The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

Hopefully, some gameplay that actually revolves around stealth...though like you said, it's probably gonna consist of a naval fights and land combat.

I hope that if they want this game to go back the the core pillars in equal measure, they represent stealth, combat, and free-running equally in the trailer, along with the naval stuff.

And whatever new stuff they've kept secret!

AC1's demo was exactly the mission that we played (I remember Tamir and William's missions). AC2 really only made one of its missions slightly more cinematic (just walking up to him after assassinating from a hay cart). AC3 was simply a fort redesigned as an assassination. They even made a cutscene for the demo! I was actually disappointed we didn't see that Colonial soldier as a supporting character.

So it seems like each game has more diverse demos each time. Except Revelations. That was just the mission put up on the E3 screen. ACB was just the intro that cut out the "horse gameplay". So yeah, it's just the numbered games.

My mind is wandering too much right now...

ANYWAYS!

I think your description covers all the bases on what they should show off in a demo. These things are supposed to show new elements and give us a tease of what the full experience is like. So those scenes would fit that requirement well.

Both the AC1 and 2 demos had drastic changes from the way the mission played out in the final game, which is what I meant I expected.

As you said, Brotherhood and Revelations demos were almost exactly the way they appear in the final game, with the exception of a bit of enemy balancing, deleted cutscenes or features (remember when Ezio was going to use doctor's tables for no reason?) or mechanic tweaking.

you're right, they don't create entirely new gameplay spaces and then scrap it for release, but they use the spaces they already have and the elements they already have in a different way, so as to show off more things at once in an easy to digest demo, rather than designing a level that has to also function as a demo, which is probably a bit restricting.

Actually, I really hope they show a bit of harpooning. I know it will piss some people off, but it would be so neat if instead of going straight into combat after the underwater stuff, they had a battle with a whale, then went after the sea-faring target.

Welp, another CG trailer (marketing budget is insane for this game, it seems) a gameplay trailer, and now I have to wait for the PS4 conference to presumably see a gameplay demo.

WHY DID SONY HAVE TO GO LAST??

Welp, looks like Edward keeps his guns. Those were a lot of shots, though. >_>

The demo was extremely glitchy and froze so bad that they cut it off early. It was a simple tailing mission and very anticlimactic. Kind of disappointed.

Just saw the demo on the Sony E3 2013.

Kept screen tearing...what a shame. Completely embarrassing...

That looked like a hardware failure. I just saw the same demo on youtube and it ran fine.

But yeah, though it wasn't really stealth oriented, it showed off some important things: dedicated sneak button, guards investigate movement in stalking zones.

Then cinematic sequence kill kill kill.

I'm not worried about the technical stuff at all, every journalist who's seen it multiple time on my twitter feed said it never crashed or anything, ran smooth. Also, when AC games freeze like that, the cloth physics usually stay working and flop around. Didn't see any of that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02JpmYgZe6g

I like the conversations while blended.

We need another demo, with a stealth focus.

It's Ubi's fault for not showing one demo at their own conference.

EDIT: PS4 399... this is going to be a difficult choice.

I saw the full demo you linked, Calvar.

...Eh...I'm not impressed. I want to like it, but I feel like they could do better. It reminded me of ACR's Michael-Bay-like demo: full of explosions and loud noise.

Not with this video:

Yup, knew right when the explosions started that it wouldn't be an intensive mechanics-based demo.

Need another to judge more accurately.

As I said, if they'd done their own demo, it could have been longer and more in-depth. As it is, that was pretty shallow. Only a few new movement reveals, and land-ship transitions.

EDIT: Yes, even with that. I don't care about any of the PS4 exclusives, liked the Xbone ones, then PS4 drops that bomb.

This is how I took the entire E3 conference:

I took it as:

PS4: better price, no weird policies, exclusives I don't care about.

Xbox: weird policies, higher price, tons of exclusives that look really cool.

50/50.

I'm deadlocked. Hoping that Microsoft will backpedal on SOMETHING so I have an excuse to break towards Sunset Overdrive and Titanfall and Sparks.

By the way, about this demo, again, it was definitely very disappointing. There was like, a minute of new features being introduced slowly, and then scripted explosions and (differently animated I guess) free-running. They hinted at new depth to naval but didn't deliver on that.

I feel like it tried to cram too much in, and felt incomplete as a result.

