The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

Loved the Altair ghost on the edge next to Ezio. Epic.

so happy whenn i preordered it they gave me the collectors edition !!!!!

That gameplay is absolutely amazing. The crowd character models are sick, the streets seem to have an ambiance, the camera-work and pacing is awesome, the effects look better, and little things, like having to use eagle vision to see in a smoke cloud, or Ezio having special animations for getting to close to a fire, are awesome. Didn't see much of the faces, but the overall animations seem better, and the textures even moreso.
Also, slow motion kills for the last guard in the group you kill? YES!!!

Along with all the amazing looking UI features Ubi always puts in in or streamlines.

Honestly, one of the things I'm most excited for this game is returning to the middle-east, I have no idea why. A strange type of nostalgia perhaps?

I remember in the BroHood trailer how Ezio looked kinda odd and nothing like how he ended up looking in the actual game. Also the BroHood trailer turned out to have very little to do with how the game itself turned out.

I'm suspicious that such is the case here. So, while it's pretty cool-looking, I'd rather have seen something that gives me more of an idea of how the game itself is going to be. I'm underwhelmed.

Lisa, just look at the gameplay trailer, whilst in AC2 it wasn't directly included it came pretty close and it was included in brotherhood.

I think the ambiance is still slightly off, I feel an assassins game with such serious themes shouldn't be quite as bright as that, but it does make it look fantastique.

Combat!! I still see only one guard attacking at a time and once the guy locked on he got every counter right with the hidden blade so combat will still be easy I suspect .

The hookblade did impress me though, I think that it's a cool, if unrealistic way, of making the game a little quicker and more entertaining.

Also, please tell me why a 'stealthy' assassin order is now using bombs to blow things up? He could easily take out thoses guards much more quietly...

Fighting an army of templars, throwing bombs, blowing up a huge tower (really blowing up, not like the Borgia towers in Brotherhood) and last of all you give me a scene in which you use a GODDAMN FLAMETHROWER to burn ships, wrecking the harbour in process
For 1 and 2 they'd show assassinations in the cinematic trailer. 1 and 2 were based around assassinations. For Brotherhood, they didn't show assassinations in the cinematic trailer. Brotherhood wasn't based around assassinations. I may be onto something here. For Revelations, I've yet to see an assassination, even though it's still named ASSASSIN'S CREED.

As you can guess, I'm not getting this game, most likely. Unless they figure out that they have to add assassinations to the game.

Okay so I actually like the music now. Someone posted this trailer in a topic yesterday and it looks really good but the music just seemed weird. It's grown on me now though.

As for the gameplay, while it does look pretty cool, as TLS said, it's not in the style of a true Assassin. The ship burning stuff looks too similar to one of the da Vinci war machine missions in Brotherhood and there is no subtlety whatsoever - whatever happened to Hide in Plain Sight?! Ezio just goes crazy burning/blowing up the sh*t out of everything and he definitely jumps straight through a few explosions there.

I also think the bomb/grenade thing look absolutely ridiculous, and again lacks subtlety. Ezio throws the bomb from just a few metres away and, while he and those around him are left unharmed, the guards are thrown into the air (although their ragdoll corpses appear in perfect condition)...? The way they're blown up in 2 seconds just looks stupid to me.

Constantinople looks really nice and the Eastern feel is very reminiscent of ACI but I'm hoping the animations and actual gameplay will be tidied up a lot. Hopefully the game isn't all bangs and flashes and there's more real assassinations in it, but going by Brotherhood and this new gameplay video, it doesn't look like it.

Don't get me wrong, I like Brotherhood and I'm sure Revelations will be good too, but they aren't proper Assassin games. ACI, while supposedly repetitive, had 9 or 10 clear-cut assassinations of key figures; ACII had less main assassinations but developed the gameplay and still kept the Assassins feel of ACI alive; Brotherhood was cool but lost sight of the main idea of the series; and finally Revelations appears to have lost it all - apparently the truth will be revealed to Ezio by blowing the f*ck out of Constantinople. I daresay Altair would not approve.

Ubisoft's problem is going after a wider and largely immature market. They're trying to appeal to the masses by competing with FPSs like CoD where you can run around, guns blazing. For CoD this works really well as that is the whole point but Assassin's Creed used to be about subtlety and being a clever and creative player. WTF happened, Ubisoft?!

I'll tell you what happened, they listened to lots of feedback from CoD playing seven year olds and are subsequently coming pretty close to ruining a great series. My only hope is that the numbered games have been fantastique so I hope they'll put proper effort into AC3.

