This finally hit PC last week. Managed to play it some this weekend. I have to say, I'm hooked. I absolutely love it!
I haven't really been a HUGE fan of the series. I liked the story/concept of the first game, but it was SO repetitive, that I just couldn't finish it. The 2nd game was much less repetitive, and the story was pretty cool. But for some reason, I just couldn't bring myself to finish it.
AC3 however, I really enjoyed. Maybe it was Connor's character, or maybe I'm just more interested in that particular time period (Revolutionary War), but it really drew me in. I couldn't wait to finish it. And even after I finished it, there was so much other stuff to do. And I loved the Naval Combat missions.
This game is just amazing. Sailing the open seas, attacking convoys, avoiding bounty hunters - It's just awesome. And that's just the naval portion. If I see an island that I haven't explored yet, I can literally dive off my ship, swim to the island and explore it to my heart's content. If I want to get in the life boat, and harpoon a bull shark? I can even do that. It's not
completely open world - There are some portions you can't access unless you've progressed the story far enough - but it's close enough that you hardly notice.
I have to say, my favorite aspect of the game? The 'shanties' the crew sings while I'm sailing. I don't particularly like the way you 'unlock' them, but the concept is cool. "Captain went off on a new adventure and learned some new songs for us!" I find myself hunting for new shanties just so I can hear the crew sing them. I could literally just sail around all day, and listen to the crew sing. I've even found myself singing along with them, and my wife thought I was crazy, hah!
Here are some of my favorites, so far:
Lowlands AwayLeave Her JohnnyDrunken SailorAnd in case you wanted to hear them all,
here's a youtube video with all of the shanties in the game.Anyway, just wanted to share my thoghts. If you are holding off on this game because you haven't played the others, or are worried about missing some story elements, then don't worry. The story stands pretty well on it's own. And the open world / open seas aspect is enough to set this game apart.