Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
AC:Unity is the first true next gen iteration of the longstanding AC franchise. Ever since e3 we've received tons upon tons of information about the game. But what I find baffling is how little people seem to know about the game, it's mechanics, and how Ubisoft is enhancing the tried and true AC experience. And also how often threads where people display even a tiny bit of hype we have the same people who come in with their drive by posts.
For example, the last AC:Unity thread had several posts like this.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=123168833&postcount=3
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=123184931&postcount=55
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=123191720&postcount=69
^ None of this please.
I for one, am very excited about playing the new version of one of my favorite gaming franchises, even more so considering that it won't be held back by last gen consoles.
And courtesy of reddit, here's everything we know so far about AC:Unity. I can edit in the information for those who don't wanna click the link.
http://www.reddit.com/r/assassinscreed/comments/2aw8b5/every_single_thing_we_know_about_unity_with/
Highlights from the Reddit post.
Cast and Crew
-The Creative Director on ACU is Alex Amancio; who was also the Creative Director on ACR
-The Lead Writer on ACU is Travis Stout; who was also the lead writer on State of Decay
-ACU will have three composers: Chris Tilton, Sarah Schachner and Ryan Amon, preview of the game's soundtrack here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb0moWEErOM
-Arno's voice actor is Dan Jeannotte
CO-OP
-Seamless 2-4 player co-op
-The skills and unique gear you acquire in solo missions will be accessible in co-op
-You will also select one of four unique co-op skills that will help your team survive, evade or kill more effectively.
-Full co-op support in the open world
-There is a large incentive to replay the co-op missions with randomized enemies, alternate paths, and various tactical options that can lead you to new challenges, encounters, and rewards.
-You are always playing Arno. When you're playing co-op, you're actually playing a memory of Arno performing a Brotherhood mission for the Assassin Brotherhood. From everybodys perspective, they're playing Arno. However, other players can see your gear, outfits, and weapons so unless everyone chooses the exact same gear, weapon types, colors, and cloth textures, it's very hard to make clones.
-All co-op missions are optional, story based and can even be played solo. The developers promise that those of us who love playing through the game's solo campaign and side missions will not feel underserved. Warning, missions for obvious reasons are harder if you play with less than the recommended amount of players, and naturally easier when you play with more than the recommended amount of players.
-There will be at least eleven Brotherhood (co-op) missions. NEW Co-op missions are confirmed to be All 30-40 minutes long.
Customization
-As you complete missions, youll earn skill points, which youll be able to spend upgrading your skills.
-Unity includes different skill trees for stealth, combat and navigation; its up to you how you spend those points.
-Confirmed available weapons: Spears, Axes, Swords, Pistols, smoke bombs, muskets and the Phantom Blade.
-The skills and unique gear you acquire in solo missions will be accessible in co-op
-NEW For the first time, Assassin gear has special properties, like a hood that lets player disappear into crowds faster[/B]
-There is a massive amount of customization options for Arnos robes. You can mix, match and decide which hoods, top body, lower body, and boots you can wear. As well as the option to get rid of the iconic assassin coat tails. You can also edit the texture that appears. From plain white clean clothes to dirty stripes.
Combat
-The new combat system is based on skill, timing, and flow
-Enemies are both smarter and tougher, but so is Arno. Button mashing will no longer work when facing a large crowd.
-The instant, one button counter kill and kill streaks are both gone
-The Phantom Blade, the new form of Hidden Blade which can also fire projectiles. It has two main modes, the instant kill bolt, and the berserker bolt (Which works the same as the berserker dart in AC4). The Phantom Blade can also be helpful with causing a distraction, where a guard will go over to check a dead body
-New combat moves include parry, dodge, tackle and heavy attack.
-One skill tree will be devoted to combat
-Confirmed available weapons: Spears, Axes, Swords, Pistols, muskets and the Phantom Blade
Stealth
-The stealth system has had a complete overhaul
-There is now a dedicated stealth mode, where at the press of a button, you crouch, move slower, are harder to detect and can cover against objects
-Stealth mode is activated by pressing LB(On XB1) or L1(PS4)
-When evading your pursuers it is vital you break the line of sight, they will search for you in your last known position
-There is a new disguise skill
Open World/Side Missions
-Full co-op support in the open world
-The buildings in Paris, including historic monuments like Notre Dame, are 1:1 scale, the city itself, is about the size of the frontier in AC3
-You can explore sewers and the famous catacombs of Paris seamlessly with no loading screens.
