Game Review--Assassin's Creed III Remastered (Switch)

"The Apple.  One of several artifacts we call Pieces of Eden.  Bits of ancient technology scattered across the globe.  Some hidden.  Some found.  All of them dangerous.  Most are held by a single group - the same group that now had Desmond.  You know them as Abstergo Industries.  We know them as the Templars - as the enemy."

--William Miles, Assassin's Creed III Remastered

"Yours is a special lineage.  Past.  Present.  Future.  Many are connected to you.  Many who have changed the world.  Who will change the world.  So too, will you.  I have called you here that you may know your duty."

--Juno, Assassin's Creed III Remastered

With the First Civilization behind and an apocalypse ahead, Assassin's Creed III has one of the more urgent stories outside of the Animus, its main story taking place in the era of the Revolutionary War.  Ratonhnhake:ton:, a half-Mohawk sometimes called Connor later in his life, is the main protagonist after the first few sequences of the game have you play as another character that later showed up in sequels (which ironically were set before Assassin's Creed III).  He participates in the Boston Tea Party and battles of Lexington and Concord, among other notable events like identifying Benedict Arnold as a traitor to the Continental Army.  The fact that a classic game like Assassin's Creed III can be played with all of its DLC on a handheld is a victory in its own right.  This remaster even comes with a remastered version of Assassin's Creed III: Liberation, a game that debuted on the PlayStation Vita (I do have it for this system and would love to revisit and review it at some point), as a bonus.  In spite of these technical merits, the game itself often fails to do more than showcase potential for better mechanics and stories down the road.

Production Values

For a remaster of an older generation console game that was never originally made for the Switch, this version of Assassin's Creed III Remastered looks fine--its looks are far from being as developed as those of recent Assassin's Creed games on either the PS4 or PS5 era consoles, but they very much appear outdated by both series high points and Switch potential alike.  Even the Rebel Collection looks better on the Switch.  Older facial models and more limited texture details aside, the voice acting survives well.  The characters might not be collectively developed very thoroughly (Connor himself is a fairly static character, but he is a great protagonist because of his unwavering care for honesty, consistency, and justice), yet their voice actors and actresses are not at fault in the slightest way.

Gameplay

All of the standard mechanics of the initial and middle Assassin's Creed games are here: eavesdropping, climbing, stealth kills, manning a ship, and catching floating documents on the side are all part of the gameplay.  The iconic control and climbing issues of the series are also on prominent display.  Piloting a ship is less smooth than ever, it is far more difficult than it is in later games like Rogue to visually tell where to climb on the rock faces of cliffs, and Connor might jump off of a surface and even land on people when that was not the intent of the player at all.  I have not played the most recent Assassin's Creed games, but I hope such an obvious set of obstacles to normal player actions has been taken care of by now.  As big as the world of Assassin's Creed III can be, you never go beyond the reach of these issues.

The open world is also almost barren of any items to discover and tasks to do besides main missions until hours have passed.  The chests and other collectibles found in Black Flag and Rogue were literally nowhere to be seen for up to several hours.  Also unlike in Black Flag and Rogue, the naval missions of Assassin's Creed III are very limited, relatively short bursts of combat, navigation, or exploration that never allow you to sail very freely around a vast map as is the case in the later games.  In spite of these flaws and limitations, Assassin's Creed III does have some elements that are either unique to this game in the series or that are better handled here.  One key example of the latter is the hunting mechanics, which are actually better than ever, with options like snares and bait incorporated into the process of trying to attract or sneak up on animals.

A section where the First Civilization member Juno appears to Ratonhnhake:ton: lets you fly around as an eagle in a spiritual vision where she mentions his ancestral relevance to the Templar-Assassin conflict, which is one of the only sequences of its type I have seen in the series.  Another part of the game, and a much longer one, is a series of loosely connected side missions about developing a homestead away from New York and Boston.  These missions see Connor do everything from saving men and women from injustices and offering them a safe place to pushing potential romantic relationships along.  Separate side missions involve liberating areas of British-held cities like Boston and completing tasks to impress child thieves.  Assassin's Creed III has definite shortcomings as a game, but at least it has plenty of content once you get past the story missions where Haytham Kenway is playable.

Story

Some spoilers are below.

Desmond Miles and several companions venture underground to a remnant of the First Civilization, and Desmond quickly faints and enters the Animus.  His ancestor Haytham Kenway takes the stage, first appearing just before he kills a target in an opera house.  When Haytham travels to the New World on a mission, he meets a Native American woman whom he has a child with.  That child grows up to become the first Native American Assassin, named Ratonhnhake:ton:.  Going by the less conspicuous name Connor, he later seeks out Achilles, a formerly active Assassin, for training in an effort to save his tribe from extermination or forceful relocation all as the British enter into war with the American colonies.

In the Tyranny of King Washington DLC, Connor begins experiencing an alternate timeline where George Washington has become an abusive king with Benedict Arnold (the irony here is very strong) and Israel Putnam at his side.  Washington has become powerful by use of a First Civilization artifact he uses to strike down his opponents, and Connor helps his tribe and Samuel Adams fight against the new tyrant whose artifact can even exert a sort of mind control over other figures the confused Assassin recognizes from his memories of the main storyline.  Connor decides to consult spirits and acquire supernatural animal powers to give him an advantage.  In the end, this alternate fictional history actually does not conflict with the story of the base game--but I will refrain from sharing details about how this is the case!

Intellectual Content

The pseudo-historical storylines of the Assassin's Creed games gives plenty of alternate possibilities for players to see unfold, like a secondary DLC timeline that deviates from the main game and has George Washington become a tyrannical king instead of the non-monarch he wanted to be.  Both history (at least as according to various documents) and franchise lore are defied in order to show an artifact from the First Civilization corrupt Washington as he rules--an indirect admission that power itself does not and cannot drive people to tyranny even if this was not an intended theme.  The irony of almost all ideological themes in the series, nevertheless, is that there is inherent conflict between any idea and the titular creed.  Sometimes a character might even unwittingly point out just how stupid the creed is.  Assassin Achilles says that truth and "what is" are not always the same, but truth is nothing other than the way things are.  This statement is just another expression of the Assassin's idiotic, self-refuting belief that "nothing is true," a phrase followed by "everything is permitted."  In spite of the logically incorrect claim at the heart of the creed Assassins pledge themselves to, Connor is consistently concerned with truth even when it would be more convenient for his overall goals to lie, standing up to figures on both sides of the Revolutionary War for their apathy or willingness to deceive others as long as they can achieve what they wish.

Conclusion

Assassin's Creed III Remastered on the Switch is not in any way the best visual experience on the platform or in the series.  Likewise, Assassin's Creed III Remastered is not the most developed gameplay experience the series has to offer--the other franchise offering on the Switch benefits from the superior and expanded mechanics of Black Flag and Rogue.  What it does offer is a story set in a pivotal historical period and grander stakes outside of the Animus than many other individual Assassin's Creed games have.  The elements of Native American culture help distinguish this entry from those before and after it and the setting of the Revolutionary War period is a great narrative choice.  If only the gameplay itself was deeper outside of combat and the iconic series control errors were removed!

 1.  Violence:  Bloodless fistfighting and slightly bloody assassinations and sword kills are what the violence entails.

 2.  Profanity:  "Bastard" and variations of "damn" and "fuck" are occasionally used.

 3.  Sexuality:  A man amorously puts his face to a woman's breast in front of Haytham in an early mission.