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New Assassin's Creed Unity video details changes to parkour, stealth and combat
- Thread starter jett
- Start date
HalfBakedProphet
Member
In III and IV, I still held down the A button while free running even though that wasn't part of the mechanics anymore. It was just ingrained in my mind. Kinda funny
Looks excellent. I'm an Assassin's Creed fan but recognise that the series has had huge flaws which it just hasn't been able to shake over numerous iterations. This looks like it might just be the potion.
"Stealth is the core pillar of the brand."
Only it seems like they've waited until now to do it well, as they (sort of) acknowledge.
"Stealth is the core pillar of the brand."
Only it seems like they've waited until now to do it well, as they (sort of) acknowledge.
Lucent
Member
I was gonna say it was because it was set in a place where you could do parkour more often. Black Flag felt kind of odd in that there weren't many places to really use it. "Hey look, I'm on an island with palm trees...umm...nowhere to hide and do crazy stuff."
But yeah, your thought makes sense.
Holding down A in III and IV let me jump over small objects, instead of trying to run over them. I don't think it's ever mentioned during the tutorial though.
AyaisMUsikWhore
Member
Wow, these improvements make me want to cry.
Stealth mode, FINALLY! My major gripe was, the game is called Assassin Creed but you can just casually walk up to someone from behind and assassinate them. Ummm, why can't I crouch, hide, stay in the dark? It was so werid, but now i'm glad thats fixed.
Wall running, FINALLY! I hated that if you ran just a centimeter next to the wall, you would start running up. Its so annoying and really bothered me during chase sequences. Majority of them was failed because of this ridiculousness.
Mission kill freedom, FINALLY! I hated that there was always just one or (forced) two ways to kill a target. Give me that freedom to set up the situation, don't force me to kill them a specific type of way.
.....Combat, No. I never relied on combat for a lot of things but preferred stealth, however how can one be an assassin without proper combat skills. Why dial them back to make it seem like assassins aren't good at hand to hand. That sort of irks me. I already hate that the combat is flawed as it is and counter kills are the only way to really complete that, but to make it more frustrating rather than hard? I don't like that too much. That will need some feedback to fix because I don't like the idea of knowing an assassin can't basically "fight".
However all in all, this looks like it's going to be my favorite assassin creed yet. I really hope that Arno is at least interesting like Ezio *swoon*. I don't want a faceless character with no personality for the sake of just gameplay.
Stealth mode, FINALLY! My major gripe was, the game is called Assassin Creed but you can just casually walk up to someone from behind and assassinate them. Ummm, why can't I crouch, hide, stay in the dark? It was so werid, but now i'm glad thats fixed.
Wall running, FINALLY! I hated that if you ran just a centimeter next to the wall, you would start running up. Its so annoying and really bothered me during chase sequences. Majority of them was failed because of this ridiculousness.
Mission kill freedom, FINALLY! I hated that there was always just one or (forced) two ways to kill a target. Give me that freedom to set up the situation, don't force me to kill them a specific type of way.
.....Combat, No. I never relied on combat for a lot of things but preferred stealth, however how can one be an assassin without proper combat skills. Why dial them back to make it seem like assassins aren't good at hand to hand. That sort of irks me. I already hate that the combat is flawed as it is and counter kills are the only way to really complete that, but to make it more frustrating rather than hard? I don't like that too much. That will need some feedback to fix because I don't like the idea of knowing an assassin can't basically "fight".
However all in all, this looks like it's going to be my favorite assassin creed yet. I really hope that Arno is at least interesting like Ezio *swoon*. I don't want a faceless character with no personality for the sake of just gameplay.
The video explains that you can still rely on combat - you're just going to have to get good at it. It's no longer the case than you can just use one move and win.
NexusGamer
Member
Lots of info in that video and I am impressed they are freely admitting where the previous games fell short. Good to hear about AC1 concepts making a comeback
keltickennedy
Member
Yes. Though I know they will never go this far, I always wished that the assassination missions could be a blend of something out of the Hitman or Dishonored. A ton of ways to take out a target. Make the game truly systemic.
