Assassin's Creed 4: Ubisoft has "put effort" into improved stealth

Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag director Ashraf Ismail is keen to address "concerns" over stealth mechanics in Assassin's Creed 3.

Stealth is "one of the biggest things" Ubisoft has worked on "to address people’s concerns," Ismail told OPM.

"People loved the naval [combat], people really enjoyed the fight, but we knew that the stealth element was something that we needed to push,” he said.

Ubisoft has therefore “put effort into the system to make stealth really viable gameplay”.

"If you really wish to play the game completely in stealth then you can," Ismail said.

One of the ways Ubisoft has tweaked the stealth system since the poolry-received Assassin's Creed 3 is to make the rules simpler and easier to understand - especially detection, escaping detection, and sneaking.

"All this stuff has been really simplified and made much more intuitive. The feedback itself has also been improved, so now we really focus on what the player needs to know,” Ismail said, noting that these changes have been made in response to feedback.

Edwards has been given a range of new stealth tools, too; you can see the blowgun in action in a recent gameplay video.

"Having tools that work in range, having tools that work in close combat, but have a stealth element to them," Ismail said.

“I think Assassin’s Creed 3 was really a great game, it had its faults for sure, but there was a lot of people that truly loved the game. I think there are some elements that we are pushing in AC4, for example stealth being one of them, that we are making sure that we are really paying attention to what people have to say.”

Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag hits PlayStation 3, Wii U and Xbox 360 at the end of October, with PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions to follow.