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The DS has been home to plenty of great games, but very few brilliant action games. Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Altaïr’s Chronicles looks to be one game to buck that trend, but we know very little about it. So we here at VideoGamer.com thought we’d let the Game Scene Investigation team scour each of the released screen shots to pick out every important detail.
Although the game is said to feature a 3D environment (as seen in later screen shots), this shot appears to show a 2D gameplay element, in this case a pick pocketing mini-game. It’s unclear how the mini-game will play, but we’d guess that you’re going to have to drag the items out of the bag without being noticed. Presumably the items in the bag are needed to complete a mission.
There’s a chance that we’ll see some chase action in this side-on view, with the game playing like a traditional platformer, but given the impressive looking 3D seen in other screen shots it’s hard to say for sure.
The game’s 3D engine is clear to see here. What’s interesting is that this encounter appears to be taking place indoors, which is something that happened very rarely in the Xbox 360 and PS3 games. The Animus’ social stealth system is also visible, indicating that this element of the console game is intact.
Although the conversation text on the bottom screen suggests this is a ‘story’ section of the game, the set-up looks very much like a combat situation – something we know very little about. We’re promised acrobatic moves and combo attacks, but how these are performed is unknown. Will it be stylus-controlled or use a similar button-command system as seen in the console games?
We have very little information to work on, but this screen suggests that Altair might be controlled using the d-pad. Our guess is that the bottom screen is used to select things (missions, world map and weapons) and to show where key NPCs are located, so any touch screen control for Altair would be troublesome.
Ubisoft has said that the game will feature a fully realised 3D world, but we have no other details. The map on the bottom screen shows a fairly large area, with a host of characters scattered around on the ground (the dark brown area) and Altair located at the edge of a rooftop. If this area seamlessly links to another or not will be key to how similar the exploration is to the console games.
