The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

I'm getting tired about these "What Ifs" about the Brotherhood game. I think I'll just wait for news at E3 to come out.

Does anyone know when E3 actually is?

E3 2010 is June 15-17.

We've still got a full month then...

Well, now it's around 2-3 weeks. Not a very long wait. After that, we can build on the FACTS of the game, and not theories.

La Volpe is so overpowered but I want to be him SO BADLY.

I am getting such an AC1 vibe. In all the best ways.

What's the name of the song? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIfKqgWPVvk We Want War by These New Puritans
I really want to fight the Templar assassin in the single player. That switchblade is nice.
Fingers crossed that a Piece of Eden is one of the last multiplayer upgrades.
And it's the original Animus noise near the beginning!! Woo hoo!
NEW MP SKIN spotted - the guy who slits the Harlequin's throat looks like a barber, and using a shaving razor to slit throats would be cool [and would create about fifteen Sweeney Todd joke topics on GameFAQS]

I'm on 360. I consider myself pretty good. So long as no one tries to scream orders at me during a match (that's usually what happens in the clans I've been in), and just tells me where enemies are, and shows good teamwork, I'm in. BTW, my GT is UntouchedHuman.

I can't wait for this game! I'm still curious as to how they'll give out the beta. I hope they don't get TOO specific with their choices of players. In a perfect world, Ubisoft would ask THB members to provide feedback.

I'll add you for future reference. My GT is GreatJoey Fogey.

Sadly, at E3, they announced that the beta is PSN only. No other words than that, though.

Yup, so you guys with 360 gotta wait for the game to be released... D:

I'm guessing we're gonna get the Beta from PSN+, since they did say it will include Beta games... =0

Havent read all of the topic so sorry if this has been mentioned, just thought I would share an idea for a multiplayer mode. What I would like is to choose or customize your character so you can choose to look high profile, or look exactly like an AI character. If they could put lots of civilians in online it would be perfect, if there are no radars or name tags it could be really fun trying to find each other not knowing who they are or where they are

Oh yeah, I had a question. Do we have to "represent THB" by being the stealthiest and quietest clan out there? Because I certainly have my own way of doing things, and although I don't know what my playstyle will be, I'd rather not be forced to stick to some playstyle requirement in the clan. Like, if the requirement is that all members of the clan must use nothing but the hidden blades and going "Rambo" is forbidden at all times, it could suck some fun out. That was a bad example, but you get the idea. If it were my choice, I'd want the clan to be an incredibly diverse killing machine, but remain a simple way of having fun, rather than a complicated system focused on "WINNING EVERY WATCH AND CRUSHING EVERYONE". Lemme know if this made any sense at all. I just woke up and drank a gallon of chocolate milk.

Uuuhh... don't know if you guys have seen the other topic, but they've talked about one multiplayer mode. It doesn't involve teams. And considering the mechanics for this mode, I wonder if any mode will involve team play. I'd very much like to have some teamwork. It's so important for stealth multiplayers.

We're not looking for strict clan rules because nobody has fun that way. We're representing this site, we're trying to let people know that those of us who are regulars on this site are cool and not pricks. "Representing" simply means to be respectful in the way you play and the way you behave (both in text messages and over the microphone) because we want to put our best foot forward, so to speak. When you're teamed up with others, don't do things that will piss them off or otherwise interfere with their enjoyment of the game. Don't be selfish. Be a team player (in team modes). Play fair. Your style of gameplay shouldn't matter so long as your overall behavior is respectful and considerate. At the end of the day, we want people to see our tag and think "Wow, those guys are pretty cool", not "Wow, those guys are jerks".

RE: team modes
I can't imagine that they could include many different modes without some of them having some sort of co-op element to them. There's only so much you can do for lone-wolf modes. Team play is always popular for multiplayer games, so I can't see them not including some sort of team play.

Hello, Asaic. I think most players would like some team play and that ubi knows this. So ubi would quite certainly like to make team modes. My point is... they might just not be able to do so.

They need a mechanism that prevents the kind of situation in which tow players can (straight forward) melee one another. Otherwise it becomes like Splinter Cell: Conviction - who presses the button first wins (which is not a big issue for a shooter, but would suck in a melee focused game).

In the mode they've shown, this mechanism is assigning targets to determine who you can (are supposed to) kill and who you must escape from (can't kill). It's an 'A kills B, B kills C, C kills D, D kills A' kinda thing.This way, you avoid the Mutual Straight Melee Situation (MSMS, for short).

In order to make a team mode they need to come up with another mechanism. It might be something as simple as a more complex way to assign the targets, like having A and C (from the previous example) being friends, since they have nothing against each other. I think it could work, but it would hardly breed much an interesting partnership.

Or they can come up with something more complex, that might even enable mutual killing without falling prey to MSMS. Splinter Cell: Double Agent has stuff like this and it's awesome. Just have different 'classes' and give them different ways to kill each other, therefore avoiding the MSMS. The tricky thing is to do it in a balanced and dynamic way.

Sorry, the post was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. I guess I'm overexcited with the possibility of a good stealth melee multiplayer packed with parkour, blending and that's also popular, not lacking players to match with (like Double Agent lacks ).

So, let's all just be the most respectable (and incredibly awesome) Assassin clan on this game. Sounds epic.

I think a cool mode would be assassin tag. several players but only one has the ability to kill. It would be set in a medium sized level where the assassin would try to find and kill a player. the killed player would then become the assassin. every player starts off with so many points which decrease the longer you are the assassin. when you make an assassination you can get so many of those lost points back. once you lose all your points you become the assassin permanetly. the final person with points is the winner.

So, overtime the points decrease? How about everytime you have the chance to assassinate someone, and you fail, you lose like 10 points each?

