Assassin's Creed III Remastered

I was really excited for Assassin's Creed 3 Remastered; the original release of the game was the first time that the franchise really clicked with me. I played the others on the Xbox 360 and liked them, but for some reason, the Wii U port of the original game was where it all clicked for me. I recently played through this again, and I found it to be a really fun time and a reminder of why it got me so invested in the franchise. When I played this the first time around, I went back and played the others that came before it, and it made me appreciate those even more.

The Land of the Free!

A huge part of what made me take notice of Assassin's Creed 3 Remastered was the story, well, the original story if that makes sense. The setting of the American Revolution and the main character of Connor, a half Native American who was fighting to avenge his mother and prevent the Templars from taking full control and interfering with the American Revolution, is one of my favorite parts of the entire franchise. You also have the stuff in the modern day with Desmond as well, and once again, that is really cool stuff. I love the whole sci-fi aspect of this franchise, and the more I think about it, the more I think that part 3 may be my favorite in the entire franchise as far as the story goes. But I will say that in order to fully appreciate this, I do think you need to be familiar with the story of the Templars and the Assassins.

For The Creed

If you have played any of the other games in the Assassin’s Creed series that came before Assassin's Creed 3 Remastered, you will feel right at home here. The stuff where you play as Connor (and someone else, who becomes more important in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag) as well as Desmond is all done very well here. The sneaking around is cool, but out of all the characters we have played as in the franchise so far, Connor to me felt the most like a “warrior,” if that makes sense. This is a pretty beefy adventure as well, but I do not think that there is much of what I would call padding here to stretch the game out. By the time you do reach the final act, you feel like you have been on a great adventure and you are truly invested in how it all is going to play out.

What Is Old Is Now New

The original game released in 2012, and Assassin's Creed 3 Remastered would follow in 2019, and in those seven years a great deal had changed in the franchise, especially in regards to Assassin’s Creed Origins and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, which took the series in a more RPG direction. This remastered version of three does not do that, but it does try to modernize the controls a little, add in some stuff like being able to whistle and attract foes to you, and, in general, I feel that the game is much smoother to play than it was when I was hooked on it on the Wii U all those years ago. It is also packed with content; you get all of the DLC, and you even get Assassin’s Creed Liberation, which was a PlayStation Vita game that was a side game to Assassin’s Creed III. Liberation has also been remastered.

It Says 4K On The Tin!

Something that I found interesting about Assassin's Creed 3 Remastered and this rings true for the likes of The Last of Us Remastered and even the PS4/Xbox One release of Grand Theft Auto V is that these were games which were already made for HD systems. The level of graphical leap from the PS3 to the PS4 is nowhere near as significant as it was from the PS2 to the PS3! Still, this game has been cleaned up, and it does look better and sharper than it did seven years prior. But they also claim that the game runs in 4K if you play it on a PlayStation 4 Pro or an Xbox One X. I never had one of those consoles, but I do have a PlayStation 5, and if I am being honest, I am not sure I notice much difference from the way this looked on my base PS4 than it does on the PS5. However, I can clearly see a pretty big upgrade from the PlayStation 3 or, in my case, the Nintendo Wii U original.

Pros:

• Connor is one of my favorite AC characters
• I loved the American Revolution setting
• This has some of the best Desmond content
• You also get Liberation and all the DLC as well

Cons:

• I do not see much difference between the HD and 4K visuals
• You do need to have played the other games to really appreciate this