Assassin's Creed III: The American Revolution

Assassin's Creed III opens in London in 1754, when Haytham Kenway kills a patron at the Royal Opera House and takes the key he has come for. He is a British Templar, and he does it during a performance of The Beggar's Opera. Then he sails for the American colonies and lands at Boston. The theatre in Covent Garden is real: John Rich commissioned The Beggar's Opera from John Gay in 1728, and its success paid for the playhouse. The building standing today is the third theatre on the site, after fires in 1808 and 1856; its façade, foyer and auditorium date from 1858.

Visitor guidance: The theatre is in Covent Garden, central London.

The Templars make sure Connor is blamed for the Boston Massacre, one of the Revolution's key events that the game recreates. The real massacre happened on 5 March 1770, when British soldiers fired on a crowd in Boston and five colonists were killed. It took place on King Street, in front of the Old State House, the city's oldest surviving public building, completed in 1713. A cobblestone marker for the massacre still stands just east of the building, and the Old State House and the massacre site are consecutive stops on the Freedom Trail.

Visitor guidance: The Old State House and the massacre site are consecutive stops on the Freedom Trail in Boston.

Connor takes part in the Boston Tea Party, the night Boston turned against the tea trade. On 16 December 1773, protesters disguised as American Indians boarded the merchantman Dartmouth and threw 340 or 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor. The exact spot is uncertain: a study places Griffin's Wharf near the foot of today's Pearl Street. On the Congress Street Bridge, the Boston Tea Party Museum keeps two replica ships, the Eleanor and the Beaver, and one of the two known tea chests from the original event.

Location precision: The game stages the Tea Party in Boston Harbor; the wharf site is uncertain, so the pin marks the Boston Tea Party Museum.

Visitor guidance: The Boston Tea Party Museum is on the Congress Street Bridge in Boston, with replica ships Eleanor and Beaver.

The game puts Lexington and Concord in its Frontier, and the Revolution's first battle was fought here. On 19 April 1775 the first shots at Lexington were fired at sunrise, killing eight militiamen; the green where they stood is now a public park. At the Old North Bridge in Concord, about 400 minutemen and militia met roughly 90 British troops — the first time American forces advanced in formation and routed them. Ralph Waldo Emerson called the moment the "shot heard round the world". The present wooden bridge is a 1956 replica, restored in 2005.

Location precision: The game places Lexington and Concord in its Frontier; the pin marks the Old North Bridge at Concord, where the fighting turned.

Visitor guidance: The bridge is the North Bridge unit of Minute Man National Historical Park at Concord.

The game recreates the Battle of Bunker Hill, fought on 17 June 1775 during the siege of Boston. It takes its name from Bunker Hill, but most of the fighting was on the adjacent Breed's Hill, where colonial troops held a redoubt through two assaults before it was captured. The British took the ground at a cost of 1,054 casualties — 226 dead and 828 wounded, a 40% casualty rate. A 221-foot obelisk, the Bunker Hill Monument, now stands on the hill; on 17 June 1825 its cornerstone was laid by the Marquis de Lafayette.

Location precision: The battle is named for Bunker Hill, but most of the fighting was on Breed's Hill, where the monument stands.

Visitor guidance: The Bunker Hill Monument is on Breed's Hill in Charlestown, Boston.

In the game, Haytham comes to Valley Forge, George Washington's camp, and finds a letter revealing Washington's plan to displace indigenous peoples thought to support the Loyalists — including Connor's own tribe. The winter encampment is real: Washington's Continental Army occupied Valley Forge, in eastern Pennsylvania, from 19 December 1777 to 19 June 1778, and an estimated 1,700 to 2,000 soldiers died of disease, cold and hunger. The site is now Valley Forge National Historical Park, about 3,500 acres visited by nearly two million people a year.

Visitor guidance: Valley Forge National Historical Park is in eastern Pennsylvania.

The game stages the Battle of Monmouth, where Charles Lee deliberately sabotages the American attack to ruin George Washington's reputation. The real battle was fought on 28 June 1778 near Monmouth Court House in New Jersey, and though it soon ended in a standoff, Lee was arrested and court-martialed for his retreat. The battlefield survives as Monmouth Battlefield State Park: 1,818 acres of fields and woods with a restored farmhouse, the Craig House, and a visitor centre atop Combs Hill. Each June the battle is reenacted there.

Visitor guidance: Monmouth Battlefield State Park lies on the border of Manalapan and Freehold Township, New Jersey.

After Monmouth, Charles Lee is disgraced and takes refuge in Fort George, in the part of New York held by the British. Connor infiltrates the fort, is confronted by his father Haytham, and reluctantly kills him in a duel. The fort is real history: the first Fort George was built in 1626 as Fort Amsterdam, and the British settled on the name Fort George by 1714. It was demolished in 1790, and its site is now the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House at 1 Bowling Green, in Lower Manhattan.

Location precision: The fort was demolished in 1790; the pin marks the Custom House that stands on its site.

Visitor guidance: The Custom House at 1 Bowling Green now houses a branch of the National Museum of the American Indian.

Assassin's Creed III ends quietly. In New York, Connor watches the last British ship leave the harbor, then sees a slave auction — a reminder that the new freedom is not for everyone. The war really ended at the Battery, at the southern tip of Manhattan, which in 1783 was the centre of Evacuation Day, marking the departure of the last British troops. The demolished Fort George's debris later went into expanding the Battery.

Location precision: The game shows Connor watching the fleet leave New York; the pin marks the Battery, where the British evacuation took place.

Visitor guidance: The Battery is a public park at the southern tip of Manhattan, facing New York Harbor.