-Solvable murders are spread throughout Paris
-NEW In Assassin's Creed Unity, "Cafe-Theatre" is the Equivalent of The Villa from AC2 and The Homestead from AC3.
-NEW Each district will have a "satellite" cafe that, once purchased, will unlock new missions which when completed, will change the crowd "ecosystem"
Paris stories missions revealed so far
-Nostradamus treasure hunt; You will to use the database entries to help solve riddles left by Nostradamus
Changes/Enhancements to the AC Formula
-Dynamic events like participating in fights or chasing a thief are available in the open world
-The new high ground feature allows you to see all the gameplay opportunities in the near by vicinity by simply being high up
-There will no longer be guards patrolling the rooftops
-There is no longer an automatic day/night cycle
-One quarter of buildings are enterable seamlessly with no loading screens.
-There is a max of 5,000 NPCs on screen at once
-NEW For the first time, Assassin gear has special properties, like a hood that lets player disappear into crowds faster
-Parkour changes
1.The parkour system has been overhauled, we now have the ability to parkour down as well as up just by the press of a different button.
You parkour up by holding A/X and RT/R2 and can parkour down by holding B/Circle and RT/R2
1.Parkour Footage:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1tkFclHpDE
Main Missions/Story
-Arno grew up in Versailles and that is where the game will begin
-Arno has French and Austrian heritage and joins the Assassins in 1789
-NEW Arno has a habit of quoting the classics & tends to use humor to deflect when he is emotionally vulnerable.
-There are two main categories of missions: Adaptive Mission Mechanic (AMM) and Blackbox
1.B]AMM missions give a theme and can change depending on what you do during a mission. For example, if youre caught during a tailing sequence, it becomes a chase sequence. If you lose your target, it becomes a locate sequence.
2.Blackbox missions give you an area to explore, create opportunities, and kill your target.
You can replay missions and complete them in different ways.
When accepting a mission, you can see the difficulty of the mission on a scale of 1-5 stars, what friends are playing it, and, if its a Brotherhood (co-op) mission, the maximum number of players that are allowed.[/B]
NEW Size of Paris
Ubisoft wasn't kidding when they said 1:1 scale.
August Updates
Full Gamescom Demo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orLecxD6QUI
Get to Know Arno
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/featu...-to-know-arno-from-assassins-creed-unity.aspx
Get to Know Elise
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/featu...to-know-elise-from-assassins-creed-unity.aspx
Game Informer made this really informative article about one of the major characters of AC Unity, Elise the fiery templar.
Highlights from the game informer article
-Dont dismiss this skilled swordswoman as a mere damsel in distress or minor character. Elise plays a pivotal role in Arnos journey, having a larger place in the plot than previous non-player characters.
-She grew up with Arno, after her father took him in, and eventually falls in love with the man who becomes an Assassin.The two lose touch after some time, but are brought back together when Elises father is murdered.
-Love stories are always a hard thing in video games because ultimately they can very easily become a tangent.By making Elise a Templar and making that part of the core, its part of the actual struggle of the character. It prevents it from becoming a B-plot or a tangent.
-Arno feels guilty about the death of Elises father and is searching for redemption. Elise, on the other hand, is out for revenge. Shes also watching a shift of power occur in the Templar Order. The man who is taking over for her father has different ideals, and its clear that betrayal and manipulation is going on behind the scenes
-Elise is very driven and sticks to her values, which will put her in conflict with Arno, who second-guesses his allegiance to the Assassins. According to Amancio, the story will also explore the dangers of vengeance and where that can lead you to. Elise is hellbent on justice for her father, but how far will she go to get there?
-She also wont sit idly by and wait for Arno to do all the work. Shes much better with a sword than Arno and can hold her own.
-Shes that girl when youre growing up who always gets you into trouble, he muses. She always ends up being fine, but you always end up being in trouble, too. You know youre going to end sneaking into an apple orchard and getting chased by dogs, and shes laughing because they just missed her. And shes sitting there laughing and teasing you. Shes a free spirit.
-She wasnt just shoehorned into the plot to represent the female gender either. We wanted to create a smart and intelligent, multi-layered character that didnt represent any cliches that any character may have, Amancio says. When we create any character, whether its Arno or Elise, we treat all of them as characters. Gender is something that is an intricate part, but it is never a deciding factor in anything of how that character will be. All thats [important] is that shes a strong character.
