Assassin's Creed III Remastered Review

"The New World"

Campaign

April 2, 2019 at 10:15pm

This is actually a bundled remaster effort as you get the main entry, and the spin-off that released around the same time. What's interesting about the latter that's titled "Liberation", is that it actually got a boost previously when it arrived on consoles having been developed for a different sort of platform prior to that release.

This package also includes all of the released DLC and various enhancements to the experience for both games. Focusing on the campaigns will be the goal for now, other details on performance are in the gameplay section. I will mention that everything is in one package and you switch between the content from a connected menu.

Main Game
In this entry you follow two main characters, which is a bit of a shift in this one that feels unique to the title. I won't dive into this element as that may spoil things, but it certainly sets up a bit of generational difference. This third main release also acts as a way to conclude elements of the modern story line that has been taking place with Desmond. The story largely takes place around the Boston area, but you do travel to additional side locations. Some of these will be more flat, perhaps taking an experienced assassin out of their comfort zone.

Liberation
This spin-off follows a brand new character that uses disguises in order to reach certain areas. She's a swift individual that is working within New Orleans and dealing with problems there. This is a shorter and more intimate tale, but one that I feel is worth exploring. It also feels a bit more polished than the main game within this collection. I liked how this game offered a variety of very distinct missions that came across as more stealth based, just a different way of presenting what your goals were.

Gameplay

This is of course an older entry in the franchise and while some improvements have been made with these, they still feel a bit aged. I generally felt like Liberation has fared better over the years, but I'll dive into the general tweaks for both here. For context, these games were played on Xbox One X and they look quite good for the most part. They feature higher resolution textures, new character models and an improved lighting rendering system.

There's also physically based rendering, denser crowds, denser environments and denser VFX. This shows as the streets have more life to them, and the environment has some remarkable texture work. I did find the facial animations to be a bit off at times and there were other minor issues. I had some small performance issues in some outer areas in the main title and issues with floating guns. There were a number of moments where weapons were floating with no people, both in and out of cutscenes. That was certainly odd.

There's some pop-in present with objects that's noticeable and it's more present in the shadows. Characters also have clipping issues and I suppose the crowded streets cause a number of pedestrians to collide in weird ways due to their pathing. The tail, or listen missions were overly touchy, quite hard to do. I'm not saying it's a bad time as I find some of the glitches funny, just shows that more polish could have went into this remaster.

I just feel that if this is the definitive release for these titles for awhile, they should have been cleaned up more. The main title also delivers sailing in an early form, among other neat mechanics that evolved the franchise. Sequences have scores to them, and this is a largely seamless experience with quick loading when it is present in either title. If you like collectibles, there are a pile of them to find in either of the games.

The Conclusion

Assassin's Creed III Remastered is a great way to revisit these games or perhaps play them for the first time, there's just enough enhancements to justify it. Content wise you're getting a ton between the main stories, the DLC and of course the collectibles. I wish there was some more polish here as some issues do somewhat wreck the enjoyment.

It's good for the most part, but certain things just stand out. This does look rather good considering how old it is and I appreciate the combined approach to the titles of this release. I would heavily suggest giving Liberation a try, its well worth it for something different. It's great to have this option to play the game on modern platforms and this is worth the entry. Some elements just hold it back from being a perfect effort to bring these back.

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Assassin's Creed III Remastered Review on Xbox One X
Review Code Provided by Ubisoft

Rating Overall: 7.5