Connor, both in-universe and by players. While those closest to him consider him a kind, soft spoken man, the Templars and his mentor call him out on his naivety and short fuse. Likewise, players are divided on opinions about the guy: either he's the nicest and most badass protagonist yet (being something of a mix between Batman and movieverse Cap) or an immature haughty youth who thinks he's right about everything and has a bad attitude towards those who disagree with him.
A number of his fans argue that Connor is a flawed and human character and is being held to a Double Standard when critics say that the character is bland and then cite many character flaws which indicate complexity. Once Assassin's Creed: Unity came out many of these critics reversed their stances, coming down much more harshly on Arno for being such a downgrade from Connor that he becameRescued from the Scrappy Heap for many of them. Compared to Arno who was seen as a lazy attempt to ape the super-popular Ezio but with none of the likeability, at least Connor had an original personality.
Haytham gets this a lot too. Most people agrees that he's pretty badass and does steal the show, but there's a divide between those who think he's more of a hero than Connor is and his views are much more sensible, and those who think he's just another self-serving Templar making a power grab, even if he is good at it.
Haytham's death. He consciously let go of Connor's arm to strangle him after Connor tried to stab him with his Hidden Blade seconds before, predictably resulting in Connor stabbing him in the neck. Was it a lapse in judgement caused by his injuries during their fight? Did he assume that Connor would be struggling too much to bother with his Hidden Blade? Or, unable to bring himself to kill his own son, did he stage a Suicide by Cop by putting Connor in a situation where he could kill Haytham without regret? The canon novelization Forsaken particularly leans towards the latter interpretation by heavily implying that Haytham knew he wouldn't come out alive - after establishing that Haytham himself was the one who rescued Connor from being hanged in New York moments before Thomas Hickey's death - and wrote his desire for Connor to read his journal and understand his journey through life.
Daniel Cross, despite being billed as "the assassin", never provides Desmond with anything resembling a challenge. Vidic lampshades it in supplemental material, admitting that Cross has become more of a figurehead than an actual asset.
Warren Vidic has it worse, being killed by just pressing Square/X/LMB in a cutscene.
Haytham Kenway is a relatively easy Puzzle Boss who you just need to counter three times while standing next to an object. Even the "puzzle" part is ruined by the game telling you how to defeat him as soon as the fight begins. He'll most likely be taken down before he can finish his truly epic speech on his organization's ideals.
Anvilicious: The story repeatedly beat the player over the head with the idea that the Founding Fathers really weren't the noble heroic figures that American history books make them out to be. Achilles, Haytham, and even Shaun in the present day all lay into how self-serving their principles actually was, and part of Connor's arc is his coming to terms with the fact that their fight for liberation was always meant to be freedom for a select few. Two of the final cutscenes in the game even showcase this with Connor seeing first hand that the slave trade is still a pressing matter, and him learning that his own people have been pushed westward in the name of giving colonists more land.
Probably the catchiest song in the game is "Fight Club", which plays during fist fights. It embodies the feeling of a lighthearted brawl, with no lethal stakes.
"Trouble In Town", which most prominently plays during the Boston Tea Party, as well as in the finale both when Connor chases after Lee and at the beginning of the game's credits after Desmond's sacrifice and Juno's release. Frankly, "trouble" couldn't be a more apt and self-demonstrating description of the song itself. It also plays in the Remaster's title screen when selecting between III or Liberation.
"Modern Assassin" (and its alternate mix), for the present-day segments. The track might as well be Desmond's leitmotif, seeing as it really suits his badassery for this game (especially the third and final level where Desmond takes the fight to Abstergo personally and even puts Cross and Vidic down once and for all).
"Freedom Fighter", this game's main encounter theme. Cut through swathes of Redcoats as you start an uproar in the middle of 18th-century Boston (or New York) and then make your escape as soon as the dust settles.
The theme song. A very powerful and uplifting piece that serendipitously compliments the backdrop of The American Revolution and puts you in the mood to take on some Redcoats and Templars with your trusty Assassin Tomahawk.
Connor. It doesn't help that some are unhappy that he supplanted Haytham as the playable character, or that he's such a dramatic change in personality from Ezio.
Consensus seems to be that the 2 missions involving the Battle of Bunker Hill are some of the most exciting in the game.
The naval missions on the whole, small wonder that it eventually became its own game with Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. The Battle of Chesapeake Bay is especially awesome.
