Assassin's Creed 3

Finally getting around to this game. Man, Haytham Kenway is a badass.

This happened to me even more in NY than Boston. Especially odd when it continued after I captured all the forts and “liberated” the entire city. If the city is liberated, how come the redcoat density is unchanged, and they still feel confident enough to randomly get zombie-mob violent on my Incognito self? The (apparently) unmarked restricted zones might be one of the many map glitches.

Given that “liberating” a city affects trade convoys by reducing taxes (or risk %, I forget which) but has no other impact on the city, I wonder if city liberation was created as part of the economic system and they just didn’t have time to properly integrate into the game.

The first time this happened to me was when I was trying to sneak up on a fort that was surrounded by flat ground, with nothing but a few shrubs for cover. I thought my stupid horsassin was going to attract the attention of patrol nearby, so I tried to attack him, but it wouldn’t let me. I finally just called in an assassin recruit to deal with the patrol, but he got stuck on a fallen log before making the kill - fortunately, getting stuck apparently made him invisible, so the guards searched right next to him but couldn’t see him. I entered the fort by climbing some crates near the wall, and I could still hear the horse outside trying to follow me.

Glitchiness gets worse the farther you get in the game. If you’re in the pre-NY part of the game and thinking “why all the whining, there aren’t too many bugs” - enjoy that while it lasts. I’d list them, but there are so many there’s no point. Most of the bugs I encountered involve the map and other interface irregularities, and mission completion credit problems. Adding to the perception of glitchiness are the many situations when the game doesn’t communicate well. (example - the Boston Brawler challenge requires you to disarm 5 opponents, but I never got credit for any disarms. I later learned that this challenge doesn’t count regular disarms, it only counts a disarm if you’re bare-handed and steal the enemy weapon).

The counterfeiter chase is bad, but the chase near the end is even worse, because there are flaming walls involved, and if you touch them Connor sticks and burns to death. AC is best when it gives you a target and then gets out of the way, so designing one of the last missions as a Do It Again Stupid timed chase with many reactive/lethal obstacles was disappointing.

Overall, I thought the mission design in AC III was the most restrictive in the series. Also, I counted exactly 1 assassination side-mission for each city, whereas I remember having many assassination side-missions in the prior games. I’ve played AC II and Brotherhood several times each, but not recently, so it’s possible I’m romanticizing the past, but my impression is the earlier games let you remove the straight-jacket more often.

P.S. Yes, the disconnect between the awesome visuals and the less polished aspects of the game makes the flaws jump out at you.

I liked the game, when it wasn’t trying hard to piss me off. Here are a few things I had to learn the hard way, hopefully this will save someone else some time:

  1. If you’re trying to liberate North NY and you’re not getting credit for saving your 3rd farm family from eviction, trying stabbing the rich bastard instead of bribing him, if you’ve bribed all the others.

  2. The big churches in NY that have guards in several places, plus patrols nearby, often (always?) have invisible restricted zones extending into the streets around. You are KOS to the guards, so if you want to climb them in peace, either sneak up, or massacre all enemies first.

  3. The ship upgrades are the most expensive things in the game, and the LAST expensive things in the game, so if you have those, don’t knock yourself out grinding convoys - there’s nothing else to buy.

  4. If you don’t have enough Special Iron Ingots to craft special items like fancy new flintlocks, there is a respawning crate of them near your homestead manor. I don’t know when it first appears, because I didn’t find it until very late. To find this crate: on the east side of the manor’s stable there is a pile of wood, walk from that pile of wood to the cliff (should only be a few feet), and climb down until you see the ledge below, then drop. The crate of Special Iron Ingots should be there, though I don’t know if it’s there from the beginning, or if it’s appearance is triggered by leveling your artisans.

  5. When picking a lock, you don’t really have to rotate the sticks to find the right spot, because it’s almost always UP, DOWN, LEFT, or RIGHT. I only encountered a few late game locks that were non-conforming.

