In hindsight, Assassin's Creed 3 is both fascinating and fundamental to the later development of the series. At the time, the expansive wilderness and smaller settlements felt restrictive compared to the series' massive cities, but it gave Ubisoft a model it would carry on successfully many years later in Origins, Odyssey, Valhalla and Shadows. And then there were the ships.
Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag remains one of the high points for the Assassin's Creed, with its nautical open world and piratical antics, but it was Assassin's Creed 3 that really kicked things off by letting players explore the Eastern Seaboard and parts of the Caribbean in naval side missions. Some of its changes proved to be divisive, but pretty much everyone seemed to agree that captaining a ship felt incredible. So why wasn't there more of it?
