Assassin's Creed 3 Preview: Everything We Know So Far
Certainly the work has gone in to Assassin’s Creed III and I can’t help but feel this will be one that lives up to its hype.
Hey there organised murder fans! Ever since Ubisoft dropped the Assassins Creed IIIs reveal trailer on us in March, weve been chomping at the bit. One of their flag-ship franchises, the Assassins Creed series sees its main protagonist Desmond Miles Quantum-Leaping himself into dead relatives via genetic ancestral memories, using only his mind and about a billion dollars worth of sci-fi machinery. And so Desmond Miles finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home. Nineties T.V references aside, Assassins Creeds premise of a guy that can live through his ancestors gives way to the idea that a brand new Assassins Creed game (when its not just another chapter to AC2) means a newwell, everything: a new character; a new time-period; a new fighting style; hell, even a whole new game engine in this instance. Its already smashed its own franchise record for pre-order sales but not only that, its also been one of the most pre-ordered titles of Ubisofts illustrious history and if projections are to be at all believed, may go on to be one of their biggest selling releases to date. For those of you whove yet to behold the new AnvilNext engine in action, check out this stunning new gameplay trailer: http://youtu.be/EiVJG_mrtFo And just in case youve been manning a space station for the last three months, heres the reveal trailer again: http://youtu.be/BSa0Xg-YadY Since the release of this announcement cinematic a great deal of information has surfaced about whats in store for us come happy stabby time (also known as October), when ACIII is released. So exactly what do we know to date? The Protagonist
Yes, with Assassins Creed III comes a brand new protagonist for those who though that Ezios Italian renaissance schtick was getting a little tired. Ratonhnhaké:ton, (pronounced: Ra-doon-ha-kay-doon), or Connor to his Assassin buddies, is part Native American and Part English. This gives some insight into the conflict that hell suffer through in the story; hes not really one or the other and you can be fairly certain that allegiances will be questioned within. All sources seem to indicate that Assassins Creed III will house an altogether more emotionally charged plot and that Connor himself will be a much more complex character than the previous Desmond-puppets. However, details are sketchy on most everything about the story other than that Connors home falls under Colonial attack when hes a child, causing him to seek vengeance by joining the Assassins. Along with this entirely new character comes an entirely new fighting style. Connor can perform a whole variety of deadly tasks he can dual wield, execute double counter kills and take human shields. Theres also a greater emphasis on fluidity in his combat style, helped along by the thousands of new character animations that ACIIIs main guy boasts. 
No longer will a kill cause a slow-down animation and a stop/start dynamic to the gameplay. Now youll slice one guy and on to the next, perform a double counter kill on two attackers, maybe jump through an open window and emerge on the other side taking out another guard on the way before, sliding under a cart, removing another from his horse and bolting into The Frontier. Every mechanic at work here ensures that, unless you want to (or you really suck), you never have to slow down. But perhaps the most exciting new weapon in Connors arsenal (for me personally anyway) is the Chinese Rope Dart. This is, for all intents and purposes, a steel dart on the end of a rope. Soundsrather basic, right? But if youve ever had a kung-fu movie phase, youll know it for the weapon of mass pwnage that it really is in the right hands. And looking at the gameplay trailer, its going to be a sizeable game-changer in a whole range of situations. To measure the epicicity of Connor is, at the moment, impossible. But all evidence points to the fact that this guy is going to rule quite possibly even harder than Altair and Ezio put together.