The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

I earnestly hope the cane is for poisoning, if any of you remember the famous story of an umbrella that was used to shoot a poisoned BB bullet (don't know the entire story to that or when, where or why it happened).

And since AC Liberation did have a poison umbrella, that seems more of a possibility. Although a hidden sword also sounds like a great idea.

There's definitely something hiding in the cane. My guess is a sword or a rifle.

I only think it's a hidden sword because they seem interested in keeping the amount of weapons the assassin is visibly carrying down to one, and we know that there will be sword-fighting in the game.

I also hope that if poison is in, it can only be applied at melee range. I've had enough of long-range berserk darting with no consequence.

I hope you're right, Calvar.
I don't want to get my hopes up until I see some actual gameplay, and even then, I won't have my hopes up until I have the controller in my hand and I can actually Feel the game out for myself - but I do like how clean everything looks, and how functional it looks (as mentioned).

The one thing I'm hoping for most is that this game nails Victorian London atmospherically.
I think I'd eat my own hat if Dishonored ends up portraying that kind of atmosphere better than this game.

Kotaku source says that the game is going to be called "Assassin's Creed Syndicate".

I like that better than Victory, which seemed too obvious.

I hope it means they'll be focusing on making the actual organizational structure and operation of the Assassins more interesting and apparent, which seemed to be implied from the original leaked description of the protagonist talking with a masked lady in a carriage, and having one of presumably many undercover contacts give him a top hat to blend with.

None of the AC games have ever really nailed what's actually cool about fiction involving secret organizations, imo. Some of them didn't really need to because they were about a destroyed sect building themselves back up, but even AC1 (which focused on it the most) didn't really give much of a sense of how the order actually worked as a larger organization.

Agree a thousand-fold.
To me, one of my favorite things about Assassin's Creed is seeing how the Assassins function depending on their environment and time period.

Ideally, each setting should offer a new perspective on the Creed, as well as on their internal hierarchy. That, and the hierarchy/Lore of the Templars are what primarily draws me, if we're excising Modern Day and First Civ. This is why I was disappointed when in Unity we see the "Codex Patri Intellecti" (Codex of the Father of Understanding) and it's never looked at, never opened or anything. The contents of that book are practically the Templar's guidelines, and I have a nagging feeling it's got much to do with Sages. The original Father of Understanding was probably Aita himself, and many Sages that followed after him. I may be wrong, but I hope I'm not, since Templars realizing how much of a bad idea it is to trust a dude who effectively never dies would be an interesting twist.

That aside, more about time periods and Brotherhood structures:
In Masyaf, it made sense to have a castle fortress. In the politically-charged setting of the Italian Renaissance, operating out of an unassuming villa fit. In Assassin's Creed 3, there were no Assassins left, save for Achilles ('Thanks Shay!') so the kind of desolate, empty atmosphere lent itself well to making community bonds with the Homestead's residents. Black Flag didn't focus on the Assassins much either, nor were Edward's crew ever characterized much beyond Adewale. He had some pirate allies, and Mary was an Assassin too, but beyond that, nothing. Rogue is about what happens when the Assassins get a bit too crazy, and Unity to me might've been the worst. It started off strong, and it made me want to know more - but the internal squabblings of the Brotherhood annoyed me because they never really let Arno take part. I was just as frustrated as he was that I wasn't allowed to partake, and that was the only part of his character I identified with, save for his Romeo-Juliet love for a badass redhead with a good heart.

As an addendum to my "I want [Syndicate] to nail the atmosphere" I also want to say, "I want Syndicate to dive deep into detail on the Assassin's activities in such a densely populated, well-functioning society (at least high society) with an emphasis on style and propriety." I could stand to deal with a more serious Assassin again, provided he actually uses his words and speaks a fair amount. Arno and Edward were fun jokers to spend time with, but the feeling of the era would befit a more serious protagonist.

As a throw-away note, I want to say the Templars had something to do with the Industrial Revolution, and said Revolution essentially defined Victorian London. It fits with their modus operandi too. Get large amounts of the public to work in your factories for scraps of pay. Sounds like something out of the First Civ times themselves. In fact, one of the things I'd love to see most is using present-day/historical (in this context both mean the same-ish thing) cases of humanity oppressing humanity to provide commentary on the First Civ times. They don't need to shove this in our face, and I'd rather work for my morsels instead of having them handed to me. I've watched The Matrix more than a few times and I discover something new every time, communicated just through cinematography. I'd like AC to go back to that kind of storytelling for less "central" themes.

