Ubisoft’s top selling series, Assassin’s Creed, recently launched its newest and final title in the franchise. Assassin’s Creed III launched Oct 30, and within the first week sold three and half million copies.

Assassin’s Creed creates a fictional world where all important historical events are in some way influenced by the Assassins or the Templars. Assassin’s Creed III is set in present day America and Colonial America during the cusp of the American Revolution and follows the fictional scenario of two underground international cults locked in an ancient feud for power.

Story: 10/10 – The main story of the game offers hours on hours on hours of gameplay, and every minute offers adrenaline-packed challenges. The story follows the struggle of Assassin Desmond Miles in present-day America to save the world from an oncoming apocalypse, while simultaneously following his ancestor, Assassin Connor in Colonial America during the American Revolution. Both stories are thrilling, and the contrast between modern-day and Colonial America gives the game an original, fresh feel.

Graphics/scenery: 9.5/10 – With absolutely breathtaking, realistic graphics and scenery, Assassin’s Creed III really helps to create the illusion that what the gamer is playing is real. It allows the player to break through the boundary of animation and reality so he or she can become completely immersed in lush green northeastern forests, disease ridden cities such as Boston and New York and the wide spanning Atlantic and Caribbean oceans.

The greatest part about the scenery in Assassin’s Creed III is that it is constantly changing. Each location has weather cycles that change with the seasons in the game, so the hot, humid forest the player was traveling through one day might be a cold, barren desert of snow the next.

Performance: 7/10 – The major draw of the Assassin’s Creed series is the use of parkour to navigate the cities and forests of the game. Pakour is the quickest way to go from point A to point B, scaling obstacles and jumping heights all in a fluid, singular motion.

To capture the essence of parkour, the gameplay must be seamless and smooth. The gameplay is silky smooth and parkouring has never felt so effortless in an Assassin’s Creed game. From scaling forests throughout the tree tops to running up buildings and dashing through rooms, the entire experience seems like one well done movement.

What detracts points from the game’s performance is that it is riddled with glitches that at points stop the game dead and can be very frustrating when trying to continue.

Gameplay: 8/10 – To the players just joining the Assassin’s Creed series, this new game is great. With watered-down controls and fewer buttons to memorize, Assassin’s Creed III is very easy to pick up. However, to the seasoned player, the dumbed-down controls are frustrating and subtract from the level of difficulty and variety that past Assassin’s Creed games had to offer, which is what drew gamers to the franchise originally.

What makes Assassin’s Creed III different from other games is it allows the player to choose how he or she want to play the game, as a stealthy assassin, a brutish warrior charging into battle or anything in between.