Assassin's Creed: Rogue was revealed last week with a stunning CG trailer that hinted at where the franchise would be going next. Today Ubisoft has dropped 16 minutes of gameplay footage (embedded below) on both land and sea that gives us a better understanding of how the game will play.
Set during the Seven Years War between France and Britain, Ubisoft seems to be taking the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," approach to Rogue, drawing heavily from last years Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. While that may be the case, there are a number of new additions, environments and story elements that are set to make the game fresh. Here are five of the big ones.
Life as a Templar - First is the game's new Templar viewpoint. You play as Shay, a British assassin turned assassin hunter, dedicated to purging the brotherhood from North America and bringing order. Players will team up with Hatham Kenway, son of Assassin Edward Kenway from Black Flag and the father of Connor from Assassin's Creed III. What exactly the two characters will be doing together is unclear, but expect them to be up to no good.
Assassin hunting - Being an assassin hunter would be a hard sell if you didn't actually get to hunt assassins, and Ubisoft looks to have delivered. Your assassin targets are as crafty and deadly as you would expect them to be, capable of stealth assassinations, using the environment against you and skilled in combat.
New ship, new locations - Players will spend a good chunk of their playtime in their ship, the Morgan, in the frozen North Atlantic sea or navigating the rivers of colonial North America in the zone Ubisoft is calling the River Valley. In the River Valley, players will be able to sail and depart their ship at will in a similar fashion to that of the Caribbean in Black Flag. Exploring the North Atlantic is a dramatic change of scenery, with icebergs to be dodged and French ships to battle. In order to progress through the zone, players will have to upgrade the Morgan with an icebreaker.
New weapons - Rogue brings a number of new weapons and gadgets to the table, both on land and on sea. The Morgan can be equipped with flaming oil to leave a deadly trail of fire behind your vessel and severely slow and damage trailing ships. In addition, new rapid fire guns allow players to manually aim and let loose a hail of lead in rapid succession at enemy weak points.
Everything from IV is here, but slightly different - From the two gameplay videos shown, one thing is definitely clear -- Rogue is using many of the assets, animations and activities from IV. That doesn't have to be a bad thing, however, as Black Flag found critical and commercial success. Most of the activities shown in Rogue vary slightly from those done in IV, such as enemies occasionally boarding your ship instead of you boarding theirs, ship wrecks that can be explored above water as opposed to below, as well as a number of other features.
Will the changes be enough for fans of the franchise? We will see when Assassin's Creed Rogue lands in Nov. exclusively on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
