Assassin's Creed III Remastered

What it is

Assassin's Creed III Remastered brings the 2012 original's American Revolution-era story back to modern PCs with upgraded graphics, bundling in Assassin's Creed Liberation Remastered and all previously released solo DLC. Developed and published by Ubisoft, it released on 29 March 2019 — and, notably, replaced the original 2012 release as the only version of Assassin's Creed III sold on Steam after Ubisoft delisted that earlier game entirely.

Its review corpus, 5,408 in English, sits at a genuinely divided Mixed 66.1% (3,575 to 1,833), and reading through it in depth reveals a game whose underlying story and setting still earn real, specific affection — set against a remarkably consistent set of business-practice and technical complaints this review needs to state plainly rather than treat as ordinary remaster grumbling.

A story that still resonates with series veterans

Reviewers with a real history with the franchise consistently credit Assassin's Creed III's setting and story with lasting emotional weight. "Only OGs remember the unreal AC3 hype in 2012. This will be forever one of my favorite AC games... it was absolutely EPIC to learn about the revolution in school and go home and play it in Assassin's Creed," writes one detailed reviewer, describing genuine educational and emotional resonance from experiencing the American Revolution through both a history class and the game simultaneously. A separate, more colorfully written review captures the game's frontier-combat fantasy directly, describing a comedic, over-the-top home-defense scenario against "ruffians" with period-accurate weaponry — evidence that the core gameplay, when it works, still lands for players approaching it with genuine affection for the setting.

A confirmed, specific license-sharing problem

This review needs to state a serious, checkable business-practice issue plainly: this remaster shares an installation requirement with the separately-sold Assassin's Creed Odyssey, and this corpus documents that fact repeatedly and independently. "WARNING: You MUST have Odyssey in your library to install this game. They share the same CD key and cannot be handled separately," writes one detailed reviewer, "in order to play AC III remastered, you need to purchase AC Odyssey Gold or Unlimited Edition." A separate, extremely consistent thread across this corpus explicitly recommends against buying this listing at all: "Don't Buy This game if You Intend To Buy Assassin's Creed Odyssey — It comes for free (along with Assassin's Creed Liberation Remastered) in the Assassin's Creed Odyssey Season Pass," writes one of the most-upvoted reviews in the entire corpus, a recommendation echoed independently across many other high-vote reviews with nearly identical wording. That's an unusually strong, unanimous piece of consumer advice from a review corpus — buying this game standalone is widely and specifically discouraged by the very people who own it.

An always-online requirement for a single-player game

A separate, equally consistent complaint concerns basic playability. "Stop adding always online requirements to singleplayer only games, especially with a pop up every 15 seconds telling you that you lost connection," writes one of the most-upvoted reviews in the corpus — a specific, concrete complaint about a fully offline-appropriate single-player campaign being needlessly tied to a persistent internet connection, with real, disruptive consequences for anyone with an unstable connection. A related, longer-term ownership complaint concerns Ubisoft's own account and DRM practices more broadly: one reviewer specifically warns that "if they decide to delist the game or sunset the online store you will be forced to delete it via their EULA," citing the precedent of a separate Ubisoft title, The Crew, being rendered permanently unplayable after its servers were shut down — a broader trust concern about whether a purchase like this remains playable indefinitely.

Well-documented bugs and a contested "remaster" label

Beyond the licensing and connectivity issues, this corpus catalogs specific technical failures. "This game has a bug that makes it almost impossible to 100% without prior knowledge," writes one detailed reviewer, describing a full-synchronization objective in a specific mission that was straightforward in the original but is now broken in the remaster. A separate, especially blunt review calls it "the buggiest game I have ever touched," specifically citing "buggy rag doll physics" and unsettling cutscene facial animation. A third reviewer disputes the remaster label itself on visual grounds: "it is literally just Assassin's Creed 3 with some changes to the graphics, not even better, just different. Snow looks terrible now for one and they removed the particle effects inside of buildings."

A serious, specific post-purchase access restriction

A separate, especially concerning complaint concerns long-term ownership. "The inability to 'access or install' our purchased single player DLC after September 1st, 2022 is downright outrageous," writes one reviewer, describing a specific date after which previously purchased content became unavailable — a serious, checkable claim about digital ownership rather than a routine gameplay complaint.

What the achievement data confirms

Assassin's Creed III Remastered's achievement curve shows a notably low ceiling even at the very top — the single most-earned achievement sits at just 28%, falling quickly into single digits for the vast majority of the achievement list. That's consistent with the severe technical, licensing and access friction documented throughout this corpus — a substantial share of buyers appear unable to progress far, whether due to installation problems, bugs, or simply abandoning the game after encountering the issues described above.

Verdict

Assassin's Creed III Remastered still carries a story and setting that genuinely resonates with series veterans, but this review corpus is remarkably united on a specific, practical point: don't buy it as a standalone purchase. A confirmed license-sharing requirement with Assassin's Creed Odyssey, an always-online requirement for single-player content, well-documented bugs, and a serious reported post-purchase access restriction are concrete, checkable problems that go well beyond typical remaster disappointment. If you want this game, buy an Odyssey edition that includes it for free instead.