Needless to say my ears were perked up when I hear them talking about a disguise option and lockpicking abilites.
matrixman92
Member
I like how it seems the co op is completely optional for everything...like there isnt anything you cant do while playing solo. But I will be extremely disappointed when we find out that 100% synchs require co op partners.
Its going to happen
VanCityGamer
Member
Don't agree with that statement at all. In my opinion, AC4 is better in essentially every way. Such as:
- AC4 has better exploration. It's much more fun to explore the Caribbean islands, ocean, and cities than the locations in AC3.
- AC4 has better buildings navigation. The climbing in AC3 is so dull because the cities don't have very interesting architecture.
- AC3's story sucks. The modern day stuff is awful, with a laughably bad ending. Connor is a terrible lead character, and his story is also bad.
- AC3's mission design is much worse than AC4's. More tailing missions, Connor intervening in various 'battles' turned out pretty lame, etc.
I actually can't even think of a single thing I like better about AC3. The homestead missions were cool. There's that, I guess.
I don't know if its an error or anything but AC:unity is listed as 720P on the Playstation store when you enter the game's details, i guess it's a mistake but than again if WD was 900P and AC unity looks much better, could such thing be real?
https://store.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com/#!/en-us/games/assassin%e2%80%99s-creed-unity/cid=UP0001-CUSA00663_00-AC4GAMEPS4000001
If it's real I'm buying a PC, this is too much at such an early point of the generation.
https://store.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com/#!/en-us/games/assassin%e2%80%99s-creed-unity/cid=UP0001-CUSA00663_00-AC4GAMEPS4000001
If it's real I'm buying a PC, this is too much at such an early point of the generation.
Lord of Castamere
Member
No we discussed this in the other thread AC:U is shooting for 1080p60fps.
http://gamingbolt.com/assassins-creed-unity-is-targetting-1080p60fps-on-ps4-and-xbox-one
I'm very intrigued.
I loved AC1, and thought AC2 will expand on it, only to find out that they took a different route. I played for 10 hours and never touched another AC again.
But this video is hitting all the right notes for me. Like others have said, combat still looks dissapointing. I know it may sound nitpicky, but it feels odd to me that he hits a dude with his sword 5-6 times until he dies. It's like he's hitting him with a bat...
Anyway, I'll wait for GAF reviews on this one.
Edit: Is the co-op playable with just 2 players? And is it online only?
I loved AC1, and thought AC2 will expand on it, only to find out that they took a different route. I played for 10 hours and never touched another AC again.
But this video is hitting all the right notes for me. Like others have said, combat still looks dissapointing. I know it may sound nitpicky, but it feels odd to me that he hits a dude with his sword 5-6 times until he dies. It's like he's hitting him with a bat...
Anyway, I'll wait for GAF reviews on this one.
Edit: Is the co-op playable with just 2 players? And is it online only?
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
Online only.
Damn that does look good. And I love the setting and the talk of the philosophy they're trying to take on making this tie all the way back into some of the lost ideas that were good about AC1.
Just Ubisoft, for once .... please make it run smoothly on PC. Please don't release another choppy stuttery game that has high end PC stats as minimum requirements just to run. Optimize it to run properly on the platform and I will actually consider getting it on that platform again.
Just Ubisoft, for once .... please make it run smoothly on PC. Please don't release another choppy stuttery game that has high end PC stats as minimum requirements just to run. Optimize it to run properly on the platform and I will actually consider getting it on that platform again.
All of this seems to be really exciting, but I'm still wary of this whole franchise after getting burned on AC3. I'm still mad about the whole thing, gameplay was terrible, setting was terrible, story was terrible. And AC2 is one of my favourite games of this generation...
I'm still waiting to see what the modern day plot is in this one, I hope they can come up with something as intriguing as the stuff in the first couple of installments. Despite the absolute insanity of the themes involved
I personally felt it was delivered quite well. Things only started to get out of control with Revelations, and I don't even need to tell you about 3.
Despite their flaws, something felt special about AC2 and Brotherhood, something that was obviously missing in everything after Revelations. If they can bring even a little bit of that feeling back, and with the improvements they are making it certainly seems like they can, I might be upgrading to a next gen console for this.
