The wait for Assassin’s Creed 3 has ended, met with a tempered, yet undeniably positive reception to Ubisoft‘s foray into the colonial world of the American Revolution. In terms of setting, historical events, and patriotic touchstones, the Italian Renaissance is more than a little outmatched by the founding of the United States of America. But in terms of protgaonists, the fight wasn’t such a given beforehand.
Connor Kenway has big shoes to fill after Ezio Auditore walked the world with them through three games, winning the affections of the gaming public along the way. How does a development team possibly follow up that kind of success? It’s certainly not easy, and Ubisoft’s success with Assassin’s Creed 3 can now be judged by individual players. But according to Creative Director Alex Hutchinson, crafting a strong hero was one of the studio’s top priorities.
Regardless of how successful Ubisoft will prove to be in making a Native American hero deserving of a spot alongside his white-robed predecessors, their ambition alone deserves some credit. It really would have been too easy to cast an American patriot as the hero of the Revolution, embodying the rhetoric and nobility ascribed to the founding fathers by history.
Instead Ubisoft went with a character undeniably removed, yet irrevocably connected to the revolt against Great Britain. That historical background has the potential for making Connor a more relatable hero than any the Assassin’s Creed series has featured. But regardless of historical context, this is a game we’re playing. And as Hutchinson explained to OPM, the character needed to be fun:
“We spent a lot of time working on this Assassin, trying to make someone who was compelling to people and seemed like a cool person to be. The fact that responses have been positive – we’ve already seen cosplaying and fan art – and people seem to really have adopted him, which was really satisfying. When you haven’t shown the new guy, you’re always worried that people won’t embrace him as they did with Ezio before.”
There’s no question that the world was excited for Connor than they had expected to be. The staggering ad campaign convinced skeptics that Assassin’s Creed 3 would be worth playing, and Connor would be yet another powerful hero for the franchise. Desmond would be there too, but he’s not as easy to sell at this point.
Does Hutchinson think that the time put into making Connor the most effective in combat, and biggest and strongest Assassin yet will guarantee a hit?
“I think following up Ezio is going to be a challenge, no matter what you do. He’s so iconic, he’s over-the-top, he’s funny, he’s a juicy character to dig into. We just wanted to create someone who could stand up against the other two Assassins. Yes, [Connor] is a little bit more strait-laced, but it’s the story of his whole life. We really hope people get a kick out of him.”
There’s no question that Ubisoft delivered on their promise of showing Connor’s progression from child to adult, even if fans weren’t quite expecting the length of time required to do so. But if there’s one thing that AC3 made clear (read our review), it’s that fans and players may not have fully grasped just how well-written and exceptional a protagonist Ezio Auditore truly was.
With devotion, humor, loyalty, affection, and sacrifice all words describing a video game character, the character introduced in Assassin’s Creed 2 was raising the bar; perhaps higher than we realized. Two games expanded on that depth, but it’s hard to say that Connor approaches Ezio for anything more than a fleeting moment, if that. Others may disagree, but only time will tell, since the campaign of AC3 seemed to hint that Connor’s role may continue in the future.
How do you feel about Connor as an Assassin? Did Ubisoft achieve their goal of making a “compelling, cool” new hero? Or is it even possible for a future hero to compare to Ezio Auditore? It’s possible that excellence might just run in the Auditore family (Claudia, perhaps…?).
Assassin’s Creed 3 is available now for the PS3 and Xbox 360. A PC release is scheduled for November 20, with a Wii U version coming November 18.
-
Follow me on Twitter @andrew_dyce.
Source: OPM UK
What You May Not Know About The ‘Xbox One’ [Updated] 
Xbox One: Watch The Next-Gen Xbox Presentation Here! 
Electronic Arts Engineer Blasts the Wii U 
Has Microsoft Abolished Used Games on the Xbox One? 
Loading ...
Nothing I’ve read indicates that Connor holds a candle to Ezio.
He is only a ‘relatable’ hero if you assume the ‘Good Guys’ were the ones who won the American War of Independence. If you are Canadian or British you might well feel you are in fact playing the Bad Guy.
There is no good and bad in that war. Not now. There is this side and that side, and we the decendants if we want any hope of putting aside all of our parents conflicts need to be grateful for the good that came of it. All sides did after all benefit. Its ridiculous to try and make a good and bad of what is a long past conflict, when all parties have since reaped benefits from the outcome. And Americans themselves struggle with this concept every time they take on the outcome of the Native American, or the African American, and its a tragedy because the world that does exist today would not without those tragedys of yesterday, but now gets lost in then, and people in a misguided attempt to assuage the attack of conscience they feel over history forget to pay attention to the now, and our leaders (who don’t seem to learn anything) continue to do unto others as they have done in the past. Its pretty pathetic.
how about instead of talking about the sucky main character, he instead tries to instil hope in those that cant even play the game properly due ot the onslaught of skyrim like bugs/glitches ? my brother has been lucky in only coming across mostly graphical glitches, for my sake i hope it stays that way
Too bad Connor fights for his peoples freedom. He fights whoever that stands in his way of his goal. That would be why Bluecoats (british that supported freedom from Britain) and Redcoats (british that supported structure of Britain)are both killable in the game. He is mostly seen caring only for the people of his Homestead and his Native American friends and family. He speaks to someone and they say “If that makes me a Patriot then I am one”. Connor says very sternly says (You are an Assassin above all”
Sorry for the grammatical errors by the way. I also meant no offense to anyone when writing what I did. So please try to not think I am attacking anyone.
