Assassin’s Creed: Resurgence

Assassin's Creed Resurgence is a historical action-adventure and strategy video game developed by Ubisoft studios and published by Ubisoft. After the multi-year hiatus for the series' development, Ubisoft returned the series to the markets, Resurgence eing the first of the re-marketed series. The game is the major installment in the next-gen Assassin's Creed series, and the successor to previous generation, annual Assassin's Creed series. Resurgence covers the intertwined story of three Assassins operating in the Far East during the mid-1800s.

The game retains the series' third-person open world exploration as well as introducing a revamped combat, character AI, and interactive free-roam systems.

Gameplay
According to Ubisoft management, Resurgence is a "rebirth" of the Assassin's Creed series. It was simply a re-invented game picking up similarities to the first generation of the Assassin's Creed games with much improvement.

Artificial Intelligence
Resurgence sets itself apart from previous AC games using a complex, 3-pillar Artificial Intelligence system that NPCs, enemies in particular, adopted. As an Assassin, the player would have to adapt in defeating different enemies in various situations of different difficulties. This translates to analyzing enemy conditions and looking for weaknesses in the form of revamped and revolutionary Eagle Vision abilities. Unlike previous gen AC games, enemy statistics and actions are much more random; this is Resurgence's application to the individuality of different people in reality.

Three-Pillar AI
The Three Pillars of AI are as listed accordingly: Suspicion, Commitment, and Confidence.

In Assassin's Creed, the player often employs stealth tactics in order to defeat enemies, This is based on keeping the Suspicion rate low and the target misleading. Suspicion is calculated with a percentage. The "Eagle Vision" phenomenon can be used to read the Suspicion level of targets in range, but icons appearing above the heads of targets provide much more basic indications.

At <10% Suspicion, Enemy has no knowledge of your whereabouts.

At 10%+ Suspicion, Enemy will face a position near you.

At 20%+ Suspicion, Enemy will walk over to a spot where they can catch a view of you.

At 45%+ Suspicion, Enemy pace up toward around where you are.

At 75%+ Suspicion, Enemy will start jogging over, or he might get another to help him.

At 95%+ Suspition, you are fully detected and Enemies will approach exactly where you are: Hiding in a bush will not help. However, at this stage, they will not be prepared for surprises, so they may not be able to parry if you strike first.

At 100%, Enemies will see as a threat and immediately prepare for action.

The Suspicion percentage can be significantly altered by certain happenings relevant to the perception of the CPU in digitally simplified replications of natural human senses, Sight, and Hearing. Both Sight and Hearing are individually visualized through Eagle Vision abilities. The first, Sight, is percieved through a combination of horizontal and vertical angles forming a pyramidic plane of view. This view is defined by 65 degrees vertical and 110 degrees horizontal for all CPUs, and 50 in-game 'meter' units in total length. When a player is found in this layer of Sight, the Suspicion level will be raised according to the distance between the CPU and the player. Sight range can be reflected with mirrors in an axis perpedicular to the mirror (vertically and horizontally). The closer the player, the faster the percentage will rise.

Unlike Sight, the Suspicion growth rate for Hearing is lower, and the fall rate higher. However, Hearing is much more prominent than sound. The visualization of Hearing is graphically formulated with circular waves, or sound waves, which emit from a player from all directions. Sound waves can bounce off planes. As a sound wave travels further away, or bounces more, it will gradually lose frequency. Frequency is shown as a +%, in which the percentage is whatever percent that will be added a CPU's Suspicion level if the wave meets the CPU. Sounds can be triggered by animals, the speed of foot steps, alarm bells, cries of death, gunshots, fighting, etc. For instance, worn equipment, particularily footwear, with a greater Steath count will create sound waves of generally lower frequencies.

Initial Suspicion is the default Suspicion an CPU has. An enemy who is expecting assailants to attack will have a high Suspicion level, while a CPU trying to fall asleep will not.

