* AlternateCharacterInterpretation:
** Connor, both in-universe and by players. While those closest to him consider him a kind, soft spoken man, the Templars and even his mentor call him out on his naivety and short fuse. Likewise, players are divided on opinions about the guy: either he's the nicest and most badass protagonist yet (being something of a mix between {{Batman}} and [[Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger movieverse Cap]]) or an immature haughty youth who thinks he's right about everything and has a bad attitude towards those who disagree with him. There's also those who argue that he's [[AmbiguousInnocence simply innocent]], for all it implies.
** Haytham gets this a lot too. Pretty much everyone agrees he's [[BadAss awesome]] but there's a divide between those who think he's more of a hero than Connor is and his views are [[StrawmanHasAPoint much more sensible]], and those who think he's just another self-serving Templar making a power grab, even if he is [[EvilIsCool good at it.]]
* AntiClimaxBoss:
** Daniel Cross, despite being billed as "the assassin", never provides Desmond with anything resembling a challenge.
** [[spoiler:Warren Vidic]] has it worse, being killed by just pressing Square/X/LMB in a cutscene.
** [[spoiler:Haytham Kenway]] is a relatively easy PuzzleBoss who you just need to counter three times while standing next to an object. Even the "puzzle" part is ruined by [[ViewersAreMorons the game telling you how to defeat him as soon as the fight begins]]. He'll most likely be taken down before he can finish his truly epic speech on his organization's ideals.
* AuthorsSavingThrow: Following some lackluster novelisations of AC2, Brotherhood, Revelations and the first game, ''Assassin's Creed: Forsaken'' is a novel that blows expectations out of the water (It helps that the novel isn't a direct novelisation of the game and focuses on [[EnsembleDarkhorse Haytham]] over Connor.
* AuthorTract: Shaun just ''will not shut up'' about American historical revisionism. SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped, I know, but it seems like a disproportionate amount of his dialogue and database entries touch on the subject.
* BaseBreaker:
** Connor (see AlternativeCharacterInterpretation for elaboration). It doesn't help that some are unhappy that he supplanted [[EnsembleDarkhorse Haytham]] as the playable character, or that he's such a dramatic change in personality from the previous Ancestor.
** Paul Revere. {{Adorkable}} despite his WelcomeToCorneria tendencies, or just a loud, obnoxious git?
** The setting has also split the fans between those who love it, those who think there were more interesting conflicts going on (the idea of setting it in the Napoleonic Wars crops up a lot from them), and those who think that the American setting is great but would have preferred it to be later down the line (such as in the Civil War era) so that there would be more buildings to run around on, ala ''AC2''.
* BestLevelEver: Consensus seems to be that the 2 missions involving the Battle of Bunker Hill are some of the most exciting in the game.
* BrokenBase:
** With the nature of the setting's timeframe, set during the Revolutionary War, the British and American sides of the community are ''divided'' - this was largely the fault of marketing, which was rather jingoistic, than the actual game itself. Similarly, [=AC3=] had the third biggest launch of any game in the UK (behind FIFA13 and the inevitable VideoGame/CallOfDuty release) - so VocalMinority is very much in play here.
-->'''Kotaku Australia''': "The marketing always suggested that ACIII’s igniting of the Revolution would be a game of interactive jingoism; its developers always said it was not. The developers were the ones being accurate."
** In a less nationalistic example, some fans are annoyed that ''III'' will be abandoning the series' classic "Puppeteer" control scheme.
** There's also the setting itself. No one can deny that the era is historically interesting, but it does unfortunately de-emphasize the sprawling baroque architecture present in the previous games, which are arguably a bigger part of the series's identity than stabby murder.
** The ending. No spoilers, but Ubisoft did say in interviews that this would be the last game with Desmond as the main character. Thus, fans are starting to pick sides as to whether it was underwhelming or lived up to the expectations. Thankfully the controversy has yet to reach the immeasurable wrath that, say, ''{{VideoGame/Mass Effect 3}}'''s original endings had to endure, mostly because players expect crazy out of left field unexplained (until the sequel) endings from this series by now and it's more a question of if it ended with a bang or a whimper.