We learned about the Templar involvement in the industrial revolution in Brotherhood's rifts, I think.

I think the Father of Understanding is a more metaphorical concept than you're suggesting. It's basically referring to critical thinking.

I didn't care that Arno wasn't a major decision-maker in the order, more that the chain of command he was part of seemed extremely unstructured and ineffectual. And after he was thrown out of the order, the Assassins seemed to cease existing as a faction at all. It makes little sense to me they'd let Arno run around taking out his own targets without intervening: obviously the reason they wanted him gone in the first place is because they wanted him to stop killing important people based on his own personal motivations.

There is a super unscrupulous rumor that the Assassin in the teaser (who we think is called "Jacob") may only be one of two protagonists. It would make sense if the other was a woman.

I'd love if the idea was "the genetic memory is too unstable to tell which sex they were, it's your choice, Initiate", but it would also be interesting if they were actually two separate entities in the world, and the story is slightly different depending on which you choose.

That would be straight-up amazing, and if it were the case, I'd play as the woman first just to see how they did.

I'm hoping that the wrist-gun implies that you'll either have no silent ranged weapon, or have to switch your gun out to use one. Having these things be actual independent weapons makes it harder to fictionally justify only being allowed to bring one at once.

OK, so I was looking at those leaked images again: http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/qsqkddfi5wnrx8isnqug.jpg

And it's clear that not only does that fight scene have no hint of swords, but the templar enemy appears to have the same knuckle reinforcements our protagonist does.

So this means that fist-fighting could potentially be the main form of open melee combat. This single possibility has made me a lot more interested to see this game. The most obvious thing is it's easier to justify not being able to fight your way out of every situation, since you'd expect one skilled man with a sword to have exponentially more potential of success fighting a big group than one skilled man with his fists. (and it makes more sense when you punch someone and they're still fine than when you cut someone with a sword and they shake it off)

It could lend more weight to actually killing since your body-count would be reduced, has hints of a moral preference for non-lethal operation in this Assassin sect, and gives a more credible reason for why targets cannot be executed in melee combat. Also, fist-fighting seems so much more period-appropriate to Victorian London. It's so rare that we ever get any system in these games so appropriately re-themed.

I actually hope that the cane is the grappling hook now, that would actually make more sense since it has that eagle-hooked end and was displayed prominently (the grappling hook is sure to be the big thing they advertize) Sure, you'd be able to get away with carrying a disguised sword, but that would mean all enemies would need to have disguised swords or else they'd look extremely out of place, and that seems a bit convenient.

EDIT: also, those are throwing knives in the bottom right hand corner. Don't know how I missed that before. So yeah, the cane is definitely the grappling hook. And this game seems potentially really cool.

EDIT2: usability thing: I've noticed that people have had trouble telling main objectives apart from side activities. Obviously one of the solutions is to not have quite such a large volume of side stuff, but what also helps is having main mission icons stand out from the rest. The friendly green-and-white color of the icon in that screenshot seems perfect for that, and I hope they keep it.

Also I'm an idiot, clearly the gold bar represents XP, not an eagle vision mechanic. Less interesting :-/ But hey, at least that explains why it disappears in the first and second screenshot: that's not something you need on-screen at all times. And it's kinda a good sign that it fades away, since if not it would imply that they'd be focusing on progression as much as a typical MMO does.

I was looking up Brass knuckles on Wikipedia, and I also ended up clicking to the article for Weighted-knuckle gloves.
The two are similar weapons, but the way they use an attack's force is different.
Brass knuckles concentrate the force to cause massive tissue damage. (More Lethal?)
Weighted-knuckle gloves distribute the force over an area designed to knock out if the head is hit (Non-Lethal?)
It's interesting, because Jacob Frye's (speculated Assassin name) hands both have some kind of striking implement on them. One appears to be a glove with weighted knuckles that are out in the open, and the other definitely has brass knuckles on it.

I didn't actually think to look up if those gloves were a real thing, good job DAZ!

I understand that even bare-knuckled fistfighting can easily be lethal (human bodies are fragile) but I still hope that the conceit is that combat doesn't outright kill unless you're punching someone off a building or in some other dangerous situation. I know they'll want the fights to still seem brutal, but I feel it would be a wasted tool of ludo-narrative assonance for it to basically be assumed you're still stabbing fools.

