Assassin’s Creed III Strategy Guide Initial Impressions

Piggyback Interactive has really stepped up their game since I was first introduced to their strategy guides, and upon first glance, their strategy guide for Assassin’s Creed IIIlooks to be on par with their Assassin’s Creed BrotherhoodandFinal Fantasy XIII-2strategy guides.

The strategy guide is organized much like itsAssassin’s Creedpredecessors, and that includes one of my favorite traditions of Piggyback Interactive: their table of contents in the sidebar. It is so easy to quickly look up anything with the ToC laid out neatly on the outside of the right page. Since Piggyback usually separates the side quests from the main campaign–and in anAssassin’s Creedgame, this is most wise–the table of contents in this manner makes it incredibly easy to flip back and forth between the main storyline and the side missions without losing your place.

The next thing I searched for were the maps for the collectibles.Assassin’s Creedgames have always had a ridiculous number of collectibles, and I’ve never been able to find half of them without the help of the maps. Oh sure, I could spent countless hours running around the dungeons and overworld hunting each collectible down, but I have zero patience and I’m lazy, remember? Thankfully, the strategy guide includes detailed maps of each region Connor explores, complete with screenshots depicting each location for the wayward collectible. I can already feel the Trophies unlocking.

Each mission in the main walkthrough is set up similarly to how it’s been done in the past. Each DNA sequence (or present day sequence) begins with an overview, includes a map of the mission (if necessary), and is broken up into paragraphs of walkthrough text accompanied by screenshots to help the player know where to go, hide, or what to look for. The side quests are set up similarly as well. The screenshots appear to be very clear and just large enough to fully depict what the player should be doing.

I can only hope that the content is as helpful as it appears, and the screenshots are both clear and useful. Obviously, I won’t know until I play, but at the outset, the prognosis is cheery.

All this guide is doing is making me want to play, both just to do so and to see how great this strategy guide really is. The UPS man needs to hurry up and get here, and then I need to find a way to blow off work for the rest of the day.