The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

ha!

Ughh I was really hoping (against better judgment) that they'd skip a year with AC due to the recent launch and game troubles. Guess I was wrong.

Victorian London could be nice though.

Ubisoft's marketing is really good.

"Here's a great game, Unity" *releases game*

"IT'S HORRIBLE"

"Free DLC! Free games! (We swear this wan't planned)"

"WE'RE STILL MAD"

*leaks new AC game*

What's next?

The next good news I'd hear is that they're ending the series with Victory.

^Ending the series?

Where'd you here that?

I was saying that the only good news I'd want to hear is if they ended the series.

I'll be happy with that. Unity had good ideas, but the execution was lacking (kind of how I see AC3). Finish the series by fixing those flaws and showing off a great time period that many have wanted a long time. Sounds good to me. Here's hoping.

I hear that Rogue was good because the people working on it felt more inclined to make it fun than try to bring 100 new things to it. Unity was so focused on being unique and a stand out game from the franchise, they didn't know how to make everything work together. If they took a 2 year break and did a "greatest hits" through gameplay in a new gen game to end the series, I'll buy that.

Bring back the gorgeous graphics of Unity, give us AC1 mission structure, give us customization and co op, give us AC2 puzzles, give us tighter parkour control, give us some respect and give the fan base a great ending that makes all these yearly releases somewhat relevant. Bring Desmond in somehow so he influences the final game in some way. That'll make everyone squeal in fan girl glee.

"you can switch your hood for a top-hat" is a hillarious "feature".

I do like that it emphasizes the purpose of the hood as an identity-obscuring aid and warpaint for big public actions, rather than something that actually makes you harder to pick out in a crowd.

The fact that there's a grappling hook is so emblematic of the unending horizontal expansion of mechanics. I can't imagine it'll work well, dislike that it's yet another thing that furthers splinter-cellish gameplay rather than Hitman-ish.

Oh, and of course it's another fucking dude. crossing fingers for a dual protag story.

UI looks good, hope they're basically targeting it to stay the same. reminds me of AC3 in its efficient "nothing on the top" approach.

I am not excited about the setting or any of the uncharted-ish gameplay they described, nor the passing nod to the same damn robotic "chase the thief" ect. "events".

Ubisoft Quebec worked on my favorite AC content ever (freedom cry), and the separation between them and Montreal has the barest of chances of meaning escape from some of the entrenched and outdated design ideas, as well as time to build something more its own thing and less of a sequel.

Maybe something good will come of this, but I really don't have much hope. Since I don't really feel invested in the story, I'll watch every one of the billions of trailers Ubisoft puts out, and watch any unofficial pre-release livestreams. I want to know exactly what it is before I decide anything.

Oh crap, wait! My perfect AC has a map/mission editor. Seeing as how Ubi needs two tries to get an innovation right, this series can't end yet after one more game.
2015: AC Victory
2016: AC Networks (title not yet definitive) - will have a shitty map editor and unnecessary changes in combat and parkour. Also includes a variety of exotic animals. They don't fit in the setting and can't be hunted to craft upgrades. They just attack the player at random times, even during cutscenes. The creative director explains 'I don't know, I thought it would be pretty cool.' Gamers worldwide are confused and enraged and lose faith in the AC series once again.
2017: AC Perfection - the 'greatest hits' game Joey described. Map editor from Networks will be fixed and it's glorious. Patrice Désilets and Jade Raymond will be back in. It will be the best AC ever and a worthy end of the series.

*soft weeping, holding his knees*
Oh, if only... If only...

If implemented like the 'personas' in Liberation, this actually could be a very good feature.

Hopefully in a less staggered way. Going back to changing stations really killed the pacing for me.
Top Hat or Hood should be a quickly-switchable thing, or at the very least able to be done most anywhere.

But you can't just change a persona on a whim... finding a changing station is needed to completely change your look, ditch specific weapons to become more hidden, etc. I was fine with it. If you want to change, you better have good reason to, and commit to it - ie, take time to do so.

I like Ubisoft Quebec's work on the AC franchise so I think this could be a good thing for the series. It seems as if they're incorperating the personas mechanic from Liberation in a sense which is interesting. The biggest shocker from all the info and the screenshots for me was the fact that they're automobiles and trains in a Assassins Creed game. Last time I checked, that's what kept UbiMontreal from making a modern day game. Also they're seems to be combat on top of moving Automobiles which is crazy to think about when talking Assassin's Creed.

