Note: this blog has been migrated to Medium, with the articles here available to preserve permalinks Please see this post at https://medium.com/@ianrbuck/assassin-s-creed-iii-the-betrayal-review-17fddee64c53
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| Oddly boring title page. |
The Betrayal is the second episode of three in Assassin Creed III's alternate timeline where Washington finds a Piece of Eden, gets corrupted, and declares himself King.
Unlike the main game, these episodes do very little to try to be open-world, which makes them much shorter, but they also stay much more focused. I appreciate that, but when there is nothing but story that story needs to be good. Don't get me wrong, the premise is interesting from an intellectual perspective, but I didn't really connect with any of the characters I was interacting with. I guess the fact that I know that none of this really happened (even within the historical fiction context of the original game) doesn't help me to care about them.
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| This blacksmith was the most interesting person I met, and I only had one conversation with him. |
As with the first episode, you gain a new power that pretty much breaks the game. This time it is the power of the eagle, which allows you to fly short distances and assassinate people from afar. Unlike the first episode, there isn't really a mechanic that acts to counter your new power, so you are basically unstoppable.
There was a pretty cool boss battle against Washington where you have to figure out when to use your two powers in order to get around his defences.
Unfortunately the game is still pretty buggy, and for me it manifested itself by not triggering the final cutscene when I finished, so I had to go back and fight the last battle again.
If you are really interested in seeing what things would be like if Washington had seized power, you can pick this up for $10, but it isn't an essential buy by any means.
EDIT: you can now read my review of The Redemption DLC.