I'm still waiting to see what the modern day plot is in this one, I hope they can come up with something as intriguing as the stuff in the first couple of installments. Despite the absolute insanity of the themes involved
space aliens
Despite their flaws, something felt special about AC2 and Brotherhood, something that was obviously missing in everything after Revelations. If they can bring even a little bit of that feeling back, and with the improvements they are making it certainly seems like they can, I might be upgrading to a next gen console for this.
Me too, that quote has officially gotten me straight up hyped. Before I was only excited, but after recently completing AC IV (combat was waaaaaaay too easy) that quote has sealed the deal for me.
They actually said in the video what you're worried about. They want combat to be hard, not frustrating. You'll be able to fight, but there will always be an incentive to hide from guards again.
Also, many people here are also happy they're going back to AC1. I'm glad more people seem to agree with me here. I loved the concept of a stealth assassin in AC1, even if the execution was flawed. The Ezio trilogy was good, but I definitely missed being a discreet protagonist.
FreshCakes
Banned
This looks very promising, but I will wait on reviews before purchasing.
Solid Samus
Banned
they've separated wall running from the run button.
.
good lord the more I watch this the more I'm finding myself actually interested in an AC game mechanically
This is the fucking twilight zone
.
good lord the more I watch this the more I'm finding myself actually interested in an AC game mechanically
This is the fucking twilight zone
TrumanBurbank
Member
Has there been any word on if Brian Tyler is returning to do the score? LOVED his score for AC4.
Not sure. Personally I preferred Lorne Balfe's tracks. I heard a new variation of a theme from Assassin's Creed II in the video though.
Fried Food
Banned
Yeah they need Kyd back
Darkstorne
Member
AC1 is my favourite in the series - such a smart game that asked the player to plan his approach, method of assassination, and escape route, before beginning each assassination. Subsequent AC games improved on mission variety, but steadily became less and less about assassination and smart gameplay, and more about "mash X to victory".
The chain-kill system in Brotherhood was the biggest face-palm moment of the series imo. It became faster to murder your way through a small army to regain undetected status, than to run away and lose them. So dumb.
Everything they're saying about Unity here is wonderful. The only part that makes me sad is that cinematic counter kills seem to have been removed completely. They were the best part of combat imo, rewarding patience and timing (waiting for your opening) rather than button mashing, and giving an otherwise janky-looking combat system a touch of style and flair. But hey, he's right that combat is always a fail-state, so I'm not overly bothered by this.
The chain-kill system in Brotherhood was the biggest face-palm moment of the series imo. It became faster to murder your way through a small army to regain undetected status, than to run away and lose them. So dumb.
Everything they're saying about Unity here is wonderful. The only part that makes me sad is that cinematic counter kills seem to have been removed completely. They were the best part of combat imo, rewarding patience and timing (waiting for your opening) rather than button mashing, and giving an otherwise janky-looking combat system a touch of style and flair. But hey, he's right that combat is always a fail-state, so I'm not overly bothered by this.
Yeah they definitely looked slick. Hopefully there will still be some kind of action angled fancy weapon kills that can be pulled off. AC1 had combo kills have fancy angles at times in addition to the counter kills. Liked having the combo ones play out fancily.
EmptySpace
Banned
so they just wait in line to be killed? oookay.
an overwhelming majority of games deal with multiple enemies just fine, without having to make them stand in line doing the cha-cha while you pick them off one by one.
SneakyStephan
Banned
Seems like some control issues and minor design fixes to me
They should work on better encounter and mission design
The biggest flaw of AC games (arguably even bigger than the autoplatforming and auto uncombat) is still that it's just a big shopping list/chore list instead of a proper game, which is unforgivable especially in a singleplayer campaign.
Chase x dude, collect y feathers, walk to this npc and back again, climb to the church tower to unlock more feather collection quests, skin 5 boars
Then do those 5 lame activities 100 more times
And if you're going to do something like that you should at least have a proper sandbox and fun gameplay mechanics to back it up, like in just cause 2 (grapple, parachute, variety of explosives and vehicles)
They should work on better encounter and mission design
The biggest flaw of AC games (arguably even bigger than the autoplatforming and auto uncombat) is still that it's just a big shopping list/chore list instead of a proper game, which is unforgivable especially in a singleplayer campaign.