I wonder how this game will be on a tech standpoint being AC unity has made that a factor now. It is on the same engine I believe but usually the second or third game under one engine is better off tech wise than the game before it I.e. AC2,ACIV.and Rouge. Hopefully Victory will be able to show what that egi e can really do.

I agree that it's smart to take cues from Liberation, that was an interesting concept, but it's just a silly thing when you take a step back and actually think about it.

It looks like the way they do it they just have Assassin agents in convenient spots who'll quickly swap your headgear, not a long changing room animation. Considering how much the Assassin designs look like normal civ clothes from the neck down, I buy that tradeoff. only question is what the point of using a hood is.

I had always wanted it to be more like with Edward, with the Assassin lowering the hood whenever they're blending and raising it in restricted areas. in that case it would have been more of a cosmetic flourish, but in this case it seems more like a mechanic. Which gives me pause if they're going down the ACU road of intensely incentivized gear progression.

I would hope it's more about new gear meaning new options, with only one outfit being focused on damage mitigation, one on blend times, ect. You could make a interesting set of customization options out of Unity's framework. (and cut down on redundant variants that would take the art team away from making alternate versions of outfits that fit female models)

Customization in Unity doesn't feel satisfying because the different tiers of similar things mean the differences between gear stats don't feel as pronounced unless you've unlocked the highest tiers. It was a problem with most of the other games, except health was the only stat, and it meant so little in them that no-one really cared.

One reason I liked AC3 was how the only real progression came from upgrading ammo capacity and buying new equipment. Unlike even AC1, where you got more health and new moves in each sequence, Connor begins and ends the game with the same amount of health and the same basic combat, stealth, and free-running options outside of tools. His progression simply came from the player getting better at playing. The only issue with that is it kinda doesn't hold up as well on multiple playthroughs, as you've already learned the combat and other systems.

That's why I hesitate to discount RPG elements out of hand: they help to more concretely ground you in what a character would be able to do at any given point, and make them feel like a completely different individual by the end. Well suited for the premise of reliving long stretches of someone's life.

They could definitely do with making progression feel less stat-driven and clinical. if all gear had unique effects, it'd be easy: just have some text describing its function.

One common trend with modern games that employ grappling hooks or similar things is them only being usable in very specific pre-scripted ways. It would be pretty great if that weren't the case with the one in Victory.

I have no problem with swing-points being preset, as that sort of action can't be too fiddly, but if simply aiming at something straight above and climbing up were possible in most places, that would open up so many more interesting stealth opportunities that don't rely on a cover system.

Also hope the swinging physics themselves aren't pre-scripted, such as the ropes in Black Flag. being able to get different uses when approaching a swing point from different angles, and adjusting your direction in the air, that would grant the player so much awesome utility with that mechanic.

My hopes aren't super high that it'll work like this, but I think people aren't super excited about grappling hooks in general because they usually are the generic prescripted version that isn't much more than a linear progression mechanic. would be a pleasant suprise if assassin's creed broke that trend, and maybe popularized more creative implementations?

We've seen "grappling hooks" in AC Liberations - Aveline's whip could be used to grab branches and other swing points. It was only specific moments in specific locations.

What you're describing above is what I got laughed at by others (maybe even you!) before AC3 came out about using the Rope Dart as a grappling hook to use for climbing...

I was going to mention Aveline's whip, but I considered that the premise of a whip doesn't really call to mind a true grappling-hook's functionality. I definitely imagine that they partially intended it as an excuse to prototype grappling hook-ish things, and the same with the rope dart.

Don't forget Altair's Chronicles for the DS. You obtain a grapple hook for swinging on certain points, and it can also be used to trip enemies.

The way I like to imagine a grapple hook in AC is you can use it to grapple onto the same ledges you can climb/grasp. Also nice if it can be used as a way to extend the climb leap and catch ledge abilities.

Normally I would be excited for a grapple hook in an AC game, but for another annual release it feels like a gimmick to make you buy the game. I'm still sticking to what I said before: No one can keep up with the story at that point and the game will be Ubisoft's downfall.

