Ubisoft developers have teased new game mechanics for 'Assassin's Creed Shadows'.
The studio unveiled the next instalment in the action-adventure franchise yesterday (15.05.24) – which is set to release on 15 November – and creative director Jonathan Dumont and game director Charles Benoit have now revealed new gameplay details, including a grappling hook that can be used for both traversal and combat.
Speaking to IGN, Dumont said: "Parkour has always been something that's pretty iconic and pretty core to the stealth experience because they go hand-in-hand.
"It's all physics-based, so there's a little bit of improbability sometimes when using it.
"There's a danger to using it, but you could also perform assassinations from it."
Benoit emphasised Ubisoft wanted to honour what made the series special by including the hidden blade – a weapon that has been a staple in the franchise since its debut in 2007.
He explained: "The thing that shines the most, I feel, in 'Assassin's Creed', it's really the hidden blade, the assassination, being able to stay hidden.
"So that's the core that we want to keep. What we needed to push forward [was to make it] feel a bit more modern in the approach."
On top of the new addition to the game, Dumont said 'Shadows' would fall "in-line" with the large-scale feel that previous instalments have offered, and compared it to last years' title 'Origins' – which boasted one of the biggest maps in the franchise.
He said: "It’s in-line with the latest 'Assassin’s Creeds' that we’ve done.
"On a scale level, maybe we can compare it a little bit more to the size of 'Assassin’s Creed Origins'.
"We did want to have a much closer to real life scale ratio. So because castles took a lot of space, and we really wanted the mountains to feel like mountains, we’ve made the environments feel wider in the game. But I would say around the same size as 'Origins'."