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Eurogamer: Assassin's Creed 3 Remastered delivers more than just a resolution boost

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
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"After a relatively lacklustre remastering effort with Assassin's Creed: The Ezio Collection, Ubisoft has returned with Assassin's Creed 3 Remastered, an altogether more interesting effort. It's more than just a port of the PC version of the original release, with improvements to art asset quality, radically revamped lighting and a lot of tweaks to game mechanics. It's out now on Xbox, PlayStation and PC but it's a shame that we have to wait until next month for the Switch version - the first time we've seen a mainline AC title arrive in handheld form

In the here and now though, there are still plenty of points of interest - and not just in terms of its visuals. The crafting system allows you to create weapons you could previously only buy, while the mini-map is much improved with a lot more information. Certain aspects of the stealth system from later titles in the series have also been retrofitted into this new version of AC3. There's no radical reinvention here, but these improvements are welcome. On top of that, all of the original DLC is included, plus a port of the HD version of PS Vita's Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation.

In terms of the visual upgrades, yes, there is a resolution improvement, but unlike the Ezio Collection, that's not the end of the story. Easily the most obvious change is a new lighting system based on physically-based rendering. I'd say that this is an improvement overall, but the change may prove controversial - there's a different look to the game now that doesn't match the original artistic vision. The zoomer comparisons on this page highlight that difference, where equally, the good news is that improved textures and effects are now in play too.

Bloom and depth of field effects are better than the last-gen equivalents, but the big upgrade is the inclusion of screen-space reflections, most obvious on bodies of water, and entirely absent in the original game. Ubisoft has also promised increased crowd density, though getting a lock on this in matching scenes produced inconclusive results. Quality improvements are uniform across the board on all consoles, though bloom effects seem to resolve at a lower resolution on Xbox One. A highly useful upgrade for the PC version is the addition of a settings option to alter resolution, which was absent in the original game (!), requiring us to manually tweak the .ini file to run the launch version at 4K.

Assassin's Creed 3: Remastered - Every Version Tested! Xbox One/X vs PS4/Pro/PC Comparison


The impression here is that Ubisoft has primarily targeted its remastering efforts at running the PlayStation 4 version at a good, solid performance level at 1080p resolution with all of the remastered improvements and effects in place. From there, we have improved resolution on PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, which deliver 2688x1512 and 3200x1800 respectively. In a throwback to the Ezio Collection, AC3 runs at just 1080p if you have your PS4 Pro set to full HD output - though Sony's front-end super-sampling option can force the game to present a downsampled image. Once again, it's the Xbox One S that gets the roughest deal, with AC3's resolution dropping to 1600x900 - somewhat disappointing for a remaster of a last-gen game.

The good news is that all versions of the game deliver a big performance upgrade over the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii U releases back in the day. Originally, Assassin's Creed 3 ran with an unlocked frame-rate, but all of its busy scenes could drop well below 30fps - and even 20fps was commonplace across the run of play. Performance inconsistencies were an issue across the Assassin's Creed titles on the last-gen consoles, but AC3 pushed the tech hard and struggled as a consequence. The remaster aims to restore a sense of consistency by locking the game to 30 frames per second across the board.

The extent to which it delivers this varies, but suffice to say that if you're running the game on anything other than the base Xbox One, AC3 presents smoothly and consistently with only the most minor dips during gameplay and occasionally heavier drops in cutscenes. The PlayStation 4 consoles are running with v-sync enabled, but an adaptive solution kicks in on Xbox One, manifesting as tearing at the very top of the screen when the engine is under load. This is mostly a non-issue on X, but does present regularly on the vanilla Xbox One, where busy in-game scenes can see performance drop to the mid-20s. Bearing in mind it's already losing around 30 per cent of resolution up against the base PS4, to see performance drops on top of that is a disappointment.

The inclusion of Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation in the package is welcome. Something of a technical miracle on PlayStation Vita back in the day, it was an offshoot franchise title built entirely with the mobile system in mind - and despite the improvements offered by the HD upgrade, its humble origins are still clear to see and arguably exaggerated still further when played on an ultra HD display.

Looking at the base consoles first, Liberation presents at full 1920x1080 resolution on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and again, a solid, locked 30 frames per second is the target. Neither of the ports fully achieves this, but PS4 gets very close to it though curiously, once again the standard Xbox One can see some performance drops - something that's even more surprising than the turnout of AC3 remastered.

Meanwhile, the enhanced consoles take advantage of the extra GPU power to push a presentation better suited to 4K displays. Perhaps not surprisingly, Xbox One X delivers a full, native ultra HD output and runs smoothly, but pixel-counts on PS4 Pro throw up a mixture of native 4K plus some double-width pixel edges in the mix too - so perhaps there's some kind of reconstruction technology in place here? Regardless, Liberation does what it says on the tin, but don't expect the same kind of attention that went into the remastering of AC3 itself.

