5 Things I Like About Assassin's Creed III

Hi everyone , I am Nimish Mishra

 (a gamer). Last year, during my winter  vacations, I decided to expand my collections of games and found that Assassin's Creed III was the best choice to do so.
                  

      It is a great open world, role - playing game and here are five points that I love of this game.
                             

Connor shooting with his arrow.

                                           
                                     

                                           

          

Cover photo.

                                                    

1. Open World 

    AC III has one of the most dynamic, open worlds encompassing two of America's top cities - Boston and New York. Besides these , it has a vast stretch of forest and a highly interactive homestead.

                       

   A glimpse of the city of Boston 

 
                                                   
    You can roam through the forests , hunt animals and make money by selling the animal skins. There are animals like foxes and wolves that hunt you down if you don't take them seriously. These forests are home to some of the best artisans who are neglected by the city folk. It gives you a great opportunity to talk to them , purchase items like wood , raisins etc. and sell them. You can even talk to them and convince them to settle them in your Homestead(your home). They work there and you get the revenue as well. In my system , I have a well developed Homestead where artisans - carpenters , blacksmiths , miners etc. reside and carry their work and trade.

 Rowing a boat through the forest 

 Hunting of a deer in the forest.

           The cities are very lively and interesting with lots of items to be explored. You can walk around the cities on foot or on horseback. Various merchants are seen selling wares on roadside. Nevertheless, the English soldiers patrol the cities and are a source of constant annoyance. You may even find some beggars(and believe me they annoy you the most until you give them some dollars).

 

 Rows of vegetation in the forest

          AC III 's open world is its strength. I like roaming about more than undertaking missions. It is full of opportunities - of finding people worth your friendship, of making money and for gaining some crowd's support by protecting them from the English.

2) Gameplay :

       

       When you talk of gameplay, the first thing that comes to your mind is the story and some cool action stuff. But AC III provides much more than just action.

     Your character , Connor is very well integrated. He has got some quite good tricks under his sleeves. While fighting, the developers have included animations that give a painful death to the soldiers but are pleasant to your eyes.

        A fighting scene.

                                               


      
The environment is fully integrated and interactive. The player can interact with them. The crowd comments on your action , the street children generally encircle you and even the street dogs bark at you ! If you commit any crime, a meter fills up and gives you a kind of celebrity status. You will find posters all around the city and the newspaper editors speak of you. You can bribe them to reduce the attention but if you are caught , you are doomed.

   One of the segments of the main story introduces  you to the cellars of the city. You find drunkards there who may challenge you in intoxication. But if you take them lightly, they will reduce your health considerably. You can find some wagons of traders which you can loot. If you are lucky, you can gain a booty of $5500 in one go. You can even buy or loot weaponry.
               The gameplay also includes action in the forest. You can hunt animals, poach them and later sell them to the traders. You can even face attacks from the untamed , wild animals and you can even face death. The forests also see Connor's efficiency in tree climbing and aerial attacks. You see two dynamic weather seasons - summer and winter. The snow-filled forests of the winter are a sight to watch. But behind the beauty lies the horror of the season where there can be occasional storms or the snow can be knee deep forcing you to reduce your walking speed.

  A wolf attack  

 A hunting sequence

                   
The backbone of the game is the mission system.The missions are very well designed and have to be carried out in order to move ahead with the game. The missions range from the main story to the sideline missions. The sideline missions may include - saving a citizen from being killed by the soldiers , helping your fellow homestead members to get their goods from the cities(which have been taken away from them forcefully) , going on a naval battle , saving a citizen from the tax collectors etc.

A homestead mission

The final mission of the story of the game.

3 ) Naval Battles : 

A naval mission .

                  Beware, if you have sea-sickness, for this game has lots of battle there. It is a heart-throbbing part of the game. The game involves the use of high-profile vessels. Connor's vessel clashes with the English vessels in the Caribbean sea.

   

A British vessel destroyed in a rainy naval battle.

You are the commander of the ship, Aquilla.

   The naval missions are of many types : in some you are given to clear British navy resistance in certain areas to clear the sea-route for trading from Brazil , in others you act as an escort, escorting merchant ships to safety and to resist attacks from the English vessels . In some ,you attack pirates to clear them from the face of the Earth and a whole new mission sequence demands from you to attack one of your main enemy's ships and kill him.

