This is a list of the 15 abilities that are available to use in Assassins Creed revelations. These will be useful in understanding how to structure to my level to make these abilities effective or less effective.
• Tripwire Bomb
• Closure
• Teleport
• Bodyguard
• Throwing Knives
• Poison
• Smoke Bombs
• Morph
• Mute
• Charge
• Disguise
• Fire Crackers
• Templar Vision
• Hidden Gun
• Decoy
Level Design Analysis
I have looked in to the selection of multiplayer maps currently available on Assassins Creed Revelations, and its become apparent the variety of gameplay that is used within each of the maps. Each map is tailored to incorporate a slightly different play style, for example one map may be very open causing players to use skills sets based upon disguise and blending with civilians. Another map might use height as the main gameplay mechanic, causing players to play across different elevations.
Knights Hospital
The long corridors below the archways that surround the central square area offer plenty of opportunities to escape a pursuer. Not only can you easily break their line of sight using the pillars and gateways, but you also have access to several closing doors.
The central square offers concentric routes for moving easily between inner and outer paths or from the ground to the roof. Lifts on multiple sides of the square allows for almost immediate access to the rooftop, in the squares design it also allows players to evade pursuers quite effectively in its three dimensional setup.
Antioch
The sprawling, open nature of Antioch makes if very difficult to hide in the open without employing Abilities such as Morph or Disguise. It also makes it tricky to escape a Chase due to the line of sight being so hard to disrupt. The width of the streets makes it difficult to navigate the map efficiently from the rooftops, which in my opinion is great as so many players just run aimlessly around rooftops getting poor kills (It seems to be something only new players really do..).
This map also features a large number of hiding spots and chase breakers (to counter the openness). They are conveniently placed one after another, allowing a player to trigger the gate and then jump in to a hay bale out of sight of the pursuer. This will give you the opportunity to stun the player if they are foolish enough to follow you through the same route, of course it could backfire if the player is a little more experienced...
Galata
This level is situated on a hill, you will often find that your opponent is at a different elevation. Players are quick to scale the rooftops in this map giving away their position and identity to other players, more experienced players will wait for their prey to make a mistake from the rooftops.
The tight, narrow streets cause many players to seek there targets from the rooftops. Players will find the ground provides excellent cover when being pursued, using the streets this time to their advantage and combine this with the vast array of chase breakers placed around the map. This is a nice mechanic as you almost force the players to switch their elevation within the level frequently.
Souk
Souk is an interesting map in that it has no rooftops for players to roam on, meaning the action largely takes place amongst the ground and crowds. This makes the line of sight and compass less effective due to the sheer number of civilians on the same elevation as yourself.
The indoor section of Souk adds a new dynamic to the chase breaker; players can use a closing gate to block a player, but due to the design of the map they must then take a detour (as opposed to climbing directly over the same path). This gives the player more time to blend in with civilians or seek out their target before its to late.
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Ippokratous
This map really works off the concept of tight turns, narrow streets and crossroads to bring players to confrontation. Due to the almost level-skyline of the buildings it allows players on rooftops to directly use hidden guns or throwing knives against their opponent, its better to stay on the ground on this map...
The interesting use of balconies and terraces can work to a player advantage, due to the ground based mind set players have they forget to check above them. Players situated on a balcony can watch below to see real players pushing through civilians, or notice strange behavior of a character directly beneath them (which is their pursuer).
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Rome
Rome offers a combination of both open tight gameplay. The majority of gameplay revolves around the market which is situated just off centre in the map. The busy market offers plenty of blending spots and moving crowds for social stealth, it can play against a player if they break their cover though (The crowds move in bursts on this in particular, and seeing a single player break from a group is seen as an obvious giveaway...).
Players that are trying to escape a pursuer generally leave the market area to go to the tighter, narrow streets that surround the market.
The rooftops on this level offer fast access to any part of the map due to the nature of the street layouts, but you then run the risk of being easily spotted.
Mont St-Michel
This map is similar to the Rome map in that is has two very contrasting areas. The layout is more similar to a linear gradient than it is based on a central design. The top plaza in front of the churches main gate brings a lot of high profile action, which almost always leads to immediate detection. It makes incoming pursuers very easy to spot due to the open area, allowing for an escape to take place which heads towards the lower regions of the map. The lower region of this map is very tight and narrow, but not necessarily tall. This is countered by the use of underground tunnels.
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