Assassin's Creed II creative director Patrice Desilets was again on hand to guide us through 15th-century Italy, and our demo began on the Florentine rooftops. The environment looked stunning in the late afternoon, with a soft haze obscuring the nearby hillside. The skyline was filled with orange terracotta roof tiles and soft pastel and cream colours. Gazing around, we could see numerous towers, domed churches, villas, and plenty of other buildings with rustic charm. Ezio walked up to a nearby guard and used his concealed pistol--first seen in the E3 announcement trailer to dramatic effect--to execute him. When you aim the pistol, a grey line will show where you're pointing, and this should improve aiming with the third-person camera. After a few moments, Desilets jumped off the rooftop into a hay bale on the street below. He then approached a street merchant who sold him a bottle of poison to use for an assassination mission. These missions are delivered to Ezio through carrier pigeons, which you can find scattered around Florence's rooftops. The heads-up displays have been slightly updated, while the controls look the same as before and are again contextually mapped to your head and limbs. The Y button is assigned to eagle vision, B is for tackles or gentle pushes, and A is used to sprint, free-run, jump, or steal.
While you could blend only with scholars in the original game, you can now do so with pretty much any group of people, and this is illustrated by an abstract pattern of criss-crossing lines on the ground when you approach them. Desilets used eagle vision--the ability to single out friends, foes, and targets in a crowd--to locate his target and then blended into a crowd to get a bit closer. Rather than going in for a bold kill, you can use other characters to do your dirty work. In this case, he infected the target's guard with poison, and within a few moments the guard started having a fit. Slashing his lance around from the pain, the guard was able to pierce the man he was meant to protect, thereby fulfilling Ezio's mission. This looks like just one example of some of the new ways to carry out such missions, and we look forward to seeing more examples at a later date.
Following this mission, the day began to disappear and night fell upon the city. Dark, grey clouds covered the sky, and the Florentine skyline was bathed in the dying moments of twilight. Desilets led us on to a nearby alley, which was blocked by some guards. He enlisted the help of some nearby mercenaries, and after exchanging some money, they agreed to kill the guards. Being able to get others to do your dirty work seems like an interesting idea, but because you have to pay them, you will probably need to save their resources for special occasions. The alley revealed a hidden trapdoor, indicated by the assassin's symbol, which surrounded a skull set into a fountain. Ezio pushed his fingers into the eye sockets, activating the hidden door, and jumped down into a new area below: the catacombs beneath Florence.
We're told by Desilets that there will be numerous underground areas to expose in the game. However, they're all optional besides this particular one. The reason this one is mandatory is that it involves the discovery of a secret meeting of the Assassins' sworn enemies, the Templars. The catacombs offered a fresh landscape to what we'd already seen, and the chipped, worn brickwork was bathed in a soft candlelight, accented by painted artwork, ornate, classical architecture, scattered debris, and even human bones. Desilets used Ezio's acrobatic skills to make his way down to the bottom of a central shaft just after the Templars moved into a huge hall, sealing off the entrance with a heavy stone door. Using some acrobatics, he was able to climb up to an area above the sealed room and found a secret level that opened the door, triggering a cutscene featuring the Templars.
Despite their lavishly decorated armour, the Templars seemed as deadly as ever and quickly set out to find Ezio. Desilets demonstrated a cool new "death from above" move that lets you execute an enemy by jumping from above and stabbing him with your knife. After taking care of one soldier, he used a smoke bomb to distract two more and chase after a final one, who made a hasty retreat. The Templar was intent on warning his cohorts, and this section features the new chase gameplay. Your aim is to stop him before he can call for reinforcements, by any means possible. These areas don't appear to be linear, and you can use alternative paths when an enemy creates an obstacle, in this case blocking our way to a terraced balcony by locking a gate. Desilets used a chandelier to swing around the outside of the balcony and through a gap in the wall to kill the Templar, which resulted in another cutscene where Ezio eavesdrops on the meeting. Inspired by real events, the cutscene shows the Pazzi conspirators who planned an assassination on the brothers Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici, co-rulers of the Florentine Republic. There were a number of conspirators named, including the pope, who apparently approved of the Templars' plot.
Our demo concluded with Ezio finding a chest of money and opening a sarcophagus marked with the Assassin's logo, and we found a ceramic seal inside. Collecting these, we're told, will result in big rewards later on. Opening a nearby door, Desilets exited the catacombs and popped back into the world through a sewer grate near a canal. Assassin's Creed II is dropping onto the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on November 17 in North America and on November 20 in Europe. For all of our coverage from Cologne
New Features :
Ezio's 'Toys'
'Toys' – the term Ubi Montreal has coined for the gadgets and environmental 'modifiers' that Ezio can use – play a big part in adding variety to the experience. Of these, only a few have been revealed so far, but their implications and usefulness are already clear.
