You’ve seen the cinematic trailers, you’ve checked out some of the screens, you may even have seen the E3 demo–but are you ready to learn more about Assassin’s Creed 3… in Boston? Ubisoft seems to think it’s time as Creative Director Alexander Hutchinson gives us a tour of the city.
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At this point, there are two ends of the Assassin’s Creed spectrum. On one side are the fanboys–you know who you are. Don’t deny it. Hold that banner high. These guys will buy the new game even if it is literally the same as its predecessor, so long as the Desmond scenes are different. On the other end stand the AC-Haters. Many of them played the first game, some even played the second, but the lack of variability turned them off. While most major games have these camps of die-hard supporters and detractors, the divide seems particularly stark when it comes to the Assassin’s Creed series.
With that being said, let’s talk about what’s new in Assassin’s Creed 3 and why this one might be worth checking out, even for the haters (these come straight from the video so if you’ve already watched it, skip on down to the section about the new multiplayer mode).
- New Cities – This one’s obvious–there are always new cities–but according to Hutchinson, both Boston and New York City have been recreated at a 1:3 scale, complete with period landmarks and layouts direct from 18th Century maps.
- New Cover System – At times, the Assassin’s Creed series seems like it wants to be a stealth series, but it has never quite managed to prove its existence within that genre. With the inclusion of a cover system, wherein players can hide against walls and behind objects, Assassin’s Creed 3 may finally have cracked the stealth code.
- Combat – One of the biggest complaints about the series is that combat is stale. While the structure of the combat system is the same, Ubisoft has tried to mix it up by making protagonist Connor more comfortable with dual-wielding. The hope here is to make enemy destruction more fluid and unique. There are two new elements standing in Connor’s way when it comes to fighting, though. First off, new, more varied enemy archetypes have been implemented to help prevent combat from becoming boring. In past games players have been able to fight hoards of enemies with their eyes literally closed. Secondly, Connor is no longer able to heal while in combat, which should make the game at least a little bit more difficult.
Connor also has some new weapons including the Tomahawk you’ve probably seen in each and every trailer, the bow and arrow, the musket, and the rope dart. - Movement – This one’s the biggie. Without a doubt the strongest divide about Assassin’s Creed has to do with its protagonist’s movement throughout the city. The free-running was cool in the first game and, if you’re one of those gamers who finds tiny intricacies between games to be enough of a change, you may have enjoyed the movement system throughout the other games as well. If you’re not one of those gamers, though, Assassin’s Creed 3 may still let you down. From the demos and gameplay trailers, it’s evident that there are some changes in the way Connor moves–he can climb trees, run through buildings to evade enemies, and dive into and out of moving hay carts–but the rest of it looks pretty similar to the game’s predecessors.
Finally, a new multiplayer mode was announced today for Assassin’s Creed 3. Entitled “Wolfpack,” this online game type will allow players to join forces in what are being called “sequence based” (probably hoard or wave-based) missions. In each of the twenty-five sequences, players will be attempting to assassinate NPCs, with the difficulty rising between each mission.
Click on the thumbnails below to check out some new screenshots from “Wolfpack.”
With Assassin’s Creed 3 dropping on October 30th, we’d like to know what you think of it thus far. Love it? Hate it? Interested to see what AC3 has to offer? Let your voice be heard in our forums!