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feature :: assassins creed demonstration

Assassins Creed Demonstration

Jae attends a demonstration of the game Assassin's Creed with Ubisoft Montreal's Patrice Desilets, creative director of Assassin's Creed and Prince of Persia Sands of Time.


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Rarely, in Australia, do we see a developer and publisher work together to organise a press event for a new IP. Ubisoft, in conjunction with it’s Montreal development studio, flew Patrice Désilets (Creative Director and good English speaking-french accent guy) to good old Sydney to show off Ubisoft’s flagship title for the holiday season.

Assassin’s Creed has been a title shrouded in mystery yet shown off in public with very little leaking about the plot. When introducing himself to the audience Patrice made it quite clear he was not answering any questions related to the highly secretive plot of the game (I managed to squeeze one question answered about it!).

This game has apparently been in development for over 4 years which means Ubisoft Montreal commenced this straight after Prince of Persia: Sands of Time was completed. The graphics certainly don’t relate to that of something 4 years ago, they look very slick and well presented. I’m not a fan of projectors as you tend to sacrifice a lot of detail for the size of your screen. However when Assassin’s Creed was presented to us in a theatre the detail remained. You can easily tell this is next generation graphics.



I can see my house from here


What we do know can be summarised in a few points:
  • Main aim of this game is to control Altair and utilise the environment to skilfully, tactically and stealthily assassinate your target.
  • When Altair assassinates someone he has to dip a white feather into their blood and return that to person who’d set him the objective, to prove his job was complete.
  • The game will take place in the year 1191 over three epic cities; Damascus, Jerusalem and Acre although travel between these cities is an environment on its own.
  • Towns will be full of people whose languages vary as to reflect the common dialects spoken during the 12th century. The main one of course will be English for us.
  • Many Metal Gear-ish things involving stealth and hiding amongst the environment around you. For example you can hide amongst monks walking in a group praying with their heads down and hands together by their chests, jump from extremely high points into stacks of hay or sit on a bench next to some townsfolk to blend in.
  • Altair can climb virtually any part of the cities that have an edge, hook, gap or window sill. Basically everything!
  • Archers are all over the rooftops, if one of them sees you they are alerted and treat you as an intruder or assassin. Whereas on the ground level, depending on your status within the town, you can hide or be undetected by guards.
  • There are many skills to be learnt throughout the game, we were shown the ability to pick pocket someone in a crowd to obtain knives in which can be thrown to eliminate your foe. The knives were of great use on rooftop situations against archers.
  • There are many strategies that can be used to complete your objectives including befriending strangers whom belong to a small gang who in turn help you, peer and listen in on conversations by sneaking in through rooftops or go in guns a blazing. Minus the guns. Instead you kill with a retractable short blade kept up your sleeve.
  • Every part of each city can be explored, and boy are these cities huge! If you stand at the highest point of a city and look around 360 degrees you will be able to view the whole town, which if you go back to ground level can be explored on foot.
  • You will be in control of your character 100% of the time, in other words when cut scenes or plot revelations occur you can still move around within the event. The example Patrice demonstrated was when you watch a crowd huddle around some important members of the cities discussing their political opinions. Altair could continue to walk around the crowd and interact with the environment during the scene.


What is still a mystery is most of the plot. During one assassination, just as you stick your blade into the target, you are taken to a scene where dialogue between Altair and his target take place. Its almost like its within a dream state or an expansion of the time it takes for your target to die after you stick it to them. Patrice says the secret that they’ve kept from all of us will be revealed within the first 30 seconds of you playing this game. You will notice enemies in the game will have some sort of ‘digitized aura’ around them. It looks very similar to the binary type coding you see in the matrix except it is made up of what looks like carbon strains from highschool Chemistry (don’t ask me what elements they are – I flunked Chem…). In a game set in 1191? Exactly. Everyone’s best guess is Altair is from the future sent back in time to change history. So I boldly asked a question related to the oh-so-secret plot:



All you need is doves in the background for it to be John Woo Presents Assassin's Creed


Jae: So I noticed the voices are all done very well, in terms of their accents being customised to the way in which we would expect people from that era to have. Except Altair seems to speak like a modern American. Is this deliberate?

Patrice: Yes.

Jae: Aha! You answered a question about the plot.

Patrice: *smirking* no I didn’t.

No further comments came to light. I am now officially very excited for this game and can’t wait to play it. Due out on November 15th, for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, Assassin’s Creed is sure to be a great new IP for 2007.

Ubisoft even had a very random competition in which we all had to check underneath our chairs as Patrice had hidden two white feathers. If you were to get one of the two then you’d win a nice prize. So Jae wins one! A nice Assassin’s Creed carry bag with collectable figurine, special edition DVD and Tin case for when I buy my copy of the game. Rest assured when Jae wins so can you!

We have up for grabs two prizes.

1st Prize
An Assassin’s Creed Box with feather and a vial of blood included! (Not really its just red ink)
CD Rom with Exclusive wallpapers, icons and screensavers.
An Assassin’s Creed Xbox 360 faceplate which looks awesome.

2nd Prize
An Assassin’s Creed Box with feather and a vial of blood included! (Not really its just red ink)
CD Rom with Exclusive wallpapers, icons and screensavers.





Simply email jae@australiangamer.com and tell me what you think the REAL story behind Assassins Creed is. Winners will be chosen by me, the more entertaining the answer the more likey your chance of winning!

Entries close 20th November, 2007!

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