The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

I dunno man, the movement looks like a good parkour dude who never makes a mistake and knows where every single perfect handhold is, which is what AC parkour has always looked like.

it's just a lot more fluid and accurate now. I don't think the climb speed is really much faster, if at all.

(also you can do wall-runs, finally)

Oh yeah - wall climbing. Looks really slick, instead of the angular movement that consisted of wall running, then side jumping.

I love how Eagle Pulse is simply a sharp pulse, then a blue filter with a high lighting contrast. In the past games, it faded to black, always producing an irksome .75 seconds of delay lag.

Now if only they added a difficulty option...

yeah, eagle vision/pulse/sense looks good. news of a difficulty option would make this announcement almost perfect, but even if not the combat looks like it has enough depth and difficulty on its own. not a huge departure, but definitely a more complex version of the combat we've had previously. also, it looks like counter-kills are gone, damage is only done with actual attacks. heavy/light attacks, parries, and dodges are in. remember that in the final game it'll likely be harder since at E3 they don't want to mess up and die in the demo.

I'm so glad that...you can actually carry a spear in the game.

yeah, hope it and other weapons actually play differently when you use them

Finally, a way to duck behind objects instead of getting into a jump position. I LOVE the outfit, I LOVE eagle pulse, I LOVE Controlled Descent and possibly like co-op and the way missions will behave. Now if only this can be for current gen consoles.

Hopefully Comet has some of the cool things about this, albeit on a smaller scale

So excited to see this! I'm already pumped about the stealth option, as now it seems like we won't have our character accidentally jumping out of a hiding spot and exposing himself, which has always been an issue.

The controlled descent looks pretty awesome, now we won't have to look for hiding spots that we can dive into.

I also love the fact that there are side missions available within the overall mission that have their repercussions as well. My only question is what is the benefit, in the video, of becoming more high profile in order to save the priests? If there's nothing to be gained, why would you even bother?

Also, is there any footage of the phantom blade in action yet? I was kind of hoping that's how the assassination was going to go so we'd see. And any word on optional objectives? Do they exist or are they no longer required for full sync?

Now, who has/will get a PS4 so we can co-op this bitch?

The phantom blade was in the co-op demo that was shown at the microsoft show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpJ6GICqQyc He uses it at 2:50.

about rewards for becoming more high profile, obviously you get rewards for saving people and such, we just don't know what they are. upgrading and customizing seems like a big part of this game, so I can imagine why you'd want to. but some of the dialogue in the demo even suggested that while you're in an active mission, doing side content that attracts attention might not be wise. I'm sure it'll become clearer when we know more about how the system works.

This is the game I'm getting for PS4 when it releases. Saving my money!

It looks like the co-op is different from the regular multiplayer control (a lot more fluid like the singleplayer "feel"), which is great. I wonder if we can customize the gear/gadgets each Assassin character has to our liking, similar to Healer, Tank, Support, etc in MMOs. And unlocking bonus costume pieces to personalize the looks would get a preorder from me.

So far, I've seen quite a lot of emphasis on openness in missions. There had to be at least 10 different ways to kill each target in the demos. It looks like co-op will have a LOT of open-ended playthroughs.

DAZ, we're going to make some amazing videos for THB with this...

Oh, and I talked to a friend of mine that does parkour regularly. He said it looks awesome what Arno does, but it's not how he'd actually move. Not that it's bad, it's just more flamboyant so that the player has something nice to look at.

THEY USED EAGLE PULSE! YES!
They used my game design suggestion, oh my god, I'm so happy right now!
I have more to say but first I gotta freak out for a bit (still taking all of this in!)
http://thehiddenblade.com/proposed-changes-eagle-vision-and-tailing-miss...

I've always considered AC's parkour pretty exaggeratedly pretty, even in AC1. there's a certain style that you wouldn't bother with in real life, bc if real life you're not a perfect uber lucky parkour expert who can take basically all they risks they want

“We have a fully customizable Assassin, who can evolve over the course of the game,” Pontbriand says. “So as you complete missions, you’ll earn skill points, which you’ll be able to spend upgrading your skills.” Unity includes different skill trees for stealth, combat and navigation; it’s up to you how you spend those points. And you can also further customize your Assassin with different gear, offering even more diversity in how you play. This customization fully crosses over from the single-player to the co-op and back again.

YES

Anyone notice that Eagle Pulse works the same way AC1 Eagle vision does, in terms of targets continuing to glow after turning it off, then the glow slowly fading?

Also, at around 6:20, Alex mentions something about a "disguise" skill you can use to walk right up to your target. I wonder how that'll work.

ALSO from this thread! ^_^
"I've been replaying AC1 with a friend and we like how after exiting Eagle Vision, the glows stay on-screen for a few moments. We end up just tapping the button and walking around like that, taking note of the residual glow and planning that way. That's what made it into this post."
- http://thehiddenblade.com/proposed-changes-eagle-vision-and-tailing-miss...

