Ben Franklin’s mind is now his own, and he’s ready to help Acharky and I stop The Tyranny of King Washington!

Streamed at https://www.twitch.tv/newdarkcloud

While I’m glad that, now over halfway through the DLC and having finished the base game, I am finally getting comfortable with the changes to the game’s combat system. That said, I confess that I wish there wasn’t quite so much fighting in this DLC.

It’s always been a weakness of Assassin’s Creed, even after the revamp that Origins gave to combat. No matter what game we’re talking about, it’s just not as fun to be in conflict as it is to live out the stealth fantasy. Of course, one could reasonably argue that’s how these games should be, since all of the protagonists are assassins.

It would just be nice if the mission design team understood that.

Perhaps the key to beating King Washington is to break his mind control over Ben Franklin. If so, Acharky and I know what to do.

Streamed at https://www.twitch.tv/newdarkcloud

Having had a day to process some of my feelings from this play session, I can’t help but feel that this DLC, in some part, laid the groundwork for the current generation of Assassin’s Creed games. Ever since Assassin’s Creed 2, the franchise has been reducing it’s focus on social stealth and blending into the crowds and environment.

And while this game is no different in that regard, it is different in that the intent is to use our powers either to remain invisible as we roam the streets, or fly over the streets by soaring from point-to-point. Since we’re in permanent max notoriety, it’s impossible to lean on keeping a low profile and blending in as necessary. In other words, where the previous games start to lose focus on social stealth, The Tyranny of King Washington abandons it entirely as a concept.

It has more in common with works of its generation of AC in terms of UI and controls, but in terms of design principals it has more in common with games like Unity and onward than something like the Altair and Ezio games.

We’ve finished the first of three episodes to The Tyranny of King Washington, and Acharky is eager to lead me into Episode 2.

Streamed at https://www.twitch.tv/newdarkcloud

You can tell that the development team was having fun with this DLC, because it experiments with the form of an Assassin’s Creed game in ways that, for the time, were unique and novel.

I don’t just refer to the powers, which we’ll discuss in later episodes, but in the way it uses and remixes established tropes of the franchise. To my knowledge, no villain, before or since, has ever attacked us while in the middle of another target’s memory corridor/white room confession the way King Washington did. Similarly, the memory corridor isn’t often used to show us Sky Journeys like the ones that give Ratonhnhaké꞉ton his powers.

Doing something deliberately non-canon, even if it didn’t perform well, liberated them to make bolder choices and the final product is stronger for.

We have new wolf powers and a target. This is still an Assassin’s Creed game at the end of the day, so let Acharky and I actually do the job implied by the title.

Streamed at https://www.twitch.tv/newdarkcloud

We didn’t do the Benedict Arnold side quest for the Let’s Play, but it is funny to see Ratonhnhaké꞉ton absolutely refuse to believe that this Benedict is completely separate from the man who would betray Washington in his original series of events.

So far, so good. I’m having a blast with this DLC and I look forward to starting Episode 2 next time.

It’s clear that as we are now, Acharky and I are no match for Mad King George. Fortunately for us, there are ways aside from the Pieces of Eden to gain superpowers, and we’re going to take advantage of them.

Streamed at https://www.twitch.tv/newdarkcloud

What can I say? We have magic wolf powers now and they’re fun to use. We can even summon them as Jojo stands!

If I had any doubts regarding this DLC, it would be whether or not this is respectful to Native American culture. I truly don’t know, and I would need to ask someone in that community what their thoughts on it are. Any reading beyond that would be purely a gut feeling unsubstantiated with any evidence or logic.

But with that caveat, I’m just having a good-ol’ time.

Alright, with all of our prior obligations handled, it is time to begin The Tyranny of King Washington!

Streamed at https://www.twitch.tv/newdarkcloud
Acharky at https://bsky.app/profile/acharky.bsky.social

While certain missions go on just a bit longer than it feels like they need to, thus far gameplay-wise this is all fairly typical of an Assassin’s Creed game of this era. I don’t have much to say about the moment-to-moment action that I haven’t already said about the other Desmond games.

