Annual anticipation is something usually reserved for only the most popular sports games and first-person shooters, but “Assassin’s Creed” managed to carve its own niche with exciting stealth-action and wide-open rooftops to traverse. After a trilogy of games set in Renaissance Italy, the assassins aim to wrap up their war against the Templars with a trip to the American Revolution.

The majority of the game puts present-day Assassin Desmond Miles — and you — into the memories of Ratonhnhake:ton, a half-Native American assassin who is handily referred to as Connor. His role is somewhat new to the series: His outlook is very naive, always searching for simple black and white in a world that is becoming increasingly gray. Though he believes in the Patriots’ struggle for freedom, he fails to realize what they may do to his people in the end.

The story is generally well told. A recap video at the beginning will catch you up on the convoluted sci-fi backstory in case you missed something in the first two games. The intro, which lasts about two hours, ends with a great twist that sets up the rest of the game, and scenes of Connor’s early life create a much more personal conflict than those earlier in the series. The final payoff with Desmond falls a bit flat, but it effectively ties up the storyline that’s been going since the first game. Any future “Assassin’s Creed” games will clearly be headed in a much different direction.

The setting change also affects the gameplay. The flat rooftops and narrow streets of Italy have been replaced with more sparse buildings and colonial architecture of early Boston and New York. Out in the Frontier region, there are almost no buildings, so assassins looking for a height advantage will have to take to the trees. These new climbing mechanics look and control great, but you’ll come to realize that this “sprawling” wilderness is made up of the same dozen trees copied and pasted across the landscape.

This Frontier region also adds hunting, which results in a livelier world with animals running about and sometimes attacking you. There’s little reason to hunt though, as all it gives you are pelts to sell, and money is never scarce. Side missions, like taking over British forts or investigating legends told by local hunters, pack more punch.

Also new to the series is naval combat. I’m not sure who thought this stealth-stabbing simulator needed more boats, but it’s actually a lot of fun. You’ll have to fight against wind currents and adjust sails to line up other ships at your broadsides and let loose cannon volleys. No game has ever done ship battles with this level of polish, and it makes for a good change of pace.

For as much as Ubisoft has added, though, it seems to have removed or at least buried just as much. The temples of previous games, which offered some of the most challenging climbing sequences, have been diluted into five short, easy missions. The Assassin’s Guild and Estate management are never given a proper tutorial and take some effort to find in layers of menu screens.

Multiplayer, a sleeper hit since its addition in “Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood,” has been expanded to include Wolf Pack, a new co-op mode that has you and your friends hunting down waves of computer-controlled targets, and Domination, where teams fight to control territories while still trying to hide among the crowd. There are tons of unlockables and character customization, rivaling even those of “Call of Duty”.

If you were looking for more “Assassin’s Creed,” this is definitely it, but this game seemed like it was set to change things up. Trees and ships aren’t quite enough to keep it from feeling a little hollow compared to the best installments of the series. Those looking to complete the story will find what they want here, but new assassins are better off checking out “II” or “Brotherhood.”

Published on November 5, 2012 at 12:03 am