Do NOT buy this game. It is free with the gold edition of Assassin's Creed Odyssey (which you can have for around 20€ when it's on sales) and there is a reason why this game is free with that bundle.
My honest opinion (and i will share solutions for bugged missions at the end of this) :
Oh boy, i didn't even want to write down a review for this game because i don't judge it worth my time but after 38 hours in the game now, countless bugs, bad AI, inconsistency issues and some more i think it's about time i do it anyway.
This game is NOT a remaster. The only thing remastered is the graphics. The audio is the same, the AI is the same if not worse and the combat, fast travel, sailing and tidious aspects are the same and did not get updated to be more similar/smooth like in Black Flag and Rogue.
Now that on his own i wouldn't mind. Because you know, the game came before. So we just have to adapt. But what i do mind is the fact that they copy pasted all the files from the console version, slapped some new graphics on it, tested it for 10 hours max and called it a day.
The problems :
-Very inconsistent and buggy AI for ennemies. Some ennemies will detect you through walls, ship hull, tents,etc Sometimes the ennemies Insta detect you as well even if you are only on Notoriety 1 or 2. instead of the little icon showing up and slowly filling up they will insta detect you at times. It doesn't do it all the time which shows that it is inconsistent. Sometimes the ennemies will think they saw something and even if you hide they will literally camp the last spot they think they saw yo uand the investigation icon will never disappear. you will have to go away from the location to reset the AI.
-The AI can see behind them and some Assassination trigger the entire restricted zone. A good exemple of this is the mission where you need to blow up two ships will remaining undetected and do an Air Assassination on a grenadier. (If you put that on Youtube you literally have results for it because it is known to be one of the worst missions in the game) If you try to do an overboard assassination (throw someone overboard and into the water) while no one is watching, the AI still turns around and detect you immediatly. The entire point of an assassination is to be sneaky. And yet in this game, some of them are louder than actual combat and ennemies with their backs turned will turn around as if the assassination triggered them 5 meters away. It is very buggy and frustrating.
- You cannot hide in certain areas if a guard saw you. The game literally prevents you from blending in bushes if the guard has direct line of sight, which could make sense, but is definitely gonna screw you over in some missions where remaining undetected is an objective and the hidding spots are limited.
-The Ai plays almost flawlessly at the different board games/activities. Now this wouldn't be an issue if it was like in Balck Flag and Rogue where this is optionnal and we know the Ai is super good in those games too. Except that here, in AC3 you NEED to defeat the AI at 3 different mini games/board games to get an achievement and the platinum. So good luck for that. It took me literal hours because the Ai does almost zero mistake and if you are slightly winning it will suggest a draw (do not accept it. if the Ai ask for a draw it means it has no immediate way of defeating you so if you are patient enough it will end up doing one mistake at some point. But it's literally coded to suggest a draw). The worst board game is by far the 9 Men Morris thingy.
-In certain missions like "Dead Man Chest" (one of the missions to find parts of William Kidd's treasure map) you will need to get a certain amount of assassinations while running to get full synchronization. However the Ai (once again) is VERY inconsistent and if yo ufail the mission a few times the Ai will bug out if you reload from last checkpoint and it will now insta detect you. You have to restart the whole memory the reset the Ai or do a strategy i'll share at the end of this review for bugged missions.
- The fast travel is horrible in this game. The viewpoint have no utility as well. You still need to walk around the map to discover it and remove the fog, the viewpoint do nothing. The fast travels instead are ports/naval docks (which are very limited) and tunnel entrances that you HAVE to unlock by navigating through a maze under Boston for several hours. And even if you get all "fast travels" and viewpoints the map still won't be revealed and you need to explore it by yourself. Some chests don't even show up on the map despite buying the chest map at the shop.
-The combat is very similar to Black Flag and Rogue most especially but the Ai attack icon spawns 1/2 times. Sometimes it will bug out and attack without any icon. The Grenadier especially is very bugged. if you see him swinging his axe 5 meters away, dodge anyway because he will still hit you from that distance because the Ai considered you were within range the moment the animation started.
-The ship/naval/sailing aspect of the game is...decent. Not as bad as i feared compared to the rest. Very strong fire power. However the ship is harder to handle than in the other games, you cannot turn as smoothly and you do not have front cannons, no mortar, no oil. You can only shoot your cannons sideways and use the puckle gun in other directions. That's it. Strict minimum.
Overall i am very disappointed in this game. It is NOT a remaster or if it is, then it is a very sloppy one they barely tested. If you are a casual player then sure grab this game for free when Odyssey is on sales. but if you are a platinum hunter, save your sanity and do not attempt this on the Steam version. This is the worst Assassin's Creed i have ever played and yet i remember having so much fun on it on the Xbox360 back then. But this Remaster is too buggy.
For those of you who made it this far i want to thank you for your time and share some fixes for some bugged missions :
- "Dead Man Chest" : you need to assassinate 3 guards while running but the guard duo is bugged and will almost always detect you. Instead of trying to assassinate them, ignore them and keep chasing the main scavenger and use your poison darts on him to slow him down. This will give you the chance to catch up with him and assassinate him.
- The mission where you need to blow up the ships while undetected and air assassinate a Grenadier (yes i don't even know which mission that is because i've been at it for several hours now) : Start with the ship on the right (the one with the two captains), wait for the two captains to turn their back and sabotage the gunpowder barrels before diving back in the water (that ship is the easiest one). Then, to do the second ship you must climb onto the small boats and use the Scottish pistols (the ones with long range) to kill the soldiers one at a time. Don't worry you won't have to kill every single one. Once you shoot the one that you would normally overboard assassinate, the Grenadier and the Sniper will come investigate. Shoot the Sniper and then dive your way to the ship. There will only be the Grenadier and one guard left on the ship. the others will have dispawned due to a bug.
I hope it helps, i'm sure i forgot to mention a lot. i'm tired, i've been at this mission for hours and now i need to take down the templar later in that mission but the guards keep detecting me through the bushes and the tents so....i just wanted to get it out of my system. Do NOT buy this game.
