09th, June

Fun Stabbing with Assassin’s Creed 3

 

The Assassin’s Creed franchise had quite the appearance at E3 this year; what with the trailers for the third title blowing everyone away at the press conferences and the reveal of Assassin’s Creed: Liberation giving us something to look forward to on the Vita. Yep, this show Ubisoft had their golden geese front and center, and succeeded in stealing some of our attention.

In the case of Aveline, she will be the protagonist in Assassin’s Creed: Liberation, kicking ass and taking names like an assassin is destined to. Aveline will be rocking some dueling pistols, a sugarcane machete, blowpipe, and of course, hidden blades. The fact that she’s a woman of French and African decent is something to applaud. I understand one of the ways to achieve equal recognition in video games on the sex and race platforms is to not make a big deal out of the minority protagonists, but it’s hard not to celebrate. Achievements like these need to be recognized so more developers take notice and realize we’re all more than just sidekicks that you can dress in scantily-clad outfits (looking at you Sheva!).

While I didn’t get to try out Assassin’s Creed: Liberation on the show floor, I did get a sneak peek at Assassin’s Creed 3! There were 3 demos to choose from: Frontier, Naval, and Boston. The Frontier demo covered what was shown at the Ubisoft press conference, and the Naval demo was (you guessed it) naval warfare, which was shown at the Sony press conference. I decided to see what Boston had in store for me.

I didn’t get to play the game myself, but a developer of the game walked me through all the new mechanics Assassin’s Creed 3 has in store. Beginning with the weather mechanics, what is happening in the atmosphere can affect gameplay now. If it happens to be raining, you won’t be able to use your pistols (the gun powder will be too wet to use). If it happens to be snowing, NPC’s will be moving around at a slower pace, giving you the upper hand if you decide to attack from above. This is a nice way to have it where the weather actually plays a role in the game now, as opposed to just asthetics.

Next, you can duel wield! It seems pretty seamless, which makes it nice that you won’t need to pause the action to change weapons. Another modification seen in this title is how you can now blend in groups of 2 people as opposed to looking for large groups walking around like inAssassin’s Creed: Revelations. It’s easier to blend in while the guards chase you, and they’ve even added more animations to make it seem like you’re truly blending.

One of the best additions that I can’t wait to try when I get my hands on the game is mobile assassinations. Instead of having your character stop dead in his tracks to attack his enemies, you now have the option to run up to someone from behind and stab them straight through, then keep running to the next victim. The assassin’s movements look much more fluid as well, which is a plus. Furthermore, hay carts are now movable, which means escaping from enemies by jumping off a roof into a cart is more fun!

Escort decoys are now a thing too. Escort decoys are people you help along the way that want to return the favor by dressing up as red coats and acting like you’re their prisoner. In the demo, the escort decoys helped the assassin walk past some guards with ease before they left him to kill his assigned target.  Other ways NPC’s will help you in the game is by leaving their doors and windows open for you to use to run away from any pursuers, something that will definitely come in handy.

Assassin’s Creed 3 looks amazing! It’s motivated me to dig up the older titles to play through the story, as I’ve only played Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. The developer demoing the game for me said there wasn’t even a need to play the old titles if you’re new to the franchise, but the same thing was said about Mass Effect 3, and that didn’t exactly work out like Bioware wanted. Fans who played the third installment didn’t feel as attached to the characters, which lessened the experience, and I don’t want that to happen to me. Thus, I’ll do my best to play through the Assassin Creed titles before October 30, 2012.