Ultimately, it's nice to see Ubisoft put a decent amount of time and effort into the Assassin's Creed 3 remaster, and while it's hardly an outstanding re-release, it is a creditable attempt to bring another chapter in the series across to current-gen platforms - but going into this one, it really was the Switch edition I was particularly interested in testing out. What kind of resolution boost will we see and how many of the remaster's visual upgrades will make their way to the Nintendo hybrid? And just how will the game cope in handheld mode? We hope to have the answers in time for the Switch version's May 21st release."

Source: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2019-assassins-creed-3-remaster-analysis

I have to agree minus the difference with the faces having a more Matte look which don't really bother me much( the shiny faces and lips was odd too) the Remaster is fantastic
Been playing it none stop and really holds up even with today titles
The New lighting rendering ripped at straight from the newer games adds so much to it
and replaying it you can see how Origins & Odyssey was inspired by ACIII.
I highly recommend it to anyone that hasn't played it.
But if ya hated it before you'll probably still hate it.

PS: Some captures of mine from PS4 Pro
 
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eminydax

Neo Member
I played 4 first and liked 3 better.
the only thing i disliked was that they couldnt resist putting connor into every key historical moment.

still wont get it. will wait for the vr version.
 

Stuart360

Member
Liberation is actually much more of a jump that AC3. I was playing it last night and texture quality was pretty much improved on every surface compared to the old game. Polygon counts seemed way higher as well.
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Liberation is actually much more of a jump that AC3. I was playing it last night and texture quality was pretty much improved on every surface compared to the old game. Polygon counts seemed way higher as well.
Yeah the texture details are a big jump, Liberation stands out even more and is very vibrant.
Boring game. AC4 was way way way way better.
AC4 was unfinished DLC made into a launch title.
The only thing good about that game came from ACIII.
 
Yeah the texture details are a big jump, Liberation stands out even more and is very vibrant.

AC4 was unfinished DLC made into a launch title.
The only thing good about that game came from ACIII.
True. But that's pretty much the case with all AC games. Odyssey is basically just a large game built off Origins. Brotherhood built off 2. And on and on.
 

base

Banned
Yeah the texture details are a big jump, Liberation stands out even more and is very vibrant.

AC4 was unfinished DLC made into a launch title.
The only thing good about that game came from ACIII.
Kinda huge for a DLC.
 

Golgo 13

The Man With The Golden Dong
Liberation is easily the more interesting game here, finished them both a long time ago. AC3 felt like it crumbled under the pressure of the amazing Ezio trilogy it was following up, pretty much a miss on every front.
 

120v

Member
always wanted to play it, revolutionary war setting piqued my interest right away but everybody was so meh on it i could never gumption myself to play it, even though i got a free copy through uplay

remaster could bring me to the table but it's defintiely not something i'd spend more than $15-20 for, so i dunno
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.

Haytham doesn't have lipstick on in the Remastered version?
Funny one of things they did fix that people complain about was the shiny eyes, yet it's present in the original in that vid.
 

Shin

Banned
You can polish a turd but it will never turn gold or something something.
I wonder how many articles and videos Eurogamer wrote about this Remaster, I recall at least 2 videos and perhaps 2 article....for a remaster of the least popular/favorite in the franchise.
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
You can polish a turd but it will never turn gold or something something.
I wonder how many articles and videos Eurogamer wrote about this Remaster, I recall at least 2 videos and perhaps 2 article....for a remaster of the least popular/favorite in the franchise.
I know and Ubisoft put more effort in this Remaster then the Ezio Trilogy and did a Collector's Edition.
we in a reverse universe it seems.
Weird
 
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makaveli60

Member
I don't feel like this remaster gets the praise it deserves. Among all the remasters I played this is the one that seems to have been really remastered, it looks beautiful. And they even patched the faces later. If someone liked the original game they should really give this a chance, I don't think they will be disappointed. I'm not, that's for sure.
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
I don't feel like this remaster gets the praise it deserves. Among all the remasters I played this is the one that seems to have been really remastered, it looks beautiful. And they even patched the faces later. If someone liked the original game they should really give this a chance, I don't think they will be disappointed. I'm not, that's for sure.

You've convinced me to at least install it and give it a try. Got it as part of AC: Odyssey season pass, so might as well.
 

makaveli60

Member
You've convinced me to at least install it and give it a try. Got it as part of AC: Odyssey season pass, so might as well.
Great, so my time was definitely not wasted with that comment :D
Have fun!

Edit: I forgot to mention that I only played the lastgen console versions, so I don't know if there is a big difference between this and the original PC version, but there definitely is between last and current gen
 
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Krappadizzle

Gold Member
I was always disappointed that AC3 never got to it's Target Render as it definitely had some potential. I always felt it kinda fizzled as being the 3rd game. The "end" of a trilogy. Also, I think I bought that game right before my dog died and I was also in a pretty shitty mood at the time so my mindset may have changed but it could have been way cooler. Connor was such a great idea for a character. Who wouldn't want to be a bad ass woods ninja? So cool. Pretty meh execution though.
 
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can anyone tell me if this is worth getting on sale? i wanna experience gameplay set in colonial US and all the other titles of similar setting are apparently unreconstructed failures~
 

Kenpachii

Member
Got it for free by some game i bought on ubisoft, must say the combat is absolute dog shit. Quited it after a while because of it.
 
