It’s not hard to recognize an Assassin’s Creed game. The series has been around since 2007, and though it’s been quite successful, it hasn’t changed much. Sure, we’ve seen iterative advances like the improved controls of Assassin’s Creed II and the bomb-making mechanic of Revelations, but gameplay has generally been the same: run, climb, hide, kill, repeat.
With Assassin’s Creed III, that changes. Everything feels new and exciting again. While all of the elements fans of the series love are still included, Assassin’s Creed III adds in enough new features -- and improves upon old ones -- to feel fresh. More importantly, it evolves the idea of exploration. Instead of highlighting climbable ledges or using specific markers to tell you where to go, Assassin’s Creed III makes the environment around you feel real. If an area looks like you can access it, you probably can.
“Clarity of navigation is a big challenge in an organic environment because it’s in direct conflict with believability,” creative director Alex Hutchinson told IGN. “What we had to say was basically ‘you can go anywhere.’ Anything you see that has a handhold that’s climbable climbable and we really highlight the areas that you can’t go. We also worked on the idea of, even within branches, there are some areas where you can only go straight, and then we’ll make a very clear point of choice where you can divide to go back and in different directions.”
Assassin’s Creed III also introduces a brand new element: hunting. While we already knew hunting was included, seeing it in action immediately makes you realize what a smart fit it is for the franchise. Staying stealth now includes Stalking Zones, areas you can move through while you chase your prey. After a few seconds of watching Connor hide while he follows a deer, you’ll soon realize the franchise’s assassins have been hunting all along.
“Stalking zones are kind of like mobile hide spots. You can duck into them and if no one saw you, you can move around and hunt down your prey,” Hutchinson said. “They’re useful in the frontier if you’re hunting animals, but also in cities if you’re trying to hunt two-legged prey.”
Enemy encounters in general are far more exciting than they’ve been before. The team behind Assassin’s Creed III has rebuilt combat from the ground up, introducing a two-handed fight style that lets Connor use multiple weapons at once. In addition to a weapon like a tomahawk or hidden blade, Connor might be carrying a pistol. As you move through a crowd of enemies, you might use one weapon for close combat, then switch immediately to the pistol or bow and arrow for a ranged shot. No matter which combination you choose, combat is always quick, fluid and awesome looking.
“It’s all within your control,” Hutchinson said. “If [an enemy] is targeted and you tap Y he’ll shoot, but the animations that play are designated by the system. So if you’re facing the wrong way but your camera is pointing back towards someone then he’ll shoot over his shoulder. If you’re facing towards him, he’ll shoot straight ahead. So you’re in complete control but we always make you look cool.”
Streamlined combat also means streamlined visuals. The HUD has been dramatically simplified, and while button prompts may still appear during quick time events or while countering enemy attacks, the goal is to clear out the screen to allow players to focus and be immersed.
“We spent a lot of time working on immersion,” Hutchinson said. “What we wanted to do was clear out the screen a little bit, so we took most of the feedback from the top of the screen and put it on the bottom, just to give you a really nice view forward. And we’ve tried to make all of the highlights natural. You didn’t notice the highlights for targets, but they’re there when you’re playing. You see them pop between the guys, but we wanted them to be not as dominant on the screen as before.”
If Ubisoft is successful, you’ll be immersed in the world as you explore. Many non-playable characters you encounter feel like they’re actually something rather than just walking along a pre-scripted path, and you can interact with most of them. In the demo we saw, walking through a Colonial camp meant encountering trappers, soldiers and any number of other people who seemed to actually have a purpose.
“There’s a lot of crowd life that’s there to just tell the story of the space, people moving through the environment,” Hutchinson said. “But also in most of these locations, you can pick up side quests or you can encounter random animals that could be attacking you depending on season or time of day, so there’s all kinds of systemic stuff going on as well.”
Ubisoft has put a lot of time into refining the Assassin’s Creed experience, and it shows. While Connor still runs, climbs, hides and kills, he does it in a way Altair and Ezio never quite did, blending in with the world around him on a level previous games never achieved. The plot of Assassin’s Creed III is still shrouded in secrecy, but if the story is a match for the improvements to gameplay, this could easily be the best Assassin’s Creed yet.
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Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/06/04/e3-2012-on-the-hunt-in-assassins-creed-iii
