According to a report by VG247, Ubisoft has confirmed that the Assassins Creed IV Multiplayer mode will not include naval battles.
Ships and naval battles entered the series in the last Assassins Creed game and were greatly emphasized, leading players to the believe that the next installment in the series would feature exciting naval battles. Sorry to say that their hopes are now shattered.
Time Browne, the game’s lead multiplayer game designer spoke at Ubisoft’s Annecy studio, “You have to take into consideration that it took a very big dedicated team in Singapore about two-and-a-half years to do it for the solo [play]. In Black Flag it’s even better, but for solo. We’ve looked at it and we’ve considered it. We seriously considered it. We think it would be cool, but at the same time we tried it, and for technical reasons it’s impossible.”
Game director, Damien Kieken, added, “One of the big added values of the naval battles in single-player is how they simulate the ocean. The ocean is really a toy. You have big waves, waves that stop your cannon balls: you have to play with the ocean. If you want that to be good in multiplayer, it means we have to perfectly replicate the ocean.”
Over seven other consoles,” Browne said, before Kieken added: “It was one of the big hurdles. We didn’t want to go into that. It definitely wasn’t feasible in the time [we had].”
Apparently, naval battles will contradict the game’s online mode since it requires you to be an assassin and not a pirate. You have to co-operate with your teammates instead of blowing ships sky high, all by yourself. It does come as a little surprising how the game is emphasizing on naval battles, but does not include them in multiplayer. It just seems quite odd. It’s almost like Call of Duty not adding guns into multiplayer.
Brown further said, “We looked at the DNA of multiplayer, and we thought that ship battles aren’t really being the cool assassin. With multiplayer it’s all about you working either as a team of four players or in free-for-all, where you want to be the best player. It’s not so much about piloting a ship and using cannons to destroy the opponent’s ship.”
In other related news, the Wolfpack co-op mode has been extended over Assassins Creed III. Also, Gamelab will allow players to create their own game modes and will debut this year.
Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag releases this autumn for 360, PS3, Xbox One, PS4, Wii U and PC.
