It’s been a whirlwind 72 hours for fans of the Assassin’s Creed franchise. Following a teaser posting on the official Assassin’s Creed Facebook page that a “major” announcement was en route, leaked box art confirmed what many fans had been hoping – that, as previously rumored, Assassin’s Creed 3 would be set in the American Revolution.
Confirmation of an American setting for the next trip into the animus was quick to follow – only to be outdone by more leaked media content in the form of actual screenshots from the game. Now, in addition to all that intriguing eye candy, we’re finally getting some concrete details about what to expect from the actual Assassin’s Creed 3 gameplay.
The details come courtesy of a posting at NeoGaf that outlines the upcoming Game Informer article (the same one that provided first confirmation of the American Revolution setting – via the magazine’s cover). Included are a number of intriguing pieces of information – too many to simply list out here.
As a result, we’ve compiled the best tidbits below; however, head over to NeoGaf for the full list (including mild story SPOILERS) or wait and read the article when the new issue of Game Informer hits shelves later in the week:
- New hero called Connor/Ratohnhake:ton (pronounced Ra-doon-ha-gay-doo). He has an English father and Native American mother.
- A new traversal approach that has players leaping and climbing trees and mountain cliffs.
- Combat is focused on putting you on the offensive and based on speed/momentum. The main character has thousands of new and unique animations (no carry over from other titles) to support the new combat system. There’s no more target locking, it just automatically detects your target. Counter/defense are the same button to prevent turtling.
- Connor is in the heart of major battles, and they can now have a couple thousand guys on screen, whereas before it was capped at about 100.
- There will be all sorts of wilderness in the game referred to as the Frontier. The map of the Frontier is 1.5 times bigger than the entire map of Brotherhood.
- The world changes as time passes, so a field where a battle happened in one year may just be a series of empty encampments a few months later. The entire world will change with seasons, so the cities and the wilderness will all exist in both Summer and Winter settings.
- You can now leap over wagons or slide under obstacles, including navigating over and around moving objects. The free running stuff also has you jumping through windows to trees and then on top of church roofs.
- This game has the longest development cycle since AC1, and has twice the production capacity (in terms of work hours) and budget of Revelations.
As mentioned, these are only a few of the details posted over at NeoGaf. That said, without even looking at the more spoilery elements or in-depth information about weaponry, enemy behaviors, etc in the full report, one thing is very clear – Assassin’s Creed 3 is set to be a major overhaul to a franchise that has, despite a great story and fun gameplay, been gliding along without too many new ideas in the last few installments. While it’s unfair to simply say that AC: Brotherhood and Revelations were merely Assassin’s Creed 2 expansions, given the amount of refinements to the core gameplay as well as a robust narrative that allowed players to grow with fan-favorite assassin Ezio, there’s little doubt that gamers are ready for a major change-up in the third installment.
Ubisoft appears to be delivering on those expectations and, more than anything else on the list, the most intriguing updates seem to be in the combat mechanics department – by far one of the least satisfying aspects of the prior games. While the combat was serviceable enough to move from encounter to encounter, many battles simply devolved into defensive “wait and see” counter attacks that killed a lot of Ezio’s mobility. This round, it sounds as though it’ll be a lot easier to go on the offensive and navigate the battlefield with fluid momentum.
Dynamic season effects as well as the increased scale of both the world map and NPC numbers also hint at some extremely immersive set-pieces and large-scale battles that should provide some intriguing opportunities for fighting -especially given that new combat system.
Assassin’s Creed 3 releases on October 30, 2012, for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.
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Follow me on Twitter @benkendrick for further updates.
Source: Game Informer [via NeoGaf]
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Looks pretty frigging epic if you ask me.
Super stoked!!!
I can’t wait. I wonder who will be Assination targets. Players in Boston Massacre? Promenant loyalists? British generals? Cornwalis will probably be a big factor. Benedict Arnold could be used as an ally then turns on you. Lots of possiblities. Boston Tea party could be huge in the game.
Oooooohhhhhh your Benedict Arnold idea sounds awesome
I love the idea of the Assassins being part of the Boston Tea Party… Could be a pretty awesome sight.
There are so many events they could use in the game. I mean you have ones are obvious then you could do an escort mission taking prominent members of the continental Congress to Philly. Guerrilla fighting, ride with Paul Revere, distribute “Common Sense”. I particularly like the idea of using Valley Forge.
I am so excited about this title… what an epic era, and some increbile news as far as the system for this game…. Way to go Ubisoft… companies like Blizzard need to heed the wisdom you have for development cycles and continual game development/growth, and pushing for that next goal!
hahaaahaaa….I really do not understand how to show my excitement, I might as well just die out of the sheer anticipation of this game already. 2012 will be a Gaming Year to be remembered…
This game is going to be awesome I cannot wait!
ratohnhake:ton? thats crazy talk! haha jokes but im sure there are way cooler native american names to go with Ezio Auditore La Fierenze and Altair Ibn-La’Ahad than that.
the past two had meanings, also involving an eagle with each. itd be great if they scrap ‘connor’ and come up with a shortened but still genuine/authentic name.
Those details are nice but that auto lock, I could see that getting frustrating.
That’s exactly what I was thinking…personally, I actually quite liked the combat system. Wait, instant kill. Except for the Janissaries, they were…annoying, but fun too. I hope I like the changes they’ve made…
less talk more stabby stabby
Looking forward to the combat changes. I am a fan of the series, but I felt the combat was something that got really easy after a while, especially when you could just hold the block button and counter. The small change of block and counter being the same button will, hopefully, add a lot more depth to the combat.
I’m also hoping that Connor will be a bit more mobile and able to roll around or evade more to help add to frenzy of a fight. However…he’s got a bow and arrow, so I’m hoping that sniping will be a very large portion of dealing with enemies.
I agree. The combat got easy. Especially when they added the feature to just keep pressing the attack button to get quick kills
As far as combat, I’m most excited for that bow! I love those!
I called it on the jumping tree to tree. I can’t wait for this game.
Honestly, I wish they will make a bit of a return to the pseudo stealth action of AC1 instead of the increasingly combat oriented philosophy brought in since AC2. It really takes a lot of the fun out of being an assassin when 75% of the missions simply force you to run into a group of enemies and start stabbing. Methodically planning the murder of a corrupt government official without anyone being the wiser and then executing said plan is much more assassin-like in my opinion.
I agree to a point. the original had a huge focus in stealth, but that was before weapons were available, and the focus moved more toward battle based training for different situations. I do think stealth should play a bigger role, but with how fast paced some of the game is, i do see some difficulty there. Ultimately, Ive been very happy with the series from 1 to Revelations, and I look forward to what Ubisoft has up its sleeve for this one.
sooo when will we hear about Desmond during the game?
Lol honestly, who cares about Desmond outside of his ancestry?
Bite your tongue sir!
ive seen the game and held it in my hands it was like holding the holy grale some kid i know has it because he has a (freind) in sony. if anyone knows how to become a beta tester or wants to know who has the copy post on this site if your a designer i will tell you if you can make me a beta tester for ac3.