  6. The Hunter’s Society cabins are rarely displayed on the map, but you can find one by heading north from the fort at the bottom-right of the frontier (I forget the name). North of that fort there’s a bend in the river that looks like this: > The Hunter’s cabin is the farthest east cabin on the WEST side of this bend in the river. There are a bunch of hunters loitering around it, and there should be some skins and other hunter-ish things around the yard.

  7. Don’t waste time chasing the bobcat for the Hunter’s Society bobcat mission, just throw a dart at him as soon as you see him.

  8. Don’t try and kill the elk for the Hunter’s Society elk mission by relying on QTE’s to work normally, because that elk cheats like the stupid wolves on the pirate island quest. Climb a tree, drop bait, and shoot or air-assassinate the cheating elk.

Tip #9: If you need to talk to Washington to finish the Frontier Society challenge after finishing the game, I found him in Boston [EDIT: NY, not Boston, sorry], outside the SW fort in the city. He was near the soldiers in front of the fort, and I assume he’s always there post-game.

Tip #10: If you’re having trouble getting credit for the 50’ (30 meter) dive for the Frontier Society challenge, you can get it from jumping off a log near the mansion across from the entrance to your Homestead Frontier fast travel point. It’s the mansion where they send you kill a guy, and you have to do some cliff climbing (trying to avoid spoilers here). There are multiple jumping points on the cliffs near that mansion, but only 1 is high enough to give you the 50’ credit. The one you want is in the part of the property that you pass through on your entry for that mission (jumping log near the campfire).

Presumably you liberate the regions from the Templars not from the British. If you really could defeat the British, there’d be no need for a revolutionary war… Hence the redcoats stay. I have a sneaking suspicion that during the actual period they didn’t have rooftop guards, though.

While the liberation missiona do not change the guard density, the “color” of the guard “coats” does change through the plot missions. Boston is eventually guarded by colonials who are still hostile. Which doesn’t really make a tremendous amount of sense given the plot.

Again, this might be the same deal as the other guy where we romanticize previous AC games, but I don’t remember EVERY viewpoint being exactly the same in previous games. There is the steeple type(where you hold RT and up), the belltower type(RT and up), and the tree type(where you fall to your death after you bug out and get stuck on a branch) Also every tree viewpoint is impossible to climb.

Since there are bluecoats who behave just like redcoats from the very start of the game in Boston back before the war actually starts, I’ve been just assuming they are “Hessians” or some other kind of British non-regular force, conceivably loyalist militia (though I don’t remember that actually being a thing, but maybe it existed.)

It clearly makes no sense for there to be a mix of colonist militia and occupying redcoats in the same town at the same time. Even if there would have been militia there before tensions rose, as soon as the redcoats arrived they would obviously ban the militia.

In one of my fort captures (I think it’s the far NW fort in the Frontier) a lone redcoat didn’t get the word about the change of ownership. Every time I Fast Travel there the bluecoat garrison suddenly realizes he’s not one of them and starts attacking him. I assume it’s a glitch, but whatever it is, it’s funny every time.

I used the rope-dart to do a Predator Move for the first time a little while ago, and it was awesome. If you’re in a tree when you rope dart an enemy, it’s very different from rope-darting on a roof or cliff. If you’re in a tree, you don’t have to wait until he strangles, because you immediately jump off the tree in the other direction, and the victim gets strung up and hangs immediately. I tried it on a 5 man patrol that walked by a small group of trees where I was hiding, and in less than a minute all 5 were dangling from those trees. I’d string one up, run around to another tree and climb again, they’d shoot up at me, and I’d string another one up. It was pure awesome. That’s the AC I love - just give me some weapons, an enemy army, and terrain with some vertical dimension.

IDK if this counts as a spoiler, but we captured Boston very early in the war and kept it throughout. Sequence 9 and later, the guards in Boston are rebel scum.

After losing a mission twice because of AI oddities, ugh, I’m ready to brand this game with the not-very-coveted

Grand Theft Auto 4 Seal of Dismay

Both of them are the first “numbered” entry in a series after a few subtitled side projects, both of them offer powerful initial impressions by being really pretty in a new and awesome setting and giving the player sooooo many options…

then they both screw up the execution. In previous AC games, weapons and armor mattered. I saved up money to buy better gear, and got legitimately excited when I got an alert that new weapons were available. I completed sidequests in search of unique gear. There was a lot to do, but there was generally a reason to do it.

