

The first, briefly played at the start of the game, is Haytham Kenway, a British Templar who seeks the location of the Vault. To uncover the secrets, Desmond uses the Animus to live out memories of two of his ancestors which the player controls during these sequences, both set at the time of the American Revolutionary War. The main character is Desmond Miles, a 21st-century Assassin, working to uncover the secrets of a mysterious Precursor Vault that will protect the Earth from an upcoming solar flare on December 21, 2012.

The player takes the role of three characters during the course of the game. Assassin's Creed III is a third-person action-adventure title set in an open world in which the player uses a combination of stealth, parkour, and combat to complete various missions.
