Assassin's Creed III Remastered (Nintendo Switch) Review

Assassin's Creed means a couple of things. Number one: a big world where the secretive war of the stealthy Assassins and the powerful Templars gets intertwined with actual historical events and figures, in this case, Boston during the time of the American Revolution. Number two: said world is usually quite large, and you'll be able to explore it on foot, horse, galleon, and, through your assassin's acrobatic skills, from roof to roof. Number three: A "check list" mindset that not everyone will find to their liking. This is the famous Ubisoft formula. A vast landscape, full of things to do, collect, and unlock, but nothing in here that has the depth of a true RPG, or that required any real thinking. You just do things for the sake of doing them, enjoying a simple yet engaging story along the way.

...But why has Assassin's Creed III received so much hate, at least when compared to the other instalments of the original trilogy? As yours truly isn't a fun of the series, it's somewhat hard to tell. Yes, the pacing is much slower, the missions a bit more linear in structure, there's tons of filler quests, and the characters and the setting are probably not as striking as Renaissance Italy, or a 12th Century Holy Land, yet to this critic's eyes, they are all somewhat similar, with each one having a couple of differences here and there, but few of those being able to be really categorised as major ones.

Long story short, it's hard to form an objective opinion on why this is better over that, as it all boils down to personal taste. Yes, there are far better entries available, especially when it comes to the polish of the controls, but this remains a fun title despite its - obvious - age. Which bring us to the big question at hand: which is how good the remastered version is, and whether you are missing much from playing on the Nintendo switch, instead of a more powerful platform. More importantly, should you really pay your hard-earned money to get such an upgrade?

Assassin's Creed III Remastered's list of improvements includes a new, revamped lighting system, better textures, increased resolution, and a higher frame-rate. Sadly, these aren't really evident on the Switch. For starters, the new lighting system is almost non-existent, which makes the Switch version look completely different than the rest. Sure, the strong yellow tint has disappeared, but so have some special effects, with one perfect example being shadows and reflections. On the more technical side of things, the draw distance has taken a beating, with details frequently materialising in front of your eyes, and just a few meters ahead of you (although that's not as obvious when playing in handheld mode), and, finally, the frame rate frequently struggles not to fall below 25 fps.

As a result, this looks much closer to the original, untouched game, which is definitely a shame, as the humble Switch has managed to sacrifice much less with ports of titles that were far more demanding than something that's basically a 2012 videogame with a facelift. Without a doubt, the fact that you can now carry the gargantuan world of an Assassin's Creed instalment anywhere you want will be enough reason for most gamers to try this out, but that doesn't mean that it's easy to stomach how disappointing this is as a remaster.

Thankfully, in terms of content you won't miss anything. Assassin's Creed III Remastered comes packaged will all the DLC packs that have been released for the original, along with the stand-alone Assassin's Creed III: Liberation, which follows an entirely different, female lead, and which was initially available only on the PS Vita. In other words: a fine bundle of a mostly fine game, but not exactly the finest of remasters - especially when compared to other platforms.