And yet, I have having the time of my life watched Ratonhnhaké꞉ton become dislodged from the reality he knows and thrust into the absolutely, delightfully absurd what-if scenario where George Washington becomes the most delightfully evil cartoon supervillain. It is honestly an inspired choice to just use the existing lore and do something fun with it. Something that, while technically possible in Assassin’s Creed canon, is so over-the-top that even Ubisoft would never make it part of the official timeline.

I can’t wait to punish this little shit.

With the main game out of the way, Acharky and I are almost ready to start the Tyranny of King Washington. However, before we do, we have a couple of loose ends to tie-up.

Streamed at https://www.twitch.tv/newdarkcloud

It’s honestly a bold choice to use the post-game epilogue as a way of highlighting just how despite all the work he put into stopping the Templars, Ratonhnhaké꞉ton received none of the benefits he fought for. Even in light of a successful revolution, the Native American people had to flee their homes and slavery only continued to grow under the thumb of colonial, wealthy imperialists. It would have been even more poignant if his cut final speech had accompanied it, but as it stands it still leaves a lasting impact.

In today’s world, there is much power in a hero who, even when the world does everything in can to silence him and prove how cruel it can be, still chooses to affirm justice, compassion, and humanity at every turn. We just didn’t appreciate it at the time.

With that, Acharky and I have finished the main thrust of Assassin’s Creed 3. Let’s talk a bit about the game and our final thoughts on it.

Streamed at https://www.twitch.tv/newdarkcloud

You can check out the cut Connor speech here.

Despite quite possibly the roughest finale in the entire series, I am overall significantly more positive on Assassin’s Creed 3 than I was going in. In hindsight, most of my problems with the game came from what I wanted to be and less what it was. I will still always want the Desmond-only game that I was promised and never received, and there’s nothing AC3 could have done to remedy that.

And yet, taken on its own terms much of it holds up well to this day. The only reason people don’t like Ratonhnhaké꞉ton is because they were comparing him to Ezio. Coming back to Assassin’s Creed 3 as an adult, I think he is one of the best protagonists this series has ever had. There’s a ton of depth and nuance to him and his actor’s performance that he comes across as one of the most complex characters in the franchise, especially when his backstory and history is thrown in.

There’s much to like here, but it’s tragically overshadowed by the circumstances surrounding the game. It never stood a chance.

(Minor Assassin’s Creed: Shadows spoilers from 19:51 to the end of the video.)

Our time with Ratonhnhaké꞉ton is at an end, which means we have to wrap up the remaining loose ends as Desmond before we finish.

And as Acharky and I can tell you, this section sucks.

Streamed at https://www.twitch.tv/newdarkcloud

It is shocking how poorly laid out this area is for anything remote approached fun and engaging parkour gameplay. I was intensely disappointed to come off the high I was riding in Connor’s finale with this abjectly miserable experience, followed by an even worse finale.

But, at least that means we’re at an end… or are we? Tune it next time for our Post-Game Conversation and a look into where we go from here.

(Minor Assassin’s Creed Shadow spoilers from 15:12-15:30.)

After all the posturing about how much cooler and better he was to the “savage” Ratonhnhaké꞉ton, the white-boy Charles Lee is trying to leave the country.

But he can’t leave yet. Acharky and I still haven’t shivved him yet.

Streamed at https://www.twitch.tv/newdarkcloud

I can’t say more than I said in the episode about how much the scene between Connor and Charles Lee at the bar sucks. At all times, Charles Lee presents himself to us as either a coward or a monster. To give them this moment of respect for each other when their relationship has been nothing but ruthlessly antagonistic feels cheap and hollow. It is sadly perfectly in line with what I would expect from Ubisoft’s creative team in that era, but that’s because I have low expectations.

Which, funnily enough, stands in stark contrast to the scene where Ratonhnhaké꞉ton buries Achilles next to his lost wife and child. By contrast, that scene logically follows from the way those characters interacted over the course of the game. The cinematic also makes heavy use of non-verbal communication and visual cues to convey the emotion of the scene in a way that words alone are incapable.

It’s a tasty morsel sandwiched between two incredibly awful sequences.