With the nature of the setting's timeframe, set during the Revolutionary War, the British and American sides of the community are divided - this was largely the fault of marketing, which was rather jingoistic, than the actual game itself. Similarly, AC3 had the third biggest launch of any game in the UK (behind FIFA13 and the inevitable Call of Duty release) - so Vocal Minority is in play here.
Kotaku Australia: "The marketing always suggested that ACIII’s igniting of the Revolution would be a game of interactive jingoism; its developers always said it was not. The developers were the ones being accurate."
In a less nationalistic example, some fans are annoyed that III will be abandoning the series' classic "Puppeteer" control scheme.
The ending. No spoilers, but Ubisoft did say in interviews that this would be the last game with Desmond as the main character. Thus, fans are starting to pick sides as to whether it was underwhelming or lived up to the expectations. Players expect crazy, out of left field, and unexplained (until the sequel) endings from this series by now and it's more a question of if it ended with a bang or a whimper.
Connor's lack of involvement or resolution for his story in future games, despite the fact that Unity happens pretty close to 3. Some are fine with it, arguing that it's only been less than three years since his adventure and Altair's story wasn't resolved until four years after, while others at least want to know when/how he died.
Captain Obvious Reveal: The first major reveal of the game is that Haytham Kenway isn't an Assassin and you've actually been playing as a Templar for the first three sequences of the game. The problem is this could be seen from a mile away. There are several clues, such as Haytham and his allies never once saying the word "Assassin" while Altair and Ezio made no effort to hide that part of their lives. "The Order" is namedropped several times, which is never used in reference to the Assassins, who go by "The Brotherhood." And most obviously of all, Haytham's cape literally has Templar iconography on it, including a big cross right at the top.
Character Rerailment: The Templar Order makes a triumphant return to form in this game after being heavily Flanderized during the Ezio trilogy. In Assassin's Creed, the Templars were a dark mirror to the Assassins working secretly to create a peaceful future for the Holy Land and all of it's citizens through brutal means. Then a few hundred years later, in Assassin's Creed II, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, and Assassin's Creed: Revelations, the Templars (primarily the Borgias and their affiliates) are cartoonishly evil supervillains only seeking to empower themselves and generally just being pointlessly cruel. III starts off with Haytham Kenway giving us a look at a Templar agent with morals and principals who truly believes in his cause and can articulate the thought process that leads him to do what he does. All Haytham's affiliates can do the same and justify their horrid deeds by revealing that they simply adhere to the Order's ideology and want to help the people around them. A far cry from Cesare and Rodrigo ranting about power and their destiny to rule the world.
Contested Sequel: For many players, the game is a divisive entry into the series. While praise was given for ending Desmond's arc and many enjoyed things like the Naval Missions, Homestead missions, war setpieces and multiplayer, criticism was thrown at Connor (some think he's the blandest main character outside of Desmond, while others really like him), at how the game had numerous graphical glitches at launch due to the new engine, and others found the Revolutionary setting of America to be "very boring", especially in comparison to the eras corresponding to Ezio (the protagonist of II).
The game did well on Metacritic (averaging scores of 81%, 84% and 86% on the Wii U, 360 and PS3 versions respectively), but series fan reactions were more mixed, ranging from enthusiastic raves to So Okay, It's Average. Some users, especially on IGN and Gamespot, felt that the game was bad because their hype was too high. Averted with the Tyranny of King Washington DLC, which is well-regarded by fans and critics alike.
A lot of the confusion stems from the Contrasting Sequel Main Character of Connor, as opposed to the fan-favorite Ezio, the Darker and Edgier setting and its Downer Ending for the hero, whereas Altair and Ezio had clear victories. And also the divide between old fans of the series and new fans who came into the franchise via III.