I've just re-watched the trailers again and it keeps looking more and more like an easy beat em up game which is crap. The guards still stand there and watch their friends die, no multi attacks like they promised for brotherhood. We soooooooo badly need another combat overhaul.

You're also completely right about assassinations Patrick. I would put money on there being very few assassinations and none where you get lots of freedom like in AC1 or AC2 to an extent. I think too that the bombs look ridiculous and do not belong in this game, if they were tactical in some way for diversions then I might accept them but not as they are.

Ubisoft really need to go back to the drawing board and look at what made AC1 and AC2 so brilliant. They need to merge the two games and have lots of freedom with more fluid motion and DIFFICULT COMABT!! I'll still get this game and I'll still find it fun but it looks like it is making very little progress in the right direction.

I hope we're all jumping to conclusions, the multiplayer, assassins dens and other aspects may rexcue this game but core gameplay does look uninspiring as unlike all the other games, there are no major changes.

Sorry, massmurder; I hadn't realised that I only looked at the cinematic trailer.

Wow, Ezio still looks weird though. I was watching the Ubisoft guy's hands during the split-screen battle against guards and I saw a lot of button-punching, not a lot of subtlety. Not a hopeful sign.

Still underwhelmed, I must say! Not enough to stay away from it though.

Patrick and massmurder: you both hit all the nails on all their heads with your analyses. As usual!

The only part that bothered me about the cinematic trailer was Ezio headbutting a soldier with a helmet on. That's a bit ridiculous. Other than that, I'm okay with it. I know guys who are 50 and in Special Forces that can do anything somebody half their age can, so I'm okay with Ezio still having a lot of his skills. Let's not forget that he was in his 40's in AC:B and he was still a physical specemin.

I don't mind that the game seems like it won't revolve around stealth the way ACI and ACII did. Sometimes it's fun to just go crazy and attack without worrying about stealth. I think that if the whole game is designed that way, that'll get old, but there are times when it's fun.

I kind of liked the music too. It was different. It kind of reminded me of a slowed down version of the song from the opening of The Sopranos.

Woah woah now guys. We already knew about most of the stuff you're complaining about. Ezio had no way of stealthing through a blockade with an entire boat. So he goes fully offensive. There will be stealth. I'm glad they didn't show any major story assassinations. This demo was more about showing how they've updated the engine, and the more cinematic action sequences. We have seen ZERO Assassination gameplay, and this series is about more than unfeelingly killing whatever random guy shows up and kicks around a few puppies. It has a narrative. And when they're trying to focus more on the narrative, the straight up "sneak in fortress and kill this one guy" can't be done a million times in the main story unless you want stuff to feel more repetitive.

AC2 had a ridiculous amount of Assassinations, but most of them felt really cheap. Killing the doge, new baddie becomes doge, kill him after killing the guy who killed the old doge, then kill the guy who gave the guy the poison to the guy who killed the doge.

AC1 had 11 assassinations, which it padded out with investigation missions, and for the last two, a lengthy fighting bit. Even without investigations, AC1 was too much about plain assassinations to make the story feel really engaging. I'm totally fine with a bunch of difficult sneaking assassinations being side-content. But basing the game entirely around them was not as good for the flow of the story as having a character who decides to mix things up every once in a while. Showing assassinations in the main trailer either gives away too much, or never actually happens in the game. While from what we know, the Masyaf experience will be a little different, we know that it happens more or less that way.

Stop looking at the ways it's different from AC1. You would be sick of AC if AC2, ACB, and ACB all were just 25 assassinations and a few investigations each. I admit, Brotherhood's assassinations had little to no replay value. THe borgia towers were good, but they made them dissapear after you were done. So now in revelations dens can be taken back. Play the story and enjoy it, then make videos about the dens.

I honestly prefer the whole "ghost in the crowd" stealth and assassination but sometimes that's just not possible, like Calvar said. However, if Ezio needs to go nuts, then he better go freaking Rambo and kill everything, like in the gameplay trailer.

He was 17 in the begining of ACII. The story took place over a number of years. He was in his 40's in AC:B. And please, use spell check...V-E-N-I-C-E...Venice.

got ya

Ezio was born in 1459. ACII ended in 1499. That makes him 40 at the end of ACII. So, in AC:B he is in his 40's.

I really, really doubt that. I'd only get sick if the narrative was kicked out. Gameplay updates are a given, but if those were left out, as well as the narrative, then I'd get sick of it. Maybe. Perhaps.

