Assassin's Creed 3's naval battles 'are a big deal', says dev

Assassin's Creed 3 will feature navel battles that see Connor commanding ships as they do battle at sea. But Ubisoft Montreal's Alex Hutchinson is keen to stress that these battles aren't just gimmicky side attractions, they were a big deal in the time period.

In an interview with OPM, Hutchinson explained where navel battles came from, “We thought, ‘What is it about this period that makes it special?’, and it just came up again and again in the history that the navy was such a big part of it."

"It’s how you got to America," he continued, "It’s how imported goods got to America. It was a key factor in dictating the outcome of the Revolution itself. All of these things kept telling us that this was a big deal, and you couldn’t do the Revolution justice without the sea.”

Hutchinson added, “No one had really done a third-person action-adventure sailing game before. You’re controlling navigation and combat at the same time. You can walk around your boat, but once you take the wheel you’re steering the boat almost the same as you would in any vehicle in the game."

"At the same time, you’re ordering your crew to fire different weapons," he concluded, "whether it’s round shot to sink the boats or chain shot to take out masts. The fun of it is juggling those things.”