'Toys' – the term Ubi Montreal has coined for the gadgets and environmental 'modifiers' that Ezio can use – play a big part in adding variety to the experience. Of these, only a few have been revealed so far, but their implications and usefulness are already clear.
One of da Vinci's 'Toys' that Ezio gets to take advantage of.
COINS
Who would've thought that underlining human greed and using it as a gameplay mechanic would make for such handy tool? Underpinning this 'toy' is Ezio's ability to toss a handful of coins into a bustling crowd and then watch the chaos as villagers scatter and bounce around to collect them. It's brilliant – makes for the perfect kind of disruptive, non-violent defence.
POISON
From early in the game, Ezio can obtain poison for his wrist blades. With a little bit of timing, this poison not only eventually kills its target, but actually drives them insane for a good minute or so. During this time, the poisoned target babbles with madness, thrashing about and lashing out at people aggressively. If you poison an armed guard, the result can be a bloody rampage.
Ezio lays down the law with his two buddies, knifey and pokey.
SMOKE BOMBS
As you may have seen in previous videos and previews, Ezio's smoke bombs unleash a thick cloud of soot into the area around him, lingering in the air for just long enough for a swift-footed escape. Used while being pursued, it stops guards in their tracks. Used just after an assassination, it becomes even more valuable.
Fun and Games
Combining all of these elements is where the beauty of Assassin's Creed II's vision becomes apparent. See, there's a lovely overlap of these Toys and their effects within the world, and this overlap highlights the beauty of logical AI and sandboxy gameplay – flexibility.
Ezio now has a third-person version of his 'eagle vision', essentially allowing him to quickly pinpoint colour-coded targets and assailants in the environment with ease. This small adjustment has bigger implications to the way you can approach a mission. By easily differentiating guards and bystanders from your target, you pave the way for using Toys to mix things up and create some incredible distractions.
Combining all of these elements is where the beauty of Assassin's Creed II's vision becomes apparent. See, there's a lovely overlap of these Toys and their effects within the world, and this overlap highlights the beauty of logical AI and sandboxy gameplay – flexibility.
Ezio now has a third-person version of his 'eagle vision', essentially allowing him to quickly pinpoint colour-coded targets and assailants in the environment with ease. This small adjustment has bigger implications to the way you can approach a mission. By easily differentiating guards and bystanders from your target, you pave the way for using Toys to mix things up and create some incredible distractions.
Finding your target while on the prowl is made much easier with the improved Eagle Vision.
Taking an example that uses all of the items above, Ezio can silently walk up behind a guard, poison him and walk away. Then from a distance, while the crowd gathers to watch the uncontrollable rantings and flailing of a madman, he can toss a handful of coins at the poisoned target. This causes the people to come rushing in and start scooping up the coins. From there, the poisoned guard will start attacking the peasants mercilessly with whatever weapon he has it his disposal. It's a total massacre – and a perfect distraction. From here, Ezio can either use the time he's bought to sneak past or simply smoke bomb his way out of sight and away from the threat of guards in the area – guards who clearly already have their hands full.
As you can see, the toys complement each other, overlapping their uses to create a streamlined and logical way to plan your ultimate assassination and escape.
Ezio and the Prince
Taking more than a few cues from Ubisoft's other major action-platformer franchise, Prince of Persia, Assassin's Creed II reveals another major twist to its formula – the inclusion of secret side-missions that take place underneath many major landmarks throughout the game world. These landmarks, such as the Santa Maria Novella church in Florence, allow Ezio to gain entrance to the vast subterranean catacombs by way of a secret assassin's entrance, marked with the familiar 'A' symbol.
Prince of Persia-style free-running obdstacle courses are just one way the gameplay has evolved and expanded in Assassin's Creed II.
After a nifty animation in which the 'A' symbol parts and slides into the wall, a passageway is revealed and the fun begins. The objective is fairly simple – much like Prince of Persia, simply navigate through the catacombs towards your objective – be it to eavesdrop on a meeting of the Knights Templar or pursue a target. At the end, you're rewarded with access to an Assassin's treasure chamber, holding collectable crests that eventually unlock the most valuable and important item in the game. What is it? We have no bloomin' idea.
Regardless, the inclusion of these side areas – completely voluntary missions that change up the gameplay – really do cater well to Ubisoft's promise of more and varied gameplay in Assassin's Creed II. There are still a lot of questions hanging over our heads – specifically, what other Toys can we look forward to, and will the world feel more persistent and alive this time around? Thankfully, with the game due to drop in just a couple short months, we won't have long to wait.
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