Ok so, the contents of the Gameinformer Assassin’s Creed 3 feature have hit the web and they include a lot of info as well as some minor spoilers (Ye be warned). If you just want to have a look at a list with a quick rundown of all the bullet-points you can go check that out here.

Our new protagonist, Connor Ratohnhaketon (pronounced Ra-doon-ha-gay-doo), is a half English half Native American who grew up with the tribe of the Mohawk. After clashing with the colonists, Connor’s village is burned down which leads to him dedicating his life to confront tyranny and injustice.

Taking place between the years 1753-1783 you can expect the likenesses of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Charles Lee. Next to the British Colonists players will encounter French settlers and Native Americans. This time around the developers hope to bring across the history more vividly so that players can experience the importance of certain events instead of simply discovering historical landmarks. For accuracy purposes the development team has worked together with historical dialogue consultants and Native American actors.

Locations will include New York, Boston and what is referred to as the Frontier, a territory of wilderness 1.5x bigger than the map of AC: Brotherhood, though it must be noted that the landscape will be the showcase of one third of the games missions, instead of being an empty hub as in the first Assassin’s Creed. This also brings the addition of wilderness traversal, where you’ll be able to use trees and cliffs to navigate your way through the wild. A more dynamic world is also planned to be introduced with changing seasons, with NPCs reacting to the shifts in weather, and landscapes, which will transform in conjunction with the game’s events. Due to the vastness of the landscape, a quick travel system has been implemented.

The Anvil engine has seen an update, allowing the depiction of larger scaled battles with “thousands of troops” and more detailed facial animations. There are up to 2.5 hours of fully acted character scenes, adding more depth to the games story telling. Animations have been updated, having Connor sport an entirely new set of unique moves.

Freerunning becomes more fluid this time around, presenting new manoeuvres such as slides and the ability to jump through windows. Combat has a heavier emphasis on speed, allowing the use of secondary attacks, dual wielding and take downs during chases. The targeting system has been removed to make way for an auto lock system with a dynamic camera to better capture fights in a cinematic vibe, think of Rocksteady’s Batman series’ free flow combat system. The images released so far don’t make this apparent, but Connor supposedly does posses a hidden blade, next to his trusty knife and tomahawk.

Sidequests will include a variety of groups and clubs dedicated to specific aspects of the game, for instance a hunting society which gives you missions as you progress in the Frontier’s hunting gameplay. The in-game economy will be more dependant on goods instead of a certain currency while the property system, notoriety management and brotherhood mechanic are supposed to see some updates too, the tower defence mode has luckily been removed. Next to the first person puzzles, Desmond will have more to do this time around as well. No words on multiplayer thus far.

Assassin’s Creed 3′s development cycle has been the longest in the series since its initial launch. As the Alpha version comes to its completion in the coming weeks, the development team plans to refine the game until its October 30 launch this year.

I’d say this all sounds like they’ve snagged their favourite mechanics to bring us the Uncharted Creed: Red Arkham Redemption, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Uncharted was initially known for using familiar elements from different games to deliver a cinematic feeling we hadn’t experienced in a video game before. I hope that the new Assassin’s Creed can deliver on Ubisoft’s high hopes.

 

 

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