Skip to footer

Assassin's Creed III trailer hits the web

Ubisoft released a trailer for Assassin's Creed III on Monday, revealing the backdrop for the game: America's Revolutionary War.

|
Screenshot/Ubisoft
The Assassin's Creed III trailer shows Ratohnhaké:ton (Connor) standing on the brink of a Revolutionary War battle.
  • By Megan Riesz

Goodbye, Constantinople. Hello, America?

The highly-anticipated trailer for Assassin’s Creed III, released Monday by Ubisoft, hints at a major plot twist in the Assassins-versus-Templars formula followed by the first four Assassin’s Creed games. It opens with a new assassin reportedly named Ratohnhaké:ton, or Connor for short, hunting Redcoats. Yup, the Assassins have left Europe for the Revolutionary War – coming to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and the Wii U on Oct. 30.

Once you get over the initial shock that, no, this assassin isn’t surrounded by ornate, easily climbable buildings, the booming voice of George Washington begins. “The time is now near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves,” the Washington avatar yells as Connor swings through snow-covered trees, hinting that gameplay will be rooted in nature rather than man-made structures. “Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only with the choice of brave resistance or the most abject submission. We have therefore two results, to conquer or die.” And with a flick of his sword, Washington sends his rebels into battle.

Somehow, Connor the assassin plays a part in this – but how? The previous four Assassin’s Creed games follow Desmond, a modern-day vagabond who relives his ancestors’ memories (first by force, then by will). Players learned to love Altaïr, a Syrian assassin from the Middle Ages, and Ezio, a Renaissance assassin.

Unfortunately, the trailer offers no guidance on the meaning of the apocalyptic ending of the previous game, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, which suggests that there will be a clarifying sequel. It’s possible that Assassin’s Creed III will veer away from the consistent saga of its predecessors – then again, anything is possible when you only have a one minute and 30 second trailer to analyze. Ubisoft hasn’t disappointed so far, as every Assassin’s Creed game has been better than the one before. But how much of that do we owe to the seemingly endless maps of beautiful Constantinople and Italy? Will traipsing through America be as visually satisfying?

All we can do is wait – and hope for some leaks.

For more tech news, follow us on Twitter @venturenaut. And don’t forget to sign up for the weekly BizTech newsletter.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Assassin's Creed III trailer hits the web
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0305/Assassin-s-Creed-III-trailer-hits-the-web
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe