Should Assassin’s Creed III Be Your First Assassin’s Creed?

With the impending launch upon us, it can be tempting to go back and play through all the other games before stepping up to Assassin’s Creed III. But if you managed to make it this far without playing any of the others, it might not be worth your time. Assassin’s Creed III has expanded upon the successful formula and is undoubtedly the biggest game in the series to date, making it the perfect entry point for players new to the series.

The Story So Far

Assassin’s Creed has always placed a heavy emphasis on narrative, but despite that, it hasn’t really pulled the threads together in a coherent way... yet. So far, our story follows the path of Desmond Miles as he uses the Animus to relive the memories of his Assassin ancestors while protecting them from the Knight Templars -- both in the Animus and the real world.

This all might sound a bit confusing, but thankfully there’s a “previously on Assassin’s Creed” wrap-up at the beginning that summarizes the story so far. It doesn’t cover everything, but it summarizes enough to get the main point across for new players. It also helps that each game in the series works as an independent experience. Sure, they might be better as a whole, but they can stand alone, both in terms of story and mechanics.

Assassin’s Creed III is the perfect place to jump in, as we saw the conclusion of the Ezio trilogy with Revelations. The clean slate means that there aren’t any unanswered questions hanging around like there were with Assassin's Creed I and II -- with the exception of some of the Desmond stuff. That has always taken a backseat to the ancestral action though, so it isn’t that critical.

Assassin’s Creed III has the advantage of historical accuracy (with the exception of the assassin running around killing everyone), with each of the major events in the game corresponding to actual real-life events that took place during the Revolutionary War. The setting of the Revolutionary War allows for more context throughout the game, giving players a frame of reference for their actions in relation to major historical events.

Change of Scenery and Tools

One of the biggest gripes with the last few games is that there weren’t any drastic changes and it felt like you were still roaming around the same environment two games later. In previous games, it was all about the big cities, but Assassin’s Creed III focuses on shorter, more underdeveloped areas. It takes place in a time when the colonists were still settling and forming new areas of development.

This isn’t a bad thing though, as it actually allows for more free-form exploration and discovery. You can spend less time climbing to get to a roof and more time running from building to building. Assassin’s Creed III mixes things up by presenting not only a new environment, but a completely new style of terrain for Connor to explore with the inclusion of the Frontier -- an open-world forest area that relies on movement through trees rather than city buildings. This is the first time that something like this has been done in Assassin’s Creed before. Between the open Frontier and small cities like Boston, Assassin’s Creed III has the largest variety of locales for players to explore.

With this new environment comes some new tools at Connor’s disposal, most notably his tomahawk and rope dart. His tomahawk is much better than any of the daggers or swords from previous games at close range encounters. This is partly due to the more fluid combat system that is much faster due to the abundance of black powder guns during the Revolutionary War. The rope dart also speeds up the flow of combat and leads to some exceptionally brutal kills.

Side Quests

The Assassin’s Creed series is known for its side quests, both bad (Assassin’s Creed) and good (Assassin’s Creed II). Luckily, Assassin’s Creed III tends to follow in the footsteps of the latter, even taking things up a notch with the inclusion of naval missions. Gone are the days of painstakingly hunting through the city looking for flags and feathers in hopes of completing a quest (though there are still feathers scattered throughout the Frontier). Instead, Assassin’s Creed III focuses more on the bigger events of the time that might not fit into the main story but are still extremely relevant for the time period and present an optional narrative line to explore. This gives the player a larger variety of missions that aren’t just collectible hunting or assassinations, which can’t be said of past titles.

Naval battles are of particular interest, as nothing of the sort has ever been attempted in an Assassin’s Creed title before (unless you count the horrible tower defense sequences in Revelations). They give the player control of a large naval vessel in the biggest open area that the series has ever seen. It isn’t some on-rails sequence either because there’s actual strategy involved as you navigate the waters, line up your targets, and destroy them while avoiding incoming fire.

These translate to some of the most intense action sequences in the series and have a large variety of objectives that aren’t just “shoot the other boat”. Some of these sequences even translate into on-foot combat as Connor boards enemy ships after disabling their weapons and returns to his boat, usually leaving the enemy ship in a fiery wreckage.

The simulated home management from Ezio’s villa in Assassin’s Creed is back in Assassin's Creed III with Connor’s Homestead. The Homestead is Connor’s sanctuary in the Frontier and a focal point for a large portion of the combat in the area. It still isn’t a major part of the game, but it does play a more involved role as you’ll actively start building it out early on in the story. It continues to be a great way to spend time while not focusing on the main quests or if you need to take a break from all the stabbing.

Multiple Assassins

Multiplayer has been done before in the Assassin’s Creed series, starting in Brotherhood, but it was never really much more than different variants of a deathmatch format. Assassin’s Creed III changes that by introducing new competitive and cooperative modes that are worlds better than any of the previous iterations.

Wolfpack is a new cooperative multiplayer mode in Assassin’s Creed III and is unlike anything in the series so far. It doesn’t rely on individuality or betrayal, but rather how well your team can communicate and work as a singular unit to take down groups of AI-controlled enemies in an allotted amount of time. Domination works roughly the same way, though it's more competitive rather than cooperative and tasks you with using your teamwork to capture certain points on the map.


So, Should It ?

While there’s plenty of reasons to go back and enjoy the previous Assassin’s Creed title, it’s a busy holiday season for games and you might just not have the time. Assassin’s Creed III makes a compelling case for why it should be your first in the series come October 30th, and we can’t help but agree.