When a player is found in tight situations and must escape enemies, the Pillar of Commitment plays a great role. In a chase, the percentage of Commitment reflects on the speed at which a CPU will chase the player  and also the amount of noise he/she will make to attract allied forces. Commitment is significantly changed by the situation to present as a reflection of the assailant's abilities. For example, running where a CPU can see the player will greatly increase Commitment. Another example is, if the player climbs and travels on top of buildings where CPUs cannot necessarily target the player, Commitment may be lowered. Commitment may also affect the level of opposition the player will face. If the player killed a very well-known, important person, the player may have a whole militia on his/her tail. Perhaps the enemy force would even use chariots, dogs, horses, etc, and send high level enemies to target the player. The goal is to lower CPU commitment to end a chase much quicker.

Initial Commitment is the default Suspicion a CPU has. An imperial guard who has failed to protect an imperial man, a duty he is entitled to, may have high initial Commitment, as a matter of revenge. Meanwhile, a young, low-payed slum grunt would have a lower initial Commitment.

Confidence is a crucial Pillar in the outcomes of combat, and varies directly to the actions of an enemy in combat. When Confidence rises, the player may be subject to more brutal attacks from CPUs, multi-teaming attacks, and, more attacks in general. When Confidence falls, the opposite effect takes place. When a CPU observes the player in a combat round, if you sustain damage and find difficulty in the fight, the enemies around you may raise their Confidence and will be more eager to attack you. If you brutally show combat skill in the first round, the Confidence levels of CPUs around you will drop. At some points of lowered Confidence, a CPU may begin to flee or seek reinforcement, rather than stay and fight. Confidence can also be altered with the Charisma level of the weapon you are armed with. A larger axe may trigger a greater Confidence drop in comparison to a small dagger.

Initial Confidence is the default Confidence a CPU has. For instance, An royal navy field officer with decades of military training and experience may have more Initial Confidence than an ill-trained slum grunt.

Combat
For more drastic effect than previous gen games, Combat in Resurgence is slowed down to more focal points, allowing players more time space for fighting routines, which will fit the advanced Eastern martial arts theme of the combat. A two-button weapon switching technique will allow players to switch through the wide range of weapons the player carries as a professional killer. The game will also introduce the use of effective kicks, grapples, and sweeps found in various martial arts forms.

In Resurgence, combat is a combo stack-up process, involving chains of attacks from single button punches, kicks, and blocks to secondary grapples, sweeps, and slams, with directions guided by the joystick. Dodges are also performed with a "reaction-time" process simulating rythmn gaming trends, varying in different directions.

Console Example: (Not confirmed, just an idea of how it would work)
Let's say we have the Keys A, B, C and D. Press A to Parry, B to Hit, C to Kick, and D to Evade. Then you have control stick for Up, Down, Left, Right. Then you have the Upper Frontal Keys (L1 and R1) and the Bottom Frontal Keys (L2 and R2). Here is an example:
 * Up+A = Block Up
 * Down+A = Block Down
 * Left+A = Block Left
 * Right+A = Block Right
 * A+A = Grab
 * A+B = Block then Punch in middle
 * A+C = Block then Kick in middle
 * A+D = Block then Roll escape
 * Down+A+A = Grab lower limb, and pull.
 * L1 = Upper Blade Kill with left hand
 * R1 = Upper Blade Kill with right hand
 * L2 = Lower Blade Kill with left hand
 * R2 = Lower Blade Kill with right hand

Attacker with spear makes a stab at your face. You block up, but that leaves space for him to kick you in the torso with his left leg, aiming at your right. You parry his leg by blocking right, then you grab it and pull, tripping him onto the ground with his back to the ground, You land a killing blow toward the ground and him using your right hand blade.

