CraveOnline: What does any 3rd person adventure game owe to classics like Tomb Raider?
Ubisoft: Tomb Raider was definitely a genre-leading title that introduced the combination of action, adventure, puzzle solving and a great story. You’ll find that combination in most adventure titles. It needs to have a story that pulls you through, action that keeps you engaged and puzzles that challenge your wits. This is done in the “next-generation” without being so obvious or seeming as dated. That’s what the next great adventure titles will accomplish.
CraveOnline: How does a game like Assassin's Creed distinguish itself from the wealth of great adventure games?
Ubisoft: Our goal with Assassin’s Creed was to use the new tech to deliver new types of gameplay and a more relevant experience. We have created a unique gaming experience that our Creative Director Patrice likes to refer to as a "Flower Box" game. It's a sandbox experience that is heavily story driven. The player has the freedom to complete missions when they want and using that strategy that they find the most satisfying but all of these missions are tightly woven into an intricate story and are essential to the big reveal at the end.
CraveOnline: What can players do in Assassin's Creed that they cannot in any other game?
Ubisoft: Not only you’ll be able to travel freely from on city to another but we are also trying to do something a little different that was not possible before. We focused on building a character that can do over 1,000 contextual moves, and paired this new freedom of movement with a highly interactive environment and crowd lets players develop their own style. Any architectural detail that sticks out more then two inches can be used as a hold for your hands or feet. Not only can you create your own path on the rooftops you can also create your own flashy or subtle style for doing so or skip the roofs entirely and use a strategy through the crowd. Place a highly mobile and skilled Assassin in a fully interactive living environment and the possibilities are endless.
CraveOnline: Controls are vitally important to these games. How was the control scheme designed to maximize all the abilities you may have, but not overcomplicate playability?
Ubisoft: We wanted to create a control scheme that fit the game design but at the same time was less complicated than previous third-person adventure titles that more often-than-not incorporated a bevy of button pressing mechanics and combinations. In Assassin’s Creed, Patrice Desilets came up with the idea of more of a puppeteer control system where each button corresponds to either feet, hands with weapon, hands without weapon and your head (brain). Then, by pulling on the right trigger button, we go from “low profile,” where we are acting in sync with the world around us to “high profile” where we’re ready to run, fight and move more aggressively. It takes a bit to get used to but after a while it becomes very intuitive, if I want to jump, I just push on the feet button, if I want to use my weapon, I just push hands with weapon and when I want to conduct a pick-pocket, I’ll use the hands without weapons button.
CraveOnline: Why was the game conceived in a historical setting? What are the advantages and disadvantages of that?
Ubisoft: Even if the game was conceived in a historical setting, it’s speculative fiction. It’s is a fun genre to work in. By grounding a story in reality, you increase its credibility. Suspension of disbelief becomes easier because it’s happening in our world. You’re exploring cities that still exist today, encountering infamous individuals whose names everyone knows, witnessing battles that really occurred. At the same time, because our setting is far removed in time (this is nearly 1000 years ago), there’s plenty of freedom to tweak people’s personalities and motivations. It’s fun to explore the idea that something else was happening beneath the information gleaned from historical textbooks. People are also fascinated by “History’s Mysteries” and the Templar Treasure was ripe for exploring. What did the Templars find beneath Solomon’s Temple? Why did they want it? Where is it today? The same can be said for the Assassin’s themselves. We know a little bit about them, but their very nature made them a secretive, manipulative bunch. Most of what’s known comes from third hand accounts. These were very likely orchestrated events, carefully planned by the Assassins to ensure a specific, controlled image was portrayed. Who were they really? What motivated them? What secrets were members given access to as they rose through the ranks? These were all questions we get to play with in the story. And the answers are pretty interesting.
CraveOnline: How important are cut scenes vs actual game play in Assassin's Creed?
Ubisoft: We do have cut scenes, but not in the traditional sense. They’re rendered in-engine, and control is never truly taken away from the player. In Assassin’s Creed, you play the story. You don’t just watch it. The narrative framework also justifies a lot of our presentation decisions. We tried really hard to ensure that any moments of reduced mobility are the result of narrative events and not arbitrary design decisions. Don’t worry, Altair isn’t going to be “tied up and held hostage for the duration of a cut-scene” every ten minutes.
CraveOnline: What does celebrity casting like Kristin Bell bring to the game as opposed to regular game voice actors?
Ubisoft: We were very fortunate to work with Kristen Bell. She is a tremendous incredible actress and we worked with her before she landed a staring role on Heroes and became the voice of Gossip Girl! In addition, working with a celebrity such as Kristen Bell allowed us to reach a wider audience who may have not considered Assassin’s Creed a game for them, and she hosted our celebrity launch event too!
CraveOnline: What is the franchise potential for Assassin's Creed?
Ubisoft: Well, Ubisoft is very well established in creating successful franchise brands and we’re just excited to be able to work on Assassin’s Creed and we’ll see where things go from here.
CraveOnline: Could this be described as Hitman in history?
Ubisoft: I’ve heard a lot of comparisons especially with Hitman & Splinter Cell. All of these are great games so it’s quite flattering but our goal with Assassin’s Creed was to use the new tech to deliver new types of gameplay and a more relevant experience. The biggest difference with Hitman is that Assassin's Creed is not a stealth game. We do have a feature called social stealth. A rule that says that you are hidden as long as you are behaving in a socially acceptable way. But this rule results in a much more fast paced type of game play then traditional stealth that is based on staying hidden in shadow, especially since you are trying to blend into the chaos of a crowd in the midst of one the bloodiest wars in history. Besides the difference in pacing there is also a difference in the amount of freedom given to the player. We have recreated the entire Holy Land, three major cities as well as all of the countryside in between. The player is free to roam the countryside, explore cities, and participate in side quests and missions to help the population or complete main Assassination missions. All of these objectives can be accomplished in a variety of ways and in the order that suits the player's mood. We put a lot of emphasis on player creativity and set the whole game experience up so that you can develop your own playing style and adjust the level of difficulty and adrenaline to your liking.
CraveOnline: How does it earn the M rating?
Ubisoft: The game contains some adult language, blood and graphic violence.
CraveOnline: Why is there no two-player mode?
Ubisoft: One of the original ideas was to bring a multiplayer aspect to Assassin’s Creed, whether that be co-op or competitive was still in discussion but we wanted to really focus on making a great game without over committing. We were already pushing ourselves and proposing a very ambitious title to begin with. So perhaps in a future iteration there may be some multiplayer inclusion, but you’ll have to wait and see.