                           

A sea mine - it can destroy a very well armoured vessel.

The sea missions can be undertaken at will. You will have to approach the caretaker of your personal vessel , the Aquilla to do so. Here too there is ample emergence for players. You can buy new weapons like battling ram , cannons , new siege equipment and chains (for prisoners). You can have some land mines and destroy many vessels.

     There are two shots for this - the round shot and the chain shot. I personally like the chain shot. Round shot can demolish the ship structure while chain shot can tear off the enemy ship's sails and will stop the movement. Now comes the interesting part , once your enemy ship is still, you can approach them and slam your ship in and command your men to jump to the other ship to perform a massacre to kill your enemies and loot your enemies' ship. 

     But wait, is that all. No. There are rare but well designed forts with heavy artillery that shoot a great distance. You will have to take perfect aim to demolish the artillery before it kills you.

4) Weather : 

        Are you a nerd who hardly cares to see the world outside if you get a good game ? If you have never seen a snow filled hill or a tundra forest , this game is for you.

A soldier dugout in the forest.

    This game has two distinct seasons - winter and summer and an indistinct spring. In summer , the sunshine gives you warmth. The sun is mild and you see cities bustling with activities. In the forest, more animals are visible in the summer and hunting becomes easy. Even your horse enjoys walking there!!

A rainy day !

  In summers, there are occasional and heavy showers that disrupt life. People are seen running and pushing everyone to find cover. This is the time when the streets are empty and you can show your skills at sword fighting. Not many soldiers are seen walking up the streets and shops close up. You get  an excellent sight if you climb up a tree or a huge building.

 

Through it is spring, the action never stops.

 The spring shows more reverence to your Homestead. You have high hills with beautiful flowers and butterflies here. The mines show a cooler atmosphere and the waterfall looks interesting. Your fellow residents in homestead cultivate their fields where you can help - by grazing the poultry animals or protecting them from foxes. You can help a friend to mine gold and silver. Such is the essence of spring in the homestead that the developers included a mission that requires you to pluck rhododendrons from a hill.

   The winter unleashes its fury. In the cities, there are covered grounds and people are seen wearing fur coats. Chilly winds blow through the cities and make the beggars run for cover.

   In the forests you find the weather terrible. Storms and heavy winds are frequent. Although Conner can walk ,but you can't see what lies a metre ahead. Even your horse fears to tread there. Some places have thick snow up to Conner's thigh and he walks really slow here. The animals are not present , so no killing and poaching can take place.

The detailing of snow is astonishing.

5) The Assassin guild : 

     Not sure what's that? Well, it is a group that helps you to fight enemies on land. There are six well trained members in the guild and they can really help you if you lie in trouble.

Your recruits.

        But is it that easy to recruit a guild member? The answer is a big NO. There are two cities and each city has two divisions ,so six divisions in all. And each guild member belongs to one division. There are a sequence of missions which you have to undertake to recruit a member. Like - you will have to bribe the press officials so that they publish articles against the English official of the division , you will have to kill the soldiers who try to exploit the public etc. After this you earn the confidence of the public and the guild member. In the final mission you accompany the member to a place where you find the Officer-in-charge of the administration and you help the member to kill him. Once he is killed there is confusion in the division and you take the golden opportunity to crown the guild member as the Incharge of the division.

Don't you need help in this !

     When you recruit a new member you get a nice  and cool ability. These help to assassinate enemies without your involvement. Like the ability of assassinate - it involves the recruit to just go and assassinate your target and then fight the remaining soldiers and you watch from a distance. Another ability of riots- it involves the recruit to create a riot like situation around your target. The crowd comes in and shouts slogans and the target gets trapped in the crowd. You can get into the crowd and approach him and kill him. The crowd then disperses and no one is suspected.

An English attack.

Cool cannon ! But deadly to use.

   In another ability of firing - the recruit fires from the distance and kills your target and the soldiers can't match their speed. Another ability - ambush involves you to mark an area and wait. When a soldier enters the area , the recruit attacks and kills him.

   Besides these, the major advantage is that the recruits are never killed and are only wounded.  So you can use them over and over again.

           Summarising these , I feel AC III is one of the best games of the genre. It is a must buy for all gamers.