Great visuals, Good gameplay, OK story, Bad characters, Terrible ending. (Spoiler Free)
After a very lengthy 3-5 hour introduction, you play as a native american called Connor. After your village is burnt down you grow up seeking revenge on those who were responsible. You join the assassin order to fight against the templars, and the british, to free your people and bring peace to the land.
AC3 is a good game, the graphics are absoloutely phenomenal, the leap from revelations to this is outstanding. The world feels alive in the literal sense of the word, the forests are full of life and the towns even more so. There are people going about there business and many many little things to do. These are the best visuals iv'e seen in a game on the xbox 360, and you really feel immersed in this world and want to explore it... for a few hours anyway.
The combat in this game has been vastly improved, it is much more realistic and made slightly more difficult by the enemies using guns. And you will have to use different tactics for certain enemies because they can't be killed by simply countering or attacking. The kill animations are gory and extremely realistic, making for incredibly satisfying combat that never seems to get old. The free-running is as smooth as ever and is made even more realistic by connor's movement, this is one of the most graphicly impressive games out there, and it just immerses you straight away into this great world full of fun things to do.
The story in this game is a bit hit and miss. Whereas the missions are generally really fun and reasonably varied, the story doesn't exactly pull you in. The introduction that is way too long (over 1/3 of the game) doesn't help either. Once i finally became Connor i was expecting an interesting character with a good back story and likeable qualities. But really his story is just cliche and predictable. The whole revenge for dead family has been done many times in games and even in this series! But i guess it does work well at setting up the game, but it just didn't pull me in.
Also, connor is a really boring guy. He is a nice guy and this is meant to be shown through his good will and naivety, but he mainly comes across as stupid and it is extremely annoying watching him make an obvious mistake through his stupidity, but i guess that is the way the game is. When i said bad characters, i mainly meant this towards connor, his fellow native americans and his trainer. As i felt know sympathy or any feelings towards them at all, and felt as though the game was rushed in this aspect. Although the 'Villains' in this game are played well, it's not enough to redeem the terrible main characters.
But the ending... the ending too Desmond Mile's story. We've played through 5 games, 100's of hours for this? No spoilers but the ending was obviously rushed and it is a very 'cheap' way of ending a game... let alone a series.
Overall AC3 is a good game. Great visuals and gameplay. It thrives the most outside of itself, exploring and doing side quests and hunting etc. is where the most fun is to be had for the majority of the game. The story is a bit hit and miss and the intro is too long. The 'Good Guy' characters are boring and unlikable, and the story only gets properly 'going' after about 8 or so hours. But if your an AC fan you shouldn't miss out on this.
Assassins Creed 3: 8/10