^$ing cut scene. It may look beautiful, but sadly it was like watching a dull movie with the occasional, and at times very frustrating, ever-so-brief missions.

Expected much more than I got. It really is unfortunate that they'd incorporate such a bad ending in an attempt to milk the series in the future. Don't expect anything groundbreaking.

Ouch. Another sequel to a fantastic top-shelf series that fails miserably to live up to its predecessors. The game is mindblowingly boring when it's not infuriatingly annoying. Character motivations are unclear, the story is trite, gameplay feels like taking care of chores in between drawn out cutscenes. Technically, there are quite a few bugs and glitches (I kept repeating one sequence for an hour due to getting stuck on varying bits of geometry), and the story is horribly lacking in suspense or wit compared to the other games in the series. Just like Mass Effect 3, a good game to stay away from, sadly. Also, the first time I've known Ubisoft to utterly fail. Wonder what happened there.… Expand

A series ends brethren! That's it, no more Assassin's Creed in future. I cannot go into details without spoiling, so I just say they pulled off Mass Effect 3 with this game. What a shame to see a legacy end like this. At least the story of Connor was good, whilst the story of Desmond was not. Funny how Lucy was never mentioned, looks like had no clue how to make a satisfying ending. It just come tumbeling down.… Expand

They added a lot of worthless stuff and close down a lot of cool. They do not improve anything. Fight and sneaking does not make any sense. Difficulty level on zero. Most of the time we run on the ground. The story goes, but the misssion is a failure. It is still freestanding stoves. Time to end this game is to 10 hours if you do anything is about to 20 hours. This is the worst part of assasin which does not change anything except for worse.… Collapse

Alex Hutchinson. I don't think I need to say more other than he absolutely slaughtered this series and he needs to find a new profession, but I will. He's made so many poor choices that have turned a once AAAA series into a piece of crap. There are so many things about this game that are awful that I simply do not know where to begin, nor do I feel like touching up on all of them as it would take too long, but for those who have been huge fans of the series and have played this game will know what I'm talking about. For those who are fans but are yet to play AC3, be warned that this is no longer Assassins Creed. They gutted it and slaughtered it. Alex Hutchinson had a horrible resume before he began working on one of the biggest endings to a trilogy this generation, whoever hired this failure made a huge mistake, and if he has any involvement in any potential future titles I will not be purchasing them, I'd like to see him removed from the industry all together. I've purchased every Assassins Creed game brand new to support great artists, but from now on, I'll buy used because I'm simply heartbroken over what they have done with this series, and the ending, I find it worse than Mass Effect 3, maybe because I'm more invested in AC than I am ME. Regardless, the ending makes me wish I never bothered paying attention to the story from AC1 forward. Then of course there's the boring protagonist, the flat setting, the lack of ambient music, the horrible main missions, the controls, how they destroyed controls that took nearly 5 years to perfect. Alex promised us challenging combat, lies. Bigger leap on gameplay from 2 to 3 than there was from 1 to 2, lies. Don't believe the critic scores, it's an 85 average which pretty much says, this is the lowest we can score this title without losing advertising benefits. Read the user reviews, the ones from the long time AC fans, not the ones who just started playing this year, the ones who have invested 5 years into the series, they know how bad this game is, and how badly Alex ruined this series with his lack of experience and vision. Ubisoft, fire this man. This game does have some great qualities to it, such as the climate changes, the graphics, the naval battles, but just like a sinking ship, it's hard to focus on anything good when the entirety of the game is drowning in it's many failures. The bottom line is, they made it look pretty, but it doesn't make up for the amount of crap this game spews at you, it's insulting really, Alex Hutchinson, remove yourself from the industry, or go back to making titles with low expectations because you are not fit for the big leagues, and to whoever decided to give Alex this position, it might be time to retire, clearly your judgement is horrible. **** YOU ALEX!… Expand

I gave up on this I got that bored. I live this series but my heart sank when I saw that they had moved the setting from Europe to America. I have nothing against America but the trailer just made it look like you we're in trees from anywhere land. Guess what? That's what this game is like to play. You wander around, do the annoying captain first bit before moving onto the Indian second bit and then it goes all Red Dead Redemption on you. Skin this, set a trap for that, wander through lots of snow. None of which are very interesting at all tbh. The towns are non-descript, they could be from anywhere. The dialogue is crap, the story doesn't hook you at all. And will developers of games please learn that we do not want to wander for hours to do missions, it was annoying enough in Red Dead at times but this is worse. All in all this game is just another cash cow. Up to Revelations I have loved this series. The wonderful backdrops, the engaging story, the brilliant characters and the way it added a little bit more every time it came out. This feels like a massive step backwards.… Expand

This is so disappointing, missing audio, floating rifles, people disappear in the middle of a battle, assassinate mission where the target is missing... Never, and i mean never have i played a more flawed game, Ubisoft should be kicking themselves for delivering this piece of garbage...
How can you release such a flawed game and still demand money is beyond my comprehension...
What a do-over -_-