The in-engine cutscene and CG trailers were the very opposite of that demo. They were about the feeling of adventure in a dark land, and just plain cool, almost like AC1 marketing.

I wish the demo could have tried to capture that feeling for more than three seconds.

EDIT: I would like to make a correction. The guards investigating was a scripted event, not the result of player noise while in stalking zones.

EDIT2: CG trailer shows Edward using a Harpoon in a similar fashion to a rope dart. I'd expect to see this in gameplay.

I liked the seamless transition from land to sea (he just jumps aboard his ship and he's off.)
Also, the Tarzan move he did to board the enemy ship, followed up by a double assassination, that was nice.

I was hoping they'd show some jungle stalking, and they did. (I wasn't hoping because it would be different to AC3 frontier stalking, but because I wanted to see the new environment and textures).

I was hoping they'd show seamless land-to-naval gameplay, and they did.

I was hoping they'd show seamless captain-to-boarding enemy ship gameplay, and they did.

I was hoping they'd show social stealth, and they did (sorta - during the follow).

I was hoping they'd show blackbeard, and they did.

I was hoping they'd show ship stealth, and they did not. (They've mentioned the ability to change your flags to ones you have stolen off conquered ships in order to approach new areas with less resistance).

I was hoping they'd show underwater swimming, even if it was through a cave and not the open ocean, and they did not.

All in all, I saw enough to make me like this game and the changes they've made from previous incantations... so far.

It wasn't TERRIBLE, just nowhere near as good as some of the other demos for AC games have been, in terms of showing you what new things the game is bringing to the table. The demo that all the news outlets saw in previews seems much more interesting, hopefully we'll see that soon: http://www.egmnow.com/articles/previews/egm-preview-e3-2013-assassins-cr...

http://ca.ign.com/videos/2013/06/10/assassins-creed-4-e3-trailer-rewind-...

http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/hzp982/assassin-s-creed-iv--black-fla...

New demo, watching now.

EDIT: it's weirdly edited, but there's some big things in there.

Biggest is probably the social stealth indicator: it turns green when neutral guards are around, like in AC1.

After he kills his target with a free-aiming unnecessary explosion (I know, I know) multiple white circles appear at the edges of the screen, presumably pointing to guards alerted by the noise. So you get very clear information about what guards are now on the alert, and though I suppose some will find this a casual-appeasing feature, I think it's better to make informed decisions about your escape.

I'm also glad they punish you for not being stealthy in that particular mission, by stationing so many guards everywhere. I wonder how well simply shooting him would work? Probably still get them after you.

I bet I missed things.

Eww, gross. They went back to the four corner, pre-AC3 HUD...

They're probably trying to be consistent with the story. We're back using an Abstergo Animus, so it won't be like the Assassin Animus.

Doesn't matter. Still a huge step back for user friendliness. It's not like Abstergo couldn't have developed a new interface in the last 6 years anyway... The Assassin's rebuilt their Animus interface 3 times in that timeframe...

Don't forget that all of the games have taken place in 2012, so it's only been a few months. The Assassins could only tweak a few things in the Ezio trilogy's HUD. Desmond went into his coma, so Rebecca probably had a party upgrading the program while he was asleep.

EDIT: Well it's been a year, most likely, so Abstergo should've done something new. Maybe they're not thinking about that easy design. I don't know. It's Ubisoft's fault.

dang. you're right... but it has still been months (brain fart)... and rebecca had a field day over her 3 weeks of upgrading before AC3.

Besides... that was the Abstergo RESEARCH Division's Animus in AC1.

We should now be in the mass produced (ie, user friendly) Abstergo ENTERTAINMENT Division's Animus now...

I like the new HUD.

AC3's was fine, but this one doesn't look cluttered, more spread out actually

It's bad for me for two reasons:

1 - now I have to look down AND up to get pertinent game information.
2 - now I have HUD elements blocking more of the sweet sweet environments.

I thought the streamlined HUD in AC3 was a huge step forward for the AC franchise... the "more spread out," as you put it, is exactly right... and is the exact reason I don't like it (relative to AC3's).

I dunno... I never had any problem with knowing what was going on with the old HUD. It has a logic to it: want to see your map, selected weapons, and money? (all things you'll want to do in more passive situations) bottom of the screen. Want to see stats on health, social status, and controls? (things you might need to look at or be reminded of in more active situations) Top of the screen.

I like it when it's spread out a bit. It helps me shift gears from one situation to another.