Demonic Spiders: Jägers. They combine every trick of the other mooks into one tough to kill Elite Mook. Attack aggressively? They parry you. Chain killing? Hope they're disarmed or in front of a wall or ledge, cause otherwise it ain't happening. Try to counter them? Denied. Try to stun them? You get bitchslapped. Want to shoot them? Guess what? They've got enough health to take one shot, when you have a maximum of four before you need to reload, a several second process that's damn near impossible to do in a fight. Now, there are still a lot of ways to kill them (A lucky stab in the back, using them as Human Shields, double or triple counters, etc.), but just about the only way to kill them yourself is to disarm and then combo them, and it only takes a single attack from another mook for them to have the chance to pick up their sword (or any sword or musket laying around), bringing you back to square one. Either that, or a tool counter that will be instant death, but can still be interrupted, and you only have so many tools. Furthermore, they can shoot with little warning, mount a horse from which they can shoot you, can catch up to you even when you're in a full sprint, and can free-run to follow you on the rooftops. Fighting one is annoying enough, but when your notoriety reaches three, these sons of bitches spawn everywhere and will patrol both the streets and the alleys, making it damn near impossible to move around without triggering a tough chase or a long, drawn out fight.
Disappointing Last Level: While not the worst example in the medium, the Cosmic Deadline of the game's impending release date (which had to be in 2012 for plot reasons) did result in the final levels being noticeably less polished than the early ones. The transition between those levels is more abrupt than in the earlier game, and the gameplay is not as well playtested and iterated as in the early levels.
Draco in Leather Pants: Might as well be called Haytham in Leather Pants, as far as the franchise goes. Many fans tend to gloss over his villainous acts such as ordering the Boston Massacre, converting Fort George into a torture chamber that many POWs prefer death over, and overall goal (converting America into a totalitarian dictatorship) just because he is charismatic.
Haytham is a weird instance of this trope. He is the Decoy Protagonist for the first three memory sequences, but then he disappears, save for one brief scene, for the next four. He is also regularly mentioned because he is the real main character's father, and also his biggest target. He's a fascinating and charismatic character in his own right (the first Templar of the series to be as fleshed out as Assassin protagonists) and has a more polished demeanor than his son, Connor, and so he has many fans.
Benjamin Franklin is cool, funny and witty to the point that many were upset he didn't have more of a presence in the game beyond 2 cameos, and one of the funniest conversations in the game. Ubisoft seems to have noticed since he has a much bigger role in the Tyranny of King George DLC and in Rogue.
Robert Faulkner, the quartermaster of the Aquila is also loved by many, likely due to the naval combat missions being considered the Best Level Ever, and his bond with Connor being considered one of the bright spots in the game. Being an Expy to Gibbs also did him a lot of favors.
Rope darts can turn into this if you know how to use them. They can silently kill mooks that are ten feet away, hang soldiers from trees, and instantly trip any opponent (even the higher ranking ones) allowing for a quick kill. They're also cheap and attained early in the game. This is most likely why they are introduced very late inAssassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.
A real gamebreaker is a specially modified gun you can collect in the General Store called the Duck Footed Pistol which is an ugly flintlock with three-barrels strapped side by side, that fires three shots at once, working essentially as a 18th Century sawed-off shotgun. This is deadly in short range, killing multiple enemies in a One-Hit Kill. When mixed with the crafted multiple holsters, you can carry upto four pistols and murder say eight in a single round. That final chase mission with Charles Lee on full synchronization is easy if you run and fire to incoming guards, with nothing left to stand in your way.
In the Tyranny of King Washington, Wolf Cloak lets Connor turn invisible for a short stretch, at the cost that it drains his health and prevents him from sprinting or free-running. But his health regenerates quickly in cover, and he can pull off stealth assassinations while under cloak. Gets a little more balanced when guard dogs are introduced.
Genius Bonus: Haytham and William Johnson's plan to buy Native American land to create a refuge for them is actually based on real-life attempts to do in Ohio. The plans also failed spectacularly due to American greed for land.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Connor became popular in Norway to the point that critics hated Black Flag due to Edward's different personality (and that the Norwegian subs in the game were a joke).
Wouldn't be Assassin's Creed without some group of annoying citizens to swarm and impede you and this time, it's a group of children. Unlike the beggars and bards, you can't kill them for obvious reasons.
Even worse is the way they laugh. It will make you hate the sound of orphans laughing.
Wolves can cross over into this territory at times. They aren't especially hard to kill, but they attack in packs of up to four, and can easily take off 3/4 of your health if they manage to pounce you.
Especially the wolves that attack you during the final Captain Kidd mission, which for unexplained reasons require much faster button reflexes than normal wolves to counter-kill. You could just shoot them, but the optional objectives for 100% synch include a ban on ranged weapons, as well a limit to how many times you can fail the counter-kill inputs. Have fun with that.
