14 DAY TRIAL // Ubisoft has gone to great lengths to improve the stealth system in the upcoming Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, basing its changes on the feedback it received from those who played last year's Assassin's Creed 3.
Assassin's Creed games in the past began with a big emphasis on stealth and hiding in plain sight, but recent installments had a bigger focus on flashy fights and open encounters with enemies.
Ubisoft has noticed this deviation and has revealed, through the voice of Assassin's Creed 4 Director Ashraf Ismail, that one of the biggest areas where it's listened to fan feedback is the stealth mechanic.
After Assassin's Creed 3, plenty of feedback was gathered by Ubisoft and, while some players loved the naval combat, others hated the departure from stealth-based gameplay.
As such, Ismail and his team started modifying the existing system by simplifying a lot of rules concerning AI behavior and gameplay, according to OPM.
"I think this was something that was hard for players to deal with previously; that they didn’t understand all the rules or the feedback wasn’t strong enough. [Assassin's Creed 4] really simplifies how you get detected, how you escape detection, how you sneak up on a guard. All this stuff has been really simplified and made much more intuitive. The feedback itself has also been improved, so now we really focus on what the player needs to know. And that’s the feedback we get."
What's more, Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag protagonist Edward Kenway also has new items and weapons that can be used to stealthily eliminate enemies.
"We’ve given Edward a bunch of new stealth tools. I won’t go into too much detail, but having tools that work in range, having tools that work in close combat, but have a stealth element to them. So, we’ve given Edward a bunch of new tools as well."
In the end, Ismail admits that Assassin's Creed 3 may have lost sight of stealth gameplay, but Ubisoft listened and things have been changed for the new game.
"I think Assassin’s Creed 3 was really a great game, it had its faults for sure, but there was a lot of people that truly loved the game. I think there are some elements that we are pushing in AC4, for example stealth being one of them, that we are making sure that we are really paying attention to what people have to say."
Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag is out later this year for PC, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.