Developer: Ubisoft
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platform: Xbox One, PS4, PC
Tested on: PS4
Assassins Creed III Remastered – Review
It seems like Ubisoft these days is going through all of its past games making a remastered version for them. After Assassins Creed Rogue Remastered now comes; Assassins Creed III remastered. This game will also contain the remastered edition of the PS Vita game Assassins Creed Liberations as well as all the DLC that was released previously. Assassins Creed III was developed and published by Ubisoft and we got a chance to review it.
Story
Desmond Miles; the last hope for humanity. It seems that the earth is in danger and the only way to find out how to save it is to go back in the past. By letting Desmond control his ancestors he will be able to find out more. Like in every Assassins Creed game, the Templars will be going against you. Even though they might not be the direct cause of the incoming danger this time.
There will be two characters you are able to control with Desmond; Haytham and Connor. You will start out by controlling Haytham and then later be able to play with Connor. This is because Connor is actually Haytham’s son, so you first get a bit of his origin story. Haytham’s story at first is brought a bit blandly, with you having to hear conversations that might be a tad boring. Connor, on the other hand, is a tad more exciting but it seems that even then the story doesn’t have the same captivating effect as the other games in the series. It might be because the story development is slower or because a bit of the “quirkiness” is missing.
In comparison to Assassins Creed III, Assassins Creed Liberations seems to have a bit more of that captivating effect. Its characters are a bit more outstanding and have greater personalities. You will Take on the role of Aveline who lives in New Orleans. She, together with other people, is trying to stop slavery.
Besides Liberations, there is also The Tyranny of King Washington. Here you’ll see in an alternate universe what would have happened had Washington had gotten his hands on the golden apple and made himself king.
Graphics
Assassins Creed 3 Remastered and Assassins Creed Liberations remastered both clearly look better than before. However, it seems that even though some aspects have been updated, others couldn’t be updated or were forgotten about. Take for example fabric, the animations of the fabric look great, the movement looks good but then you have character faces against that. Depending on the scene, the lighting in the face can be horrible as well that the eyes have this creepy overly white glossiness to them. It seems kind of sad to see a few qualities look more amazing than see others which look so horrible in comparison.
Some animations also still look a bit woody or even just unrealistic. It seems that they did give the movement of the main character an update, but NPCs might have been a bit forgotten or not cared about. You can, for example, encounter an NPC that is leaning against an invisible wall as he is not standing against the actual animated wall. Even though the Remastered version is available for regular PS4 as well, it seems that if you have a PS4 Pro you get the best-updated result thanks to 4K resolution.
In Liberations it seems that a few fixes have been horribly overlooked. At one-point, Aveline will look at a medallion and then put it on her neck. This model is lighted so differently and even shakes while it shouldn’t be shaking, making it look absolutely horrible. Assassins Creed Liberations seems to suffer the same problems as Assassins Creed 3 in the remastered version, some graphics have been updated but others haven’t, making the non-updated or badly updated ones look way worse than it was before.
In both games, the rendering of the backgrounds still seem pretty outdated, so it might be that they didn’t really look at it. So often when you are running around you might be looking at the horizon and seeing a bit of a bland basic sea and sky. When running through the town, you might see un-rendered buildings in the distance.
Sound
The voice acting in Assassins Creed 3 and Assassins Creed Liberations has been very well done. Most of the remaster was done on the graphics and even though the music and voice acting might have been cleaned up a bit, it still mostly stayed the same, since there is no real need to change it. The developers picked voice actors who could do voices logical to the time and place. The music is still fitting and not outdated at all, as it gets tense at the right times and supports the emotion of the game. Sound effects also aged well and still sound logical.
Gameplay
Assassins Creed III Remastered is an action game where you will take on the role of multiple people. You start out in the modern days as Desmond Miles who has discovered an old temple where they can use the Animus. With the Animus, you are able to enter and experience the lives of your ancestors. This time Desmond will start out by experiencing the life of his ancestor Haytham. After following Haytham’s life for a bit, he will discover that he had a child with a native woman. This boy will be the second person Desmond will take over. While we do see the boy when he is young, we will also see him as an adult. Connor, the name of the man, will actually become one of the hooded assassins.
In the Remastered version, it seems like they didn’t change a whole lot of things to the gameplay, besides a few bits and pieces added here and there. You can now whistle to an enemy to attract their attention and more easily be able to kill them stealthily. On the mini-map, you can now also see where the enemies are looking so you have more of a chance to sneak up to them. It seems that quite often enemies really quickly notice you even though you are not that close to them. Of course, it also doesn’t help that there is no sneak option. The only way to stay hidden is to go in-between two people or go inside a bush. With the number of games depending on the sneak option these days, it’s a bit odd to go without. Certainly, because you can’t sneak past enemies or even move near their line of sight on a different rooftop without getting noticed.
Even though climbing up buildings in Assassins Creed is incredibly fun, it seems that in Assassins Creed III it is quite annoying to get back down. It will happen quite often that you will make unnecessary big jumps to get off somewhere. Even though free running often works fine, there is still a chance that you will jump somewhere or on something you didn’t mean to. When an NPC is accompanying you and you start to walk over rooftops as to avoid the street, they might actually get a bit wonky. A jump that you easily made, they might suddenly walk around for. This then has the chance to notify enemies ruining your stealth.
The combat in Assassins Creed III Remastered has been unchanged. You still need to time your block to then disarm or counter-attack. This isn’t necessarily a bad combat system, although it does get a bit harder when fighting enemies to time your blocks correctly. When they attack you nearly all at the same time you are unable to keep blocking so you will have to make sure to keep a bit of a distance and fight them off one by one. There are a lot of different weapons you are able to use, some you’re just able to grab from the enemy or environment others can be bought. The guns do take a long time to reload which for that time does actually makes sense. Assassins Creed Liberation has the same combat system as Assassins Creed III. They differ both the most in storytelling and game progression but otherwise, the gameplay is the same.
Conclusion
Assassins Creed III Remastered got cleaned up a bit but it is still an older game and maybe some of the alterations and upgrades made the mistakes actually stand out more. It isn’t a bad game and even though a few graphics don’t look great, others do. Assassins Creed III Remastered is certainly worth playing more so because you also get Assassins Creed Liberations Remastered and The Tyranny of King Washington with it, plus a ton of extras. If you want to play all the Assassins Creed games it is certainly recommended to buy the remastered edition, even though the “clean up” isn’t perfect, it still makes it better than the previous version.
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