I'm reading about them now, and the thing about knuckles being used to fracture bones makes me think we might actually be the most like a more grounded batman in this game as we ever have been. So I guess it still won't feel right to pick random fights with people, since that might mean they'll never walk again :/ Non-lethal doesn't always mean eithical, but it can more easily be incorporated into a character's own morals.

Female protagonist?

I believe I predicted they'd do a brother and sister story a while ago! Happy to be (possibly) right. Unity was apparently going to be heavily about more than two protagonists but it didn't fit into the budget, (incidentally probably the source of the "too expensive" comment, as well as where the concept of "time anomalies" came from) so it makes sense that the following game would pick that up.

But while that was likely planned in advance, I suspect the gender of the second character was only finalized following last year. Which is cool! Glad that people spoke out, glad they listened. (maybe)

That is totally awesome. I can't wait.

Live Stream Premiere

Syndicates = Names of London Street Gangs

also.... looks like Batman Arkham games with that "assassin gauntlet" to function as a grapling hook.

no swords because it's not too inconspicuous

edit: this is just Victorian GTA... driving horse carts etc

WHISTLING IS BACK THANK GOODNESS!

Okay, that carriage chase was ridiculous...

Assassins Greed Syndicate = GTA: Victorian Asylum

Basically. The fighting looks flashy, but I bet it'll feel bad. One of those "I pressed the counter button and he punched again" fighting systems. Also yeah, the whole vehicle section looks like an iffy add-on. I don't know many people that enjoyed the vehicles in the Ezio games, so why try and bring that idea back?

That looked terrible. All of it.

Any hype I (wrongfully) had for this game is gone now

How the hell are we supposed to parkour when the streets are so damn wide? I don't want to be forced to use that grappling hook 90 percent of the time.

The carriages jsut feel wrong in an AC game.

Also, there was no indication that we'd play as Evey (I think that was the sister's name). It looked to be strictly about the brother.

Alright, there was plenty to dislike in that reveal.

Here's what I like:
1 - No visible melee weapons. I never undestood how a guy with a giant sword/mace/halbeard was supposed to be either stealthy or agile or blend in with those who don't. I'm glad they're going the concealed weapons direction only (from what they said).
2 - Evey/Evie/Eve (omg, maybe SHE'S the Eve we were promised, jkjk) seems like a better character than Jacob, so maybe we'll get to play with her as was rumored last week (rumor was a 75-25 split).
3 - I like the idea of recruiting street gangs to your cause, but only if they function as something more than an ammo box and bank. I want to be able to bring them with me to act as the old thief/courtesan/mercenary archetypes.

So much of what could be cool or not about this is down to how it actually feels to play. At the very least this seemed far less scripted than the Unity reveal, it was really just showing off systems more than implying anything about the assassination structure or whatnot. Glad they didn't try to make a big deal about playing as the sister since it seems like it's only a co-op thing, and it would have been a bit disingenuous to boast about it. I do wish it were a multiple protagonist story. They'd be crazy to not make the DLC entirely about her on her own.

The combat system looked like it had a lot of separate moves rather than long animations: you can see a lot of points where animations look unnaturally sped up to allow for quick transitions into new moves. It will probably look a bit better in final.

I like that at the very least it seems like single-target encounters are a bigger deal.

Like that the hat/hood thing appears mostly cosmetic, would have been hard to make that justified mechanically. Jacob looks pretty inconspicuous in his normal clothes.

Bit tough to tell how well the carriage controls, how much of the wobbliness was down to the driver in the video.

I don't really have a problem with the wide main streets meaning use of the launcher between blocks, did anyone ever really think running on laundry lines was an exciting part of the previous game's traversal? This is basically that but sped up and cooler looking. Within the blocks themselves it looks like there's plenty of great traditional free-running lines.

But yeah, all that unclear mechanical stuff aside, I like the story stuff. The description of Jacob as brash and reckless didn't sound great, but he doesn't seem that bad in the cutscenes. Seems more like marketing wanting to reduce his character down to something simple. Little girl as informant: cool. His sister with the i-don't-know-how-it's-spelled name also seemed cool, as did the potentially Indian assassin. I'll watch whatever they show at E3, then I'm ignoring the rest of the marketing.

Smart political move to acknowledge Unity's reviews, but don't think they should have. It was enough to talk about what went wrong, fan reaction is more relevant than metacritic scores.