Yeah, they're spying on us for our brilliance. We called it!

or maybe our ideas aren't as unique and different as we think they are

Late to the party, everything's been said already. I'm just gonna add one thing.

Yay!

Our ideas don't necessarily need to be unique and different - they just need to be good and as long as those good ideas make it into the game in a tight, playable format, that's more than amazing.

yeah, I suppose. but it can be easy to forget that when it's your actual job to think about the game for multiple years, almost every day, they probably have thought of every idea we have and more. but you're right, the important part is still them realizing which of their ideas WE want to see implemented.

glad to see the random carts of hay/leaves/flowers are going away so they stop cluttering the city streets... but now instead of just ankles of steel it looks like the protagonist will have the grip strength of an alligator jaw closing and forearms of adamantium... fall 25 feet, grab a post, fall 20 feel, grab a ledge, etc

also, it appears that AC and W_D have shared some... the "stealth" mechanics look very similar in both games.

With so many Ubisoft studios working on so many games, they're bound to share a lot of ideas with each other.

Agreed.

To be clear, I think it's a good thing. I like the cover system in W_D and think it will translate beautifully to AC.

excuse me, I seem to recall videos posted to this very site of altair jumping off a giant church and grabbing a ledge!

Dude, Altair knew that everything, even the impossible, was permitted. No need to rag on him.

Speaking of unthinkable things, how does the Marquis survive being tossed face first out of a window, falling for like 50-60 feet, then landing on stone? Only to get the piss beaten out of him by an angry mob.

I don't think he does. Your brain continues on for a few moments after death and we see that on his beheading... maybe he was already "dead and recording" on impact.

Re: Eagle Strike... that's almost a glitch tactic found by players more than a design element. Sure, the ledge grab was designed into the game, but wasn't designed to be used that way (ie, to catch yourself from a 50 foot fall), if I had to venture a guess.

I'm very curious about Memory Corridor with the target's remnant being a head on a pike.
"Be at peace now..."
"I'M A DAMN GARDEN DECORATION."

To really be a decoration, they better dip his head in tar soon to preserve it/keep the bugs away.

Also, did anyone else get a distinctly Ninja Turtle vibe from the 4 player coop? It's almost like they chose the colors for the assassin cohorts on purpose... just replace the green one with blue... the even had one with a spear/stick on his back!

That said, when we are all playing coop (we all = DAZ, Joey, TMA, etc on PS4), we need to play with weapons that mimic the ninja turtles. One person with swords, one with staff/spear, one with short blades, etc... I can already see the hijinks and hilarity, dude.

I can play with a sword since my name is actually Leo.
EDIT: TheHiddenBlade Unity Variety Pack - TMNT ASSASSINATION ON [X Target Here]

This might be problematic...I always played as Leonardo in TMNT: Turtles in Time. But I have red hair, so I'll be Raphael. What's the closest thing to sai that AC: Unity (still on that colon) has to offer? Do we have a complete weapons list yet?

Also, whenever I played CoD with buddies in objective gameplay, I was always the runner of the flag or guy capturing objective points, so I've got no issue not actually killing the target, but merely being a distraction.

You're not counting the fact that he's using the momentum from his fall to flip up and around the object he grabs, not simply hanging on and jerking his arms out of their sockets. all the jumps he makes that don't have any sort of momentum-redirecting technique are comparatively shorter falls.

regarding the style of parkour, I've been thinking, and don't think it's right to exclusively categorize it as parkour any more. it's not free-running either, since the extra moves ARE functional, as in my first example of redirecting momentum to survive a drop.

parkour is about complete economy of movement, with no real regard for the subtlety that you'd expect in a stealth situation. so arno's brand is parkour adapted for stealth and maximum mobility with minimum strain on the body. It's fitting it would come from french assassins, parkour originating in france and all, and I love how it gives a sense both of freedom and vulnerability, contributing to the team's goal of making stealth more of a necessity.

Most important news yet: Arno's pistol has a HOLSTER in this demo!

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/e3-2014-ubisoft-explains-why-assassin-s...

Are...you...telling me that you don't have enough time to double your animations when you have roughly 10 different studios working in tangent with each other for over 3 years? Really? I'm all for squeezing crunch time (since they are technically on a schedule) and preserving historical facts, but still...

Love how the uniforms are all simple and clean. If they'd dress any fancier, people would assume them as members of nobility.

They could have just redesigned ONE of the characters to have a female body and voice (maybe not even full voiceovers to save time and money) and kept the animations the same. I don't think it would have made much of a difference to gamers if she moved the same way the men did.

