**Official** Assassin's Creed Thread

[toonces]

Games are getting huge. Thankfully this issue cropped up with some time, maybe they can fix it without much delay in the release date. If it does get delayed thugh, better late than never.

[cmd]

New Assassin's Creed preview from GameSpy:

We spent a day with the limitlessly talented Ubisoft Montreal studio this week. Five hours of unrestrained gameplay on a nearly-final build, one skipped reveal, and quite a few answers from Creative Director Patrice Desilets later, we're ready to believe in Assassin's Creed. This studio visit marked the first time that Ubisoft allowed outsiders to play through entire missions, rather than just the murder and escape portions of the game we've seen and played at previous events this year.

You Will Be a Bright Sword in Darkness

We were placed roughly at the game's chronological midpoint and given three victims to approach in any order we liked. Targets are split amongst the game's three primary cities of Acre, Jerusalem and Damascus. We decided to make time to Acre to play through the entirety of what we'd only glanced upon before: the assassination of William De Montferrat, Richard the Lion-Hearted's vassal and the regent of Acre. His reign's cruelty has brought the wrath of the assassin's upon him.

We headed to Acre. The first time you visit each of the major cities, you'll have to cross the Kingdom first. The Kingdom is a middle ground, patrolled by Muslim and Catholic alike, with routes to each of the game's three cities and the mountain fortess of the Assassins. After your first time through, you'll be able to quick-travel instead of visiting the Kingdom, but we expect to spend plenty of time there regardless.

Throughout each of the game's cities, including the Kingdom, are numerous hidden flags (we saw Templar and Hospitalier varieties). Collecting flags instantly drew us into exploring the cities, learning how to take Altair into hidden places, and in general made each trip through the Kingdom worth taking. Our favorite "collectables" are the lone, bloodthirsty Templars wandering the cities. These zealots will attack Altair on sight, but each one you kill brings you one step closer to completing another collection checklist...

When you arrive in a city with a target, the first step is to find a lookout. These are the tallest points in the area, giving Altair a chance to search for clues and prey high above the bustling distractions of his prey's city. Once you reach the top of a lookout point (marked both on your map and by circling predatory birds), you'll gain access to a bevy of new information. Some lookouts will mark every hiding point in their area on your minimap, while others might simply give you an important vantage point. The most important ones, however, direct you to clues.

Agent, Your Mission is to Kill a Templar

Before you can kill your target, before you can even check into the local branch of the Assassin's order, you have to gather enough information to have a reasonable chance of completing your task. Our target, De Montferrat, required a meager three pieces of information to open him up to our assault, although six were available. While you don't need to gain access to these clues by lookout unlocks -- each one is in the city, and if you find it you can access it -- it's a damn sight easier to find the right crazed zealot to pickpocket when he's been marked on your minimap.

The clues for your investigation are divided among a few basic types of tasks, essentially cutting the grandiose open world task of "take down this gang leader" into easily approached and relatively quickly completed minute missions. You'll find yourself on a wide variety of tasks. Everything is permitted, and once Altair is unleashed, no one commands him.

The clues held by loyal assassin guildies will only be given up if you prove your worth. When you make contact, they'll generally require you to kill a few people without arousing any suspicion, or make it through a preset course in a limited time. These informer missions usually don't take long, though they're a sign of the zero tolerance for failure to come.

If you're caught by guards -- even just bumping into one -- while you're killing your targets, the mission is failed. If your target spots you before dying, the mission is failed. If some crazy person stops you from fleeing the scene quickly enough while the guards investigate a fallen body, the mission is failed. Race challenges are marked by flags, and seemed a bit less frustrating.

Be Prepared

The pickpocket missions tend to be a bit simpler. Find your target, listen to them exchange whispered secrets with someone, and then follow carefully to steal whatever documents your mark has ended up with. Our pickpocket targets all stopped and observed their surroundings at regular points, making it easy to walk up calmly just after and hold down the context-sensitive "pickpocket" button long enough to steal their stash.

Interrogation missions sent us to find a mark, listen to some bit of relevant dialogue, and then follow the target to a relatively out-of-the-way place and beat the living hell out of them until they talked. When you enter most combat your sword is automatically equipped; when you begin following an interrogation mark your fists are automatically brought to bear. Both interrogation and pickpocket missions have their stakes raised when a mark walks through a guard post or by a Templar; some do-gooder even intervened when we were interrogating a local preacher. Not an agent of the law or one of the game's conspiracies; just a guy living in Acre who didn't want to see people attacking a preacher.
What works very well about this format is that it rewards being thorough but doesn't punish you if you just want to skip certain mission types. If you hate interrogation missions, find other clues and use those to reach the number you need to gain access to the local bureau. Each clue does give you more of an idea of what you'll face in your hit, but none are necessary to succeed.