The in-game representation of the Great New York Fire's aftermath feels all the more awkward given how Hurricane Sandy, right around the game's release, caused electrical fires that destroyed over eighty homes in Queens.
It would have been harsher in What Could Have Been the original idea discussed by game director Alex Hutchinson which was to have Connor be there and try and save people during the fire itself.
After playing Assassin's Creed Rogue, Achilles's comments about "In your haste to save the world, take care you don't destroy it" make A LOT more sense, and take on another meaning.
He's Just Hiding: Despite the end of the game, there were some who assumed that maybe Desmond wasn't really dead after his Heroic Sacrifice. The next game confirms that, yes, he is indeed dead. Abstergo has possession of his corpse.
Consider that this game came out one week before the 2012 U.S. presidential election, some of Shaun's comments with US history and politics might be either this or Harsher in Hindsight.
One way to interpret the game's Gainax Ending is that while saving the world from disaster, Desmond chooses to unleash a larger evil upon the world in the hopes that humanity will stop their squabbling and unite against a common foe.Sound familiar?note and yes, that's the FILM. The comparison fits much better with the Dr. Manhattan ending than the giant squid.
Connor being told that his English name's "a fine name for a Welshman" becomes hilarious when it's revealed in Black Flag that his grandfather Edward had a Welsh mother and identifies himself as Welsh.
A few years after the game's release, we got Hamilton, another high-profile story focusing on the American Revolutionary era (both of which also feature Washington and Lafayette in prominent supporting roles, while Charles Lee is a minor antagonist in the musical). It's not unheard of for people to wish we could get a sequel to III interacting with (or rapping and singing with) Hamilton.
This Ctrl+Alt+Del comic correctly predicted Assassin's Creed III being set in The American Revolution in 2010. And while the main game does not have a female Assassin, its spinoff Liberation does.
Lucy's status as a Templar mole, which many people believed since the first game, were definitively confirmed here after being spelled out in the Lost Archives DLC for Revelations that not everyone was privy to.
It Was His Sled: Haytham is a Templar. This was set up as a major surprise within the game itself, with players meant to assume that Haytham's references to "our order" and being one of Desmond's ancestors meant that he was an assassin, like Altair and Ezio. After the game's release, anyone with a vague knowledge of the game goes in knowng this already.
Magnificent Bastard: Haytham Kenway has the Loyalists and the Patriots in his pockets, influencing decisions throughout The American Revolution wherever he sees fit. Haytham has plans running all over Colonial America, from stealing tribal lands to an assassination attempt on George Washington and several other leaders of the Continental Congress. The Templars under his leadership nearly wipe out the Colonial Assassins, and even after his death he establishes a permanent Templar presence in America for the years to come. His crowing gambit is starting the Revolutionary War allying himself with the British, but using them as mere pawns, intending to remove them from the Colonies and establish America as an independent nation under the Templars. The only reason Haytham loses in the end is his love for his son Connor preventing him from killing the young Assassin. Even in defeat, Haytham holds true to his ideals, complimenting Connor one final time before he dies.
"Where is Charles Lee!?" This phrase often comes up in discussions of the game, or with Connor.
The announcement poster for Tyranny of King Washington became quite memetic as well, it's the trope image for Alternate History and often shows up in other contexts with different politicians grouped there.
Charles Lee going from a good person to a racist who hates the native people he helped save during the French and Indian War, even threatening a child Connor with death.
Haytham's Moral Event Horizon is attacking and trying to murder his own son out of loyalty to Charles Lee who is politically incompetent and has no skills to take the cause, in other words pure Templar fanaticism. Connor kills him in Self Defense and in the White Void Room, he offers an unrepentant speech where he states that while he's proud of Connor in a Worthy Opponent sort of way, he should have killed him long ago.
In Charles Lee's eyes, Connor crossed this when he committed Patricide.
Most Wonderful Sound: Connor's whistling. Practical for drawing guards away and very pleasant to listen to as well.
The Abstergo guards use the same animation for firing modern semi-auto handguns as the Revolutionary soldiers use for flintlocks; drawing, firing, holstering, melee. By contrast, Desmond can hand out caps like he just won a lifetime supply from a hat factory.
