Assassin’s Creed 3 The Hunt Is On

I loved Assassin’s Creed 2 for many reasons, it was everything that the first game should have been, it was smarter, bigger and more fun to play than the original. Since then the last two titles in the series haven’t really improved on the formula that much, they were becoming stale, the result of this is that I mainly played them for the story. This is why my hopes were not all that high for the 3^rd instalment, that was until I saw some raw gameplay footage at E3, now it has the potential to be my game of the year and here’s why:

Firstly the game is running on a new engine and as a result of this it looks gorgeous, the environments look stunning, lighting is beautiful and our protagonist Connor has some of the finest animations I have seen in a long time, they’re that good. The way he scales up trees, swiftly making his way through the branches and the way he moves himself across the field is something to behold.

The way he seamlessly moves around the outdoors area is something I’m looking forward to experiencing myself. When the first Assassin’s Creed came around we were told that anything you see in the world could be climbed. Imagine that statement being true in the wilderness; it could create great possibilities with aspects of the game such as hunting.

You see our hero starting off with hunting some deer, firstly making his way through trees then dropping into some grass, stalking his prey before taking the shot with a bow and arrow. As he approaches the dead deer, wolves ambush our protagonist and the gameplay that follows is a mix between quick time and real time battles, it has a very cinematic feel to it and looks to make every encounter tense and fun.

Your mission after this is to assassinate the templar known as Silas, this is where we see the combat and boy, this does not look to disappoint. It looks to be more fluid and much more realistic as each move you do looks different and no two moves are the same. With the way he moves and fights it feels like I could be controlling a character that feels real and someone I can connect to.

Watch below for this demo:

 

When the Sony conference was on; we were treated to another preview of Assassin’s Creed 3. This time it was a naval sea battle, where players have complete control of both navigation and the cannons on the boat. The game managed to look even more gorgeous; the water in particular looks outstanding. The sea battles look like how you would see them in the movies: cannons going off, boats disintegrating in the background and the waves crashing against your boat.

Watch this demo below:

 

Assassin’s Creed 3 is now my most highly anticipated game of 2012 and October 30^th can’t come soon enough.

What are your thoughts on Assassin’s Creed 3? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.