Assassin's Creed III: Revolution Reborn

When Assassin’s Creed III launched worldwide in October of 2012, it marked a new era of the Assassin’s Creed series we know and love today. It became the first game in the series since 2009’s Assassin’s Creed II to not feature main protagonist Ezio Auditore, who was and always has been very well received by fans, so the attempt at creating a new story to succeed the renowned “Ezio Trilogy’ would be a tricky one for Ubisoft as they had to find a story that properly followed such a strong trifecta and go back to their creative roots by crafting a whole new story, characters, and setting after the last few games focused heavily on Renaissance Italy and Italian culture. Ubisoft chose to head in the direction of the American Revolution, a heavily requested location from fans and one of the most story-rich time periods in all of history. The idea of creating a game that could be great on its own, but also succeed the familiarity of the previous three games in the series was a tough task, but Ubisoft played their cards perfectly and delivered the Assassin’s Creed III we know today all these years later.

Ubisoft chose to follow the narrative direction of the Native Americans in this game, and create a story that comes from their heritage and history that also contains strong elements with what the majority of the American Revolution is known for: the Colonies from Great Britain retaliating against their owners and forming a new, free nation, away from British control. It worked well to mix in a storyline about the Native Americans and how they were treated by everyone in the Colonies back then. Ubisoft introduced a new playable protagonist, or so we thought, named Haytham Kenway, who was the main character throughout the beginning of the game. His story included a massive plot twist that was creatively brilliant from Ubisoft, where Haytham was only a temporary playable character who tricks all audiences by revealing his loyalties to the Templar Order, who are the main antagonist group in the series as a whole, when most fans expected him to be a part of the Assassins Brotherhood. Only several hours into the game do we discover and control the real main protagonist, a Native American boy named “Ratohnhake:ton” or for short as clarified later in the story, he would be widely known as ‘Connor’ instead. His story followed a lengthy revenge plan to kill and avenge his mother and people from his village from a Templar named Charles Lee, who was working with Haytham, the temporary main playable character who was later revealed to be the biological father of Connor.

Sales for Assassin’s Creed III broke records for Ubisoft, as it then became their most pre-ordered game in the series by far, and heavily outperformed the past two games just a few years prior. It was evident the fan excitement that Ubisoft created after the successful “Ezio Trilogy” had carried on to the anticipation for Assassin’s Creed III. Ubisoft had announced in early 2013 that the game had sold 12 million copies worldwide, which was a near 70% increase over its predecessor, Assassin’s Creed Revelations that was released just one year before. It was a huge smash hit for Ubisoft and their vision for the game paid off from both sales and fan reception. The developers also had the task of creating a story about Native Americans that honored their history, and was displayed authentically in the game to give an accurate representation of the Native American culture and how it was properly relevant to the story Ubisoft created. This goal was by far completed, and the story they created honored the ups and downs of Native Americans during the late 1700’s.

The new setting of the American Revolution also created the necessity of gameplay changes aside from just the narrative impacts. America and the Colonies back then were much different land and terrain than what we had gotten used to in Italy. The buildings were not masterfully designed in America then as they were in the Italian Renaissance, along with the more focus on outdoors and woods type land with trees and wilderness that past games were not familiar with. Ubisoft had to create a game that played authentically from what we would expect the American Revolution to look like. So the gameplay mechanics were in need of changes to fit the time period. Ubisoft did just that and introduced all new gameplay elements such as climbing in trees and parkour around Colony sized buildings and structures. Ubisoft needed to implement changes to the combat system along with the terrain. During this time, people did not walk around carrying swords strapped to their waist anymore, but instead carried around rifles, known as muskets along with the use of flintlock pistols. The inclusion of the famous Hidden Blade was once again an option, but Ubisoft introduced new weapons unseen from previous games, such as the tomahawk axe that the permanent playable character, Connor, carried with him. The new axe was a weapon never before seen in previous Assassin’s Creed games. This was great innovation and creativity from the developers at Ubisoft.

It's clear one thing any Assassin’s Creed fan can agree on is that Assassin’s Creed III was a worthy successor from the famed “Ezio Trilogy”. The level of work and changes that were needed to faithfully execute the game as a whole was serious work and creative talent to make sure this game continued this great series properly. Fan feedback and sales were proof that Ubisoft masterfully crafted Assassin’s Creed III both to break records and keep the momentum going for the games that had been on a massive streak of success. There were a lot of factors into this game that could’ve set it up for potential failures, but Ubisoft did a brilliant job focusing on the needed differences necessary to make this game work as well as it did. While the release of this game may be nearing 13 years old, it is still seen by fans as a favorite and near-perfect addition to the Assassin’s Creed series. Much time has indeed passed, but the legacy Assassin’s Creed III created will last forever.