Assassin’s Creed 3 is the fifth installment of the series; Ubisoft have promised it’s bigger than ever.
Image via assassincreed.ubi.com
We have a new protagonist in the shape of Connor Kenway. It’s the first time the game has moved into the ‘new world’ and is set between 1753 and 1783 – the American Revolution. So if you were tired of Renaissance Italy (the setting of the past three games), then this is probably music to your ears.
If, like me, you aren’t up to scratch on the American Revolution, it involved 13 colonies in North America joining together to break free from the British Empire. The British weren’t too happy about them expelling all royal officials, so they sent out combat troops to regain control – war ensued.
Kenway is a bit of an outcast however, being half British and half Native American. He’s been tasked with the challenge of fighting for freedom by joining the assassins as he sees his village destroyed. The weapons in which you have to do so are rather interesting. There’s the usual throwing knives, but tomahawks and rope darts also make an entrance!
Ubisoft claim the settings are pretty realistic, so there’s appearances from a certain General George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. There’s even a gigantic fight scene based on Bunker Hill too. Not only do you have to kill every person you see, you’re also confronted by a bear!
Ubisoft have also been praising the new engine called Anvil Next. It took the team three years to develop from scratch which improves AI, animation and motion capture. Even the weather has been enhanced, so when fog looms large, you can stealth kill to your hearts desire.
From the trailer we can see that parts of the gameplay will feature in the wild. This means having to remain stealthy amongst the woods. I’m not talking about camouflage of course, more like climbing trees and jumping from branch to branch. It’s not an entirely new premise from the game’s predecessors; just replacing rooftops with branches.
It’s not just the wilderness though you’ll be contending with, the cities of Boston and New York are prevalent in game play too. Blending has never been more important. Kenway dresses differently and has a bow and a bunch of arrows; he’s going to have to be pretty good! As Paola once said to Ezio:
Discretion is a paramount in my profession. We must walk the streets freely: seen, but unseen. You too must learn to blend like us and become one with the city’s crowds.
The free running aspect of Assassin’s Creed has picked up a notch when out of the wild. It seems now you can open windows, jump through them and run out the other side. So if you ever get boered of the killing spree, try some parkour instead!
The battlefield scene impresses me; it looks loud, violent and bloody. I think my favourite part of the whole trailer has to be the flying attack on the Redcoat riding horseback – I look forward to replicating that myself. It’s only two minutes of goodness, but already gamers have been raving about what they’ve seen in the trailer.
So often are we duped into amazing trailers to be confronted with the dreaded ‘Not actual game footage’ at the end of the video. If Ubisoft stay true to their word and we get exactly what we see in this trailer, this won’t just exceed previous Assassin’s Creed installments, but possibly any other game released this year.
Assassin’s Creed 3 is set to be released on the 30th October in the US and 31st October in the UK.
What do you think of the trailer? What’s your favourite part of the trailer? Tell us in the comments section below.
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May 11, 2012
Games