Assassins Creed Unity Four Player Banner

A few months back, some rumors on Twitter suggested that Assassin's Creed Unity would include a co-op narrative experience unlike anything the franchise had offered stealth action fans before. Chatter around the co-op mode faded over the last month and then re-emerged this morning when the crowd outside E3 2014 spotted the above banner putting the focus on multiple protagonists.

Gameplay footage demoed during the Xbox presentation this afternoon confirmed that Unity will offer players a chance to team up with up to three friends for a full co-op narrative experience. The co-op portion of the demo started off normally enough, with two assassin's stealthing into a fancy French mansion and taking out several enemies inside the building.

Things got a little more interesting when the assassin's enter a different room and meet up with two buddies. The group of four assassins then more forward through the mansion with a coordinated attack, utilizing each of their strengths and offering support to each other.

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Although previous multiplayer modes haven't been a serious draw for the single-player focused Assassin's Creed franchise, it will be interesting to see how much of a selling point the co-op option becomes for consumers. If the combat is as interactive and engrossing with multiple players as it appeared to be in the demo, it's possible that we could be looking at an evolution of the Assassin's Creed franchise into a new era. This co-op mode definitely seems to be more of a deliberate story-telling option, rather than an afterthought.

The Assassin's Creed competitive multiplayer never caught on with a large fanbase the way the campaigns have, so this seems like it may be the best way to bring a social aspect to the Assassin's Creed world. The single-player modes have offered some incredibly addicting experiences that bring out the completionist side of many gamers and it seems possible that some of that draw may fade if players were pushing through the story mode with a group of friends. Either way, four player co-op mode will open up some interesting possibilities for the franchise.

Ubisoft takes the stage for its own presentation later this afternoon and we expect to hear a lot more details and potentially see some more gameplay from Unity at that point.

Game Rant E3 2014 Live Coverage

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Assassin’s Creed: Unity will be released for PC, PS4 and Xbox One in late 2014.

Follow Denny on Twitter @The_DFC.