Assassin's Creed games can be set in any place at any moment of history. For a time, fans thought the clues in the early games ensured that Assassin's Creed II or maybe Assassin's Creed III would be set in Japan, the player's assassin taking on the role of a ninja or other great martial artist.
Maybe it could have happend, but it wouldn't have been good enough, the game's creative director told me.
Alex Hutchinson, who started overseeing the ACIII project in early 2010, says that "four or five locations were in discussion," for the upcoming game. "The decision is based on what's fresh," he said.
Revolutionary War America felt novel.
"This gives us an opportunity to do something fresh and exciting," he said. "If you got, say Samurai Japan, you'd realize pretty quickly that I think you've played a lot of ninja games, and this is not as interesting as you thought it was going to be."
Hutchinson's producer Francois Pelland sounds a little more open to an AC: Japan, noting that "At some point it's true that any good piece of history could be good for an AC game." (Consider other options from this supposed Ubisoft survey that mentioned Japan, America and other settings.)
The stealth action and de-emphasis on firearms surely made a feudal Japan setting feel natural to many fans. But that was before some AC fans even considered ACII going to the Italian Renaissance and certainly before the series started introducing firearms. That progression brings us to the American Revolution, a setting Hutchinson happily pointed out that most games not only won't touch but are incapable of addressing. "It's cool that no one else could do it," he said. "You couldn't do a shooter in this period because the guns are so bad. You couldn't do most classic genres in this era, so it's sort of untouched. It's sort of virgin soil for video games."
I asked Hutchinson and Pelland to spill the details on the other locations that were considered for AC III. They declined.
To find out what more they are doing in the American Revolution setting, read our big preview of the game. And look for more ACIII coverage on Kotaku in the coming days.
The Revolutionary War setting of Assassin's Creed III means that, tricorn hats aside, there's little tying the game to another of people's favourite historical periods, the age of pirates.
That hasn't stopped Ubisoft from bringing the two together anyway.
Announcing the game's fancy collector's editions, curiously available in Europe, Australasia, Asia and the Middle East, Ubisoft also took the wraps off a few exclusive missions you'll get with the more expensive versions.
One of them takes you to the ruins of a Mayan pyramid, and upon completing the mission you'll get the use of "Captain Kidd's fabled cutlass".
Now, Captain Kidd (real name William Kidd) is one of the more colourful of the many pirates who roamed the New World between the 17th and 18th centuries. Despite a rather mundane track record in terms of battle and plunder, he made one hell of a scene with a very public trial and a very public execution upon his eventual capture, in which his body was left to hang over the Thames in an iron cage.
Of course, Kidd died in England over 50 years before the beginning of Assassin's Creed III, so unless you meet his ghost, you won't actually be meeting the man. Actually, you probably won't be meeting any pirates at all, as an increased military presence - especially by Britain's Royal Navy - brought the golden age of piracy to an end decades before any tea was thrown into a harbour in anger.
Still, it's a neat way to bring pirates into the game, no matter how tenuous the link may be.
As for the collector's editions, there will be three made available, with full details below.
The Freedom Edition
This prestigious edition includes everything an experienced Assassin needs to become a freedom fighter. It includes:
- Assassin's Creed III retail game
- A 24-cm high-quality figurine of Connor
- A steel book case art drawn by awards-winning comic artist Alex Ross
- George Washington's notebook revealing all the truth & secrets about the Assassins and the Templars during the American Revolution
- One exclusive Lithograph
- 2 in-game Single Player Missions:
o Lost Mayan Ruins: Connor's mission leads him in an old Mayan pyramid, full of mysteries and revelations. Players will be able to unlock Captain Kidd's fabled cutlass, a deadly, brutal and beautiful piece of steel.
o Ghost of War: The tide of the Revolution turns into the Templars favour. Defeat your enemies and unlock The Pontiac's War Club, a powerful Native American weapon.
- 1 in-game Multiplayer Package:
o The Sharpshooter package: Unleash the Sharpshooter fury in multiplayer with 1 new character, the Sharpshooter, 1 Relic, 1 Emblem, 1 special Picture and the Title of "The Jester".