Way too many glitches in this game to take it seriously. People you are supposed to defend just freezing up, horses that are harder to drive than tanks, and glitchy enemy AI that can see through walls and never loses your trail. If you are a person that likes to 100% games, this is definitely not for you. Something as simple as "do not get damaged while crossing this path" is impossible as there are no warnings to locations that are hit, and "do not get detected" is like threading a needle with an elephant. I would not recommend anyone to play this game as they would likely end up as I am, ready to throw my controller through the tele.… Expand

99% of the 10's are just Ubisoft employee's. The game isn't much of a step up from the last 3 AC games. That being said, its a waste of money. I'd rather spend that hard earned money on a hooker or drugs rather than Assassin's Creed 2.4

Please Try Before You Buy!!!! Don't listen to the reviews here! Have a nice day. Its up to you to form your own opinion after trying it, personally I thought it was appalling.… Expand

"Who is responsible for ruining this once great franchise?" I'm going to get right to the point. This game is by far distances the worst in the series, it's simply not a good game, not only is it a bad AC game, it's just a bad game, period. You see, when there was backlash a year ago about Skyrim, it got a low score from fans here on Metacritic but not because the game was bad, it was because the game was bugged. When MW3 got a low score, it wasn't because the game is crap, it was because it was the same game being released year in and out. Earlier this year when Mass Effect 3 got poor ratings, it was because it had a terrible ending, not because the game was bad. Assassins creed 3 on the other hand suffers from everything those games got scrutinized for, and more. The story and ending are absolutely awful, the story in this series easily went from a very well thought out sci-fi/historical NY times best seller to a high school short story assignment which would have been graded an F, and unlike ME3 which had a great story not including the ending, this game suffers from poor story telling start to finish. The gameplay, there is hardly anything new here, what previous versions of the series did, they did well, here not only did previous gameplay mechanics get worse, but the little additions they brought in were either boring, or handled very poorly, with respect to naval battles. Unlike MW3 where everyone expected it to be the same, and was being sold as such with minor tweaks, AC3 was being sold as a bigger leap from AC2, than AC2 had from AC1, which is a complete and utter lie. The bugs, this game has so many bugs, it may not rival the likes of Skyrim on PS3, but there's a huge difference, Skyrim was actually a fantastic game, this is not. I have been a huge fan of the series since the first game, I've played every single game several times, watched short videos, read comics, played the handheld games. I have been a huge fan, AC2 is easily my game of the generation. AC3 on the other hand is my flop of the generation. It's missing so many core features previous installments had, from the non existent ambient music playing while exploring to the complete lack of stealth. The game is a mess from start to finish, it's really hard to invest yourself in the world or the characters, it's hard to care about them, Connor is absolutely boring, Desmond's story is a joke, the ending a disaster. You get tossed around so much during this game that it makes it feel like you are jumping from one thing to another, there's no clear path to anything, and it's not that there's a lack of hand holding, because that's all this game does for you is hold your hand, make sure not to let go as well, because if you try to approach an objective in a way you see more suitable, you will fail. You have to do it the way the developer wants you to do it, they want you to be their puppet. Well, I'm sorry but I refuse to be one and this will be my last AC game. Whoever was in charge of hiring the team that worked on AC3, forfeit your life savings, get on your knees and beg Patrice Désilets to return because he was the visionary behind this once great series. Even those who worked on Brotherhood and Revelations knew what the game was about, and they had much less time to do it all. This team, given 3 years showed us that they are nothing but a team of failures and their lack of experience really really shows. Heartbroken.… Expand

Wow. Having owned (AND STILL OWN) every Assassins Creed since the beginning, this is especially disappointing. AC2 was perfection... Brotherhood and Revelations were obviously re-skinned cash grabs, so I was hopeful for AC III. But, unsurprisingly, it has been the worst, robbing me of EVERYTHING I loved from the series. And at this point I honestly, wholehearted WISH they would've just re-skinned AC II AGAIN. No freaking wonder Patrice Désilets left such a garbage company. You don't deserve the rights to his game. I hope the same series that saved you from bankruptcy drives you right back down into the ground when your "fans" realize you're robbing them.… Expand

What a complete waste of time. I actually could't play this game for more than two hours at a time, fearing my heart would give in from my frustration:-)
Every aspect of this game i worse than even AC1. Let aside the battles at sea whitch was new and great.
The buttons, the story, gameplay, grafics, caracters, conversations, cutcenes, I could go on and on, they all suck!
Do not buy this game, and spare yourselves from a lot of pain.
Alex Hutchinson name is now burned in to my brain, and i will forever shun from anything he puts his name on.… Expand

as is ubisofts want, the control of the character drastically failed towards the end of the game, the cutscene quality diminished, and the over all interaction of the game failed. the programmers need to get their act together and actually properly finish a game instead of halfassing it just to get it onto shelves.

the main story is soooo bad it feel like i have wasted four years of my life the graphic is good ,,but the game play is so boring a and the main hero is so stupid ,the music is bad rest in peacics

I really don't know how this game had a good note, it was horrible to play. It's the worst Assassin's creed of the series. I do not recommend this game, Please do not encourage Ubisoft to make games so bad.

The worst thing about this game is that it was released a t all.. it's fun only when you play with Desmond but there's not much of it.. story is shallow and dialagues are wooden at best. Sigh.. Ezio..