In this, as far as I can tell you get all the equipment you need through the plot. I’m not sure why anyone would buy any of the 15 or so weapons that are not as good as the Assassin Tomahawk.

The second issue that both games share is that the main character’s motivations are fucking nonsense for like half of the shit he does. Why the fuck do I need to help the mining guy get a date? Most of the naval missions don’t even have a motivation, they just drop you by some boats and tell you to kill them, and the in-game reward for that is… fuck all. The memories of that time you sunk some boats.

Yes, I know that. In the quote I said “from the very start of the game” – when the British have garrisoned Boston prior to the outbreak of war, there’s a mix of guard types, and that doesn’t make sense unless they’re all royalist.

I agree with you about the inane story and weak characters, by the way. Both in the past and the “present”.

I was wondering why people were complaining about Connor at first – sure he’s stiff and has bad lines, but they’re not that bad, just conventional lame game industry writing and voice acting. Then I got into Sequence 8, and suddenly he’s this whiny baby, threatening to beat up his mentor and all that. Give me a break, just like sulky baby Anakin, no one would act that way in the circumstances unless they were actually retarded.

And back with Desmond, seriously, this whole thing is motivated by a solar flare? Come on, give me another break. Very weak.

I don’t know why, but I get the impression the whole game was written for kids. The lack of women is another hint. Are assassins vulnerable to cooties?

That’s why he killed Lucy, he was out of cootie spray and she tried to touch him - it was self defense. (Ha! The spell checker recognizes the word “cootie”).

Agree re motivation/action mismatch for Connor and Desmond. With Ezio, I knew why he wanted to do what he was doing, but the farther I got in this story, the more Connor looked like a pawn being moved around by the writer.

The reason to help the miner get a date, beyond the joy of watching the socially inept Connor guide the socially awkward Norris, is that you will eventually find recipes for weapons and ammo-capacity upgrades that can only be crafted (not purchased). The Lincoln replica sword is the 2nd best, and then the Washington replica sword is the best “normal” sized weapon. There are quite a few pistol upgrades, including at least 3 double-barrel pistols (the double-barrel flintlock, the French Coat pistol, and the Royal Pistol IIRC). There are some late-game enemies who are definitely too tough to one-shot with store bought firearms. [NOTE: the part where you help Norris essentially stalk Myriam is not creepy, so don’t think it is, cause it’s totally not].

Is the Assassin Tomahawk really that good? I never used a tomahawk once the small weapons were available, because the (awkwardly presented) data they give you suggested that small weapons were better than Tomahawks, and in practice the small weapons were even faster and more damaging than the hidden blade in open combat.

Oh, yeah, all the Homestead missions have in-game payouts in new materials and whatever for the crafting thing.

But in the game itself, what’s the motivation? Is Connor just the nicest guy in the world? Normally there’s some sort of quid pro quo in RPG sidequests(“if you help me find this violin I’ll give you this box of weapons my husband left me”), but for the majority of the Homestead missions Connor has to solve a problem for ostensible adults that they really should be able to solve themselves and then for reasons that are not adequately explained by the writing they get better at mining/hunting/farming/etc.

That was just an example, I didn’t want to spoil the plot, but around the mid-game or so Connor’s character completely goes off the rails, highlighted by the tantrum he throws where he leaves the homestead in a huff. (Of course, you can immediately turn the horse around and start fucking around with side missions. Writing urgency is so difficult for sandbox games)

Edit: I actually have no idea if the Assassin Tomahawk is actually that good or not, just that all the weapons in its class that are available at the store seem worse. I have had no problems killing the bosses with it, though.

Despite being pretty far in the game, I have no idea what these homestead missions you are all referring to are?

Also - Has anyone picked up on the fact that they have hidden an assassination brotherhood game in the game, like from AC:Brotherhood? They just NEVER talk about it, and its not really clear whether it does anything at all or if there is any reason to play it. On the PS3 you have to press R2, and then triangle I think to access it…

I havent been able to use an assassin yet though - they are always on cooldown.

