Ubisoft had plenty to show off at E3 this year, but nothing was more impressive than seeing Assassin’s Creed: Revelations first hand during a behind the booth demonstration of the game’s single player story. We were given a video demonstration and run down of the demo by Aldo Sampaio from Ubisoft. We join a much older looking Ezio in the city of Constantinople. He must make his way to a boat out on the ocean but unfortunately the Ottoman Empire has raised a giant chain across the mouth of the port.
The chain is designed to prevent any and all ships from entering or leaving the harbor which means Ezio has to do something about the chain or he has no chance of escaping from Constantinople alive. Of course while other assassins may have been daunted by the task of sneaking into a well-guarded area and destroying the chain, this is Ezio we are talking about.
As Aldo made his way over to his destination we were introduced to a new game mechanic that allows Ezio to use bombs throughout the world. These bombs are entirely customizable and can be created through finding items around the city. This means that all of those random items you picked up in Brotherhood may have a use this time around instead of just store quests. The bombs can be used for any number of things, but are best used to wipe out entire groups of guards.
After using one of these new bombs to take out four guards at once, Aldo guided Ezio up towards the tower holding the chain, but not before showing us that the Eagle Sense has been upgraded slightly and will be clearer than ever when you are using it, even when in the midst of your own smokebombs.
After eliminating all the guards in the area and using a custom bomb that he was given through the opening cutscene he destroys the entire building holding the chain and opens up his escape route. But the problem is that the boat he was supposed to be on has already sailed. Too bad this won’t be an issue either because Ezio now has a hookblade that can be used to zip across ropes like a zip line and also extend his climbing reach making it easier to navigate than ever before.
The hookblade can also be used as a weapon and this was demonstrated after Ezio used it to zipline over to an enemy ship. The enemy ship, once cleaned of enemies, contained a cannon that shoots Greek Fire, (ancient flamethrower) that allowed him to quite literally set ablaze every other ship in the harbor. Thus with all of the enemy fleet burning down into the ocean, Ezio was able to make a quick escape through the wreckage and onto the allied ship before the demo had finished.
The gameplay and combat look to be quite similar to what we saw in Brotherhood except with a few new touches here and there. The hookblade is certainly a nice addition as it will most likely make getting around the city faster, but perhaps the biggest implementation here was the bomb system. The bombs look like they will be a mechanic that fans will love, as each one can be customized to perform specific actions. The one shown in the demo launched splinters of wood into the area, killing all guards nearby. Now bombs may not be the sneakiest way to infiltrate an area, but they certainly are effective. We can’t wait to see more when the title releases later this year in November.
