To display here how much I have enjoyed the Creed series to date would be impossible. The franchise took a chance and ran with it, I remember how new it felt, then Ezio came into the picture, and blew everything out the water, visually, and narratively. Altair was a engaging character, and Ezio was a fun loving personality and a half, which is probably why they centered 3 games around him. Now we are at Creed 3, and just what happened? Like everyone else, I got frustrated at chases in previous itinerations, especially getting a little too close to a wall, and our hero would try to run up it, ok, what did I expect? Here in 3, I could be feet away from a wall and I teleport just to attempt to run up, or attempting to get to an objective in a time limit, mistakenly jumping on a rail/ledge, and he wont get down, no matter how many times I slam the B button, or even try to jump off in one direction, and just jumps to another rail that I cant get down from. really? This has happened more times than I can count.
Some of the mechanics have failed more times than I can describe as well. Examples include defense, blocking and countering, typically while in the Animus (not as Desmond) you have indicators that let you know an enemy is about to strike, sometimes they just don't feel like showing up. I don't have a problem using my counter button without them, but they are helpful, especially when you have a very large crowd of enemies surrounding or crowding you, and you can't tell who is going to strike from where with all the movement. Some of the mission challenges are perplexingly painful as well, without giving any story away, a challenge that stood out was to "Not take damage from firing lines", no problem, so for the first volley, I managed to grab a human shield, almost immediately a second line prepped to fire, I attempted to grab another shield, and I couldnt do it, the option showed on the screen, but Connor just would not do it, at all. Even after retying several times, it just wouldn't execute the contextual movement. After getting frustrated, I decided to bypass that area, and found another way to the target, which worked out very well until I actually killed my target, right when I got my mark, a random enemy managed to shoot me with his musket before the cutscene, failing the optional objective, not a firing line, but a random enemy I couldn't see, wow.
When causing a stir in the towns, some of these can be frustratingly bad as well, especially if trying to escape. Somehow, despite the amazingly slow reload rates of a musket, when climbing a building to run off, they turn into semi-automatic weapons, and fire repeatedly, most times they miss, but there have been times when I would be hit numerous times in a row only to fall and see...2 people standing there with muskets. To capitalize on this, I have had areas that were clear when I had no noteriety whatsoever, then Reds would start chasing me unprovoked, which, more times than I care to admit, when I took care of the few coming for me, another group shows up, then another, another, another. I stood my ground with no where to run for upwards of 30 minutes, but they kept bringing in more for the fight. I finally gave up and just allowed myself to die.
Visually, there are typical pop-ins, clipping, etc, as with any other open world style game, but for the most part, the game is beautiful. The setting is gorgeous, lush forests, populated towns, with lots of color. Aside from the occasional issue, I can never mark the Creed series for having ugly, or drab settings.
Story wise, it's a bit thin, Connor has the personality of a brick, and is very hard to connect with his struggle. But don't let that sway you at all, he is a good character, but you will be missing Ezio fast.
To sum up, everything is here for Die-hard Assassin's Creed veterans, but you may feel quite underwhelmed. If you are new to the series, you wont be lost, this is a whole new time period with all new characters, but you may be thrown off by Desmond's side by not knowing the events leading up to 3, but the opening cinematic, or looking online will catch you up real quick, but as a new player, check out Assassin's Creed II, Brotherhood, and Revelations first, which you can get for beans now, or pick up the Ezio Trilogy Box Set.