Schooling in Assassin’s Creed

One of the things we love the most is having people reveal their biggest secrets. Assassin’s Creed has been a fiercely guarded project at Ubisoft Montreal (Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia). But for X06 we got to squeeze confessions from producer Jade Raymond.

Xbox.com: What sparked the original idea; were you always aiming for Altair to be 12th Century assassin?

Jade Raymond: Some of our core team members have been working POP and Splinter Cell previously, so there’s no denying that these games have influenced them but the story behind Assassin’s Creed origin is different.

Patrice Desilets our Creative Director as well as some other key members of our Creative team read a book about the Assassins and then started to do a lot of research about the clan and the 3rd Crusade. The more we discovered about these people, the more we wanted to make the game. Even the Assassin Motto “Nothing is True, Everything is permitted” fits the game medium perfectly.

Xbox.com: How much do next-generation special effects make a difference to the experience, beyond being cool? The shadow routes in Splinter Cell spring to mind.

JR: This is the first time where you will interact with a believable crowd in a game. The new systems allow us to create unique animation sets and reactions for each enemy and civilian. We have based these crowd reactions on real life and our definition of being hidden is no longer about being in the shadow, it’s about blending into the crowd. Behaving like they do in order to approach a target unnoticed. Being hidden requires you to understand the crowd and this is where the special effects come in. Altair has highly tuned intuitive powers and he is able to use something called eagle vision in order to see the crowd’s motives. Post effects, filters, radial blur and other special effects are used to reveal people’s intentions and direction.

Xbox.com: Since you guys created Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia, will there be similarities?

JR: I’ve heard a lot of comparisons: Splinter Cell, Hitman, Shadow of Colossus, Prince of Persia, GTA … All of these are great games so it’s quite flattering but our goal with Assassin’s Creed was to use the new tech to deliver new types of gameplay and a more relevant experience. If we finish our work as planned then the feel of the final game should be quite unique.

The biggest difference with Splinter Cell is that Assassin's Creed is not a stealth game. We do have a feature called social stealth; a rule that says that you are hidden as long as you are behaving in a socially acceptable way. But this rule results in a much more fast paced type of gameplay then traditional stealth that is based on staying hidden in shadow, especially since you are trying to blend into the chaos of a crowd in the midst of one the bloodiest wars in history.

Besides the difference in pacing there is also a difference in the amount of freedom given to the player. We have recreated the entire Holy Land, three major cities as well as all of the countryside in between. The player is free to roam the countryside, explore cities, and participate in side quests and missions to help the population or complete main Assassination missions. All of these objectives can be accomplished in a variety of ways and in the order that suits the player's mood. We put a lot of emphasis on player creativity and set the whole game experience up so that you can develop your own playing style and adjust the level of difficulty and adrenaline to your liking.

Xbox.com: This is a new franchise, so are there already plans for the sequel? Or could new 'chapters' be obtained from Xbox Live (as with Splinter Cell)?

JR: It’s too early to say anything about possible sequels. Right now, the whole team is focusing on one game and that’s already more than enough!

Xbox.com: Can you reveal anything about multiplayer modes for Assassin's Creed - online, and/or playable on the same console?

JR: Assassin’s Creed will not feature any multiplayer or co-op modes.

Xbox.com: Are there plans for additional content to download from the Xbox Live Marketplace – not just new levels, but weapons, clothing, etc? Also, what kind of achievements will we be aiming for?

JR: Yes, we will have downloadable content, achievements etc... It's hard to list the achievements in a meaningful way without going through why it's cool to achieve them but rest assured they will drive the fiercest competition between you and your Xbox Live friends.

Xbox.com: Looking forward to it! Thanks for your time Jade.