The Midnight Ride is hard to take seriously since it made the series' Gump Factor ridiculous with Connor and Paul Revere sharing the same horse, which is silly to look at, and moreover as a mission it doesn't gel with the gameplay and feels like an interactive cutscene that's there just for the Been There, Shaped History appeal, which was better handled in Assassin's Creed II. Paul's annoying directions are also a bit much to handle.
Some of Connor's alternative outfits, especially the Captain Kidd Pirate Outfit looks pretty ridiculous and over-the-top.
Never Live It Down: No, "Where's Charles Lee?" is not a catchphrase. Connor only says it a few times. note The reason why it stands out is that most of those times are in two sequences and in quick succession, which makes it seem like he says it a lot. Heck, even Ezio used similar phrases more times than Connor did.
Obvious Beta: The creation of an all-new game engine means that we have all-new bugs to encounter, like floating muskets, disappearing redcoats, Connor's second gun glitching out of existence, all of Connor's tools vanishing between saves, and so on. Some of the sidequests were apparently tacked on at the last minute without being finished too; courier missions and the 20 Bear Asses missions have no in-universe justification whatsoever, just a guy who always says "You have my everlasting gratitude, sir!" and nothing else. They don't even take the items, so they gave you 1,000 pounds just to look at them.
Paranoia Fuel: The Erudito Hacks of Abstergo's ads, hammering home Abstergo's control over everything and everyone. It doesn't help that Erudito likes to make it even more creepy by giving the ads a Photoshop Filter of Evil.
Player Punch: More than a few. The biggest ones are the death of Connor's mother, the death of Connor's friend Kanen, who Connor kills himself in self-defense., and the death of Haytham, despite being the Big Bad.
Desmond's death. We've been him from the beginning, and now he's gone.
After it was added to Xbox One Backwards Compatibility, some people made videos on YouTube reporting that the game runs a lot better on it, with a framerate that goes above 30 FPS and more smooth gameplay than on the 360.
The remaster both runs and looks better, and several awkward things about the game have been either replaced or removed (For example, the aim/lock-on targeting is now a traditional aiming mode, and the post-mission screens that used to pause the game are now a HUD element that works in real-time and thus doesn't disrupt the game's flow), and the HUD (especially the minimap) has been made easier to read and shows more info. While multiplayer is gone and some languanges are no longer supported, the game received a significant overhaul that fixes several issues from the original release.
When played on Xbox Series X or Series S, the Remastered version can be played at 60fps using the consoles' FPS Boost feature. This does lower the resolution on Series X from 4k to 900p, so it is off by default on Series X, but is a great option for players who prefer higher performance over visual fidelity.
The PC version, on the other hand, is lousily optimized and the city of Boston (among other sections, even as little as pointing the camera in the wrong direction) hard locks at 30fps for no apparent reason, regardless of the hardware it's played on.
The Xbox One version of Remastered on the basic console is certainly still playable, but suffers from performance issues in areas, especially in the Frontier. While other versions, even the base PS4 version, generally run very smoothly, the XB1 suffers from framerate drops as low as 24 FPS.
The Switch version of Remastered is a zigzagged case of this. While it has the same quality of life updates as the PS4/Xbox One ports, the graphics are simply an upscaled port of the Wii U version, alongside several performance issues. Luckily Ubisoft released a patch that alleviated some of the issues, and learnt its lesson with the Polished Port of Black Flag and Rogue.
Rooting for the Empire: While the modern-day, Crusade and Renaissance Templars are Jerkasses at best and Bond villains at worst, the Revolutionary era Templars make a case for their motives and intentions far better than any other time frame. This, combined with Connor being something of a divisive protagonist, results in quite a few players wishing they could have played as the Templars for once (and Haytham in particular).
Scrappy Mechanic: The way the world map is revealed is a tedious act: instead of the map being fully revealed by viewpoints, now the viewpoints only reveal a smaller section of the map, meaning the player has to physically explore the map, going higher to uncover more of it.
This game made all but the easiest enemy types able to block if not outright counter at least one of your attack moves. It's still manageable if you keep a clear head on your shoulders, but definitely tougher than Assassin's Creed: Revelations, where even the toughest Elite Mooks could only block attacks. On the highest level of Notoriety, a melee fight involves you facing several enemy archetypes at once, requiring different configurations on the fly, complicating the over-familiar One-Man Army tactics.