The thing is though... What story...? I mean, where is this "story" you speak of? I found fragments and scraps of one in Unity, as if they were about to write SOMETHING but changed their minds to, "Y'know, better not..."

Sigh.

Still bitter? Still bitter... Sorry.

True the main modern day story is all but gone, but each game has it's own plot that adds to the script of AC. Now we have two games simultaneously released that are connected in story. Any true fans who tried keeping up with it all can be expected to just give up now because it's just too much.

I think there will always be people who want to see how things are connected, but I don't think either recent game forces you to keep up with the connections. Unity's story is dull, badly paced, and problematic at times, but it stands on its own pretty well. My reaction on finding out how Shay was involved was "oh... who cares?"

The modern story was extremely half-assed and definitely didn't help the pacing of the main story. They need to learn they can't go halfway with it: either make it extremely minimal (like the "Animus Netflix" the game seemed to be pitching at the beginning) or just go all the way with it and make it a true parallel story with its own setting, like Black Flag did.

I don't really care much about the story any more, but it doesn't have anything to do with the connections between them, which seem inconsequential.

Not sure I follow the logic about the grappling hook. are all new things gimmicks? would nothing new make an annual sequel more appealing?

Good point to think about.

Yes they are, but the grappling hook has been expected since before the hookblade. Now to keep from losing fans, Ubisoft adds it to the next game so fans have another good reason to buy AC Victory. In other words, it's a BIG gimmick.

Another good example of a big gimmick is multiplayer. From Brotherhood to AC4 it was a completely different game from singleplayer, just another reason to play. Now in Unity it's the same singleplayer game with co-op, something we've been wanting.

"another reason to play" is something the series has tried to add with each game since the second. I can't imagine Victory is running so late that they were still in the planning stages during the reception of Unity, AND managed to get a high quality visual target done in like a week.

Rather it seems like it was always in the plan to continue the aforementioned path the series takes to try to keep things interesting.

I'm definitely skeptical the grappling hook will be much better than the hookblade, but I have definitely been thinking for a while that perhaps the parkour system COULD do with a better bridge to tricky points. And Dishonored and Batman have shown that supplementary quick movement abilities can make for interesting stealth scenarios.

It has potential. We'll see if it amounts to more than a few advantageously-placed swing-points. If that were the case, it would definitely qualify as a gimmick, but we haven't seen how it works yet. Kotaku's description of the internal video seemed to indicate player-determined grapple points.

Anyone notice that there were no comments about a cover system in this preview? it could be they just didn't show it in an early form, but I would be happy if that weren't the focus of the game. stealth inside buildings could totally be doable based solely on corner cover, and social stealth is dearly in need of some loving.

Make stealth less "sticky" and bring back the Whistle. I'll at least consider buying the game.

ugh, removing whistling in exchange for the firecrackers was the worst. so many of the neat little things from recent games removed, and it makes you feel disempowered in a really bad way.

also I want stalking zones back, now that we can enter a specific stealth stance it doesn't have to be automatic, and it helps to allow more varied hiding spots in places where other things might seem contrived.

something that kinda disappointed me about Unity was the music. at times it felt like it had an interesting old-fashioned period piece sound to it, like the kind you'd hear in a movie about paris from the 40s. But that was often undermined or forgotten in favor of either uninspired tron-alike stuff or generic renaissance fair tunes.

Overall, it just didn't feel cohesive or bold enough, and ended up feeling safe and homogenous. It actually reminded me of Brotherhood, which I think was Jesper Kyd's worst AC soundtrack.

I definitely think that AC music should combine digital sound with period instruments, but it has to be in a far bolder way than Unity. It was especially disappointing coming off AC3 and Black Flag, but even those didn't go so far as the magical atmosphere AC2 created.

(speaking of, one of the worst parts of Unity's soundtrack was where it briefly aped Ezio's Family. felt so forced.)

Ironically, as a Unity season pass holder (never again), I think my replacement Far Cry 4 was a much better assassin game than Unity in many ways. Might have something to do with Alex Hutchinson being the director. Might have something to do with the "assassination" of

Secrets of the Goddess
The Mountain Watches
The Hard Road
Victory by Inches
Take Down (including this one even though it's only modern instruments just because it's really good, in game it's only/mostly used in missions where you steal blood diamonds which adds to the feel a lot)

Yeah, I like a lot of things about the style of Far Cry 4! really interesting music, for sure.

