Ubisoft Montreal has obviously been taking tips from the team at Naughty Dog because the next iteration in the Assassin’s Creed series looks set to feature some thrilling cinematic chase sequences that mimic the fast pace and smooth flow of Nathan’s Drake many high impact scenes.
The major difference between the Uncharted series and Assassins’ Creed 3, of course, is that players still have choice over where they want to go. Like other games in the series, you can take multiple routes across the sandbox environment, but a gameplay demo also showed us a specific sequence where a set path can be followed that dramatically changes the feel and impact of running from a group of guards compared to previous games.
At an Assassin’s Creed 3 reveal event in London, Ubisoft showcased a thrilling chase scene after the game’s protagonist, Connor, attempts to make a break past the border control guards due his lack of paperwork. Guards armed with muskets immediately pursue him as he darts across the centre of an area packed with NPCs. He leaps off a set of crates just as a horse and cart drives past. For the first time in the series, Connor can actually time his leap and jump on the moving cart to propel him to the next level, which happens to be a tree.
He hauls himself up and navigates his way around the tree branches like a tight-rope walker before a window of a nearby building suddenly flings open and a lady leans out to see what all the commotion is about. The window opens with perfect timing for Connor not to have to break his stride as he dives head first through the window and inside the building – another first for the series. He dives out of the window on the other side of the room and onto the rooftops where he continues to escape his pursuers.
A snapshot of Mohawk Village, where Connor was born
There’s more of a flow and a cinematic feel to the chase sequence that we’re used to experiencing in previous Assassin’s Creed games, where we’d clumsily scour the environment and blindly make our way in any direction to get away from a group of chasing guards. Here, in this particular sequence anyway, there is a set path that leads to a dynamic chase scene that at no point breaks its flow. We also know that Connor can jump over obstacles in one complete motion and dive under things, also two manoeuvres he couldn’t pull off in previous games. We have no idea whether more of these sequences will feature throughout the game, but we certainly hope so.
Assassin’s Creed 3 launches on October 30th in North America and October 31st in Europe.