* CriticalDissonance: Somewhat. The game did well on metacritic (averaging scores of 84% and 86% on the xbox and PS3 versions respectively), but fan reactions were more mixed, ranging from SoCoolItsAwesome to SoOkayItsAverage for the game. Some users, especially on IGN and Gamespot, ''feel the game is bad because there hype was too high for the actual game.'' You can see how easily this could affect Black Flags reception.
** Though everyone seems to enjoy the DLC Tyranny of King Washington.
* DisappointingLastLevel: While not the worst example in the medium, the CosmicDeadline of the game's impending release date (which had to be in 2012 for plot reasons) did result in the final levels being noticeably less polished than the early ones. The transition between those levels is more abrupt than in the earlier game, and the gameplay is not as well playtested and iterated as in the early levels.
* EnsembleDarkhorse: Some people argue that Haytham should have stayed the main character throughout, both because he's a fascinating character in his own right and for viewing him as more likeable than Connor.
** Also, BenjaminFranklin, to the point that many were upset he didn't have more of a presence in the game beyond 2 cameos, and [[CrowningMomentofFunny one of the funniest conversations in the game]]. UbiSoft seems to have noticed since he has a much bigger role in the Tyranny of King George DLC.
* GameBreaker: Rope darts can turn into this if you know how to use them. They can silently kill mooks that are ten feet away, hang soldiers from trees, and instantly trip any opponent (even the [[EliteMook higher ranking ones]]) allowing for a quick kill. They're also cheap and attained early in the game.
** In the ''Tyranny of King Washington'', Wolf Cloak lets Connor turn invisible for a short stretch, at the cost that it drains his life and prevents him from sprinting or free-running. But his life regenerates quickly in cover, and he can pull off stealth assassinations while under cloak. Gets a little more balanced when guard dogs are introduced.
* GoddamnBats:
** Wouldn't be Assassin's Creed without some group of annoying citizens to swarm and impede you and this time, it's a group of children. Unlike the beggars and bards, you can't kill them.
*** Even worse is the way they ''[[HellIsThatNoise laugh]]''. It will make you ''hate the sound of orphans laughing.''
** Wolves can cross over into this territory at times. They aren't especially hard to kill, but they attack in packs of up to four, and can easily take off 3/4 of your health if they manage to pounce you.
* HarsherInHindsight: The in-game representation of the Great New York Fire's aftermath feels all the more awkward given how Hurricane Sandy, right around the game's release, caused electrical fires that destroyed over eighty homes in Queens.
* HilariousInHindsight:
** Consider that this game came out one week before 2012 election, some of Shaun's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=59hPjLfIajM#! comments]] with US history and politics might be either this or HarsherInHindsight.
** One way to interpret the game's GainaxEnding is that [[spoiler: while saving the world from disaster, Desmond chooses to unleash a larger evil upon the world in the hopes that humanity will stop their squabbling and unite against a common foe.]] [[{{Film/Watchmen}} Sound familiar?]][[hottip:*:and yes, that's the FILM.  The comparison fits much better with the Dr. Manhattan ending than the giant squid.]]
** Alternatively, [[spoiler: [[VideoGame/GodOfWar A deceased Greco-Roman god manipulates the central conflict of the story to her own advantage so she can seize power and rule the humans "for their own good" after a calamitous disaster befalls the world.]]]] Although in the case of ACIII, the role of [[spoiler: Minerva/Athena]] is reversed, as [[spoiler: she is trying to stop someone ''else'' from doing this.]]
* HoYay: Haytham and Charles Lee, anyone?
* IKnewIt: This [[http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20100329 Ctrl+Alt+Del comic]] correctly predicted Assassin's Creed III being set in TheAmericanRevolution in 2010. And while the main game is not have a female assassin, Liberation on the other hand...
** Also, [[spoiler:Lucy's status as a Templar mole, which many people believed since the first game, were definitively confirmed here after being spelled out in the Lost Archives DLC for ''Revelations'' that not everyone was privy to.]]
