The city of Paris in Assassin's Creed Unity will be the largest city in the series' history, the game's developers told me yesterday as we played the game and I grilled them with tons of questions.
Unity's Paris will be bigger than the combined island landmasses of Assassin's Creed IV. It's rendition of the famous Notre Dame cathedral is proportionally 1:1 with the real thing. So as you enter it as the assassin Arno, you should feel that the building is as big as it is in real life.
Level designer Bruno Saint Andre told me that a quarter of the game's buildings will have playable interiors, which is a massive increase from previous games.
Creative director Alex Amancio promised that Paris' neighborhoods would feel more diverse, looking more distinct from region to region than we've seen in the cities of prior games.
I'll have a lot more about the October 28-slated Unity in the days to come, but, for now, a few more tidbits:
- The game's new co-op missions are optional, all story-based, but can be played solo, too. You find them in the game world. The developers promise that those of us who love playing through the game's solo campaign and side missions will not feel underserved.
- There is no competitive multiplayer mode in Unity, the first time a big new AC will lack that since 2010's Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood.
- There's a crouch button. Yay!
- There will be a modern section to the game as well, in some way starring "you." I'm not quite sure what that means, but they said it'd be different than Assassin's Creed IV, which had the player in the role of an unnamed employee of fictional (and Templar-aligned) Abstergo Entertainment.
- Amancio may have previously been the creative director of Assassin's Creed Revelations, but he promised me we would not be getting the return of that game's tower defense missions. Praise the lord.
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