The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

I was talking to TMA on google talk and referred to this as the "Lifeguard Trick."

In lifeguard training (at least when I was trained a decade and a half ago... holy cow that was a long time ago), you are taught to submerge yourself if the victim is dragging you down or overwhelming you, in order to get them to let go of you and go back to the surface so that you can try to approach them from the rear again to attempt to control them. It's the old "Let go of me. Okay, don't. I can hold my breath longer than you." trick.

Honestly, holding a guard underwater could just be a more silent animation for ledge-kills that are performed close enough to water.

But as far as pulling guards underwater, from what I've seen it's pretty clear that there's going to be basically no blending of those two gameplay types. I'd bet anything that once you surface there's no going back unless you start the underwater mission again.

False. They have said countless times that you can jump in the water any time... it would just be really boring not near anj island. They also said that when you get clsoe to land the underwater world comes alive, whether or not it's a mission. It's just another seamless part of the environment from what i can tell.

http://puu.sh/4jgl4.jpg
From Assassin's Creed's Facebook page.

If you think that, then you need to dial back your expectations. What they've been talking about is being able to swim on the SURFACE the water at any time, which is very different from the full 3D space of the underwater areas, which you can only access at certain diving points using the diving bell.

Sure, you can hold the "dive" button no matter where in the water you are, but that's just going to mean your character slightly submerges to become less visible, not that you can explore anything that's under you on any part of the ocean.

I don't know where that quote about the underwater coming alive near land comes from, but they must be referring to a specific dive environment that you enter closer to land.

It's a certain kind of seamless, as in you have to go to a fixed point to enter the underwater environment, but if you're getting to a cave then you seamlessly go into that environment, and then back into the world where your ship is.

But after you get out you can't just simply dive down and retrace your steps, you'll have to use the diving bell to get back.

EDIT: Nice, Havana looking very Florency.

I'm pretty sure that means we'll get to see fishies and dolphins and other cute sh*t when the ocean floor rises to become an island.

that would also make sense.

I have a feeling that Nassau might be my favorite city in the series.

But Kingston looks awesome as well. Dat windmill viewpoints, dose trees interlinking buildings, dos slaves. wait wut?

I think pretty much any city that's not pirate-affiliated in this game is gonna have slaves.

Yea, but Darby mentioned it specifically for Kingston, and didn't say anything about it for Havana.

he didn't need to. pretty much every major power used slaves at that time, far as I know.

But that doesn't meant that they'll be prominent in the cities exactly..

Kingston, yes. Havana, who knows? I mean, they'll both have slaves, of course, because both cities probably have one plantation in them. But in Kingston you'll probably actively see them a lot more than Havana.

I don't see any reason why that would be the case, but I suppose I don't have the game so there's no reason to argue.

Probably because Darby only mentioned slaves being in Kingston.

I mean, think about it, we barely saw any slaves in AC3, and yet Boston and New York at the time would have had a good amount of slaves.

There were plenty of slave NPCs in AC3. Pretty much any person who was black was a slave. There were slave children begging on the street.

Darby saying that there are slaves in Kingston is not the same as him saying that there are no slaves in Havana. we'll see.

This was my interpretation of the quote.

If I have time this weekend, I'll try to find the video I referenced above.

But you never saw them working, which was my point.

And no where did I say that Havana would have no slaves. I said they wouldn't be as prominent as in Kingston.

Open Sea gameplay!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmRVTnN79wY

You saw them working in cut-scenes, Darby didn't say you'd see them working more out of cutscenes in Kingston, he also didn't say anything about how Havana compares to kingston in terms of portrayal of slaves.

You can have whatever expectations you want, it's just that to me, none of that proves anything either way.

doesn't matter, neither of us have the game.

Something that I've been noticing is that we often see Edward moving at a jog. I know of course that it was possible to do that in AC3, but it wasn't as common since your natural instinct is to press all the way forward on the left stick, and your natural speed while doing that and holding down the trigger is free-run speed. So has the control of movement been tweaked to make jogging more accessible? Maybe is it back to the old style of holding the A/X button to sprint?

