E3 07 – Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed: In-depth Hands-On Preview

Can Assassin’s Creed dethrone Metal Gear Solid as the king of third person stealth gaming? Ubisoft’s Project Manager of Animation, Elspeth Tory, allowed us to take the controls while she provided us with a walk through of one of this years most anticipated next gen titles – Assassin’s Creed.

Elspeth was well prepared to give us demonstration, as she supplied us with headsets and communicated to us via a microphone equipped headset of her own throughout our session. With the tight quarters at this years Min-E3 it was surprising to us that more publishers didn’t follow Ubisoft’s lead.

While you do have mission objectives indicated by a flashing X on your screen, the game is free roaming and everything as far as your eyes can see is available for you to take cover behind, climb, jump, push, and shove, all in the name of successfully reaching and eliminating your next target.

“Everything down there is your playground … So are you interested in playing?” said Elspeth with a smile on her face.

We of course said yes and shared a good laugh as she handed us the controls. The game starts with your character perched high above the city as you study your surroundings and admire the breathtaking view. When you are finally ready to begin you must jump down and land into a bale of hay in the streets below. This is done simply by pushing forward on your left analog.

Upon exiting the bale of hay (by again pressing forward on your left analog) you begin to make your way through the crowd of people. The game features something called “free running” which essentially means that in order to move you must push the left analog in the direction you want to go and press the (A) button which sets your feet in motion. To run simply hold down the right trigger while doing the above as well. The right analog changes the position of your camera, the (B) button controls your empty hands, (Y) corresponds to your head movement, and (X) is used to attack.

“The game has very innate detection and tons of animations to represent different collisions from different angles.” said Elspeth

We would have to agree there. The controls are very sensitive and the games collision detection is unlike anything we have seen before. You will notice this most when working your way through crowds as your character turns his shoulders to maneuver his way through tight places you will see many different animations depending on the speed and angle of approach.

Certain individuals you encounter will give off a distinct glow (think Terminator body scan) as they enter your line of sight. The glow designates a target which you can lock onto such as a guard. The glow is similar to the terminator body scan you may remember seeing in the movie as it outlines the figures body in white and gives off a subtle glow.

As you make your way through the town holding down the (B) button will gently push people out of your way. If the situation calls for more drastic measures, press (B) while in mid run and give anyone hindering your progress a good shove. This is great when being pursued, as it will clear a path helping you distance yourself from guards, however doing this any other time will surely draw more attention to yourself than needed.

If you are wondering just how much you can get away with before the guards catch onto you simply look at the on-screen “social status indicator”. It is a reflection of how the crowd and guards view you. When the eye flashes, it means you are being watched by guards. Shoving your way through crowds will effect the indicator and getting into a fight will cause it to turn bright red. While experimenting with the controls, we noticed that pressing the (Y) button caused the character to tilt his head down and bring his hands up into a position of prayer as he walked the streets. Elspeth explained …

“That’s what we call a blend animation. It is used to blend in. This is pretty helpful near the end of the game or after you have killed a target and everyone is after you. At that point the guards are really sensitive and even walking near them will cause them to attack you. The prayer animation will give you a couple seconds to break the guards line of site and allow you to find a place to hide.”

There a good number of places to hide in the game, and while the crowds and benches on the street level serve well for blending in, when your status indicator is in alert mode you will need to climb to higher ground in order to reach the more secure hiding spots.

When climbing your character will automatically detect anything that he can grasp and hold on to, and there are a ton of things available to you to climb. From what we saw, a simple wall alone contained extruding bolts, uneven bricks, molding, window sills, and attached wooden beams. Speaking of wooden beams, you will be able to swing from them as well, which is great when you are looking to bypass the crowded streets below.

After proving that we had the basic controls down we were finally given the green light to kill a guard, and we have got to admit it was worth the wait. Once we had ourself in position behind the unsuspecting guard, we pressed up on the directional pad in order to select our assassin’s blade and then tapped the L trigger one time to lock onto the guard.

With weapon in hand and target locked all that was left to do now was to move in as close as possible and press (X). With a swift thrust of our blade the guard was down and we were off to resume our leisurely stroll around the city. The awareness level of the other guards in that area increased and they began to leave their posts to examine the incident, but by the time they arrived to the scene we were long gone.

