Saturday, April 13, 2013

Assassin’s Creed 3: Tyranny of King Washington: The Betrayal




By: Robert Murphy

Time once again everyone to take a look into the what-if world where the father of our country, George Washington is an evil dictator obsessed with power in the second episode of the “Assassin’s Creed 3’s”  DLC, “Tyranny of King Washington: The Betrayal”. Unlike the first episode of the DLC, “The Betrayal” takes players out of the frontier and puts them back into the hustle and bustle of early colonial life in Boston, not necessarily by your choice but that’s a minor bump in the road.

So close and yet so far, Connor and Washington face to face

Back in Boston and under lock and key we are introduce to the main man himself, George Washington and his partners Ben Franklin and Putnam who are on their way to solidifying control over America and taking it all for themselves. Players will see this new Washington in great form as the man who helped to found our nation shows of his skills but this time for his own personal gain in true evil genius fashion. And as Washington continues to ravage the land and showing true cruelty, Connor is left to suffer more heartache through the “The Betrayals” story and is introduced to new characters in the story along the way. Players will definitely start to see the story move in a faster pace this time around as well, missions and story are more to the point and you won’t spend your time wondering around doing meaningless missions and sitting through lengthy dialogue.

Your Eagle power in action

Connor also gains a new ability with this new DLC and oh boy is it a lot of fun to use, this new power allows Connor to take on the form of an eagle and fly around towns and buildings as well as working as a form of fast travel to use to get from city to city. Unlike your handy invisibility cloak that you gained in the first DLC, the eagle form takes up much less health and comes quite handy when taking on missions and generally one upping every enemy you face. Speaking of which your invisibility power makes for an excellent combination with your new found flying ability as there are many different ways in which you can combine the two making for some amazing assassinations and doing a pretty good job of making you feel like a badass. And how could you not when you are walking around in your Native American headdress and war paint, you feel ready to take on anything that gets thrown at you. However this does come off as a little weird as you are strutting around town with an animal pelt over your head, it makes you wonder why the hell Washington and his men can’t find and stop you I mean you’re kind of a sore thumb.

 Looks like Benjamin Franklin’s pissed that nobody invited him to the party

In conclusion, “The Betrayal” definitely helps players feel more grounded and interested in the story as the first episode had you on loose footing with its large amounts of dialogue and slow pacing that went along with it. However there is more work to be done on the story because it is far from perfect, players still find themselves on a few boring side missions but they now feel less monotonous. The characters that we are used to being great and inspiring men have been designed in a way that there complete change of personalities feels believable and it’s almost sad to see these once great men go so wrong. The story ends on a great cliff hanger although I won’t spoil anything I will just say that we are hopefully in for an amazing final episode to “The Tyranny of King Washington”

Good:

-New Eagle power is amazing and fun to use in combination with your previous abilities

-Pacing is much faster and more conclusive

-Washington and his men are well done in regards to their fall into terrene

Bad:

-Still some monotonous missions

-Walking around town in your headdress, while awesome, makes you question why the people aren’t freaking out around you

-Stories still not on completely solid ground but has definitely improved since the first DLC

Scully Rating: 7.5 out of 10