Now let's put this into sequence (chronological order): (Up+A), (Right+A), (Down+A+A), (R2)

That is the combo stack-up process. All of this plays out in a sufficiently slowed-down scenario (via 'Eagle Vision') allowing you to play on attacks easier. You can change difficulties, in which harder modes will speed up the rate of the slowed down scenario.

Because of the reflection with reality, killing with weapons, is now much easier. In contrast, the player will face more enemies of various skill levels.

Stealth
Resurgence maintains the cover-to-cover approach done with AC Unity, with the Suspicion concept added.

Roam
Interactivity with the environment in Resurgence has been greatly increased for realism effect. Unstable platforms have been added, which will make players more cautious of where they step. Instability of platforms can be detected with Eagle Vision. At the same time, the player can interact with many different aspects of the in-game environment. For example, the player can use objects such as chairs, benches, bottles, and bricks as weapons, perhaps even as projectiles. The player can kick waterbuckets at enemies or douse them with flour, rice, etc. by kicking bags of them as well. Players can now bring the roofs of buildings down to crush opponents by hacking at wooden supports, commiting arsonry, and or using explosives. Players can even free hostile animals from cages onto enemies, such as apes, tigers, elephants, crocodiles, etc.

However, many of these tactics, while effective, are prone to harming the civilian populace, which is against the Creed. How does this affect gameplay?

Creed Points
Creed Points are a form of currency reserved for Assassin equipment, certain side missions, etc. Creed points are gained by serving the Assassin's order, They can be used unlock (NOT purchase) equipment, spent on attempting side missions for the Creed, and even exchanged for Skill points you can use to alter stats, increase levels of skill, and unlock new skills. Basically, anything the player does for the Order's benefit  will be an addition to your Creed Points.

When you break the Creed by killing innocents, you do not desynchronize, but get Creed Points deducted, in addition to a drastic increasing of noteriety, which will make it difficult for the player to survive with any situation. Only when the player continues with no points left will he/she desynchronize.

Public Credit
Public Credit is a form of "currency" gained when performing deeds directly for the good of the Public (native civilian populace of the Far East) The player can increase his/her Public Credit by hunting Public bounties (Accessible at public Taverns by looking on bill boards or engaging in conversation or finding them in the form of Wanted posters). It can be as simple as tackling a thief, defeating bandits (Wanted Dead/Alive/Dead or Alive), to killing an abusive Warlord, giving currency to a Charity (Charities accesible near Religious landmarks such as missionary churches or Buddhist temples/pagodas/etc). Public Credit can be used tothe player's advantage for certain locations. For example, if the player is trading in a very important port location, the player can spend his/her Public Credit on that location just to lower prices and increase buyers in that location in his/her favor. There are hundreds of locations to do so. Public Credit can also affect the expansion of the Creed as well. There is factor to this called "Creed Expansion." Unlocking Creed-related opportunities in certain locations requires a certain degree of "Creed Expansion."

Like Creed points, harming innocents will deduct your Public Credit, in addition to a drastic increasing of noteriety, which will make it difficult for the player to survive with any situation. Only when the player continues with no points left will he/she desynchronize.

Creed Expansion
As mentioned above, Creed-related opportunities in an area requires a degree of Creed Expansion. Its not just Public credit: completing Creed missions, defeating Western Templar-influenced regimes will raise "Creed Expansion." This takes place in the form of assassinating Templar-beneficial people in an area to allow the Creed to have more governmental influence over the area (thus destroying trade relations with the Templar influences. The player's control over this will be explained next). Other ways include defeating Western naval convoys in naval combat, destroying permanently or sabotaging temporarily, terrestrial trade routes, and taking over naval and terrestrial forts controlled by Templar Influences.

In Resurgence, the player is given a gang leadership standing as well. When a player dominates an area via "Creed Expansion", he/she can lead pro-Assassin operations against Templar-backed forces. This includes leading hidden, rebellious piracy and crime syndicates all over the lands of the South China Sea. This form begins prior to the exposition of the Taiping Revolution arc.