Assassin’s Creed III Remastered on the Nintendo Switch is impressive. It’s refined stealth tools and tactics mixed with additional gameplay design upgrades makes this a must-have for any AC fan dying to play something on the Switch that is guaranteed to occupy them for a long period of time.
Welcome back to Assassin’s Creed III! Oh, you’ve got a ‘remastered’ moniker on you. Huh, I’ve seen that before. I’ve seen that many times. Hmmmm. *distrustful look* How much were you truly remastered? I wonder. Nay! I ponder. Let’s ponder constructively.
*Pondering begins oddly*
Prepare yourself. You will never hear/read me say this again more than likely in the near future.
Take a deep breath. INnnn…ouuutttTT…okay. Blink a bit. Hug your cat/dog. Continue reading.
The controls on the Switch actually do a good job with enhancing the gameplay of AC3. I repeat the controls for AC3 on the NINTENDO Switch are spot-on, if not slightly better than AC3 originally had with it. I’m not entirely sure how Ubi’s devs did it, but they did it. They worked their magic within the crappy control construction of the Switch system and made majestic music with it. I just needed to get to this part of the review first because even after over a week with this game, I’m still impressed that the Switch controllers feel good with this type of game that requires the utmost careful movement to properly succeed. Anyway, I fully understand that this is an awkward way to start a review about a game I consider to be entertaining, where the focus should lie on going down memory lane and killing those nasty Templars, but the controls were my biggest concern leading into this review. My biggest concern has been put to rest, thankfully.
Controls aside, the joy of AC3 is broken up into many pieces. The game tells an engaging story, puts you in an interesting time period, and introduces to elements in the series that would find their way into future AC titles. It was the birth of making AC a bigger experience, which is something that Black Flag, Origins, and Odyssey can thank AC3 for that sometime in the future. It certainly showed that this series was headed towards a bigger and better direction, which is another reason why I’m happy to see this game again.
Now, if you have never played AC3, then you should know they take this story into the 1700s when the American Revolution is brimming to erupt. You start off playing a British order member named Haytham Kenway, who is tasked with sparking a fire to help erupt one of the greatest wars in American history, which begins in an opera, where he gets all stab-y. Eventually, the story transitions into taking over a Mohawk ancestor named Ratonhnhake:ton (Connor for short), our main protagonist, who does his best to take down Templars and seek revenge for the death of his mother. This is one of the better, more involved stories in the AC series. All the above story is surrounded by a futuristic wrapper that follows our main man Desmond Miles and his attempt to prevent the 2012 apocalypse.
Ah, 2012. Unexciting year, terrible movie.
Anyway, the game is quite huge in scope, which I’ve always appreciated about it. It feels like a big world, it acts like a big world because it is a big world. The prior AC games always felt like disjointed pieces that you would load into areas instead of exploring them. They were a great first attempt at designing how the AC world was going to work, but AC3 turned all of that up a notch, which is, again, a reason why I enjoyed this game so much. It allowed the player to explore the frontier lands of a young America, travel to locations briskly or slowly, and encouraged players to enjoy the untamed lands of the new land. This is the first game in the AC series that had my interests invested in ‘looking around’ and exploring. The girth of games, when populated and treated well, offer up a more engaging scope that captures you and keeps you looking, as well as giving you the illusion that you’re in a huge world. That’s a big deal for me. I want a game to get me into the experience and AC3 has reminded me through this Switch version how well it can do that from beginning to end. A year removed from Skyrim, AC3 was a wonderful exploration outlet to capture me into.
As for the gameplay itself, if you played the original game when it released eons ago, then you know what you’re getting into — except that it’s been revamped…errr…remastered. In the day and age of companies trying to bring back old titles, and some companies even attempting to improve the experience, the good folks at Ubisoft took notice of small steps that needed to be done to improve the gameplay experience and did them. For AC3, they have improved the controls (well, at least adapted them better for the Switch, as mentioned above), which make stealth attacks, climbing, and stabbing a lot easier to deal with using the Switch less-than-Joy-Cons. This is literally the first Nintendo Switch game where I didn’t feel like the controls were cheaply done.
That said, the freedom to move your crosshair without annoying locking was the only hitch in the Switch giddy-up. My thumbs are either too fat or the sticks are too tiny, I would like to think the latter, as I spent an annoying amount of time trying to move the crosshair to a proper Templar head in the game. I usually ended up punching or S-WORDING people during the fight, which was fine, but it didn’t give me a lot of fun pistol time. This was my only caveat with the Switch’s controls, though I’m still going to put them under ‘remastered’ because the movement of the characters in the game works so well.
Shifting back to some positives, other improvements in the game that were made for the remastered Switch release included in-game economic system, stealth tools, and an easier user interface. Out of the bunch, the stealth tools are a very welcomed addition to the game, as it gives Connor more stealth options to lure victims closer to his spider trap (that sounded much better in my head). If you squint your eyes a bit, look from afar, and truly see how complicated adding stealth tool options into a game is for the good folks at Ubisoft Chengdu Studios, you’ll see the beauty of this refinement. It’s quite significant with how the gameplay design works and functions, and they did this to improve the gameplay of a seven-year-old title. And it’s more fun because of this addition. Not to be outdone, the UI and economic system are also nice upgrades, as well as other little things to make the experience a bit more refined and closer to what you’re used to seeing lately from your AC titles.
Ultimately, the game is a bit more fun and smoother in design because of the additional improvements. I can very much appreciate that Ubisoft Chengdu Studio took some time to focus on some elements of the game that needed more refining and remastering. They have proven that doing the little things, even down to using the touch screen interface on the Switch to push along functionality, can make the experience a lot richer. The above choices didn’t seem like they threw darts at pieces of paper while blindfolded, rather they were methodical choices that simply improved the experience. The game is still fun as hell to play, but by going the extra mile and just not printing up new graphics and pushing the ‘remaster’ out wearing JUST that hat, makes it seem like they really did give a damn. That means a lot when someone is dropping money on this title.
Beyond the improvements, you still get that same fun gameplay that came with the original game. You also get added value from all the solo DLC that was included with the release (Benedict Arnold Missions/Hidden Secrets Pack/Tyranny of King Washington). Sure it’s a seven-year-old game, but it’s still fun and relevant to the AC family and its even better when you get everything with it.
All of this said, on the graphics side of the tracks let me just hug you a bit, Nintendo Switch peeps. You get shortchanged a lot, and I’m sure that Ubisoft Chengdu did their best with the ‘little system that could’, and they got the most out of it. It’s still a very visually appealing game, and you’re going to be sold on it, regardless of how you play it (TV, tablet, etc.). That said, you will find texture rendering in this game happening quite a bit. You will also find some breaks in textures, though nothing incredibly glaring. The models, the environments, and everything that comes with them seems to be still very much intact from the original release, with a slight upgrade in details. The game does look a bit dated when it shifts to cutscenes, but who cares. I don’t care. Well, I’m sure someone will care, but I don’t care. Anyway, the game looks solid for a big Switch title, and may not be as perfect as other systems. Still! It’s portable. That’s a huge plus that makes up for some graphical break here and there. Heck, you’re thinking what I’m thinking right now, I can’t take my PS4 into the bathroom without some clever mirror configurations. Plus one for the Nintendo Switch, as well as the ability to play AC3 until your legs go numb.
Overall, Assassin’s Creed III Remastered on the Nintendo Switch is impressive. It’s refined stealth tools and tactics mixed with additional gameplay design upgrades makes this a must-have for any AC fan dying to play something on the Switch that is guaranteed to occupy them for a long period of time.
