Did you ever have a math teacher who would take you aside, go through how to do your homework, fill in all the answers, then erase them all so you could 'do it yourself'? You know that punch in the gut you got after the final correct mark was erased and you were literally back to square one? That is the feeling you get upon completing Assassin's Creed III's opening missions. You're given control of Haytham Kenway, a debonair, well spoken, confident, talented, and possibly well meaning character, and engage in a bunch of really creative and exciting missions in virtual Boston. "Gosh," you may think, "Did Assassin's Creed III get the bait-and-switch right?!". And no. They did not. You thought wrong, and that's what you get for having optimism, you doink. Assassin's Creed III does tries to do the reverse of Metal Gear Solid 2, and it still sucks. Yet again you've given a character far more personable and interesting at the start of the game, only to have control of him yanked away as you're introduced to Connor, the game's 'proper' protagonist. Worse, the game spends quite a lot of time tutorializing the Connor sections despite the fact you've been playing the game for hours up to that point - and the things it teaches you do are ultimately unimportant to the major missions and side contents. And yeah, this 'twist' ruined Assassin's Creed III, in that playing as someone competent and driven like Kenway, then being thrown into the shoes of the novice Connor, felt like a horrible cop out. You spend the rest of the game waiting for Connor to be as cool or personable or flat-out bad ass as his dad, and it never, ever happens - he's blander than particle board, performance-wise having the most in common with Hayden Christensen's take on Aiken Skywalker than any actual Native American person. Eventually Kenway pops up in the game later - and yet again is the coolest person on the planet. Until you kill him. Bummer.