We were now in the process of making our way to our mark on the map, a slave trader by the name of Talal, when we ran into two characters on the street that were looking to pick a fight with us. The stance and overall appearance of the two tall lanky topless characters throwing constant jabs in our direction resembled Sagat of Street Fighter fame. It took us a few seconds to work our way around them without fighting back to draw more attention to ourselves.

Once past the dueling street idiots, we made a few more turns and closed in on Talal’s location. Upon entering the building where he was hiding out we were treated to a real time cinematic sequence. As the sequence played out we were still able to control our character and manipulate the camera movement. After the cinematic came to an end we walked through another set of doors and were swarmed by a group of guards who had been instructed by Talal to kill our character. We were not about to have any of that.

The key to this and other battles is to be locked in on your target, and the easiest way to know if you are locked in is to examine your characters stance. If you appear to be ready to attack you are locked into a target and if you are standing casually you are not. Before the battle begins you will have a few seconds to adjust your buttons and you want to make sure that you use the directional pad to select your sword.

Another important tip is to hold down your right trigger during the battle. This will automatically deflect the attacks made in your direction while you are locked onto a target. Holding down the right trigger and pressing (X) when attacked will cause you to perform a counter move, while right trigger and (B) will allow you to grab your attacker and throw him to the ground. To attack a guard from a distance, simply switch to your dagger, lock on to the guard, and tap (X). The dagger is a great default weapon for an encounter such as this, as it can be used to take out enemies both near and far.

This encounter was quite difficult for a first time player and we relied on GOD mode to save our assassinating ass on more than one occasion. However, we do believe that with more playing time the controls will become second nature to most gamers and these encounters will become less challenging.

After dismantling the guards Talal gets scared and begins to hot foot his way across the roof tops. We climbed a ladder and began to chase him. With a few well timed jumps we moved in on him quickly, and as he leaped off the roof we were right on top of him.

We must have bumped the (X) button before the camera could reposition itself because by the time it turned around to show our character he was already holding Talal’s dead body in his arms. This was a funny moment for all of us as Elspeth explained that she was fairly certain that was the fastest that anyone had ever killed the character.

The demo itself doesn’t end there though, once Talal has been killed the rest of his men give chase to you and you must make your way to the “assassin’s bureau”. Just getting there isn’t good enough as you can’t enter the bureau if guards in the area are on alert, so it is important to get there without being seen. Once inside, you debrief and the demo concludes.

After we got done patting ourselves on the back for our super fast kill, we turned around to see that the lead designer of Gears of War, Mr. Cliffy B was waiting in line behind us to play. It seemed that everyone was interested in getting a “stab” at Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed.

Our impression of the game? Visually stunning and extremely well animated. While it was a little hard to get used to the controls at first, we think the learning curve is worth while and can appreciate the value of an interface such as this especially in a game of this nature. The AI was very good but we did note a few areas for improvement such as the mark who wasn’t able to escape us for more than a few seconds even with a decent running head start.

All in all though, the issues we had with the game were very minor, and will most likely be worked out in its final release. Gamers making a big deal out of the glitch that occurred during the Microsoft Conference need to relax and realize that this game is still far from finished. In closing, there is nothing on the market like this, and it will make a very nice addition to your video game collection.

Assassin’s Creed Concept Art (click to enlarge)

Check out the video below demonstrating an alternate route you can take to achieve the same result. Narration is provided by Ubisoft.

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We have also included the audio from our hands on preview of the game with Elspeth. You can listen to that below.

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Assassin’s Creed will be available this November in North America at the MSRP of $59.99 with the Limited Edition priced at $69.99 – ESRB rating is pending. For more information, please visit www.assassinscreed.com.

Controller Layout Summary

• (R) Analog: Controls the camera
• (L) Analog: Changes the direction your character is facing
• (A) Button: Sets your feet in motion
• (B) Button: Acts as your (empty) hands
• (Y) Button: Controls your head (The only example of this we saw was the prayer animation used to slip past guards)
• (X) Button: Initiates your attack
• (L) Trigger: Locks on to an enemy or available target
• (R) Trigger: Run when combined with Left analog and (A) Button, Deflects attacks when locked onto a target, Grabs a hold of and throws an enemy when combined with the (B) Button.
• (D) Pad: Equips Weapon