* MagnificentBastard: [[spoiler: Haytham Kenway]] full stop. His successor [[spoiler: Charles Lee]] tries to be this, but his bouts of anger and LeeroyJenkins tendencies put him into more SmugSnake territory most of the time.
* MemeticSexGod: [[AssassinsCreedII Ezio]] may be gone, but now we've got BenjaminFranklin.
* MoralEventHorizon: [[spoiler: Charles Lee attacking the Mohawk Village when Connor was a child. The depths of his evil are especially jarring, since he went from ''freeing slaves'' with Haythan to threatening to break children's neck and slaughtering innocent people.]]
* MostAnnoyingSound[=/=]HellIsThatNoise:
** '''''"[[ThisIsGonnaSuck ROGUE]] [[BlowYouAway WIIIIIIIND]]!"'''''
** "Man o' War broadside!", followed by the deep bass rumble of a cannon volley from these giant ships, is something that strikes fear in the hearts of all but the bravest captains.
** That incredibly irritating chortle the orphans make. Not helped by the fact that they only exist to get in your way, and, unlike the beggars and minstrels of earlier games, they are both immortal and do not run away when you draw a weapon.
* MostWonderfulSound: Connor's whistling. AwesomeYetPractical at drawing guards away and very pleasant to listen to as well.
* ParanoiaFuel: The Erudito Hacks of Abstergo's FeelGood ads, hammering home Abstergo's control over everything and everyone. It doesn't help that Erudito likes to make it even more [[NightmareFuel creepy]] by giving the ads a PhotoshopFilterOfEvil.
* PlayerPunch: More than a few. The biggest ones are the death of Connor's mother, the death of [[spoiler: Conner's friend Kanen, who Connor kills himself in self-defense.]], and the death of [[spoiler: Haytham, despite being the BigBad.]]
* [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap Rescued From The]] ScrappyMechanic [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap Heap]]: A number of more contentious mechanics from previous games have been overhauled in ''Assassin's Creed III'', mostly for the better:
** The Frontier is basically a reworked version of [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI the Kingdom]] (with the Homestead serving as a replacement for the Masyaf fortress), a huge map with exits serving as "warps" to the game's various cities. Thankfully, traversing the Frontier is much less tedious thanks to the new fast travel system (below).
** The fast travel system from [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII the]] [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedBrotherhood Ezio]] [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRevelations trilogy]] has been reworked. You can now fast travel from anywhere on the map to any of the Mason tunnels you have unlocked, as well as warping to city entrances on the Frontier provided your next mission is there. On the other hand, fans are split as to whether the replacement for renovating sewer tunnels (instead having to go underground and search for them in a sewer version of TheMaze) is a [[ReplacementScrappy Replacement]] ScrappyMechanic.
** [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI Eavesdropping]] is back, and has now been worked into the [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII stalking missions]]. Furthermore, instead of sitting on a bench and watching a cutscene, there are now "mobile" and "static" varieties of eavesdropping missions where you need to stay within a small range of the eavesdroppers so you can hear what they're saying, thus ensuring that plot and gameplay are seamlessly integrated.
** [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedBrotherhood Full]] [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRevelations Synchro]][[OneHundredPercentCompletion nization]] has been reworked into an "Optional Objectives" system. Completing a mission gives you a certain amount of [[ScoringPoints points]] towards synchronization and each optional objective adds smaller amounts of points. There's also an extra point bonus for accomplishing all the optional objectives in one go, which is required for full synchronization.
*** Also, if you fail at an objective, you just have to reload to the last checkpoint instead of the whole sequence to redo it. Unless you hit the next checkpoint.
** [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedBrotherhood Assasssin]] [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRevelations recruits]] no longer suffer a FinalDeath, but are instead knocked out of commission for a decent chunk of time. Additionally, the Assassin's Guild now gets XP each time they are successfully summoned in combat in addition to simply going on missions, encouraging players to call them more often. It doesn't hurt that the first recruit you pick up, [[CanadaEh Stephane Chapheau]], plays a notable role in the story and is a total {{Badass}}.