I'm used to FPS HUDs, so that might be part of it.

Really detailed interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMBz36KoSKc&feature=youtube_gdata

Blowpipe apparently has two dart types: non-lethal knockout, or "berserker", which makes them go crazy and fight any one they see.

Potential here to kill targets without laying a hand on them, far easier than we could with the old "poison dance".

Brotherhood gone, due to Edward's closer attachment to his crew than the brotherhood. So allies, but with different mechanics, the crew isn't gonna be doing air assassinations I'd assume.

Port Royal is accessible from Kingston, along with some wilderness.

full free-roaming world opens up in the first hour.

Content is blocked off by tougher enemies/ships rather than animus walls: once you upgrade weaponry and your ship it will be easier to take them on directly. Stealth and a whole lot of swimming might be required if you truly want to explore all from the get-go.

LGS (Linear Game Sequences) returning. Shocker. Some aren't set in the Caribbean.

The motivation for capturing ships is to add them to your fleet, which is used for gaining resources. Sounds like a more logical version of the Brotherhood mission system.

Interface is designed to reduce time spent in menus, and present information to the player very directly something that I greatly appreciate after AC3.

Synchronizing viewpoints now REALLY matters, as you use viewpoints to fast-travel to other viewpoints you've synched.

Quick way to get back on the Jackdaw if it's not docked: rowboats.

As an Abstergo Entertainment employee, you've been hired to do research on edward kenway. Abstergo is trying to find out what happened to him during a very specific point in time.
Confirmation that we're using Desmond's memories, due to advancements in the Animus tech which allow it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmCQSY6Uxgw

I found the footage again, as gamespot took it down for some reason. ACChile was nice enough to edit it to just the gameplay.

First thing I noticed: that HUD is super unobtrusive. transparent, small button prompts, a thin health bar, and the SSI icon are all that's in the top part of the screen. Prefect. Eagle vision looks almost black and white on non-highlighted targets, which look sharp and well defined rather than glowy. I really like that style, it fits with the clearness and cleanness of everything.

Those are my favorite points. And here's why!

The "Berserker" dart sounds similar to Far Cry 3's weapon-ization of animals. For example, if you went to capture a fort in FC3, and you saw a caged tiger, you could shoot the cage from afar and it will attack and/or kill anyone it can get to before it's taken down. This sounds very creative for THB.

I like how they're not blocking anything off from us, but simply making certain areas harder to enter from the get-go.

I've been hoping they'd use viewpoints for something like this since AC1. It's about time.

It never did that, but, yeah, it's a nice touch.

In regards to the HUD, you can always turn off the control scheme, which to me was always the most glaring part of the HUD.

Other than that the game is looking pretty good.

Just saw this link and I don't have a problem with the HUD. It's there when you need it, but not really in the way. No problems from me.

I usually take away the health, controls in the top-right, and weapon icons. It's mostly the map that I leave up during story gaming to reach objectives. Again, this won't be a problem for me.

It didn't do exactly that, but it turned white when there was no one looking at you, had the yellow dot when they were but were neutral, ect

That's what I meant when I said it was similar.

I'm also really excited about the poison stuff, it's a lovely consolidation of silent ranged weapons. If you want a straight up kill, you can't just use your gun all the time because guards are gonna notice.

Stealthy melee approach encouraged without scripting.

EDIT: the E3 trailer showed throwing knives, right? Or were those just daggers being thrown.

Alright so.
I have my final exam in a few hours.
But I can't sleep. So I woke up to entertain myself for a bit, upon which I will go BACK to sleep.
3:52 now, wake up at 7 or 8, final exam at 9. kk.
Let's get dangerous!

My favorite part of this is that the game opens up during the first hour, but blocking of content is done through brutal difficulty rather than total restriction. I assume the combat system will have changes to accommodate the increase in difficulty of enemy types and enemy AI as Ashraf Ismail has mentioned. I take it this means that players who are not so great at the new combat system won't be able to get into 100% of the game world from the beginning and will need to progress through the Main Missions in order to gain significant upgrades and force their way in like that.

At least in Land Based areas (the Ship Combat might take a little get used to even for TheHiddenBlade crew, we'll see) a lot of THBs should be able to stealth our way into ruins and other "blocked" areas without having to fight directly.

I'm such a huge fan of this because I love 'minimalist' runs and No Kill runs, Ghost Runs or even just a straight up stealth run, killing or not. I'm also happy that people who are better at the game will be rewarded with visits to secret areas earlier than those who need upgrades, while not really alienating either crowd.