I can't find where I talked about potential "ship stealth" before, but in the most recent demo, Ash explicitly states that you can take the flags off the masts of ships you board as an objective to boarding... I posit that this is for stealth.

Here's the demo -- lots of cool things in here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmRVTnN79wY

The control scheme for the PS4 uses the triggers for free-running/high-profile now, which are pressure-sensitive, like the X360. You could job in AC3 on the 360 easily because of the pressure sensitive triggers.

I was talking it looking even easier than on 360.

And about the demo, it sounds like that is indeed a more stealthy way to contribute to completing the boarding.

So drinking too much rum will get you drunk. I see opportunities for a playstyle where you can do all the missions drunk, if that's possible!
And I just love everything about the world. Open sea, underwater, jungles, plantations, caves, AC2-like cities, everything.

Can't wait.

I would bet that starting a main mission takes you out of your drunk state + it doesn't last long enough to do a whole lot while drunk. Besides, if it affects your movement you're not going to get very far.

But I'm sure one of you will find an "infinite drunk while in mission" glitch

It just said "surprise" not "you'll get drunk" ... maybe the bouncer shows up and the bartender cuts you off... haha.

Nah, obviously the surprise is going to be a glitch in the animus that allows you to kill Juno and end the conflict between the assassin's and templars forever. Series over.

And all it took was rum... who knew?

I think the surprise will be moving camera, drunk movement, falling down, like drunk gameplay in GTA IV. But that's just my guess.

If there is drunk gameplay in AC4, I will seriously consider getting it. Like, first day.

I hope it's nothing like being drunk in GTA IV. Because that was terrible..

I expect it to be something where it doesn't affect gameplay to the point where you can't do anything til it wears off.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/q82/s720x720/1235...

From the AC facebook page. Knocked out enemies will now eventually wake up. Unsure if this is only with sleeping darts or any non-lethal takedown.

It also says that guards will be distracted by tending to sleeping dudes. So that implies they stay at the body rather than doing the typical investigation path?

I like the sound of those trade-offs.

It says "Sleep Dart" in the title... so I would guess those are aspects of the Sleep Dart...

We had a non-lethal "knock out" dart in AC3, but enemies couldn't wake up from that, or any other non-lethal takedown.

This is a big deal! Enemies have NEVER been able to wake up from being asleep or knocked out in previous AC games.

You're just giving me a hard time aren't you

In the new Splinter Cell, guards can wake up their knocked out associates if they choose to. But I don't recall guards ever waking up themselves in the game. They probably enhanced that feature for AC4.

yup, that's what I'm excited about.

Now there's a strategic reason to decide if you want to kill someone so they can't be brought back into play, or knock them out so that they distract patrolling guards for longer.

yes.

they fall asleep for 30 seconds when hit by the sleep dart

pretty sure that they can't wake up from fist takedowns still

And Blacklist doesn't run on the same engine as Black Flag so they can't really carry that element over from Blacklist.

You don't need to have the same engine as a game to implement the same feature, you know. Engines are just set of tools and programs that are used to build games.

guard wake-up might be hard to implement, I don't know, but if they decided to commit manpower to doing it there's no reason it couldn't be there.

So it's only the sleep darts? Hmm. I guess it makes sense, it would be unecessary effort (not to mention confusing on a gameplay level) to animate a guard walking around/chasing you/fighting with a headache.

They must have seen their friends at Blacklist do it and thought, "That would work well for our stealth sections.

well we don't even know if it's in the game, you just speculated

uh, no.. it's in the game. It was confirmed on promotional material and Ash said that they wake up after 30 seconds. Well, either Ash or Darby, I forget.

uh, no.. it's in the game. It was confirmed on promotional material and Ash said that they wake up after 30 seconds. Well, either Ash or Darby, I forget.