I just looked at the composer's Wikipedia page and it makes a whole lot of sense why the soundtrack was so good. He worked (among many others) with RHCP, Cap'n Beefheart and a band that inspired the name for a Tool album. How a video game company decided to hire him is beyond me.

The composer for Black Flag did the soundtrack for Iron Man 3 along with a lot of other movies. Video games make more money than the film industry right now. Hardly new for big composers to get hired to work on them, been happening for more than a decade.

Just realized that the only sensible reason for switching between hat and hood is that hats fall off while you do parkour moves. This is also one of the silliest things I've ever pictured, and I seriously hope its the case.

um... or both partially conceal your identity, the hood better in restricted areas and the hat better in social situations (like parties).

Why would guards be less suspicious of a person whose face they can't see? If that's the case why would they detect you faster if you were wearing a hat and facing away from them? They could certainly make the mechanics anything they want, but the only thing that is immediately self-explanatory is "you physically can't keep your hat on if you want to do most high-profile assassin-y things.". The only way to introduce the idea of looking more like every other NPC, still keep the original assassin look, and avoid calls for "normal historical person" becoming the new standard is to say the old style is more practical in certain situations.

if people in party situations wear hats, it helps the assassin blend in.

if the hood helps hide the form of a head within a shadow to blend into shadows, it helps the assassin.

I agree that wearing a hood in the middle of the day makes you stand out more than not and is silly.

I agree with that logic, but since shadows never play into AC stealth and it's all about line of sight blocking and blending, I don't feel like that would be a meaningful distinction.

My train of thought is what differentiates a hood from a hat? Mainly the fact that it's attached to the actual outfit, and thus won't fall off when performing extreme actions. (even if it might flop back a little bit) Its other difference is that it can obscure identity, but that implies a complex notoriety system which I'm assuming they also won't bother with due to already having to deal with the burning car wreck that is where Unity left them.
And just in general I feel like they probably want to stay away from introducing a concept that isn't immediately obvious and intuitive. They want goodwill and good review scores after Unity, and making sure new things are user-friendly and easy-to-grasp is the best way to do that, for better or worse.

So you're right, my conclusion isn't definitely true, but I feel it's the most likely scenario based on the probable basic framework of the game.

The top hat is for hiding a hidden cannon. That should have been obvious.

We really don't need a whole top hat for that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxHW-QGMuZ4

I just immediately thought of Rengoku: The Tower of Purgatory, wow...

Something I've been thinking about since the Victory leak is Eagle Vision as a limited resource. It would be interesting if it had applications for stealth, with viewing enemies through walls, navigation, by highlighting climb paths in an environment, and combat, by giving you the ability to killstreak similar to older games. (the conceit being that you're focusing and sensing their weak points)

Obviously that last one is potentially more useful that previous ones, and killing an enemy through that method should burn through meter much faster. As always, failing to counter a hit while streaking should knock you out of it, and also carry a meter penalty. To be clear, despite having similar characteristics to bullet time, this should not make time move more slowly. Melee combat should be encouraged over ranged combat in AC, though obviously the latter has inherent moments of usefulness. This is just another way to make melee seem more viable for those who want to save eagle vision to be used that way

Would also be interesting to introduce enemies who can't be dispatched in this manner due to also possessing Eagle Vision, since AC4 established that all people can be trained to use it to some extent even if they aren't naturally gifted. Probably high-level Templar enemies and targets, and obviously if you end up fighting Assassins that would apply to them too. A good way to make elite guards more imposing, set the Templars apart from thugs and normal guards, and an excuse to avoid making bossfights hilariously easy.

This is a very good idea. Assassin's Creed has a nefarious habit of setting up an amazing universe, with a very intriguing story, and origins of humanity - yet it does next to nothing with it in its mechanics. The problem with Assassin's Creed is that it is built from three constituent pieces;

[First Civilization Era]
[Modern Era]
[Pre-Modern/Historical Era/In-Animus Eras]

However, it consistently fails to express all three of these with the same level of force. This leaves the overall experience feeling weak, and always as if something's "not quite there." While it's a horrid offender of this in terms of its Narrative and Story, your comment, Calvar, helped me realize that it also does this with its mechanics.