I'm super happy we agree on the Combat System, the Rope Launcher and the Wide Blocks.
Like I mentioned in the other thread just for the gameplay preview, I'd like it if the Rope Launcher made an intriguing amount of noise if used near unaware enemies. Might help make the choice between whether to use it or not a bit more meaningful.

yeah, that seems like the obvious thing to do. Also hope that there's an actual reason to go into stealth mode: in Unity you made just as much noise when walking normally, it was only about lowering your profile.

Something people may have missed is it looks like there's no longer a "snap to cover" system: they did corner assassinations while in the normal stealth mode near a corner. Really good functional improvement.

EDIT: if berserk darts are back + have environmental explosion effects, I want smoke bombs gone in exchange

Yeah, that was the first thing I noticed. I'm so happy about that. Unity's cover system might have been the ONE thing that instantly made the experience elicit more groans than it should've.

@CalvarEdit: Agreed. I'd rather that be the option, Darts that affect single-enemies and whose effects puff out in a cloud if shot into a Fire Barrel would be much more interesting than Smoke Bombs that you can throw anywhere, any time.
Hallucination Darts: [Cause Enemies to Fight Anything]
Stun Darts: [Leave Enemies Groggy/Disoriented for a few seconds - quick enough to flow past them with the new supposedly faster pace of movement]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKR42Ci000k

I was surprised to see that they didn't speak with a French Canadian accent. And pre-alpha footage my ass.

Honestly, I'm somewhat underwhelmed with this walk-through. Mixed feeling on the hat. I'm loving the fisticuffs, but the grapple gun seems a bit too much. Sort of reminds me of those Batman Arkham games. I understand why they place carriages in, but their mechanics seem to similar in Revelations. Hopefully, there won't be an abundant of those carriage crashing missions. Those were a drag.

And the AI still needs work. I'm not sure how any NPC or guard could NOT have noticed someone yelling out in pain when a DAGGER flies into their face.

Hopefully they still keep customization in the game.

I think the solution to the knife thing is not to change the AI, but play a quieter voice sample. If you start messing around with the AI on that front, then that cascades into having to find another way to make silent ranged weapons differentiated from loud ones.

Gotta keep systems as simple and clear as possible. No-one was a fan of AC3's hyper-attentive guards. What sounds on paper like "cool, this is realistic" often conflicts with the fact that players need to be able to build reliable strategies for tackling situations. If it were a sandbox assassin sim, fine, but as a game with objectives to complete, you don't want a billion random factors that are difficult to anticipate.

Quieter voice samples for sure. It would feel cooler while playing, to hear a dude quietly croak out a dying breath when you toss a knife in him. AI is constantly being worked on, tweaked and played with, as far as I can tell. It'll be nice to see what kind of changes they bring to it.

It's always funny how people tend to go crazy for the reveals that show a ton of flashy setpieces and little gameplay, not ones like these. You shouldn't really go crazy for either, but this kind is much more valuable. This is the game at its most honest. If games were more often marketed like this, there would be more substantive feedback before launch.

I definitely agree. I always prefer to see games this way.

http://imgur.com/gallery/lnetNis/new
Some people on Reddit are saying they like the look of this UI/Map, and that despite it probably being an early version of it, they hope it stays this simplistic.

It looks like an iteration on this one: http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/qsqkddfi5wnrx8isnqug.jpg and it has the look of a late polish pass on it so I'd expect it to launch much like that.
I agree that it looks good. A more subdued version of AC4's mini-map: fully devoted to minimalism rather than also serving Animus theme. I also still approve of the white highlights on the objective marker, which look less aggressive but more visually striking than Unity's black ones.

I wonder if the lack of architectural detail on the map is the old viewpoint sync thing, or if that has been fully ditched AC1-style. (sync points serving some other purpose or being self-contained climbing puzzles)

---

During the reveal I noticed some folks pointing out repeated voice samples from Unity. Despite thinking Unity's accents were partially to begin building up a relationship with more UK voice talent for Syndicate, I also noticed that Unity's first demos used lines from AC3 which were absent in the final game. They've become more and more diligent about recording new lines as the games have gone on, and most of the NPCs in Unity have dialogue very specific to their context as guards or fanatics in the french revolution. Previously crowd dialogue was more generic, which allowed the same lines to be re-recorded/re-used in future games regardless of where or when they were set.

Basically I really don't care if they directly re-use lines and would rather they remained flexible, but I expect the concerns of them doing that will be unfounded.