The Join or Die Edition
"Join or Die" a single call to action which will determine if players are ready to fight for freedom. It includes:
- Assassin's Creed III retail game
- The medallion of the Assassins with its high-quality curd ladle
- George Washington's notebook revealing all the truth & secrets about the Assassins and the Templars during the American Revolution
- 1 in-game Single Player Mission:
o Ghost of War: The tide of the Revolution turns into the Templars favour. Defeat your enemies and unlock The Pontiac's War Club, a powerful Native American weapon.
- 1 in-game Multiplayer Package:
o The Sharpshooter package: Unleash the Sharpshooter fury in multiplayer with 1 new character, the Sharpshooter, 1 Relic, 1 Emblem, 1 special Picture and the Title of "The Jester".
The Special Edition
The Special Edition features a special packaging, the retail copy of the game and an exclusive single player mission (see below) and more:
o A Dangerous Secret: Fight against a secret that could jeopardise the funding of the revolution. In case of success, you'll be rewarded with an exclusive weapon: a Flintlock Musket.
If all 50 details that Stephen Totilo noticed about Assassin's Creed III didn't satisfy your hunger for knowledge, check out the video above for a look at the death-dealing tools the threequel's hero will use during the Revolutionary War.
The series' signature hidden blade is still in effect and it'll be interesting to see if the pistols function any differently than they did in the Assassin's Creed that starred Ezio. Look for more on Assassin's Creed III on Kotaku in the coming days.
You can assassinate a bear in Assassin's Creed III. You can run around the battle of Bunker Hill, flanking the British to surprise them in their camp.
You can go to the frontier and relax in a tree.
You can help found a nation.
You will be able to do so many excellent things in October 2012's Assassin's Creed III. I learned that several weeks ago, when a few of the top people working on what is supposed to be the biggest Assassin's Creed game ever traveled to New York to show off what they've been making, mostly in secret, for the past 2 1/2 years.
Their demo was one of the most impressive debut showings I've seen for a big-budget video game in many years. You may have heard about Assassin's Creed III already. You may have caught the leaks and the Game Informer cover story. There is much, much more to share:
We'll have more about Assassin's Creed III in the coming days. If you have questions about the new game, fire away in the comments.
Another six screenshots for Assassin's Creed III have hit the Internet. The screenshots depict Connor on his American adventures and while it's tough to tell which of these are pre-renders and which (if any) are gameplay, the visual clues they offer tip off what you should expect from the game.
In two of them, Connor can be seen dual-wielding his hand axe and a pistol; in another, he is in a canoe, perhaps suggesting water travel will be a part of a larger open world and the exploration of it. Another absolutely gorgeous shot shows Connor overlooking what appears to be a snowy Boston Harbor.
Más información e imágenes de Assassin's Creed III [Germio De Las Sombras, Via NEW Assassin's Creed 3 Screenshots NeoGAF]
Today we found out that the hero of Assassin's Creed III, who calls himself Connor, was born Ratohnhaké:ton.
Here at Kotaku, we consider it our duty to answer important questions like "How the hell do I pronounce Ratohnhaké:ton?" So I asked Assassin's Creed publisher Ubisoft for an official guide. Their response:
Ra-doon-ha-gay-doo'
So there you go.
His name is Ratohnhaké:ton, but you can call him Connor. The latest Assassin's Creed hero prowls the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC frontier on October 31, with work underway on a version for Nintendo's Wii U. It's a game so ambitious Ubisoft created an entirely new game engine just to power it.
That engine is called Ubisoft-AnvilNext, promising "breakthroughs in visual quality, character models and artificial intelligence". From what we've seen so far it's already miles ahead of the engine used in previous AC titles.
It'll need to be in order to capture the full scope of the game's Revolutionary War setting, spanning frontier wilderness and bustling cities alike. Exploring these gorgeous new areas will be Ratohnhaké:ton, half Native American, half English. You can see which side he favors in the first official trailer.
Connor finds himself embroiled in the struggle between Templars and Assassins as it weaves its way in and out of the historic battles of George Washington and compatriots.
"Assassin's Creed III features the franchise's most expansive setting so far, along with an exciting new hero and exponentially more gameplay," said Yves Guillemot, chief executive officer at Ubisoft via official press release. "Whether you're a longtime fan of Assassin's Creed or if you're new to the franchise, you're going to be blown away by the scale and marvel of Assassin's Creed III."