S&S Review: Assassin's Creed III: The Tyranny of King Washington - Part 1

Title: Assassin's Creed 3: The Tyranny of King Washington - Episode 1
Format: PS3, Xbox 360, PC
Release Date: February 19, 2013
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Quebec 
Price: $10
ESRB Rating: M

The first episode of the Assassin's Creed 3 DLC trilogy, The Tyranny of King Washington, is finally here and it tells the story of an alternate take on American history.  This time around, George Washington isn't the American hero that he once was.  If you were waiting for a reason to get back into AC3, this will definitely get you back into it.

Story, Presentation, and Core Gameplay: 
The story in the Tyranny of King Washington DLC will probably be the biggest reason why people will decide to drop the $10 for the add-on.  The story takes place in a darker, alternate world where George Washington has taken up power across the land, and his influence is felt everywhere.  This causes people to fear him, and further increasing his tyranny over the people.  I absolutely love the concept of alternate history, and the fact that it's American history makes it that much better.  Ubisoft always manages to stick with historical accuracies, but they took a different approach with this DLC.  It feels more like an experimentation, and I feel like that helps free up the narrative, allowing Ubisoft to tell the story they want to tell.  The narrative is just as engaging as the standalone game, and the villainous Washington who's gone mad with power is the star of the show.  His performance alone is worth the buy in.  Washington manages to get his hands on the Apple of Eden, and that sparks a great adventure of Connor trying to take the evil King down.  That's the basic gist of the DLC.  Visually, the game hasn't changed at all, but like I said, Washington has a much bigger role than before.  The voice acting is just as strong as before.

Episode 1 brings in a few new gameplay elements into the mix, and the new mechanics help to make the expansion feel like it's own adventure.  The game puts a lot more focus on Connor's Native American heritage, and after a few hallucinogenic scenes, you're gifted with some special abilities that change the game in a good way.  You're gifted with two big new abilities.  The first cool new ability, is the ability to call in a pack of wolves to help you during battles.  The wolves are able to take down multiple enemies at once, and it makes the bigger encounters a bit more enjoyable.  There similar to your Assassin recruits, but the wolves are a lot more violent than your human counterparts.  The sound of the wolves ripping your enemies apart never gets old.  The second power gives you the ability to cloak yourself instantly, granting you invisibility for a short period of time.  This power makes stealth sequences a lot better, and it eliminates a lot of the frustrations I had with the standalone game.  The basic mission structure haven't changed, you're still tasked with helping people and assassinating targets, but the new powers does change things up quite a bit.  The single player campaign won't take you very long if you sprint through it, there are a few side quests that can make your playtime longer though, and it is recommended you playthrough everything you can.  This is the best way to get everything out of the first add on.

Final Thoughts:
The first out of three DLC expansions involving an evil King Washington is a good one, it brings in some new features that helps seperate the expansion from the standalone game.  It's a great reason to get back into Assassin's Creed 3, and I hope the final two expansions will bring even more to the game.

S&S Rating: 8/10

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