Glad to see AC3 getting some love here. This narrative that it's "widely regarded as the worst in the series" was always nonsense, and was only ever true on old NeoGaf (and most of those haters have moved on). Best combat, best villains, best locales. And the right amount of naval stuff (Black Flag had way too much). Yeah the homesteading stuff was meh and there was some crappy side content. But 3 was the only one in the series that I actually was able to finish. 1, 2, and 4 bored me. Might check out Origins eventually though.
From what I've heard and read, the biggest problem with AC3 was the mission design. Apparently it had a lot of completely linear and scripted assassinations and insta-fail stealth segments. Those are the things that people hate most about the series so that's probably why most people hate AC3.
I just finished Origins and it's easily my favorite in the series. Most of the missions are open-ended, there are no insta-fail stealth missions, both melee and ranged combat have been greatly expanded and improved, you can leave and resume missions whenever you want, etc. The side missions are also well-done and collectibles actually serve a purpose now (loot). The only thing I didn't like was the fact that you have to play as a different character at various points in the game and this character is incredibly crappy compared to your main character, especially when you're playing on Nightmare difficulty. Oh, I also didn't like how many of the abilities in the skill tree are pretty boring. Far too many passive skills that just give XP bonuses or auto-looting.
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