GC ‘07 - Assassin’s Creed : Preview and new screenshots
With the other half of The Gamer Gene busy checking out the cutting edge in game creation at Leipzig, I’m left here poring over these beautiful new screens of Assassin’s Creed and counting the days before I can get my hands on 2007’s massive action title. Hey, at least I’m left with plenty of time to sift through the mound of rumors surrounding this game.
According to gorgeous producer Jade Raymond, the first chapter in this trilogy will see you playing the role of Altair, “a medieval hitman with a mysterious past”. She’s explicitly quashed any rumors of Altair being a time traveler. Yet hearsay of a sci-fi twist continue to persist, especially after what people saw at E3 and X06.
In the E3 trailer, there was one point where Altaïr is killed and the screen fades to black and then shows a head’s up display with the words “computer offline” with a woman in a labcoat behind the display. A futuristic looking health bar, and effects resembling readouts surrounding locked-on enemies also made the time travel hypothesis even more plausible.
But Kirsten Bell, an actress starring in the game, gave us a key clue to the mystery, perhaps unintentionally alluding to a plot which centers on genetic memory and a corporation looking for descendants of an assassin.
Whatever the plot is, I can’t wait to get my social stealth on and blend into some crowds. In AC, your interactions with the public will either hinder you from completing your mission by blowing your cover, or allow you drift amongst them undetected. Depending upon your notoriety with the crowd, they may make it difficult to escape after making your kill. Ubisoft Montreal will be onto a winner with this concept, provided they can pull it off seamlessly.
The extensively interactive (and historically accurate) cities in AC also provide plenty of opportunities to clamber around and exercise the game’s free-movement system. Any particular piece of architecture can be scaled, and during running sequences you’ve got flexibility in how you bound through the environment – hitting the ‘leg’ button will allow you to step over your obstacle, while the ‘arm’ button will allow you to vault or swing on the object.
The chase system scenes look like they could yield some challenging moments, with the crowd serving as dynamic obstacles which can end up being thrown into your path as you pursue your target.
These guys who did a pretty decent job with the fighting in Sands of Time are promising even more fluid and sharp combat mechanics in AC. Realistic damage (i.e. not being able to take multiple slashes to the head) will make timing-critical defensive and counter maneuvers the essential complement to the elegant looking combos.
So with GTAIV being delayed until ‘08, Assassin’s Creed has enormous potential to shine in its place. It’ll be all over PCs, Xbox 360’s and PS3 in November this year.
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