Assassin's Creed: Revelations Launch Event
We drop by the Ubisoft Canada launch event for Assassin's Creed Revelations
The locations in the game were not the only element that required an expansive and intense wealth of knowledge, the lore, characters and setting were also integral, Darby saying "Everyone involved the project became a history buff." Which can be easy to see but hard to appreciate as an audience. We can sometimes forget that Assassin's Creed is historical fiction, Darby describing the game writing process like "writing a book... narrative is the most important thing."
Multiplayer, though relatively new to the series is also an increasing selling point in games and can leave a player worried when they think that the single player may fall short, but Andreane was quick to allay the fears saying "multiplayer was just as important as the single player experience". However, now that time has passed from Brotherhood she expressed that they wanted to expand on the characters, feeling that "they deserved their own backstory".
And with a game series that the team all have a lot of history with Andreane said that sometimes "we had to police each other" to ensure that they were staying true to the game's legacy. This rang true when Darby spoke about Ezio's love interest for the game Sophia and the importance of creating a three dimensional role. "I went back and looked at older games but found that they lacked strong female characters", adding, "when writing her, I looked back at the women I had dated, and not the ones I wanted to date."
With the discussion over, we marched back into the media room to watch an exclusive preview of Assassin's Creed Embers, the short film produced in-house at Ubiworkshop. The film gives the audience closure on Ezio's tale and completes a chapter in the Assassin's Creed universe.
The film utilizes buildings, locations and characters straight from the game's universe, meaning that everything you see is also included in the video game. Louis Pharand of Ubiworks described the project as something that "could not be told through a game" and its subject matter and pace were testament to the decision.
Without wanting to give too much away, we are introduced to a few new characters and witness several nicely choreographed action scenes with the movesets we've seen in game. A particular highlight being when an older-Ezio disarms one of his attackers and thrusts the sword clean through the man's skull, drawing a "well that was awesome" gasp from everyone in the room.
When the film finished it was met with resounding applause even though it dealt with bittersweet subject matter and afterwards I had a quick chat with Rapael and asked him a few questions regarding the new game. Addressing the earlier issue concerning level design, I asked about how it might take a toll on the mechanics of the game. "The street designs were not as linear" he said, "so with elements like collision detection and complex routes, a foot popping up or NPC occasionally not blending as well is worth it."
I asked him if was worried about how the game would be received, this being the year of a number of high profile games drawing to a close, Assassin's Creed being no exception. After pondering for a moment, he replied, "People need to look at the game, and what has come before, and take it as a continuation of the story not so much as a separate game, enjoyment and immersion is what's great about it."
After the strong focus that is put on the older environments, I was interested in where the inspiration came for the levels focused on Desmond on the near-future environment he inhabited to which Raphael stated that Japan's Tadao Ando was a big inspiration for the clean, almost sterile environments.
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