The gameplay footage of naval battles shown during Sony’s E3 press conference demonstrated that Assassin’s Creed 3 would be more than a gimmicky romp through the American Revolutionary War. Today, the guys at Ubisoft have released a seven minute walkthrough of all of the mechanics players will encounter in Assassin’s Creed 3. The footage is, quite obviously, part of the beginning part of the game, where the player, as the half-British half-Native American man named Connor, journeys through the wilderness, hunting, killing, and assassinating.
The video highlights the new tree navigation, which is similar to the building navigation in other Assassin’s Creed games. Connor glides through the winter forest as if he were an orangutan. The player in the video is shown hunting a deer, and turning in the meat as a side quest. After that, he is assigned a proper assassination mission, which demonstrates the game’s approach to stealth, Connor’s ability to assassinate on-the-run, and a rather gratuitous black-powder barrel explosion. Take a look at the footage below, narrated by Assassin’s Creed 3 Creative Director Alexander Hutchinson:
Two things stand out in the video that aren’t impressive, though. First, the tree-swinging seems a bit unrealistic. Connor would have to be severely underweight and a few feet shorter to jump through branches and not make them give at all. Second, while the combat of the game looks very smooth, it’s obvious that this is because enemies wait to attack Connor one or two at a time. It was bizarre to see British soldiers watch for seconds at a time while their mates were sequentially counterattacked.
Still, even with these minor flaws the game looks to be incredible fun, and the premise is wonderful. Assassin’s Creed 3 is already available for pre-order and will hit stores on October 30 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.