The Tyranny of King Washington takes it further than the main game; you are regularly attacked by much larger groups of enemies at once than usual, almost all of them Elite Mooks you can't counter kill, and at the beginning, you have none of your weapons except a tomahawk and bow. The game eases up as new animal powers open up, however, and by the end of the third episode, Rakonhnaké:ton is a walking whirlwind of death.
It's very likely you'll find yourself too busy playing mini-games in the Homestead to actually get anything done. Espescially if you're after That One Achievement. This is also a problem for Gameplay and Story Segregation, with a Cosmic Deadline looming down and if you do things before the end of the game, then you are essentially playing Fanorona while Desmond and Co need to prevent The End of the World as We Know It.
Likewise, it's surpringly easy to forget about everything when in the frontier, and just take in the beautiful scenery, hunt either animals or guards, and just explore it. After you beat the game, you can even unlock cheats to alter it's appearance to your choosing. (They allow you to choose between summer & winter, pick the weather of your choosing, and even freeze the day/night cycle, and unlike in Black Flag and Rogue these cheats don't even disable saving).
Signature Scene: The rooftop conversation between Haytham and Connor is still considered one of the best scenes in the entire franchise. Haytham finally explains Templar ideals of peace through order with valid arguments, after the first game practically made the Templars vaguely characterized Well Intentioned Extremists and the Ezio Trilogy depicted them for the most part as generic power-hungry warmongers.
Slow-Paced Beginning: It takes quite some time before you even start playing as Connor, and a bit longer still before he dons his robes and starts assassinating people. The early portions of the game involve much plot buildup and many tutorials, and while pretty much everyone enjoyed the Decoy Protagonist Haytham Kenway, a common criticism of the game is that it takes too long to really get going.
Special Effect Failure: The mechanism for all flintlock firearms are permanently in the "unloaded" position with the cock in the flash pan and the frizzen open. There is no animation for characters cocking the weapons or for the cock striking the flash pan when fired.
Spoiled by the Format: Haytham's Wham Line at the end of Sequence 3: "You [beat] are a Templar." In the subtitles, the entire sentence is visible the moment he starts speaking.
Squick: The game fortunately gives the squeamish a Gory Discretion Shot as Connor prepares to skin his hunts. Then immediately when he's done you're treated to the sight of the animal's (still juicy) bones laying on the blood-stained grass.
The last chase mission with Charles Lee is also frustrating, especially if you want full sync. The dock you chase him on is cluttered with people and rows of guards who shove you on your ass if you graze past them most likely making you fail your mission. Full synchronization requires you navigate it staying within 50 m of him, not touching anybody, and not being damaged during the second part (inside the ship). Made worse by the fact that he starts out almost 40 m ahead of you automatically making it so if you're still for more than 2 seconds, you'll probably have to repeat the mission. It gets even worse shortly after that, on the burning ship- you have to navigate throughout the decks with absolutely no directions whatsoever. Oh, and if you're after full sync, watch out, everything is on fire.
Whilst the mission itself could count for this, achieving full sync when first chasing Thomas Hickey requires you to not shove anybody out of the way. Not only are you chasing him through very narrow streets, but Thomas regularly throws coins behind him to draw a crowd straight into your path. Furthermore, due to all the twists and turns in the street, it doesn't take much for the player to lose him and have to restart.
Achieving full sync when Connor escapes from his execution. It's very hard to kill two enemies and then get to your target in the short amount of time available. The best thing to do is run to the target but not kill him, just knock him over, and more enemies will come to you.
Achieving full sync on "Conflict Looms". To do so, Connor must light gunpowder stores on the decks of two ships without entering combat with the redcoats. It's very easy to get spotted by the guards here, and the ships are extremely hard to hide on, so your best bet when the guards notice you is to dive into the water and climb back onto the ship. What makes this mission particularly frustrating is the need for stealth: by this point the player would probably have no trouble taking out the guards in direct combat, and there's no reason given as to why Connor has to remain unseen.
Dead Chest Island can become this in the remaster, thanks to the dynamic tides. Getting full sync requires that you chase a target and staying less than 40 meters away from him, while also run-assassinating 3 soldiers along the way, all of whom are in the path you run on. However, the final soldiers you're meant to stab are right after a parkour section that is partially submerged if you run through perfectly, giving the soldiers enough time to initiate combat and prevent you from getting a hit-and-run. The only solution seems to be finding the parts where the man you're chasing stops for a few moments to allow you to catch up, and wait for a few seconds intentionally to let the water cycle by the time you reach the final soldiers.