Eagle Vision is something we take for granted, as easily accessible and fluid, and mindless as the parkour system. This is not a good path for the games to take with a mechanic as important and significant in the narrative as Eagle Vision. It may have been fine to merely have it display the aura of the surrounding world in Assassin's Creed 1 and the next few games, but going into the next generation of Assassin's Creed, it should begin to evolve as well.

I would like the Memory Corridors to no longer be simple cutscenes with no gameplay involved.

I would like them to have the Assassin actually interrogating their dying Target in a manner similar to LA Noire, or other games in which dialogue options are available.

The player would have a time limit before the target truly dies and lets go of their mind, to ask questions that may or may not uncover later Targets' patrol paths, guard locations and the like.

These interrogations, though they are player-directed will not take anything from the story, since in the moment of death, the Assassin's Sixth Sense (Eagle Vision) would pick up on all the neural activity from the deader's mind and give us the same kind of cutscene we'd normally get in previous games. The way they did it in Unity didn't reveal as much motivations and intent as the former games' Memory Corridors do.

This wouldn't be so egregious if Unity's were actually long or substantial enough to be more interesting. I found myself zoning out through most of them, and only making a mental note to remember faces of people. The dialogue and words spoken, the exposition that they should have been revealing, to make that intrigue bubble up in the middle of my chest, was no longer there.

I don't think all three layers of AC need to be equal. I'd argue that historical should be front and center, modern below that, and the larger TWCB mythos the least prominent thing. That way the core experience is the most grounded, and it gradually gets weirder as you dig in more.

I wouldn't say no to a tastefully done choice-based interrogation sequence, but my main concern is making Unity's approach more interesting. It had a pretty clear formula, of each one introducing a single extra person you hadn't seen before and now need to kill. I wish it were less of an obvious path from target to target, and the visions were more about fleshing out the character of the target you just killed. It would be helpful if investigation systems were rendered in greater fidelity, to avoid the need for scripted moments to serve so much as bridges.

I'll agree to disagree with the breakdown of story - since to me the TWCB mythos and the Modern Day are the two PRIMARY AC storylines and the part of the games that links all the otherwise disconnected Historical settings together, gives them Purpose.

However, I do agree wholeheartedly with the second part. Seems that's what my heart was targeting - more fleshed out story (make each Target feel like they matter again) and less scripted route to Knowledge. Something like Shadow of Mordor would be cool here, and I can already feel tingles since even GETTING to an Intel target without killing them would provide a more Core stealth experience than being able to murder them however we want, with whatever ranged weapon, etc.

When we have to keep them alive, and interrogate them - possibly WITH several guards around them (not necessarily knowing we're coming) that would do well for tension.

I don't think TWCB or modern gives them their purpose at all. The purpose of the games is visiting historical places and doing assassin things, and the modern and twcb stuff has to adapt to those needs. There's a difference between the way those layers are framed in the universe and what they actually mean in the reality of how the games are made.

I don't like the idea of physical target interrogations, as it limits the creativity in how you can take them out. The current visions are a good way to deliver information regardless of the ancestors position in the world. I have no problem with that aspect.
It fits AC as an open world game, whereas the confessional method seems more fitted to something more linear, like splinter cell.

Interrogations as something you could do to any guard to mark people and locations on the map (mgsv style) seem better to me, as it doesn't limit you, its just an option that you may ignore depending on your style of play. It could also give nonlethal takedowns a much-needed functional purpose.

Then they are making the games wrong.

TWCB and the modern day ARE what assassin's creed and the universe is should be about.

It may not be why people buy the games, but it is the main story to the games nonetheless... or was before the yearly sellouts anyway.

theres only one ac game that hasn't been yearly, so that kinda describes all of them. And yes,the modern story ties them all together, but they cant actually use it as a guide for where the game goes. It's a fictional story, not an actual history they discovered. It's not possible to start without deciding where you want to take the historical aspect first. And even if it were, a video game of that scope is too expensive to create to purposely make it appeal to as small a part of its audience as possible.

Exactly. And see, this is where the misfortune comes in. The FACT IS, they gave us a compelling and cool story about the origins of humanity that a surprisingly large number of people DO CARE about. This means, as Calvar himself has said a few times before, Ubisoft is undoubtedly going to leave somebody unhappy.

Rather than, "They're making the games wrong," it's more like, "Then they're making the wrong games."