We're not talking about that, we're talking about guards being able to revive people from any non-lethal takedown, remember?

Oh!

Well that's probably not in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RchRaAipGeE

Yo, dev diary #2. small bit of new footage.

Assassin's Creed 4 Literal Trailer by Tobuscus!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfsRxTjNGvo

He made something good for the first time in a long time!

Seven Minutes of AC4 Gameplay
DAZ's Summary Notes Under Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=caaceOrBK3E

- Full Synching missions is back, but so is Full Synching Locations
- - Can be seen in the Achievement/Trophy "Owned: Complete all activities at a location." That's gonna be fun.
- Abstergo Challenges are accessible from the Animus, no need to get out
- Edward has several screens available to him, Crafting, Inventory, Objectives and others including Abstergo Challenges. From the Crafting Screen, he can instantly Craft whatever he needs - provided he has the ingredients

- Some more ship boarding. This one's much bigger than the ones we've seen. I can imagine how awesome the coming together of two ships will be if the enemy ship is a bigger one like a man-of-war

- Some Recruiting/Rescuing Gameplay, The Brotherhood mechanic replaced with Crew
- Edward Saves one of the pirates by shooting the rope he's being hanged with
- - Important Note: The SSI begins changing as soon as Edward Free-Aims. Take that shot quick!
- (While the Human Shield button is clearly shown, all of this is in Sequence 3, so it's really close to the beginning of the game still. Tutorials are acceptable at this point. Edward's not even really a fully-fledged Pirate yet, he needs to recruit FOURTEEN CREW MEMBERS. FOURTEEN)
- Anne Bonny's looking awesome. Basically how I react to redheads as well.

- Some Underwater Exploration gameplay
- Oxygen doesn't seem to decrease during 'cutscenes' or moments where control is taken away
- We meet some pirates and Blackbeard LMAOs at Edward naming his ship Jackdaw, a kind of bird
- - Wikipedia: Jack = Small Daw = Bird. Small Bird. From a Small Bird, into an Eagle? Hmm... I wonder ;] The Aquila was found wrecked in AC3 ;] From a Small Bird... Into an Eagle... From a Jackdaw... Into an Aquila... What if Edward, eventually embracing the Creed renames his ship from a tiny bird into a fearsome Eagle - the animal Assassins are associated with, and leaves it behind? (Symbolism, Leaves behind his Pirate life to embrace life as an Assassin or goes the Ezio route and ends "not as an Assassin, but as a man.")

- Stealth gameplay. Prowling through bushes, using the new Eagle Vision mechanics to Tag and Track.
- Plantations are a pure Stealth environment - their Cargo can only be taken if you haven't been Exposed

- Stealth sailing is shown
- A very rainy, cinematic and epic chase sequence is shown
- At 7:16, Edward can Contextual Assassinate through the environment
- - In this case, he bursts through the wooden shutters
- Eagle Vision tagging might allow this to actually be a viable surprise tactic, kind of like how in the Arkham games, you can Explosive Gel a wall that a convict is standing next to, or in Deus Ex: HR, Adam Jensen can grab people through walls

Thoughts?

I like how they're actually encouraging stealth. Really brings back the old traditions. I hope that crafting is something that you'll actually need in the game to beat some of the harder levels later on. Hopefully, it's not a tacked on thing. This time, I hope that the economy system is actually useful.

Not sure about the tagging and seeing through walls. How many times can you tag and see through walls? X-ray vision is somewhat unnecessary, considering the fact that you have an map on the lower left giving you the position of all enemies around you. And I don't like how everything is always constantly glowing. I'd rather have the challenge of looking around the environment, trying to figure out what's useful to me or not. If there's an option to turn this on and off, that'd be really great.

I'm really digging the HUD. Much more cleaner and refined. Love how the text just stands out all on it's own. It's not highlighted. I like the analysis about the Jackdaw being the Acquila.

Hopefully that wasn't a contextual kill. It'd be sweet if you can bust through breakable objects around the environment and assassinate.