Oversimplification of the historical record is always a concern when reconstructing the past. Consider the game's portrayal of the Boston Massacre. There is great complexity to be found in this event; depending of the point of view, blame can be shifted from the British forces to the citizens of Boston, or vice versa. For example, one colonist described how he “heard the officer who stood on the right in a line with the Soldiers give the word fire twice,” indicating that it was the intention of British officers to fire. Another witness, Samuel Adams, corroborates this point, testifying how

 

“They not only fired without the order of the civil magistrate but they never called for one, which they might easily have done.  They went down...armed with muskets and bayonets fixed, presuming they were clothed with as much authority by the law of the land as the posse comitatus of the country with the high sheriff at their head.“

 

        In contrast, British soldiers present at the shooting, men of the 29th Regiment of Foot, see the event as a misunderstanding between the citizens and themselves and that their actions were therefore only taken in self-defense. Captain Prestons, the officer leading the men that day in the square, argued that the crowd “threatened to execute their vengeance on” a soldier of the local tax office and that this would be “a prelude to their plundering the King's chest.” He had ordered “that the bells were ringing as the signal for that purpose and not for fire,” and that he had no intention to kill civilians.