Assassin’s Creed III Devs Talk Game Features

Ubisoft’s creative director Alex Hutchinson and lead scriptwriter Matt Turner have revealed details about certain gameplay elements in Assassin’s Creed III. These were rounded up by X360 Magazine.

Firstly, it was said that the mission structure will be much more organic this time around.

Hutchinson said:

“We wanted people to have opportunities outside of the main story path to interact with animals and other new gameplay, so we’ve built several alternate gameplay loops that encourage the player to explore and then reward them with more gameplay.

“For example, we’ve added various new mission delivery systems like the Hunting Club. If the player hunts a lot, then the game will notice and send a character to meet them, who will basically say, ‘You seem like a good shot with that bow, have you thought of joining the Hunting Club?’

“They will give the player an invitation that will allow them access to a previously inaccessible area of the map where they can gain a bunch of new side challenges and rewards.

“Players can also layer their experience: you can have more than one active mission at a time, and more than one task on your plate, so people will be more in control of how they play their game.

“Add to this the fact that we’re investing more on mission variety and custom mission events than ever before in a story that takes place over 30 years, and you have a vast experience.”

Turner spoke about the Desmond sequences, in that you’ll now be leaving the Animus with clear objectives rather than just for the sake of it.

He said:

“I can’t say in this version you’re going to see more of Desmond than before, but it’s finding that balance; it has to feel like it’s relevant, that you’re doing it for a purpose, I think that’s the trick.”

“It’s not as jarring if you think you’ve come out of the Animus for a reason, as opposed to, ‘Hi, now I’m here, walking around. Now I have to go pee!’ That’s what we’ve been trying to make sure is really clear to the player: the reasons for coming out of the Animus, and making sure the sections of the game in the present are more grounded and motivated.”

Hutchinson then confirmed you won’t be rebuilding cities like in previous games:

“We are improving the same cities with the same goal as with the rest of the game – we didn’t just want to add new features, we wanted to take players to entirely new world and show them entirely new styles of gameplay. I can confirm you will not be rebuilding cities, as with Rome or Constantinople, but there is a unique gameplay loops that fulfils some of these needs. Stay tuned.”

And finally spoke about the combat system:

“We rebuilt the combat system from the ground up. Everything from the player strategy to the enemy types to animations and camera implementation is new. Connor’s combat system is based around a two-handed fighting style, so he uses tomahawk and knife, assassin’s blade and knife, or many other combinations.

“The core for us is a redesign of the health system, so that instead of having health units and needing to heal after combat, you now have a regenerating health system – you can escape from combat and rest.

“We also built brand new enemy behaviours and redesigned strategy to push players to use all the different buttons on the controller and all of Connor’s moves from counters, to offensive moves, to tools like pistols and throwing knives.”

It’s quite a lot of information to digest, and some of it has been said before, but it’s still worth a read if you’re like me and really got sick of gameplay features like rebuilding the city, or if you were curious as to how hunting would be relevant.

Assassin’s Creed III will be released on October 31 on PS3 and Xbox 360, and on November 23 for PC.