Once you're checked in with the local assassin leader, you're in the hunt portion of the game, which is essentially unchanged from our E3 preview. Find your target, watch a cut scene (where you can move and retain camera control, but can't change the outcome), find a route, and make the kill. It's still deeply satisfying, but far more so after spending our time stalking the target; actually getting to know them as we hunted their secrets in the previous phase.

When Your End Comes, Will You Face the Sun?

It's nearly impossible, if not actually impossible, to avoid a big, nasty fight after you kill your target. Shaking pursuit is a necessity, however, no matter your ability with a blade. Your targets have literal armies; you are one man. Altair's ability to free climb anything that juts more than two inches from any surface simply does not get old, although having to clamp down the right trigger and the A button to stay in the sprint/auto-jump mode does. Your goal, when pursued, is to use Altair's superior speed and climbing ability to break line-of-sight and then enter one of the game's hiding places or clear sufficient distance from your pursuit. The latter isn't too tough before, say, murdering the ruler of a city, but after your kill you'll find most guards unhappy to see you.

Hidden notes and secret codes lurk throughout the medieval cities of Assassin's Creed, messages that only the chosen and trained can see. A circling eagle means there is a place a killer could roost in to observe the city below him, while placid city birds roosting on a ledge mean a bale of hay to leap safely onto below. In a game full of hidden meanings, we were only moderately surprised to find skateboarding and rhythm games hidden beneath the cowl of an assassin.
Combat is more of an innovative rhythm game than what any trained gamer would expect from, well, combat. The game's core gameplay, the ascension through cities and high-speed slashing of throats, is more like Tony Hawk than any other genre or game. Since, in free-run, Altair will jump as perfectly as possible wherever you point him, sprint along ledges with perfect balance, and tumble like an Olympian if you miss a fall, the gameplay challenges are less like a platformer than you might expect.

Moving Altair through his surrounding requires researching that "perfect line" through a city full of obstacles and innocents, then following that line just right while maintaining perfect camera control to handle anything that arises while on the move. You won't be popping ollies, but when you find yourself going from outside a public square all the way back to the bureau to report your success all in one long, perfect sequence, it's the same thrill as nailing the longest, nastiest of tricks.

Don't Give Up Now; You're Almost Home

When we went to Montreal, we were hoping to see Assassin's Creed deliver on some of the promise that it's shown since its unveiling. A stumbling E3 demo at the Microsoft press conference and rare, carefully controlled glimpses of gameplay had left us more than a bit concerned about the ultimate quality of the title. But after finally getting substantive time checking out Altair's adventures in the Third Crusade, we're tremendously excited to see all of the alchemy that Ubisoft Montreal has worked to create a game that takes elements of many genres but is truly something different. There are definitely some flaws, but if Assassin's Creed delivers on what we saw in downtown Montreal we'll be ecstatic assassins indeed.

GameSpy: Assassin's Creed Preview

[Swampy]

you have been a busy boy finding this stuff today CMD havent you!

[cmd]

Some scans from Game Informer:

[Andrew]

Originally Posted by cmd

Some scans from Game Informer:

That reminds me...where the hell is my issue of GameInformer?

[cmd]

There's a new website for Assassin's Creed, I haven't tried it out yet but it seems like you solve puzzles to get "goodies".

[Lethal.]

can't wait for Assasins Creed, will be a great game.. when release date in UK?

[Primal]

16 November 2007..

[toonces]

Thanks for the scans CMD! That reminds me, my GI subscription has lapsed. I gotta get me signed up again! The scans look good, it's nice to see some more shots from the game.

[cmd]

New Assassin's Creed Interview:

Perhaps the dark horse of this year's pre-Christmas blockbusters, if only for the medieval setting and lack of big guns, Assassin's Creed is an action adventure set in the 12th Century. Containing elements of stealth, platforming and action and seemingly inspired by Verve's Bittersweet Symphony video - where Richard Ashcroft barges through some punters on the pavement - AC is more ambitious than the average gaming biggie. I've played a small part of the game and found the controls "interesting" - ie not exactly intuitive - and this was one of the topics I recently discussed with the creative director Patrice Desilets.

The historical setting makes AC look very different to most videogames. Was this a conscious decision to try and do something different?

I think it's safe to say that the Crusades are an area we've wanted to explore for a long time, but we've been waiting for technology to reach a point where we can do it justice. It's not enough for us to simply set the game here - we needed to capture the experience of living during this tumultuous time: The fusion of European and Middle Eastern art and architecture. The hustle and bustle of medieval city life. The intrigue and political machinations of regional leaders. The gritty nature of ancient combat. The air of mystery that surrounds the secret societies that rose to power around this time.


