14 DAY TRIAL // The team in charge of the Assassin’s Creed franchise at Ubisoft tends to focus most of its attention and marketing efforts on the launch of Unity at the moment, but the company is also aiming to make the accompanying Rogue experience a success by allowing gamers to take control of a Templar and see how the world of the franchise looks from the other side.
In a new blog post, the company reveals that fear is one of the main concepts around which gameplay is built, with gamers having to move carefully in order to avoid the kind of attacks that they were delivering as Assassins in the other titles that make up the series.
Ivan Balabanov, a producer working on Rogue, states that “It’s also what the living world around you does. We gave ourselves the objective very early on to make sure that everything you were able to do as a player in previous games can now happen to you. We want you to have the feeling that if you make one wrong step, you’re dead.”
The feeling of paranoia is reinforced by the existence of a new enemy type called the Stalker, which stays in the shadow, attacks from rooftops and can even attack from bales of hay.
Ubisoft says that the new opponents will whisper softly when they are near, which is the only warning that a Templar needs in order to get ready for a tough fight.
Rogue, the air rifle and stealth movement
According to Balabanov, the team has been careful to give gamers new tools to accomplish their objectives even as they face an increased threat of being hunted themselves.
The new air rifle weapon is designed to allow the protagonist to manipulate events around him using berserk darts, which can be used to create conflicts between the various NPC factions in order to be able to move forward without being noticed.
The developer adds, “What I like to do is use the air rifle to get these different systems interacting with each other and trigger emergent behaviors. I want to see things that aren’t scripted or designed, but rather happen by themselves.”
Assassin’s Creed Rogue will also encourage players to use a variety of other pricy and high-tech gear to keep the character safe and allow him to move through the world.
The game will be launched on November 11 in the US and on November 13 in the EU and will only be offered on the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3.
