E3 2014: Assassin’s Creed Unity’s gameplay demo shows new and old tricks

On top of the narrated gameplay shown by Microsoft, Ubisoft brought their own Assassin’s Creed Unity demo, fortunately one featuring an entirely different mission and more of the game’s mechanics.

Ubisoft has said that they’re redesigned the fundamental of Assassin’s Creed for Unity, which shows in the game’s traversal more than anything. Combat looks to be the same “dodge now, attack now” of games past and assassinations seem to boil down to a healthy mix of timing and stabby-stabby, but parkour and climbing are now much more approachable.

Diagonal climbing is available in Unity, and you are also able to direct your assassin to climb up or down, for example, when running at the edge of a building and not planning on testing the hardness of the cobblestone street with your nose. This is accentuated by the scale of the city—roughly 33% larger than in other entries, as it’s built to a 1:1 scale this time around—and moving in groups as per Unity’s focus on co-op.

It also looks as though the game’s HUD can be switched off at will, wiping the clutter from your view of the gorgeous city. And of course, our assassin is able to detect enemies through walls. Because reasons.