This failed attempt would require a very solid definition in programming terms. Sounds possible, but tricky. For instance, in FIFA, it's considered you dribble well if someone tries a tackle against you and fail. And you dribble badly if someone can tackle you successfully. Works well, but is not perfect, as you can get past an opponent so well he might never even get the chance to attempt a tackle.. and this wouldn't be considered good dribbling.

A chance to assassinate could be like what??? Nearing the target?

I can think of several really fun team modes they could use, and that's just off the top of my head. Given time and thought, I'm sure I could come up with some pretty fun modes that have a lot of depth to them. And I'm no experienced game designer either.

I have faith that we'll get some good team modes in the final product.

I've already included a form of assassin tag in the competition games. The only difference really is that there's a time limit and you're tackling rather than assassinating. It's "a change of pace from the usual sneaking and stabbing" as Ezio would call it.

Well said, Asaic. It will be a neat trick if we can get them to think "Wow, those THB guys assassinate me every time but they sure are nice about it!"

"Perhaps if I join and promote their site they will lend me some tips on how to be somewhat as good as they are!"

I'm worried that if we try to do some sort of kneel or bow to show respect after killing them that they'll think we're tea-bagging them instead.

There are leaderboards yeah? So if week after week, people see Stabguy (THB) and Asaic (THB) as the top two, we will probably get a huge influx of new people here! Or they may be more like "OMG WTF HAX NUB!"

Lol I'd rather see the leaderboard filled by THB members.

It's not shocking to assume that there are better players out there than us. There's always that possibility. There's some player who does every mission flawlessly every single time and hasn't even heard of THB. There will be times when the best of us will get "PWNED". We'll just team up on that one person once one of us goes down.

The Hidden Blade, we're the nicest bullies out there.

LOL.
With all the aggressive gameplay that has been shown from Multiplayer so far, I feel that we'll be the only clan/guild whose blades will ACTUALLY be hidden until the last second. Gives us an edge.

Obviously, all those exploits and glitches will be attempted to be found in multiplayer as well
Hyperblend in multiplayer = imbalanced.

Stab, you should make this the THB tagline at the home screen. Maybe put it at the top above the latest videos?

Yes it is. Based off of how I've seen other players play, how I've seen people react to videos posted here, and how the Devs play the game, I think it's safe to say we're the best of the best. That's not cockiness, that's confidence, and come November 16th, I'll be happy to back it all up.

Good point. I just know that there are like 1 or 2 players out there that play these games non-stop and only sleep a couple of hours a night. The good thing is, they probably don't have any internet connection, so we'll dominate so much more.

Hm....
You seem pretty confident, FLAE. There's one problem, though.

They've changed the combat system, and therefore part of the gameplay that we've so fluidly learned. I'd hate to see you disappointed if someone learned it faster than us and dominated the leaderboards. =/

True Assassins adapt to change by any means necessary. Altair said something about how Assassins adapt quickly in the first game, but I'm too lazy to look up the exact quote.

It wasn't Altair.
I'm pretty sure it was Al Mualim, actually.

Altair: "Robert was not alone. And he was already there blablabla"
Al Mualim: "When does out work ever go as expected? It is our ability to ADAPT, that makes us who we are."
Altair: "I have failed you."
Al Mualim: *bitchslap*

I wasn't disputing that. I was stating that depending on how much it's changed, we might be in the same place as everyone else.

No, there was a scene in the game where Altair is questioned by one of the bureau leaders of what he'll do if something goes unplanned (I can't remember what specific city or assassination target this line belongs to) and Altair says that he will adapt like he's supposed to.

Although Rocky's logic is a little shaky, his ideas are correct. I'm taking the Rocky approach here, Gray. Even if there is a new combat system that we have to learn, that means everyone else needs to learn it as well and will be at just as much a disadvantage as we are.

You took my point and reversed the names.

So in Wanted Mode the characters are actually Templar trainees? While this doesn't change the fact that we still get to assassinate other real players, is there a reason for the Templars rather than Assassins?

There's not that many videos of people playing the multiplayer booth at E3, I thought there would be, just been doing a search on Youtube displaying results in order uploaded. What I am thinking so far, from what I have seen, is that a lot of people will be running about everywhere and on rooftops. By staying blended and moving slowly, you won't be slaughtered, but the trade-off is that there will be more than one person after your target who will get to them before you do.

Yes there is a reason. In-story, the multiplayer is a training simulator that Abstergo developed using the room full of Animi you see briefly in AC2.

This means that it is more like the Matrix than usual then, it isn't anyone's memories, merely a virtual location for training and interacting in.

Oh yeah I've heard that. Didn't make the link

So basically the templars are training to fight against the new, more powerful assassins by practising killing each other in a virtual Renaissance Italy created by Abstergo. Pretty random but also pretty awesome.

Also, its quite ironic how we will technically play as Templars in a virtual game who themselves play as other virtual characters in a virtual world (I guess its kind of similar with Desmond). In reality, Ubisoft are Abstergo and we are the Templars/Assassins

One more thing. Does this mean that the virtual world of the templars' training will cross with the real memories of Desmond/Ezio at all? Because there is obviously templars then and now, its just a case of if they are the same templars.

What I'm trying to say is, are the trainee templars (modern) playing/fighting as real Templars who actually existed but just in a virtual world?

That was way too confusing so I don't really expect and answer and doubt we'll get one until the release of AC:B. Sorry.

I've heard that apparently we encounter all the multiplayer characters in single-player, so one or more of them may be an assassination target from the period.

I hope not. That means we have to kill La Volpe, and he's my favorite character next to Brabantio (sp? It's been a while since I've played in Venice...)

Where do you see La Volpe in the multiplayer videos?

La Volpe is an Assassin and not a multiplayer character. The multiplayer characters are archetypes, not specific characters. They're essentially just classes.