I mean, players who aren't so great will just be made to experience the story mode without getting complete access to all of the exploration until later, which is fine - the story's probably gonna be awesome.

I also really love the way Viewpoints work now. It's freaking genius! Why didn't they think of it before!?
Sync a Viewpoint, now you can Fast Travel to it at any time. WHAT. BRILLIANT!

Alright, I'm done. I should write some poetry and go back to sleep. I can't wait for this game. Unfortunately, just like everybody else, I will. I don't bank on friends in high places allowing me an early copy like last time ;D

ALSO EDIT:
http://www.joystiq.com/2013/03/04/assassins-creed-4-black-flag-pushing-h...

"We actually have more assassinations than AC1 had."
>WE ACTUALLY HAVE MORE ASSASSINATIONS THAN AC1 HAD
>>WE ACTUALL- Okay. Okay. I'm excited.

Saw footage that showed the game runs at 60 FPS in multiplayer, hoping for that in singleplayer too.

What do they mean by this? Are those AC4BF's equivalent of Assassin Tombs and Romulus Lairs?

yup

AC3 also had more Assassinations than AC1 had...

It's a matter of quality over quantity.

If this rings true, then it looks like we'll have quality AND quantity.

Agreed.

Although I have nothing against AC3 (I thought it was a great game with large advances in the series), we've been promised more than was executed before.

I'm hoping it is more like AC1. More like the "here's your target, go get him" stuff. To be honest, this would appease fans of the series from the beginning and be a "refreshing change/new direction" for those that jumped in later...

Weve been promised more than executed with small things like systemic events in acr and the spyglass in ac3. Something like main assassination targets is what the whole game is based around. Those don't get cut as lightly. But its true thatthey could be less quality.

When were we ever promised a spyglass to use in AC3? They said he used in on his ship, and he did. They never said WE would ever need to use it whenever we wanted.

Nope, they mentioned the spyglass system that got pushed to ac4. I posted the interview quote somewhere

Oh...my...God. What did they do with the HUD? What happened to AC3 simple design? Why is the HUD on the top-left instead near the menu? For what purpose did they do such a mishap? Did the dev. team wanted to evoke a feeling of nostalgia as though we were playing with Ezio and Altair?

Sorry, but it doesn't work like that. One you simplify and streamline something cluttered into a few HUD (and fans approve of it), it's irrational to go back a few steps and plaster the entire screen with HUD. Oh sure, it's transparent - and the design is much more smaller. You know what? You could have done the same thing with AC3 HUD to begin with! Urgh...

As for the other design choices...I'm extremely happy that they removed those Animus walls. Ridiculous design choice to begin with. I liked how you have access to the entire map after 1 hour (I'll be keeping time on my 1st play through).

There's still 5 months, the UI may be consolidated a bit. But I've got to say: kinda missed this sort of setup. health bar at the top of the screen feels way more natural to me, since it's there in every other game.

And as we all know, we really want Assassin's Creed to be just like every other game on the market.

As you can tell from my comments here, I am with you on the HUD. I won't say any more on that.

The cool thing to me about the map opening up is this: I will explore the map FULLY this time without progressing the story. Why? Because now that Desmond is gone, I won't be as compelled to get to the end ASAP. I'm not invested in this new story arc yet. That means I'll spend more time pushing the system and trying to do things I shouldn't be able to do as early as possible. I'm looking forward to it.

One more thing... after all the hoopla about this in and discussion about its abilities in ACR/AC3... how has nobody mentioned Edward just nonchalantly throwing up his hood in the trailer?

I'm pretty sure this won't be a user interface option, but it's nice to not only go seamlessly from land to sea, but also seamlessly from "casual home base" to "time to kick some ass."

It's confirmed to be dev-controlled, meaning the hood is only down during specific points in the narrative.

Source

And that's fine by me. It's just another cool thing about the elimination of loading screens/etc. It'd be like Connor leaving the homestead and throwing his hood up... but no loading screen.

HOWEVER, hopefully they make the mechanics the same for any and all alternate outfits. Unfortunately for me, I had Achilles's robes on near the end of AC3 and never saw shaved head badass Connor in action, because the Achilles Robes don't have the ability to put the hood down.

I've always wanted that ability: to casually flip up the hood or not. Gives you more control and customization towards your character.