Home Editorial Balance New Assassin’s Creed Revelations Footage and Impressions

While Ubisoft is still withholding hands-on access to Assassin’s Creed Revelations to me and the rest of Top Tier Tactics, there’s no solid reason we can’t watch videos other sites are uploading and draw our own, better conclusions. Gametrailers recently posted some footage of two new multiplayer gameplay modes, chock full of both obvious changes and subtle tweaks. While it hasn’t been confirmed which existing modes will return (other than Manhunt), there’s plenty to absorb here.

You can watch the embedded videos after reading my long-winded observations about them.

General Gameplay Notes

  • Instead of unlocking skills and perks at set levels, players will earn Abstergo Credits at the end of each match based on their score, challenges completed, etc. These credits can be used to purchase unlocks, which is a great system since it lets the player choose his/her own skill progression. There may be limits/prerequisites to purchases, though
  • Players begin at Discreet and don’t gain Silent or Incognito until they’ve retained line of sight on a victim while remaining in low profile for some time. This encourages stealth gameplay a bit more and makes roof-running a little less profitable (since running to a ledge for a quick kill will only be 250 points)
  • In order to balance this increased difficulty of obtaining Incognito kills, Incognito kills will now play a much faster, less ostentatious animation. In other words, the more stealthily you approach your target, the lower profile your actual assassination will be, decreasing the odds an onlooker will easily notice it
  • It is significantly easier to stun opponents, however you can also now stun NPCs. It has not been shown how one navigates crowds using Gentle Push without stunning them
  • A player who attempts to stun his killer during the kill animation will delay it and receive some points, though will still ultimately die. This system has been implemented to encourage more stealthy kill approaches
  • You can now throw Smoke Bombs, because fuck you, that’s why
  • Most skills from Brotherhood seem to have been carried over, including Disguise, Morph, Smoke Bomb, Firecrackers, Throwing Knives, and more. Sprint Boost hasn’t been shown yet, so hopefully it has died a painful death
  • Throwing Knives is apparently improved to help cut down on roof running, though it hasn’t been explained how. A simple suggestion might be to reduce the recharge considerably
  • The lock-on system has been changed so that the “quick lock” tap function will be available any time your target is in high profile. This should make it slightly less annoying to lock onto enemies in the console versions of the game

Artifact Assault Mode

I don’t know what the hell this mode is, but it looks like Capture the Flag with a few tweaks.Players on two teams must steal a small artifact from a given area and escape with it, smuggling it to a safe hideaway. Matches are played in a single, ten-minute round, and it looks like whether you can kill or stun enemies is tied to which team’s territory you are currently in. That is to say, when you’re on friendly turf, you’re the hunter. When you’re on enemy turf, you’re dogmeat.

Personally, I don’t find objectives other than “murder another human being” to be inherently rewarding, and I can’t imagine the existing Brotherhood user base will readily jump on board this strange mode. That said, the whole on/off predator/prey balance makes it a tad more interesting than standard CTF, and rounds should still be much more fun than 2Fort any day.

Deathmatch Mode

Now this is interesting; in Deathmatch Mode there are no persona duplicates, and there is no radar. You must identify your target using only a line-of-sight indicator, waltzing around a smaller map with a keen eye ready to determine where exactly Waldo is. It’s basically Wanted with a few drops of reality added, and I think the gameplay will be significantly more interesting than what Assassinate ultimately became (pretty much a game of chicken with a lot of bullshit rodeo circle-strafing). While the frenchmen in the Gametrailers video don’t do a particularly good job at sussing out enemies and avoiding death, they do a good job of demonstrating how this intense addition will work.

While I’m excited to bring my skills to the table in this installment, I am slightly worried that general balance may have taken a backseat to flashy new effects and extra modes/social features. Any developer that decides buffing Smoke Bombs is a priority can’t be too focused on building a competitive scene. What do you think of these new modes and gameplay changes?

13 replies to this post
  1. Artifact Assault actually looks like a great addition, firstly because it adds a new twist to traditional CTF modes and provides a much faster and constantly thrilling gameplay experience. One of the advantages this brings to the AC multiplayer community is that it’ll probably take a lot of the roof-runners/constant sprinters away from more stealth-orientated modes like Wanted.

    In terms of balance, I think they’re addressing a lot of the concerns that arose from AC:B. Things like honourable deaths (contested kills) and a focus on stunning/defense makes the game more fun and forces aggressive players to reevaluate their strategy.

    Is smoke bomb overpowered? I really think it depends on the player. Good players will use smoke bombs effectively and bad players won’t. Until we see how the game turns out and how it compares with all the other abilities it’s still a bit early to speculate on that in my opinion.

    • Fair points on 1 and 2, though unless they’ve changed the mechanics of Smoke Bomb in some major way, it will be overpowered. Smoke Bomb was already easily the best skill in the game by a wide margin. And yes, it’s possible every other skill has been buffed, but I don’t think that would be good for the game – the multiplayer is at its best relying on the tension of the underlying mechanics, not on who can spam the most powerful moves the most often.

  2. While this may be true, the underlying mechanics also depend heavily on the use of moves and how you use them. After all, becoming incognito for a kill now could be achieved in many ways with just one ability, depending on how its used. For example, I could use morph in a larger group of people to drive my target towards me while I keep constant visual on him, whether it be from a bench or in a hay pile. I could also follow him very closely, and use morph in order to sort him out if he enters a shady group. I could also use disguise in order to get close to my prey before I send him on a train into oblivion, or I could use it in order to turn the tables while I’m being chased by MY persuer. It may be very situational, but the underlying mechanics effect the game just as much as the game effects the underlying mechanics

    • I feel that argument is disingenuous. It’s like saying you could win a fight using a handgun against Tomcat attack jet by sneaking into the hangar and killing the pilot. Unfortunately in 999 fights out of 1000, a jet fighter emptying its payload on a single person will win.

  3. Some questions:

    1. how exactly will throwing a smokebomb work? Will your persona throw it at a target?

    2. How are they going to balance the credits when there are prerequisites? That is why I am NOT playing EVE, EA…
    At least you can’t get trolled by high levels that just do something and say “Counter me with poison lololo” while you are 10 levels below that.

    3. How will artifact assault work out? couldn’t you just yoink the artifact, grab some pursuers, lure them to your territory and stab each of them?
    That sounds like a pretty cheese strategy.

    4. Will the detection meter drain if you remain out of line of sight after you filled it up?

    Also, wouldn’t deathmatch pretty much put every skill in the book to rest, except for maybe the hidden gun and maybe smoke bomb. Why smoke bomb? BECAUSE IT IS THE MOST OVERPOWERED SKILL, that’s why!

    • Totals did you watch the videos? Most of your questions ate answered. For instance you throw smoke bomb by holding the button and aiming it. And if anything skills like disguise Morph and decoy are super important in deathmatch since there are no duplicate personas.

      • TBH, I did not.

        I read your article as if there were no npcs in deathmatch, while there are just no duplicates. durr…

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