*** Also, each Assassin you recruit unlocks a unique skill which can come in really handy for getting full sync on some missions, getting guarded treasures, or infiltrating the Templar forts. These include luring guards away from a post, setting up an ambush, sniping them from a distance, or disguising themselves as soldiers and pretending that Connor is a prisoner.
** [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII Cutscene prompts]] return, albeit sparingly. Most of these are used as a form of PlayerPunch, such as having to mash B/Circle to [[spoiler: desperately try to move burning logs off of your dying mother so she can escape the DoomedHometown, to no avail]], or having to press X/Square to [[spoiler: MercyKill Kanen'tó:kon after he tries to kill you]], and most importantly it appears that you can't fail them unless Connor's life bar pops up on screen and slowly deteriorates to signify there's a time limit [[spoiler: such as during Connor's execution or having to kill Haytham]].
* RootingForTheEmpire: While the modern-day Templars are {{Jerkass}}es at best, the Revolutionary era Templars make a case for their motives and intentions far better than any other time frame. This, combined with Connor being something of a divisive protagonist, results in quite a few players wishing they could have played as the Templars for once (and [[EnsembleDarkhorse Haytham]] in particular).
* SoCoolItsAwesome: Naval battles are certainly the awesomest new flavor this installment brings to the franchise. Even among the more unpleasable fans, they'll single it out as the thing they liked the most. Except for...
* ThatOneLevel: Occasionally crops up, particularly when one is going for [[HundredPercentCompletion full synchronization]]. For example:
** "The Giant and the Storm", a mission in which the ''Aquila'' must engage and sink the Orpheus (a Man o'War) and its pair of frigate escorts in stormy waters. A respectable challenge on the face of it, certainly not insurmountable. However, full synch requires that each capital ship be destroyed by precision shots into their powder magazines, which requires blowing holes into their fore to expose the powder for the swivel guns to destroy. Unfortunately, getting precisely enough damage done to open this is wall bangingly difficult. [[DoWellButNotPerfect Too little damage at once and the damage will simply accumulate rather than blowing through, too much damage and it will sink outright.]] That this must be done perfectly on ''each'' ship and that the [[LuckBasedMission extremely chaotic winds and waves can throw off targeting at the last moment]] means this becomes something that requires many, ''many'' attempts, and each time you fail, you have to replay the first part of the mission sinking five smaller ships before you can have another shot. There is a trick to doing it [[labelnote:*]]take out their masts with chain shot, then ram them at half sail (frigates)/half sail then no sail, and coast in for the last few meters (frigates with Naval Ram installed)/full sail (Orpheus) from the front[[/labelnote]] which mitigates some of the randomness, but it becomes much more difficult [[GuideDangIt if the player has already purchased and installed the naval ram]] on the ''Aquila''.
** The last chase mission with [[spoiler: Charles Lee]] is also frustrating, especially if you want full sync. The dock you chase him on is cluttered with people not to mention rows of guards who shove you on your ass if you graze past them most likely making you fail your mission. Full synchronization requires you navigate it staying within 50 m of him and not touching anybody. Made worse by the fact that he starts out almost 40 m ahead of you automatically making it so if you're still for more than 2 seconds, you'll probably have to repeat the mission. It gets even worse shortly after that, on the burning ship- you have to navigate throughout the decks with absolutely no directions whatsoever. Oh, and if you're after full sync, watch out, everything is on fire.
** Whilst the mission itself could count for this, achieving full sync when first chasing Thomas Hickey requires you to not shove anybody out of the way. Not only are you chasing him through very narrow streets, but Thomas regularly throws coins behind him to draw a crowd straight into your path. Furthermore, due to all the twists and turns in the street, it doesn't take much for the player to lose him and have to restart.
*** You're supposed to cut him off, since he repeats the pattern. Also, if you're quick enough at the very start of the chase sequence, you can knock him down right after you regain control.
** Achieving full sync when Connor [[spoiler: escapes from his execution]]. It's very hard to kill two enemies and then get to your target in the short amount of time available. The best thing to do is run to the target but not kill him, just knock him over, and more enemies will come to you.
* VocalMinority: British people moaning about the setting - the game's UK sales figures suggest that most of the UK doesn't care.