Description

Assassin's Creed II developers examine the Animus device and how it's evolved into a more dynamic feature in the stealth-action sequel.

Transcript

Jeffrey Yohalem: On AC2 we are really going to take you on a journey that’s going to lead to an incredible revelation and you know the animist in AC2 is much deeper than it appears. Laura De Young: The animist again is the device that allows Desmond to access the memories of his ancestors, so people like Altair and 045. Jeffrey Yohalem: In AC2 it’s also you know a data base that helps you understand whatever you need about the world right at that moment. So it’s a smart and streamline. Laura De young: It wont be about fix to menu’s. It’s much more dynamic than that. And you're going to see that the graphics are moving and in some cases we’re taking some risks because we are breaking a few design rules and mixing up the menu’s when you're not supposed to typically do that. Jeffrey Yohalem: Basically, if you're in front of any of notorious landmarks in the game or you're in front of any of the characters in the game or you're in special kind of—I guess you could say events in the game too. You will perceive a small decrip pop-up that allows you to access the data base and find out history about it, find out you know kind of go in a more dept into what's going on. Laura De young: It’s leading you and on the other hand it’s also trying to punctuate moments. So, our objective was to seamlessly merge this very slick high-tech looking graphic design with a rich beautiful historical 3D world. Patrick Plourde: Early on in the story, the player will gain access to the assassin stronghold. Basically, he’s gone through the house of the assassin, where he lives. At first it’s going to be in the ruins. Jeffrey Yohalem: And so, you have this kind of decrepit village and you have the villa which is coming over grown. And basically, you know as you have an opportunity if you want, if take care of whatever you want in there. As you upgrade and like make the town better, the town will be earning more money for you. Margaret Meserve: Villas were one of the characteristic architectural styles of the renaissance because families live so close together in this type little cities. Almost all of them would purchase land outside in the country and then build a country house to go to on retreat whether it was for weekends or for the summer to get out of the heat of the city. Mathieu Gagnon: Among other things, the villa will be used to store if we will—kind of a repository of all the assassins possessions. So anything, his going to have gathered, screw the economic system. We’ll all end up at the villa. Corey May: It’s a large place. It’s got a library. It’s got a lot of relics. You know a lot of family relics and by exploring the place and interacting with the people that live there, they will be able to gain and save into the auditory family. Jeffrey Yohalem: Much more than Assassins Creed 1, Assassins Creed 2 is like this gigantic world of cities, within cities, within cities. Margaret Meserve: And it goes wonderful about the game is that you just—are in the city as it was in the 1470’s or 1480’s and the research that’s found into reconstructing that the city of that particular historical moment looks just terrific to me. Jean-Francois Boivin: It’s in deed of very massive project on all of France. Patrick Desilets: It’s on a big game, that’s for sure. People are going to be amazed. Jeffrey Yohalem: The incredible scope of this project is really going to float airs away.