Video game

‘Assassins Creed III’ Is Still The ‘Hamilton’ of Video Games – Geek


Assassin’s Creed 3 is actually the first Assassin’s Creed game I ever played and finished. In college, living with dudes who were both video game fans and European history majors meant I’ve seen the entire Ezio trilogy secondhand. But the clean break in setting of the third core game in the series, as well as the fact it was a Wii U launch title, finally convinced me to get on board.

That was in 2012. And now in 2019 I’ve revisited the game thanks to its recent remastered re-release on current consoles, including the Nintendo Switch. A lot has changed since then, but really my opinion on the game has not. However, I do now have the reference point to say what has really always been true: Assassin’s Creed 3 is the Hamilton of video games.

Like everything else from 2016, the musical Hamilton feels like it’s from a million years ago. But really it hasn’t been that long since Lin-Manuel Miranda had us singing along to raps about America’s Founding Fathers. And regardless of your thoughts on the show itself (I thought it was both an ingenious artistic masterpiece and an insufferable overlong Schoolhouse Rock episode) the creative choices were undeniably deeper than just mere gimmicks.

Hamilton’s use of contemporary music helped viewers feel like a part of the moment, not looking back from a distance through a dusty history book. After all, history isn’t history to the people actually living it. The sheer density of the rapping also helped pack in more story, which I appreciated since musicals usually struggle with narrative efficiency. It felt right for the fiery intelligence of the characters, too. Plus the songs just slapped! (Ironically enough, on Switch, Assassin’s Creed 3 has bad compressed sound quality)

I’m not going to sit here and say Assassin’s Creed 3 is as good as Hamilton. It’s not even the best Assassin’s Creed game. Going back to its more segmented open world, jank stealth, and simple combat is tough after rich recent games in the series like Origins and Odyssey. But it is underrated. Not just because its cool boat sections are a direct bridge to the somewhat overrated Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag, but because its approach to the American Revolutionary War is still really novel for a video game. A Ubisoft French empire video game at that.

Playing Assassin’s Creed 3 now is really funny because it was the last time the series even pretended to care about the dumb modern-day sci-fi nonsense plot, which interrupts the action to an even more annoying degree here. But the value that “Animus reliving of genetic memory” stuff did have was creating an epic sweeping continuity between past and present, that the battle between freedom versus control is universal literally since the time of Adam and Eve. Like Hamilton, it was history made immediate.

And playing as a pompous Templar’s bastard half-white Native American assassin with a Black mentor, caught in a war between Americans and British with no good outcome for his people either way, is still a fascinating take on that philosophical idea. It’s morally ambiguous just like America itself was right from the start! In the included DLC campaign you use mystical animal dream powers to fight evil King George Washington!

Yeah it’s a little dopey to just so happen to be present at so many big moments in America’s early history, and it’s a shame Connor’s indigenous voice actor can’t put more of the character’s conflicted emotion behind the language he authentically speaks. But flaws and all I’ll honestly still take that over Hamilton which ends up casting Black people as slave owners in an admirable yet dicey attempt at progressive revisionist casting.

This collection also includes spin-off game Assassin’s Creed: Liberation. It’s not as good. As a one-time Vita-exclusive the game has Big Game Boy energy, breaking up a familiar console formula into smaller discrete chunks for more convenient portable play. I appreciated that while playing on the go in handheld mode. But the game is less substantial as a result. The story is also incomprehensible it’s so poorly explained.

But the story you can parse is just as, if not more, valuable than its bigger sibling. You play as biracial assassin’s Aveline de Grandpré. Her code-switching is an actual gameplay mechanic. Dress down as an African slave to mingle with the lower class. Pass as a fancy lady to charm guards and not get bothered even after stealthily killing people. Become an assassin to access your full range of movement and combat options. Don’t let society force you into one role.

And don’t let society force you into servitude. Whether you’re traveling through 18th century New Orleans, bayou swamps, snowy New York, or ancient Mexican temples, you (and your butler who loves you) are working for the freedom of all peoples. Not “freedom” in the vague sense, but freedom in the “literally breaking slaves out of bondage” sense. Spoiler alert, the ultimate villain is your controlling white Templar step-mother, and that’s great.

I’m feeling pretty down on America these days. Can’t imagine why. But you don’t have to be in love with America to enjoy experiences about America. If anything, some healthy skepticism makes those experiences even better. So see Hamilton, and if you can’t afford the tickets, play Assassin’s Creed 3. Or just wait from these Hamilton sprites to get turned into an actual game.





READ SOURCE

Leave a Reply

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.