User blog comment:Peteparker/Help! Assassin's Creed III, I don't get it./@comment-1005328-20121109215313
To me at least, the Assassin's Creed series is heavily focused on the plot, rather than on simply gameplay. Don't get me wrong though, I think they're really nicely balanced.
And while Assassin's Creed III is the newest game, with nice graphics, an updated engine and so on, I think that, in order to fully enjoy it you should have played some previous games too. Of course, if you want to simply jump to AC3, you can just read a bit and get accustomed to the plot, but I don't think you would be able to enjoy it to the fullest. I personally recommend trying at least Assassin's Creed II, it's a really good game, and it was released in 2010 so the graphics are not bad, if you care about them.
As for the sidequests in Asassin's Creed III... I can only tell you to keep playing xD There are sidequests, but you have to be a bit patient ^^; There is no "right way" to playing the game, just explore the maps and see what you can find.