For as much flack as Ubisoft got for putting multiplayer into Assassin’s Creed, the truth is that it plays quite nicely. They’re expanding the options for Assassin’s Creed III.
At the end of the day Wednesday, we were able to score some hands on time with Domination, a king of the hill type mode I’m sure Call of Duty fans are very familiar with. But this is Assassin’s Creed; you’re not going to run and gun your way to victory. Instead, you’ll have various tools at your disposal to break into the enemy’s territory, where you can not kill them, and take their capture point for your team.
The same formula introduced in Brotherhood is present: you’re an assassin attempting to assassinate the other team, but there’s a couple of catches. First, every team member looks the same, and they also happen to look exactly like virtually every NPC character in the game. To make things more difficult, the rep on hand confirmed that NPCs have scripting to act human. For example, I saw someone randomly turn around for no reason on a dime. Impressive, Ubisoft, very impressive.
Domination plays out in typical king of the hill fashion, but there’s a twist: if you’re in the enemy’s territory, you can’t kill them, only being able to stun them and then walk away before they recover and kill you. This leads to the need to be careful with your attempts to take over a capture point; blending into the environment and successfully using all the tools in your arsenal, such as smoke bombs, disguises, as well as blending in with the environment, are all tools you’ll need to use to succeed.
One remarkable feature was the fact that the game’s pacing felt faster than Brotherhood‘s, despite seemingly never being caught in fast paced chases across the map. This is because of the intensity that comes with the game mode. Instead of worrying about who’s on your tail and who you need to kill, you’re watching all of your capture points while looking for any suspicious activity, while not being suspicious yourself. Instead of worrying about one person, you have to worry about four.
For a game that “wasn’t supposed to have multiplayer,” the offering from E3 in Assassin’s Creed III was highly impressive. Between the demo, as well as the live demos seen at both the Ubisoft and Sony conference that showed more of an open world to explore, battling both enemies on the battlefield and in nature, as well as intense ship battles, the wait for the game’s launch in October is going to be a long one.
