While previous Assassin’s Creed games have featured the requisite multiplayer option, at the E3 2014 demo, Ubisoft has gone full throttle by introducing a four player co-op campaign mode to Assassin’s Creed: Unity.
In the E3 demo, the main character – a French assassin named Arno Dorian – exhibits the series’ mainstay parkour mechanics and crowd blending as he makes his way to a royal castle in the thick of a riot on the eve of the French Revolution. He is quickly joined by three other player controlled assassins on the way to the castle where the four of them effectively take out unsuspecting guards in tandem. 
This new Brotherhood, which the player is tasked with forming, is on the hunt for their target that has barricaded himself indoors to avoid the angry populace. Dorian and the other assassins first incited the mob by killing the guards, unleashing them into the courtyard before navigating and stealth-killing their way through the castle.
A distraction from the capricious mob outside allows the assassins to surprise attack the guards and corner their prey.
The demo ends with the noble being tossed out of the balcony and onto the lap of a frenzied mob.
It closes with a shot of his decapitated head twitching on a pike.
Throughout the demo, the improved graphics for new-gen consoles is visible in the way Dorian’s long coat trails behind him realistically, even folding and ebbing as he comes to a standstill.
New blood effects for Assassin’s Creed: Unity are also in effect, where killing an enemy would result in a splatter of blood on the door frame, walls or floor.
The most impressive thing however, was how the player-controlled assassins moved seamlessly from outdoor to indoor and vice versa in what was described as an open world.
Dorian is also a much less encumbered fellow; lacking the bulky weaponry his predecessors seem to have developed a love for. As such, he is much leaner and quicker, and with the new ‘parkour mechanism’, can effortlessly scramble down buildings so fluidly that it already makes his once agile predecessors feel weighted and clunky.
The co-op campaign is purported to be separate from the main, single-player game which Ubisoft had also demoed.
So far, Ubisoft looks to be making some serious and necessary changes to the old formula with the ‘down parkour system’ being one of the most exciting new features.
Below is the co-op demo showcasing all of these nifty little changes;
Assassin’s Creed: Unity is the first game in the series to be built specifically for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC and is scheduled for release on October 28th 2014.
