Assassin's Creed III isn't exactly blowing away reviewers. It seems the game is quite sloppy in some areas, with more than a handful of bugs causing issues. Ubisoft has taken to a Reddit AMA to answer some of these claims.

On stealth issues...

our stealth is primarily "social stealth", and we've been debating having a crouch button since pretty much day 1. It was always the vision that crouching in public spaces is not "hiding in plain sight" - if anything you're calling attention to yourself. We found that the "stalking zones" - the low vegitation where you can crouch down while low profile - are a good compromise since it allows you to crouch but only in circumstances that make sense.