That One Sidequest: Due to how inconsistent (and sometimes broken) the stealth system is in this game, any Full Synchronization that requires no enemy detention falls into this.note For whatever reason, the enemy's red detection locks Conner out of blending back into crowds (having existed in the Ezio trilogy) and bushes, meaning that running far away from them (and their insanely long detention range, mind you) is the only way to remain anonymous. Both were rectified in the sequel Black Flag.
The Encyclopedia of the Common Man can get really annoying and tedious. To start with, it's a Luck-Based Mission where you have to record the homsteaders as they do various activities. You can't just follow them around waiting for them to do a recordable activity, because there seems to be a proximity sensor that will not let them do it while you're watching. This means you have to leave the area and come back again, hoping they're doing something useful this time. If you've finished every other sidequest and you're looking for 100% Completion, expect to reload the Homestead area a LOT. The lumberers in particular tend to wander around doing anything but working most of the time.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Kanen'tó:kon, Connor's best friend from his clan. Based on his introduction one would assume he'd have a bigger role in the plot, but he phases into the background after Connor gets more directly involved in the Revolution. Which makes it all the more damning that Charles Lee apparently radicalized him and turns him against Connor off-screen. Given this, you'd assume his disintegrating relationship with Connor would be a more central plot point of the story, but no.
Some of the critics who liked the setting and character feel this, that it had the best plot of the series and richest characterization but was hankered down by poor mission design, and weak integration of different gameplay mechanics as well as several bugs which came because of its Obvious Beta new Anvil Next engine.
Critics regretted the fact that very little of Native American culture and life was actually seen, with one village representing the plight of the Mohawk during the entire frontier with very little attention to multiple tribes and subtleties, with Connor spending most of his time in Colonial Society and for some, becoming a Satellite Character to his father's Protagonist Journey to Villain, which they feel was a betrayal to his own great potential.
Despite being the de facto capital of colonial America and the sight of a major battle that led directly to Washington occupying Valley Forge, Philadelphia does not appear in the game outside of Connor attending the two Continental Congresses because the devs deemed its grid system too uninteresting to traverse. Even then, the only building shown is the interior of the Independence Hall.
The same complaints came with the DLC whose first episode was well-received for its concept but the final two episodes were regarded as being flat and while the conclusion was well received, people felt that it ought to have been more epic and diverse than it should have been, with very little information on Connor's post-game life.
It should pretty evident by now that many people wished Haytham had been the main character of the game. Not only for his rather James BondByronic Hero swagger that set him apart from Ezio, but also for being a British man watching the creation of America. Even as a Templar, which people to this day consider being criminally underdeveloped, could've offered better insight into their Well-Intentioned Extremist worldview, something that many people criticized Rogue for failing to deliver.
Especially after Unity, many gamers while admitting to Assassin's Creed III's faults admitted that We Want Our Jerk Back!, in that Connor was a protagonist who was unique and original instead of the flat Arno, who was called "French Ezio". Despite the occasional Forrest Gump slaggishness, III put you on a front-row seat of the American Revolution and was mostly accurate and fair to the conflict and made the Assassins-Templar Gray-and-Grey Morality at least compared to Unity putting the historical event entirely on the side. People also stated while buggy and glitchy, III wasn't the complete Porting Disaster that Unity was. In general, while some aspects such as the pacing are still criticized, 3's reception has gone from divisive to a generally appreciated game in the series as time has gone on.
The other reason is that many people note that this game was the last truly innovative title in the franchise. Subsequent games either polished or built on its assets (such as naval warfare in Black Flag) or the side mission mechanics (the Frontiersman missions and the clue mechanic used in Paris Side Stories and London's missions), as well as combat (using pistols, cover in any crowd, whistling). Many people note that later games even if they might have built or modified or polished the gameplay in some respects have generally not been as ambitious, especially as Origins and Odyssey have gone for a more looter/hack and slash style of gameplay.
By the time of the remaster's release in 2018 as part of the Odyssey season pass, reception to AC 3 had improved enough that the official subreddit for the franchise was filled with posts about going back to enjoy 3 and the older games after the more divisive RPG-nature of Origins and Odyssey.
, which plays during fist fights. It embodies the feeling of a lighthearted brawl, with no lethal stakes.