Chase x dude, collect y feathers, walk to this npc and back again, climb to the church tower to unlock more feather collection quests, skin 5 boars
Then do those 5 lame activities 100 more times
And if you're going to do something like that you should at least have a proper sandbox and fun gameplay mechanics to back it up, like in just cause 2 (grapple, parachute, variety of explosives and vehicles)
"Those other games? Yeah, those ones sucked. Please buy our new one."
Still excited for it. I hope it lives up to the promise of fixing all the stupid shit the series has.
keltickennedy
Member
With all the talk of adaptive mission structure and how they are trying to make to game feel more systemic, customizing your characters abilities to your play style, they really need to drop the secondary objectives all together.
The counter kills were a source of amusement in the first game, but you could game the system far too easily. I would almost always opt to counter with the hidden blades that required near frame precision and eventually I even got that down.
But I love the changes that they are making. The freedom that parkour brought was were the strength of the game lied. In the planning and versatility like you said. But now that freedom to move about is no longer gimped. This game looks to be really great,
the enemies in AC have been attacking more than one at a time since like, i dunno, ACB? i died quite a few times in ACIV because a dude would attack me while i was trying to beat his friend up.
block tower
Member
i still hate that the enemies are highlighted. a simple icon above their heads would do, the figure highlighting is so distracting. the free running looks great though! very impressed with this game overall.
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
Not true, they changed the controls when they made the anvil next engine for AC3. Before it was
Left Stick=walk
A+Left Stick=Fast walk
RT+Left Stick=Jog
RT+A+Left Stick=Run/Parkour
In AC3 it was changed to
RT+Left Stick=Run/Parkour
RT+A+Left Stick=Vault over objects during parkour
I wasn't writing about control mapping or buttons.
Messofanego
Banned
I like that they say stealth is a "core pillar" of the franchise but acknowledge they've been doing it bad for the last 7 years along with combat and counters XD. Clearly, they've learned from other games like Batman that employed similar combat but weren't as braindead.
I'm glad they're going back to improving on the good things about the first game rather than the sequels that abandoned them.
I'm glad they're going back to improving on the good things about the first game rather than the sequels that abandoned them.
Cave Johnson
Member
This sounds like the game I've always wanted AC2 to be. Good lord, it took them 6 main games before they finally "get it".
However, it's still Ubisoft and I can only approach them with much skepticism at this point.
However, it's still Ubisoft and I can only approach them with much skepticism at this point.
-Preference, sailing in the open sea gets old fast, shanties or not, especially when you're just going around collecting animus fragments or completing mundane assassinations.
-AC4's cities are pretty cool (for what little there are), I'll give you that. It was nice to see some color breathed into the game after ACIII's war-torn setting. Kingston and Havanna were nice, minus Nassau, which wasn't a highlight in anyway.
-Hell no, modern day stuff aside (in both games) Connor has one of the better stories in the franchise. I will never understand why people believe Connor to be a bad character, especially as the lead. He provides such a unique perspective in the Revolution as being part of a people who lost it all. The game could've easily have been another white dude fighting for freedom and have a happy ending or feel satisfied, but they didn't go that route. Connor goes from knowing a particular way of life, to being thrust into the Assassins (to which he fully embraces to serve), then throw his father into the mix and suddenly all his thoughts of having a "black/white" mentality slowly mesh into conflict with himself and everyone around him who continue to belittle and use him.
The multi-generational story was far more investing than Edward & his Pirate friends (btw Mary Reid>everyone else, except, maybe Adewale). The Templars in ACIV were hardly developed, unlike the antagonists in III and all were more interesting then any of the Templars we had to suffer in the exhausting Ezio trilogy. Each one weren't inhereitly evil or stupid like the cartoons in the past three game, they had some sort of motivation that made sense and backed themselves by their way of looking at life. Connor's "white room" dialogues with them exemplify this and through them we see Connor become more and more frustrated with the people around him because nothing is as simple as he wants it to be. As we all want it to be in real life. And the best part is? Despite all he learns and accomplishes, he's still the biggest loser at the end of the story. Edward gets a fucking family portrait and we're supposed to think that's a happy ending despite what we already know of how the rest of that bloodline goes.