Connor would kick Ezio’s ass both in fighting and free climbing, but Ezio was more charming and likable. Connor was liked because he was like a child. Also, Ezio had Leonardo DaVinci.
We got 1/2 game (6 sequences) with Connor. We got 3 Full games as Ezio.
I’d love to play more as Connor, get to know him and see his “naive” Native American sensibilities give way to the Assassin.
Boom. Now that’s a good comment.
its a shame that Ezio doesn’t have a part in this game in AC2 there was a statue of Altaïr why not a statue of Ezio in AC3
Altair is still my favorite……And I’ve beating all the games
No chance to stand up to the character of Ezio, having played all the other Creeds and having seen Ezio’s greatest moments its pretty clear that he was a once in a series icon. Ubisoft should recognize that, and build upon it. AC should continue, as it has done, but it should not attempt to put Ezio aside. Rather he should become a mythic figure to the Assassins, and little bits of his adventures and discoveries should be part of the franchise for at least 2 titles, sort of in a Godfatherly type of way. Sometimes devolpers make the mistake of closing the book on a character with to much finality, and Ubisoft might have done so here.
****SPOILERS DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT STARTED OR PLAYED THIS GAME****
I think Connor is compelling. I think they did an excellent job of creating a totally unique and independent hero from nothing, although I think he has a lot of similarities to Altair. I agree that 6 sequences is not enough. One of the issues I have with the game is that so much time is spent on Haythem in the first sequences. I would rather they have an opening, extended mission or two, in which they could have gone bonzo with all the cutscenes they wanted, to introduce the twist they introduce. They never really develop Connor’s mother, or any passion that Haythem has (he’s kind of a British stiff). Then the rest as his childhood, one sequence as a teen (which would get all the crappy tutorials and intro to gameplay mechanics out of the way) and then onto the story. I wish they would have developed Achilles more and maybe showed more interaction of Connor and all the characters. It seems like he just interacted with people because some mission required it (as opposed to Ezio having love interests, family and OTHER assassins like his uncle and Niccolo Polo, etc. who Ezio aided and interacted with). Connor seems isolated and on an island and as a fan of the series, I felt like I was playing AC1 all over again.
Great game though. Glad I didn’t take it back and turn it in for Halo 4.
I truly enjoyed all of the sequences to AC3 but having the inability to skip the credit roll mid game was a bit annoying (I just switched over and watched TV while the credit roll had finished)also the fact of quite a rude awakening mid game **spoiler** of Desmond’s death was a bit unpleasant. and after the credit roll the missions start to become a bit confusing and harder to find and complete. i would also like to see much more interaction with other characters as well as more missions with allies such as the co-op missions with harden (while he was your Allie).
sorry about that *Hayden*
To me AC3 was defidently the best game.(Yeah i know about the glitches it wasnt that bad in my playthrough i got stuck in a wall once thats about it) But Connor was a cool chararater. He wasnt as likable as Ezio but the whole native american completly blinded by liberty is intriguing. Ezio is one of the best charaters in gaming and set a bar too high and i dont think Connor deserves the hate he’s getting. Speaking of bad protagonist i glad *Spoiler* Desmond got fried. I hate him I hope future ac games avoid that modern First Civ crap
Ubisoft definitely did a good job with Connor. I love each of the assassins for different reasons. Altair was, in ways, emotionless and that made his goals easier for him to see. I like to think of him as a “pure” assassin who was not distracted, for the most part, by his emotions. Ezio was the emotionally driven one. He was emotionally involved yet not so much as to let those emotions distract him. He was a perfect combination of emotion and realism. That is probably why some fans will never be as fulfilled as they were with Ezio. I would describe Connor as the calm assassin. He tries to keep a level head so he can do his job and save his people. He does get angry at times but who wouldn’t? Connor’s instrumental position in the war and his feelings towards it, offer us some deep, heartfelt moments. I don’t know how they do it but the Assassin’s Creed team continues to create lovable and, most importantly, epic main characters. If these assassins were to all be “perfected” on the level of Ezio, they would get a bit predictable. I like these differences and I hope Ubisoft continues to create believable characters that connect to us in their own ways.