Also, it's not just about assassinations. It's about the sandbox that it brings. There are just no parallels to the quality of the assassinations in AC1. There are so much ways to tackle them and you can plan beforehand (dat feel when you complete it exactly how you wanted to). You can pick to do whatever you like, but your actions have consequences that you're going to have to deal with. Actual in-game consequences, not the stupid "Oh you got detected, now you are desynchronized"-stuff, but "oh fuck, that's a lot of guards". And even within the realm of all-out fighting you have a wealth of choices that actually influence the fight.
In AC2 and AC:B I felt myself just running from mission marker to mission marker, then running within the mission from marker to marker, perform some action and finish the mission. Most of the missions were like this. AC2's great story and right amount of side missions kept it a great game. AC:B has it's strong points. The ambiance on a lot of missions is great, but the actual gameplay is shit. I refer to my DaVinci Disappearance mission playthrough of the Belrigardo memory. A straight path, no thinking required. Even worse, over half of the vid is cutscenes. Worst thing? I did it like that in my first playthrough of the mission. Don't get me started on combat, horseriding and assassinations. But yeah, ambiance is a very good point of AC:B. Also, the mulitplayer is very enjoyable. Overall, AC:B isn't a great game. I wouldn't even label it good. It's got all this clutter it just doesn't need, a broken economy, unbalanced combat, crappy assassinations, a brotherhood you're supposed to lead but have no emotional connections whatsoever to, badly delivered narrative, glitchy high profile assassinations...

Compared to AC2 and AC:B, AC1 just has the least number of flaws and the best experience in my eyes. The only flaw found in AC1 was the repetition, which you pretty much don't feel at all if you get rid of the GPS and map.

Could've been 39. Still makes him 40's during AC:B, unless the game is less than six months old.

I noticed this too. The whole time he was on-screen I thought, "hey, I musn't be so bad at AC afterall if the devs play the same way that I end up playing!"

Calvar, I appreciate what you're saying that not every game can be like the original AC and in fact I'm glad it's not. I think I prefer ACII over ACI based on the balance of cool cinematics, interesting story and some stealth gameplay. This balance is obviously hard to get right but I think Ubisoft are getting further and further away from the mark more recently. Thinking about it, Brotherhood had some really good parts - the infiltration of the Castello (requiring a lot of stealth) and the stealing of the blueprints for the war machines (again being unseen was necessary) - which harked back to the original game in terms of moving around unseen, but I still want to see some clear-cut and important assassinations of really big targets. ACII and AC:B introduced lots of random characters who seemed to play smaller roles before being killed so, although the repetitveness of ACI is reduced, often it's confusing as to who you're actually going for in the end. Add to that the over-complicated Abstergo shit (which is very cool, there's just too much of it IMO) and you've got yourself one confusing, complex game which is less true to the origins of the series.

You might as well rename this game "Terrorist's Creed." The game has strayed so far away from the original it's ridiculous...

Agreed, although this doesn't mean I won't buy it. I'll try and stop myself but ultimately I will

I think one of the problems is the progression of the series through history (although even with this the games could still be done properly).

The Renaissance, as you all know, marked a period of history where great scientific and artistic development occurred. The devs of ACII, AC:B and AC:R obviously thought, "great, this setting means we can make all sorts of cool contraptions and sh*t that make Ezio really badass and make the games epic. Hell, we can even have Leonardo da Vinci creating this stuff!" And while these gadgets and weapons are very cool, the fact that there is so many just ruins the games. For example, 300 different bomb types in Revelations is just ridiculous. Yes, it is very impressive to have that many possibilites in one game but, IMO, even one type of bomb is unnecessary!

Altair didn't need loads of gadgets back in the Crusades and the simple gameplay of climbing, jumping and fighting with no more than Hidden Blade and sword was wonderful...

And that's why he'll always be more badass than Ezio will ever be.

Altair invented most of the stuff Ezio uses.

And I understand what you're saying about the linearity, but as I said, stuff like Borgia Towers, if made to feel like a different part of the game, can fill that spot.

300 bomb types just means 300 variations of the same few types of bombs, different in small ways. You won't carry 300 at once.