I never liked this game.. the setting is fantastic, but the intro, tutorials and constant introduction of new gameplay mechanics drove me crazy. Like, WHEN are you going to let me free roam and just do stuff? I felt like I spent way too many hours just getting into the game so eventually I just quit.
 

Golgo 13

The Man With The Golden Dong
can anyone tell me if this is worth getting on sale? i wanna experience gameplay set in colonial US and all the other titles of similar setting are apparently unreconstructed failures~
Depends. Do you like Assassin’s Creed gameplay? Well, this is probably the worst mainline AC game for many reasons. You might enjoy it if you’re a HUGE history buff and are fascinated with that era, but there’s plenty of AC games that are well made and enjoyable to play that, at their best, are like taking a tour through history. This isn’t one of them.
 
Depends. Do you like Assassin’s Creed gameplay? Well, this is probably the worst mainline AC game for many reasons. You might enjoy it if you’re a HUGE history buff and are fascinated with that era, but there’s plenty of AC games that are well made and enjoyable to play that, at their best, are like taking a tour through history. This isn’t one of them.
That's clear enough for me, mad props bro
 

Kokoloko85

Member
The game got alot of hate but I loved it. Yes some better missions and assassins missions would of been great but the combat and hstoric story was good with me.

And the “dull” character was fine with me too.
I don't expect a super charming charasmatic italian for every assassins creed game....
 
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makaveli60

Member
It's one of my favorites in the series and I like the long intro too, story is important for me, I hate open world games where you can roam from the start without any real context. It's a story that is happening in an open world and not an open world game where you have some basic story and samey missions all the time with some general text. Also I'm still amazed how much better the remastered is (besides the faces maybe) compared to the PS3/X360 version, it's not just a resolution upgrade. The best remaster I have seen as of now.
 

martino

Member
played it on pc one year after release. it was a smooth experience and i like the story
(same thing happened for unity)
 
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VulcanRaven

Member
can anyone tell me if this is worth getting on sale? i wanna experience gameplay set in colonial US and all the other titles of similar setting are apparently unreconstructed failures~
Have you played the previous games? You might enjoy it more if you have. This is my favorite game in the series. I really liked the setting and story was great. I haven't bought the remastered version yet.
 
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GymWolf

Member
i never tried this one but people saying that he has the best combat in the series always made me a little curious.
 
This quarantine has convinced people to rush out and actually consider buying Ass Creed 3 simply because its a remaster...

Have we not already established this was a shit game even in 2012?

Imagine being so detached as a publisher and re-releasing this game in 2020, but ignoring Splinter Cell.
 

makaveli60

Member
This quarantine has convinced people to rush out and actually consider buying Ass Creed 3 simply because its a remaster...

Have we not already established this was a shit game even in 2012?

Imagine being so detached as a publisher and re-releasing this game in 2020, but ignoring Splinter Cell.
It's not a shit game, and as time went on, more and more people realized that. The same with Unity.
 
Have we not already established this was a shit game even in 2012?

It's probably the least enjoyable to me, and I've played all the main ones except the first (ironically) and Rogue. AC3/Unity were just boring. Granted, Black Flag which came right after AC3 is one of the best ACs pre-super open world RPG style (which I enjoy). A Black Flag remaster in the Odyssey engine would be awesome.
 

makaveli60

Member
It's probably the least enjoyable to me, and I've played all the main ones except the first (ironically) and Rogue. AC3/Unity were just boring. Granted, Black Flag which came right after AC3 is one of the best ACs pre-super open world RPG style (which I enjoy). A Black Flag remaster in the Odyssey engine would be awesome.
What's so good about AC4? I never understood it. It's a "reskinned" AC 3 with ship gameplay that gets boring after a couple of hours.
 

makaveli60

Member
It's fun, has an enjoyable protagonist, and a great setting. Great gameplay loop overall in that one.
I don't know... Edward is an Ezio clone, Connor at least had his own personality. The majority of players like these playboy type characters appearing in every game and movie so much. I'm bored of them. The setting is subjective but the gameplay was basically the same with more ship combat. Edit: with a lot more tailing missions which are the worst.
 
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I don't know... Edward is an Ezio clone, Connor at least had his own personality. The majority of players like these playboy type characters appearing in every game and movie so much. I'm bored of them. The setting is subjective but the gameplay was basically the same with more ship combat. Edit: with a lot more tailing missions which are the worst.

Eh, Edward may be a bit cliche, but he's still a solid and pretty cool character nonetheless. It's a piratey game in the Caribbean, but it does actually work quite well overall.

As far as Connor being a good protagonist, eh. I think they should just revisit the US in the late 1700-early 1800s again with AC and have you play a Native American of a different tribe (I can think of a few that would be pretty cool).

Maybe after I get my wishlisted Monglian AC with full horse combat/skills, they could make a nice transition to a early 1800s US centric AC as a Native American on horseback. I'd be all for that.
 
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