A video interview with the creative director about the plot of AC Unity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycZ1szYrwQ8
Elise is also getting her own novel that will tell the events of Unity from her perspective.
Sounds like a pretty sweet character to me. Looking forward to how the story pans out.
For example, the last AC:Unity thread had several posts like this.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=123168833&postcount=3
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=123184931&postcount=55
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=123191720&postcount=69
^ None of this please.
I for one, am very excited about playing the new version of one of my favorite gaming franchises, even more so considering that it won't be held back by last gen consoles.
And courtesy of reddit, here's everything we know so far about AC:Unity. I can edit in the information for those who don't wanna click the link.
http://www.reddit.com/r/assassinscreed/comments/2aw8b5/every_single_thing_we_know_about_unity_with/
Highlights from the Reddit post.
Cast and Crew
-The Creative Director on ACU is Alex Amancio; who was also the Creative Director on ACR
-The Lead Writer on ACU is Travis Stout; who was also the lead writer on State of Decay
-ACU will have three composers: Chris Tilton, Sarah Schachner and Ryan Amon, preview of the game's soundtrack here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb0moWEErOM
-Arno's voice actor is Dan Jeannotte
CO-OP
-Seamless 2-4 player co-op
-The skills and unique gear you acquire in solo missions will be accessible in co-op
-You will also select one of four unique co-op skills that will help your team survive, evade or kill more effectively.
-Full co-op support in the open world
-There is a large incentive to replay the co-op missions with randomized enemies, alternate paths, and various tactical options that can lead you to new challenges, encounters, and rewards.
-You are always playing Arno. When you're playing co-op, you're actually playing a memory of Arno performing a Brotherhood mission for the Assassin Brotherhood. From everybodys perspective, they're playing Arno. However, other players can see your gear, outfits, and weapons so unless everyone chooses the exact same gear, weapon types, colors, and cloth textures, it's very hard to make clones.
-All co-op missions are optional, story based and can even be played solo. The developers promise that those of us who love playing through the game's solo campaign and side missions will not feel underserved. Warning, missions for obvious reasons are harder if you play with less than the recommended amount of players, and naturally easier when you play with more than the recommended amount of players.
-There will be at least eleven Brotherhood (co-op) missions. NEW Co-op missions are confirmed to be All 30-40 minutes long.
Customization
-As you complete missions, youll earn skill points, which youll be able to spend upgrading your skills.
-Unity includes different skill trees for stealth, combat and navigation; its up to you how you spend those points.
-Confirmed available weapons: Spears, Axes, Swords, Pistols, smoke bombs, muskets and the Phantom Blade.
-The skills and unique gear you acquire in solo missions will be accessible in co-op
-NEW For the first time, Assassin gear has special properties, like a hood that lets player disappear into crowds faster[/B]
-There is a massive amount of customization options for Arnos robes. You can mix, match and decide which hoods, top body, lower body, and boots you can wear. As well as the option to get rid of the iconic assassin coat tails. You can also edit the texture that appears. From plain white clean clothes to dirty stripes.
Combat
-The new combat system is based on skill, timing, and flow
-Enemies are both smarter and tougher, but so is Arno. Button mashing will no longer work when facing a large crowd.
-The instant, one button counter kill and kill streaks are both gone
-The Phantom Blade, the new form of Hidden Blade which can also fire projectiles. It has two main modes, the instant kill bolt, and the berserker bolt (Which works the same as the berserker dart in AC4). The Phantom Blade can also be helpful with causing a distraction, where a guard will go over to check a dead body
-New combat moves include parry, dodge, tackle and heavy attack.
-One skill tree will be devoted to combat
-Confirmed available weapons: Spears, Axes, Swords, Pistols, muskets and the Phantom Blade
Stealth
-The stealth system has had a complete overhaul
-There is now a dedicated stealth mode, where at the press of a button, you crouch, move slower, are harder to detect and can cover against objects
-Stealth mode is activated by pressing LB(On XB1) or L1(PS4)
-When evading your pursuers it is vital you break the line of sight, they will search for you in your last known position
-There is a new disguise skill
Open World/Side Missions
-Full co-op support in the open world
-The buildings in Paris, including historic monuments like Notre Dame, are 1:1 scale, the city itself, is about the size of the frontier in AC3
-You can explore sewers and the famous catacombs of Paris seamlessly with no loading screens.
-Solvable murders are spread throughout Paris
-NEW In Assassin's Creed Unity, "Cafe-Theatre" is the Equivalent of The Villa from AC2 and The Homestead from AC3.