-Another thing I don't understand. People want to praise ACIV's gameplay like it was something much better as if they redid the system or something. You think the missions were designed better? People really thought that tailing people in a bigass BOAT was clever and seamless? Beyond the naval upgrades, and some shallow side activities including hunting and deep swimming, the gameplay was the same: navigation, combat, and stealth. The bugs of ACIII were ironed out, but it didn't play any differently when you're hitting "O" or "B" to block and counter.
And Connor's missions in the battlefield were boring? In ACIV the most exciting parts of the game aren't even in the main missions. If anything I'd say it's taking the various forts or taking out the Legendary ships, which are only challenging because they're faster.
The run into the city being mortared was a rush, the entire mission to assassinate John Pitcairn was fantastic. Timing the shots of the muskets, and sneaking your way to him was a great blend of action and stealth. Connor commanding troops, Connor having to take out his Mohawk brethren, battle of the Cheapness Bay, the Boston Massacre, attempted escape from jail only to be lead into a mission were you save George Washington in a crowd in the rain, etc.
ACIV had the great benefit of ACIII's jump into the foray something new, and while stumbling a lot (unexplained mechanics, walking to uncover the map, and bugs at launch), it's a much better Assassin's Creed game than the pirate simulator will ever be.
Not that much, when you consider that a lot of these games were probably developed in parallel.
Ramocalypse
Member
agreed, just watched the footage, they are making all the right decisions for this one, I feel like now its just a matter of having enough dev time to polish what they have.
Sephiroth_VII
Member
It does sound like Unity will be an improvement, but I couldn't help but feel throughout the video that many of their problems wouldn't exist if they weren't on such a tight timetable, forcing them to recycle so much code from the older games.
VanCityGamer
Member
I appreciate the effort you put forth to explain why you like AC3 better. At the end of the day, it's all opinions. I don't really care enough to take the time necessary to go through each point and explain in depth why I don't agree. I'll just say that your viewpoint is definitely the minority, and I think there's a reason for that.
A few additional, brief thoughts: Connor was incredibly whiny and not the least bit likable. Yes, the battles in AC3 were SO lame. They tried to make them feel epic, but they just felt like a small number of dudes fighting. Not like a war at all. The feeling of war was not conveyed, and Connor having such a big influence was hilariously lame. AC4 achieved smaller scale fights much better. The story was more tightly woven, believable, and enjoyable. It was more interesting, the lead character was far more likable, etc. And you can't call the modern day stuff a wash between the two games. You were forced to play the terrible sequences in AC3, whereas they were mostly optional in AC4. The pirate exploration was a blast in AC4; so much better than the wilderness crap in AC3.
I disagree completely about Connor, considering I haven't really connected with any of these main characters since Altair's redemption arc in the first game and seeing his story finish. I disagree with the battles as well, I thought they were well done, and I don't see how something like the Battle of Bunker Hill wasn't warlike at all. Buildings were being destroyed, bodies in the streets, forts, and two armies facing off. Then you have to defend a bridge, come on now. Edward, for what it's worth, I like him, but it felt like a retread of Altair in the first game where the selfish dude has to learn to recognize there's more to life than his own ambitions. Except, unlike Altair in AC1, people die on his watch and he gets to sail away with his daughter. The pirate cast wasn't all that either for the most part, especially when you consider that they really are all a huge pain in the ass to the international community at large, which the Templars make a damn good point about. Anne Bonney, despite her relevance, still felt like she was thrown in there. And damn, I love Mary Read, but what she was posing it felt so awkward, and people who probably don't know her story could tell something was off.
I sure can call the modern day story in both games trash, especially in ACIV because it's still there. The ending of ACIV's story was enormously underwhelming, and ultimately unnecessary. The exploration was trash, I don't want to sail or swim underwater for God knows how long and just open thousands of chests and collect worthless animus fragments. That's not fun at all (in any of these games, though, not just ACIV).
But we can continue this forever (if you want), it just looks like we're going to have to agree to disagree (which is like a tie =P).