This has to be the messiest game ever.

Also - Has anyone picked up on the fact that they have hidden an assassination brotherhood game in the game, like from AC:Brotherhood? They just NEVER talk about it, and its not really clear whether it does anything at all or if there is any reason to play it. On the PS3 you have to press R2, and then triangle I think to access it…

It’s also extremely underdocumented. Like in the game, why are the states all red? Is there another color? What changes the color?

There’s a “assistance” percentage, no idea what that is or how to change it.

Leveling up the recruits was a core part of Brotherhood and Revelations, odd to keep the mechanic but dumb it down so hard.

States go blue when your assassin crew does all available missions for them.

States are red while they are Templar controlled, but they change to white if you run enough assassin recruit missions there to liberate it (6 or 7 I think).

Assassin recruits are unavailable outside towns (…the hell?).

Assigning multiple assassin recruits to a mission doesn’t decrease the xp reward for each recruit, as it did in previous games, but it does increase the success probability.

Assistance percentage is (I think) related to how many neighboring territories you have liberated, and possibly also to liberated towns and/or sea lanes cleared of privateers.

Each section of a town that you liberate (3 in Boston and 3 in NY) gives you a new assassin recruit (and that is the only way I found to get a recruit). Fortunately, recruits don’t die if they have an unsuccessful mission or are hurt in combat when you summon them, they are just unavailable while they heal for a few minutes.

Okay, I’ve been playing some more,and I am sorry if I sound like a broken record, but how on earth did AC3 get the good scores it did? On promise? There are so many weird, broken, undocumented things in the game, that I’m amazed its gotten over 70 anywhere.

I’ve been thinking about the positive experience I had the first…7-8 hours I guess, the whole tutorial, and then the first few narrowly funneled hours as Connor (Yeah, the Spanish name, Connor) and they were great. I don’t know how Q&A works but it does seem like those first hours have been through some nice Q&A and works, but after that? I doubt they had time to do a througough Q&A for that part.

  1. Crafting doesnt really serve any viable purpose - it seems like it was part of a grander system that was axed in the last minute. Its also woefully undocumented
  2. Sailing (It IS awesome the first 5-6 times) but it doesnt serve any real purpose that I can tell so far
  3. The Assassination system from Brotherhood they have hidden in the game, servers no real purpose, and seems unfinished. Personally, my assassin is always on the same cooldown. Its also not mentioned anywhere with the missions and such
  4. Why are bluecoats hostile to me after I liberated part of the town? I thought I saved them countless times
  5. Hidden no-acces area - no red zones, but they react as if I’ve stepped into a no-access area (Big churches)
  6. graphical issues,engine issues - Lots of those. Scripts that seems to break (people that get stuck, people suddenly vanishing, floating muskets)
  7. Some very very poorly thought out missions like the Chase in New York, and the Adams one where he says he will show you a cellar, and then just stands there
  8. Manuscript - Connor is a whiny kid most of time, the further you get. I realize games dont have the greatest stories, but so many things makes little sense here.
  9. Enemies popping into existence right in front you - endless spawn. Probably a desing decision, but its the same one DA2 got slammed for.

Those are of the top of my head, but there are more strange issues with the game.

I’ve said this before, but feel its worth doing so again in this particular post - I LOVE the AC series (Except revelations), and I want to love this, but the game is working hard to make me frustrated all the time.

So, I guess my question is, with all these issues that have been reported by several people here and other places, how come the game has scored so high grades everywhere? Potential? Graphics? Because the game does look gorgerous…those armors are the finest I’ve ever seen in a game, and thats on the PS3.

Sometime after you meet “A” and gain access to the Homestead, you will start seeing symbols for homestead missions on the homestead region map. Most of them are in the homestead region (or at least started there), but a few of the later ones start in other regions.

There are some clunky things in the game…but if you’re just asking this now, it seems like you’ve missed a lot of the expository things going on as far as both story and gameplay are concerned.

As my mom used to tell 8 year old me in similar circumstances: “Honey, maybe this game just isn’t for you.”