I've played AC1 through several times, and it really isn't as fun to be stripped down and helpless all the time.
Maybe if the game had had a perfect physics system, freerunning that isn't semi-automated, and precise targeting for weapons and animations that work with all of that, as well as a fighting system that isn't incredibly tedious. By the time Altair was Ezio's age, he had a hidden gun, poison blade, dual blades, and probably overpowered groups of 4 or so guards just as easily. Ezio is sick without any of his stuff, he just uses it to take it to the next level. The Assassin Order needs to think like him, or the Templars, who willingly embrace change and advancements, will overtake them.

Altair could be cool, but we don't really know. Even a silent killer who has no emotions can be an interesting character without being flamboyant. He spoke in an annoyed tone of voice all the time, and spoke for too much for the silent killer thing to seem right. He just seemed moody.

The art of Assassination got more complex over the years.

I enjoyed AC1's assasinations, and I would love some main story ones that are open and interesting to complete in many different ways. I also want the Assassin Dens to have lots of interesting setups, I want interesting freerunning puzzles, I want even better scripted sequences, like the one in the gameplay, I want to stalk targets, I want to figure out ingenious ways to kill targets. I want an amazing sandbox that I can use against a city of alert and numerous guards for s's and g's.

I want missions where I must take the consequences of being detected myself, instead of instafailing. I want rooftop guards to be packing serious damage. I want twists and unexpected turns. I want dense and varied crowds, and I want wonderous city environments to put them all in. And I want some wilderness too.

And Revelations looks like it's got it.

Many of the "Purists" (My favorite AC game is also the first one, so don't flame me lol) seem to not see the point of the gameplay trailer, or at least how I see it. They want to create a fast paced, epic atmosphere which is interesting to anyone who watches it, and makes people who have never played the game want to buy it (I know what you're thinking about the : More Explosions = Better lol) while showing some of the new features in the game such as bombs (even if you don't like it, it still appears to play a big part), and the hooks.

One last thing, this is only the first piece of gameplay, people know that there are assassinations in the game, so it makes sense not to show it first, and instead show something new which wasn't here back in AC1. I'm sure we'll get some footage of an assassination semi-soon.

Well put, dude. Better than me, I think. I tend to just go off on tangents.

That's basically what I was trying to say, this kind of moment will be in the game as a fun diversion from the skullduggery and stealth. Every mission is not going to end with an explosion.

I just got a little frustrated as to how you guys, who have all read the Game Informer article, are reacting to informations we've already know, and ignoring some that we've also already known.

Even if there is not a single free-form assassination in the game (which we don't know), the article tells us that Assassin's Dens will be freeform, and that they've put the effort in to make it widely varied between Den setups. Also, they can be taken over again, so you can replay them just by waiting a bit. (though some of you guys use special saves or whatever.)

We knew about bombs in the article, we know that we can still only carry a few different types of bombs at once, and that the 300 combinations are due to mixing components, to create slightly varied versions of a few different bomb types, or combine two bomb types together for a weaker effect from each, but both at the same time.

We know that there will be at least 5 Altair missions, and that Ezio shares your guys' reverence for Altair.

Multiplayer will be back, and can only be better. Please don't decide if you will purchase this based only on a snippet of a cinematic gameplay segment. That's seven kinds of lame.

I'm aware that you don't carry 300 bombs at once. Jesus that would be even more stupid! I still think this game will be good, and I'll still buy it based on some of the new features looking great. But just as the gameplay video may entice new gamers to the series, it also partially puts of original fans.

I don't mind a few cool contraptions and upgrades to the hidden blade - ACII got it pretty much right for me - but loads of unsubtle stuff like war machines (yes, I'm aware Ezio was trying to destroy them but really it was an excuse to be able to use them), canons and bombs, while relatively fun, just doesn't seem right for an Assassin.

WAAAAAAAH KILL THE INFIDEL!!!!111!11!

I remember carrying six seals in that outfit of Ezio's somewhere. Six of those big things. SIX!

To Calvar and Striker: I'm not saying I don't like the diversions. The war machines were pretty good. There was just too much side stuff and not enough core gameplay going on. Also, as of now, I won't be buying Revelations. This'll likely change (the Desmond stuff looks awesome), but for now, just not yet.

Yeah I thought that was ridiculous too but then you weren't using them for a particular effect when carrying them around. Anyway, my point is, I think Calvar completely misunderstood what I was saying. I didn't mean carrying around 300 bombs at once is stupid (obviously it is so I didn't feel the need to say that and that's not what I meant) but the possibility of 300 different bomb types/combos just seems unnecessary and doesn't fit too well into the game IMO.