-NEW Each district will have a "satellite" cafe that, once purchased, will unlock new missions which when completed, will change the crowd "ecosystem"
Paris stories missions revealed so far
-Nostradamus treasure hunt; You will to use the database entries to help solve riddles left by Nostradamus
Changes/Enhancements to the AC Formula
-Dynamic events like participating in fights or chasing a thief are available in the open world
-The new high ground feature allows you to see all the gameplay opportunities in the near by vicinity by simply being high up
-There will no longer be guards patrolling the rooftops
-There is no longer an automatic day/night cycle
-One quarter of buildings are enterable seamlessly with no loading screens.
-There is a max of 5,000 NPCs on screen at once
-NEW For the first time, Assassin gear has special properties, like a hood that lets player disappear into crowds faster
-Parkour changes
1.The parkour system has been overhauled, we now have the ability to parkour down as well as up just by the press of a different button.
You parkour up by holding A/X and RT/R2 and can parkour down by holding B/Circle and RT/R2
1.Parkour Footage:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1tkFclHpDE
Main Missions/Story
-Arno grew up in Versailles and that is where the game will begin
-Arno has French and Austrian heritage and joins the Assassins in 1789
-NEW Arno has a habit of quoting the classics & tends to use humor to deflect when he is emotionally vulnerable.
-There are two main categories of missions: Adaptive Mission Mechanic (AMM) and Blackbox
1.B]AMM missions give a theme and can change depending on what you do during a mission. For example, if youre caught during a tailing sequence, it becomes a chase sequence. If you lose your target, it becomes a locate sequence.
2.Blackbox missions give you an area to explore, create opportunities, and kill your target.
You can replay missions and complete them in different ways.
When accepting a mission, you can see the difficulty of the mission on a scale of 1-5 stars, what friends are playing it, and, if its a Brotherhood (co-op) mission, the maximum number of players that are allowed.[/B]
NEW Size of Paris
Ubisoft wasn't kidding when they said 1:1 scale.
August Updates
Full Gamescom Demo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orLecxD6QUI
Get to Know Arno
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/featu...-to-know-arno-from-assassins-creed-unity.aspx
Get to Know Elise
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/featu...to-know-elise-from-assassins-creed-unity.aspx
Game Informer made this really informative article about one of the major characters of AC Unity, Elise the fiery templar.
Highlights from the game informer article
-Dont dismiss this skilled swordswoman as a mere damsel in distress or minor character. Elise plays a pivotal role in Arnos journey, having a larger place in the plot than previous non-player characters.
-She grew up with Arno, after her father took him in, and eventually falls in love with the man who becomes an Assassin.The two lose touch after some time, but are brought back together when Elises father is murdered.
-Love stories are always a hard thing in video games because ultimately they can very easily become a tangent.By making Elise a Templar and making that part of the core, its part of the actual struggle of the character. It prevents it from becoming a B-plot or a tangent.
-Arno feels guilty about the death of Elises father and is searching for redemption. Elise, on the other hand, is out for revenge. Shes also watching a shift of power occur in the Templar Order. The man who is taking over for her father has different ideals, and its clear that betrayal and manipulation is going on behind the scenes
-Elise is very driven and sticks to her values, which will put her in conflict with Arno, who second-guesses his allegiance to the Assassins. According to Amancio, the story will also explore the dangers of vengeance and where that can lead you to. Elise is hellbent on justice for her father, but how far will she go to get there?
-She also wont sit idly by and wait for Arno to do all the work. Shes much better with a sword than Arno and can hold her own.
-Shes that girl when youre growing up who always gets you into trouble, he muses. She always ends up being fine, but you always end up being in trouble, too. You know youre going to end sneaking into an apple orchard and getting chased by dogs, and shes laughing because they just missed her. And shes sitting there laughing and teasing you. Shes a free spirit.
-She wasnt just shoehorned into the plot to represent the female gender either. We wanted to create a smart and intelligent, multi-layered character that didnt represent any cliches that any character may have, Amancio says. When we create any character, whether its Arno or Elise, we treat all of them as characters. Gender is something that is an intricate part, but it is never a deciding factor in anything of how that character will be. All thats [important] is that shes a strong character.
A video interview with the creative director about the plot of AC Unity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycZ1szYrwQ8
Elise is also getting her own novel that will tell the events of Unity from her perspective.
Sounds like a pretty sweet character to me. Looking forward to how the story pans out.
