Saturday Morning Gaming: Returning to Old Games and Rediscovering Who You Used to Be

Back in 2020, I talked about replaying Batman: Arkham Knight and being surprised that I picked up trophies that I somehow missed in 2015. “How did I not get three stars on all of the various trials around town last time? Who was I that I couldn’t beat this race? That I couldn’t destroy these tanks?”

Well, a return to Assassin’s Creed is similarly enlightening. I mentioned that I played Assassin’s Creed Revelations as part of the Ezio collection and was surprised to discover that I had never beaten it the first time (and a quick google told me that the game was released on November 15, 2011 which was four days following the release of Skyrim (I will remember 11/11/11 forever because of that… and because two dear friends of mine got married on that day preventing me from playing the game until the 12th). I’m pretty sure that I wasn’t quite done with Arkham Knight yet either (hey, maybe that’s why I didn’t finish getting those trophies!)).

Going through Assassin’s Creed III, I’m rediscovering all sorts of stuff that I can’t believe that I never did them the first time. There’s a homestead that you set up with farmers and hunters and craftsmen! There are different regions where different animals inhabit and you can run around and discover each regions native faunae! Boston has fast travel that you unlock by going through the various tunnels yourself the first time and figuring out how to get from place to place… and if you don’t figure out how to get there, your fast travel doesn’t get unlocked! And you’ve got a boat! And you have to buy stuff to upgrade your boat!

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And you’re going to need a *LOT* more money to upgrade your boat. You’re going to need to put your homestead’s artisans to work making stuff and upgrading the stuff that they make and sending it off to Boston or New York and if you do that you’re going to have to protect your shipments and… Oh, yeah, I’m beginning to see why I might have said “there’s too much stuff to do!”

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I keep discovering new things and new trophies that, for some reason, I didn’t get back in 2012 and 2013 (checking… oh, XCOM: Enemy Unknown came out. Far Cry 3 came out. Oh, and January had Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch come out… that totally obsessed me for a freakin’ month).

Well, returning to it has made me realize that it’s another gem of a game that I missed out on despite beating it. I remembered the high notes: The game teases you by having you play as the protagonist’s father for a few chapters then has the big reveal that the *REAL* protagonist of the game is the son and the father is the big bad. The first three chapters of the game is set up to establish the various henchmen of the father and the various people that you’re going to have to plow through in order to defeat him… the evil doctor, the stupid bodyguard, the loyal right-hand man… All of whom I remember dealing with (and loving to hate).

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The beauty of the American countryside, the tensions in Revolutionary America, the explorations of the dynamics of the Patriots versus the Templars versus the Natives versus the various people just trying to get by in a new land are all explored surprisingly well (though there is the occasional “And Here’s The Moral of the Story!” sledgehammer that show up).

I keep being surprised by how many gems came out in that era of gaming and how they still hold up.

There are a number of complaints that you could make about the current era of gaming (and I’ve made them) but the simple answer is “don’t buy bad games, buy the good ones”. And, lemme tell ya, Assassin’s Creed III is one of the good ones. (Seriously, I can’t believe that I left so much of this game fallow a decade ago…)

So… what are you playing?

(Featured Image is the title card of Assassin’s Creed III. All screenshots taken by the author.)