The Assassin's Creed franchise has grown rapidly into one of the most anticipated releases each year - offering counter-programming to the annualized Call of Duty series. While some fans had been worried that the narrative-heavy titles were spiraling into abstraction, we recently reported that the Assassin's Creed writers are nearing completion on the over-arching series story - and should be able to carry Desmond's journey to a satisfying conclusion.
However, with all the talk of story, it's sometimes easy to forget that Assassin's Creed is, first and foremost, a game series. To that end, following on the heals of the incredibly cinematic Assassin's Creed Revelations trailer at E3, Ubisoft has released an equally impressive gameplay trailer for Gamescom 2011. While we know that Altair and Ezio's respective stories will be tied-together and polished-off in Assassin's Creed Revelations, there's no doubt that Assassin's Creed 3 is already in development - and will continue the over-arching story that's been established in the previous installments. However, it doesn't take a new time period or new main character for Ubisoft to treat players with new game mechanics and weaponry - as evidenced by the new video.
Check out Ezio's improved combat moves in the Assassin's Creed Revelations Gameplay Trailer below (followed by a gallery of newly released screenshots):
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kmulGwfHrc
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As expected the in-game footage looks incredible. If there's one thing, besides a compelling story, that Assassin's Creed has routinely offered, it's breathtaking visuals - especially considering the size (and historical accuracy) of the sandbox cities.
That said, as we've mentioned in both our Assassin's Creed 2 and Assassins' Creed Brotherhood reviews, combat has always been one of the weaker points in the series - since players are mostly locked into a defensive stance, defending against oncoming attacks. Admittedly, Brotherhood saw a number of improvements with regard to combat, especially with offensive combo chains, and it looks as though Revelations is set to further refine these mechanics for more satisfying swordplay.
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Assassin’s Creed: Revelations releases for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on November 15, 2011.