We also choose this setting to keep a strong focus on the crowd. The team decided to focus on crowd and freedom of movement to deliver new emergent types of gameplay. The Crowd has been designed as a living & breathing obstacle that you can influence though your second to second actions as well as through longer term strategies. Basically we want to provide gamers with a level of immersion that was not possible on previous consoles. What better setting for interesting crowd gameplay then narrow medieval streets filled with merchants, nights, public hangings and all of the street life from this gruesome time?


We also think gamers want more then another Hallo or GTA clone. Maybe there is room for games to bring to life the kinds of settings that movies have made so memorable. Movies like Braveheart or Kingdom of Heaven both share this epic feeling we try to achieve in Assassin's Creed.

What are the main influences - both gaming and non-gaming - when making AC?

It may look quite strange but I would say there's a direct connection between our inspiration for the story and the setting and the game mechanics. A book called Alamut was an influence. Though this book is a fictional work, it's based on the Historical Clan of Assassins and it prompted the team who were passing the book around to do further research about the Assassins and their time period - the 3rd Crusade. The more we discovered about these people, the more we wanted to make a game about them. Even the Assassin's Creed "Nothing is True, Everything is permitted" fits the game medium perfectly and eventually became the game's title as well as inspiration for a new type of gameplay. Is there a better setting for crowd gameplay that narrow streets from the epic time of the Crusade?

You can apply the creed to the game itself - traditional game design rules that enforce linear level design and restricted gameplay are thrown away. The player is given the freedom to experience this adventure in a manner that fits their individual play style.

The game also takes its influences from modern elements like parkour running/jumping. We all think that the sport of free-running is incredibly cool and wish we could do it in real life so it seemed like a logical thing to try to deliver in our game. The idea of climbing anywhere happens to suit our master Assassin well and it turns out that having this ability in narrow medieval streets filled with large stone buildings and gothic details creates great gameplay too. Mixing modern free-running with a crusade setting ended up working so well for us that we extended this approach throughout development into a bunch of different aspects of the game including the story and art direction.


You seem to be taking a number of elements in the game - platform, stealth,
RPG etc. What are the main gameplay features?

Our goal with Assassin's Creed was to use the new tech to deliver new types of gameplay and a more relevant experience. We have created a unique gaming experience that we call a "Flower Box" game. It's a sandbox experience that is heavily story driven. The player has the freedom to complete missions when they want and using that strategy that they find the most satisfying but all of these missions are tightly woven into an intricate story and are essential to the big reveal at the end.


Not only you'll be to able to travel freely from on city to another but we are also trying to do something a little different that was not possible before. We focused on building a character that can do over 1000 contextual moves, and paired this new freedom of movement with a highly interactive environment and crowd lets players develop their own style. Any architectural detail that sticks out more then 2 inches can be used as a hold for your hands or feet. Not only can you create your own path on the rooftops you can also create your own flashy or subtle style for doing so or skip the roofs entirely and use a strategy through the crowd. Place a highly mobile and skilled Assassin in a fully interactive living environment and the possibilities are endless.

So basically the pace of the game really depends on how you play it. For instance in Assassin's Creed there aren't any "fighting" or "platforming" sections. All the gameplay elements are embedded together. Gamers will be able to use any gameplay ingredients such as free running, crowd gameplay etc to create their own experience.


Some people think it's slow paced because they think Assassin's Creed is a stealth game. It's true that we have a feature called social stealth. This is a rule that says that you are hidden as long as you are behaving in a socially acceptable way. But this rule results in a much more fast paced type of gameplay than traditional stealth. We wanted a more action packed type of stealth and one that really takes advantage of all of the work we have put into the crowd simulation. Instead of using the hidden in shadow rule we used the rules of everyday life. You are hidden when you are behaving in a socially accepted way. Think about walking around in a crowded city like New York or at a crowded concert. In crowded circumstances it is very easy to go unseen by simply obeying rules that everyone knows: follow the crowd flow, walk at the right pace, don't aggressively shove people out of the way to make room for yourself, don't start yelling at the top of your lungs, etc. We have put these everyday social rules into the game. Which means that our rules are intuitive and also a lot of fun to break because you don't get to go around shoving people and causing commotions in everyday life.

How important is the horseback action to the game? Is it just a mode of transport?

It's more than just that. You can ride your horse at multiple speeds from a very slow walk that allows you to sneak past guards without attracting their attention to a very fast gallop that will leave all of your enemies in the dust. Besides riding around, you can also attack enemies on horseback with your sword, you can use your horse to reach higher locations by standing on it to jump onto near by objects, you can make your horse jump over obstacles and even ride it on top of rooftops and jump from roof to roof. Your horse will follow you around if you get off of it. Which I think is cool because it kind of makes it feel like he's your pet. And your horse may even rear and kick enemies if he gets agitated.