Assassin's Creed: Unity includes a 10,000 NPC scene

One scene in Assassin's Creed: Unity includes a whopping 10,000 NPCs, all interactive and with AI.

Assassin's Creed: Unity really turns up the crowds that were an original hallmark of the series, with Ubisoft aiming to make them more populous, dynamic, reactive and realistic than ever before.

In a recent episode of Major Nelson Radio, as transcribed by Gamespot, creative director Alex Amancio said Ubisoft "really harnessed every ounce of power" from the PS4 and Xbox One in order to power these crowds.

Where previous games managed about 200 NPCs on screen, Unity regularly fronts 5,000 or more, and one scene has 10,000.

"These are real AI NPCs," Amancio said. You can interact with all of them; they're not like the cardboard cutouts lining racing tracks, for example.

Amancio said Unity simply wouldn't have been possible on older hardware. It also boasts new lighting and shading systems, better textures, no loading screens between areas, and loads of interior spaces to explore.

Assassin's Creed: Unity hits PC, PS4 and Xbox One on November 11 in North America and November 14 in Europe and beyond.