I understood what you were saying, I just wanted to make sure we were clear on the number of bombs you can carry. As for how it will fit into the game, each variation of bomb is not just a visual skin, they're mechanically different. So there may be a long-lasting smoke bomb with a small radius, or a short one with a big radius. They fit into strategy and planning. And bombs and flamethrowers were around during this time period, though I doubt either of them were quite as advanced as the ones the assassin's have. But hey, they're the ones who invented a hidden pistol during the crusades. Not to mention the hidden blade, which is an extremely complicated peice of equipment for Altair's time period.

The mechanism for the original hidden blade isn't all that complicated, honestly.

I'd argue that it is, since the only melee weapons used at that time relied on no mechanical systems at all. The hidden blade has a spring mechanism connected to a ring that fits on a glove which is connected to the bracer which holds the blade in place, and a three part sliding blade. Later, when Altair redesigned them, they became even more complex.

Flamethrowers have been around for a long, long time before Revlation's Time period.

The Assassin's and Templars are always fighting with or for weapons beyond the "normal" world's tech. That's been a core theme since AC1 with the piece of eden and hidden blades. Templars have been a bit behind the times on tech in all the animus times we've visited, but in present day, they seem to have surpassed the Assassins. I wonder what a Templar hitman is like in modern times.

They're probably pretty difficult to pick out in a crowd. They probably don't walk around with the modern equivalent of a brute (maybe a S.W.A.T. guy). I would imagine pretty similar to a modern Special Forces operator. They obviously have vast assets, which would allow them to be incredibly well equipped and have the latest technologies.

I would definately imagine they'd dress in normal clothing, you're right. But I mean more like what kind of stuff they use in modern times. We heard that the guards use machine guns in AC1, when the assassins tried to break desmond out.

I would assume they would need to use some sort of gun, preferrably small, but with automatic capability and high capacity, maybe like a Tech-9 or a mini Uzi. They would also probably carry some sort of bladed weapon for close quarters combat, maybe like Ka-Bar type fighting knife. I would also imagine that they need a ranged weapon that is easily transportable, while also easily concealed. No clue how to pull this off without a backpack or trench coat because it would most likely have to be a rifle of some sort.

This commented gameplay video puts this mission into perspective a bit more, for me at least. There's no denying that Ezio is blowing the hell out of a whole fleet but at least there is kind of a reason for it

You know something,,, I always felt there was a secret location in Masyaf.... back when AC2 came out.... I wonder what hidden POE Masyaf holds...in Revelations

Masyaf+winter=awesome

That picture is class. Although a couple of those ghost Assassins look like they're skydiving/squirrel gliding, not performing a Leap of Faith

I think that's AC 1 concept art, correct?

Actually yeah. Is the black-cloaked figure with the cane Al Mualim?

Looks like him to me, or at least an earlier version of him... =0

Also, I don't recall seeing those symbols on the flags in the game...
Guess they just designed something randomly for the illustration at the time... =P

Yeah the whole fortress looks quite different. Very cool though. I'm sure this was just a very early drawing to capture the idea of the game. I'm looking forward to the Maysaf part of Revelations a lot

Didn't the GameInformer article state that the Masyaf level was at the beginning? That would be an amazing start to a new AC game. Making it nostalgic.

Yes, Masyaf is at the beginning.

I'm so happy that annoying cape is gone. O_o

On the topic of using bombs to take out gaurds, i don't know if you noticed there was a group of courtisans/gypsies that Ezio walked past in the gameplay demo. I assume you can still use them to distract the gaurds while you sneak past, there's also probebly a way to stealth kill those gaurds near the tower if you choose to.

All i'm saying is just because they show the most direct way doesn't mean it's the ONLY way.

Yeah the whole way through I was thinking how you could do it stealthily. The guards by the tower could definitely be killed in a more stealthy way - in previous games there's been a similar set up where stealth has been necessary for a mission.

I'm willing to bet there was a path around those guards at the entrance. There's also the option to go right through them. Would have made AC1 more fun to replay if I could just say "screw this" once in a while. Maybe there should be stats for completing a mission in either the most stealthy way, or for killing every guard in the mission without taking any damage.

Or just use superblend with the courtesans and swim to the end. First video right there guys!

I'm sure there will be something that blocks you or forces you along that main path, but still. I'm trying this.

The mission is most likely to scripted for superblend, with all the cutscenes. Besides, it'll end once you get to the cannon.

You couldn't stealth through the part after you destroy the lighthouse (because you've just destroyed a lighthouse, ya know?) but I bet you could get to the spot where you plant the bomb without being spotted.