The way it was explained in one interview was they were going to start working on arno's animations first, since he's the main character, and then for the male co-op guys they would be able to just transfer them.

but when they added up how much arno's alone + hi-def female player models would cost (game dev is expensive, and look at how fluid and all-new his movements are) they realized a second set would cost too much.

so they could either cut arno, whose design and story they'd been working on presumably for a long time, or they could cut the female co-op characters.

since you don't even see yourself playing as the co-op character, you just see yourself as arno, it also seemed kinda fruitless.

So honestly, it does sound like it's a real not fake or made up or lazy production limitation. it would have been half solved if they'd just had a female main character in the first place

After watching that interview, it makes more sense. That written article is a bit biased.

more about how parkour works: https://assassinscreed.ubi.com/en-US/news/news_detail.aspx?c=tcm:152-147...

new parkour abilities and moves will be unlocked throughout the game as part of the navigation skill tree.

there's now a smooth transition between climbing and jumping/running, less of a rigid change between the two states

Believe it or not, they actually considered cutting the Leap of Faith because you can now get down buildings really faster. I'm actually glad that they'll be keeping the Leap of Faith. Some iconic things should remain the same. Like the beak of the hoodie.

COMBAT:
http://assassinscreed.ubi.com/en-US/news/news_detail.aspx?c=tcm:152-1471...

I like the Phantom Blade (much more inconspicuous than a crossbow slung on the back), and I like how combat is going to be more timing based. I like how that once there's going to be 3 or more NPC's, there going to be much more smarter and aggressive. Lets hope health doesn't regenerate at wolverine-isk speeds.

STEALTH:
http://assassinscreed.ubi.com/en-US/news/news_detail.aspx?c=tcm:152-1471...

From what I take it, stealth mode is basically a blending mode depending on where you are. If outside in a crowded street, then you'll blend in more. If in a restricted zone, then you crouch. Please more emphasis on crowd blending. I like how ammo will be limited, and smoke bombs will help break the line-of-sight.

interesting that the smoke bomb is now solely used to break line of sight, not stop people in their tracks.

so, all this gameplay stuff is great, but really I still don't feel very good about the whole gender issue. I understand the reasons for it and why the director felt it was best to focus on other things, but I kinda hope they take the internet response as a message that they do need to make it work, even though it would take a lot of extra modeling work. there's still a while to launch, and a lot of these details don't fully come together til the end.

Also I want DLC with a playable female assassin, and the next game too.

enough is enough at this point. a series that has an excuse to switch main characters every game should be more daring in its choices. I think a lot of people are putting words in ubi's moth regarding this, but I understand how long they've been waiting for things to change, not only with this game, but within the industry.

Has anyone Pre-ordered the game?
I ask cause of this:
https://acu-preorder.ubi.com/

To get all the content all 4 people gotta register their Pre-order code, thought I'd check here to see if anyone wants to make a group... :3

Perhaps a bit early, but I thought I'd share it here if anyone already did...

Aveline pretty had Connor's combat and navigational moveset, and that was fine and functional.

http://assassinscreed.wikia.com/wiki/Assassin's_Creed:_Unity

http://assassinscreed.ubi.com/en-US/games/assassins-creed-unity/new-game...

You can check the links that are referenced on this page.

Arno is using the Brotherhood to his means. He'll do Brotherhood missions with them, but he has his own personal quest: motivated by guilt after his adoptive father is killed. Has a no-nonsense sharp humor with him. I'm sensing Arno is the culmination of the best qualities of all the Assassins (Altair's focus, Ezio's charisma, Haythem's coolness, Connor's drive, Edward's tongue).

Haystacks have practically been eliminated in favor of using controlled descent. Counter kills are no longer here, instead using a system of attack, dodge, and parry.

You can blend with anything, from the side of a building to a barrel.

I think her animations felt pretty sloppily ported from connor, with her own unique kinda bad-looking run animation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGA0WZLp_08

Paris is the size of Frontier, but much more dense, with seamless interior buildings and no loading times.

Amazing facial animations.

And who's that hot redhead?

Aw yeah, barrel blending, baby!

Faces look ridiculously detailed, wow.

Houseblock-generator looks like a fun tool.
Thinking of a city the size of the Frontier makes my head spin.

It's Watch_Dogs's Chicago... but without cars to get around quickly.

Hopefully they implement AC4's viewpoint-as-fast travel mechanic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTIIFvysvQo

Notre Dame is build in a 1:1 ratio. Took nearly 1 guy an entire year to make.

And I love how you can select when to go into interiors when climbing on the side of a building.

And I think that entire blue blocks was Paris. Sure looks huge.

I don't doubt they will. People will be reaaally pissed off if they don't. Sure, walking/parkouring through Paris is beautiful, but if they make you go all across the map in-between every mission...
If it's not the viewpoint-based thing, maybe it's what they did in AC3 with underground tunnels. I think ACU will have those, but I don't know whether I heard it in an interview or it's just wishful thinking. I kinda liked those.