The Assassin’s Creed franchise has seen its ups and down. While being incredibly enjoyable and unique at first, sequels were being released at a rampant pace and gamers quickly got sick of them. The series needed a serious breath of fresh air and needed it badly, a breath of fresh air developer and publisher Ubisoft hopes they have with Assassin’s Creed III.

The fifth game in the franchise (on consoles and PC) is on its way to us this fall, and it certainly takes us to places we’ve not yet been in the franchise: the American Revolution.

The very first trailer showing off some of the gameplay from Assassin’s Creed III has been released, and you can check it out by clicking on over to the other side now!

The series follows a man named Desmond, a descendant of a line of assassins, who’s kidnapped by a corporation called Abstergo and forced to re-live the memories of his assassin ancestors through a machine called the Animus. In the first game he experiences the memories of Altair during the Crusades, and in the second game he becomes Ezio Auditore in Italy during the Renaissance. But instead of going right into a third game, two direct sequels to Assassin’s Creed II with Ezio were released, and that’s where repetition began deterring players.

Another problem was also getting a game every year. We all wish a sequel to our favorite games would come every year, but in actuality we know that it takes a couple of years at least to develop a strong sequel, and so yearly titles have worked against the series. That’s no different with Assassin’s Creed III, which will arrive about a year after the last installment, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, but Ubisoft is hoping that the first change in scenery (and a drastic change, at that) we’ve seen since 2009 will re-ignite fan interest.

For me personally, I’ve always adored the period settings of the Assassin’s Creed games and their combat system is still my favorite in terms of blade/swordplay, countering, and satisfying kills…it’s the sci-fi element that’s always rubbed me the wrong way for some reason. And not even all of the the sci-fi elements—the Desmond storyline was acceptable for the most part—but the whole “technologically advanced civilization living long before us” thing. Perhaps I’m in the minority here, but part of me kind of wishes each game simply followed the story of an assassin in a certain period of time—the Crusades; the Renaissance; the American Revolution—and they wouldn’t have bothered with this little sci-fi twist.

All of that said, since the very first game I imagined all the time periods the franchise could visit, and this was one of them. Because of that, and because this game looks so different in terms of setting, I’m actually pretty excited to see where they go with it.

You can pre-order Assassin’s Creed III on Xbox 360, PS3, PC, and Download now.

Check out the trailer and share your thoughts on the new game and the series as a whole below!

Trailer

[Source: PC Mag]