User blog comment:Kabutsu/The Crimson Polls II: 03/@comment-4999424-20130529140655

Edward Kenway pirate profile.

From Article:

“The best way to describe Edward: he’s an anti-hero,” Ismail says. “He comes with his own set of morals that are – because of his background as a pirate – a bit selfish and reckless.” Ismail rattles off a list of other adjectives and phrases to describe Edward: Estranged. Doesn’t accept rules. Rebel. Brash. Reckless. Cocky. Handsome. The one thing they all have in common? These aren’t typical characteristics found in the selfless and disciplined Assassins.

“And this is the story that we want to tell, because it’s refreshing. We want to tell the story about this guy who doesn’t quite know who he is in life. He’s poor, but he’s charismatic, and he uses this for his advantage. And then he gets lured into the pirate life for all the gold and glory.”

But Kenway is no mere cad. Even though he’s heave-ho’d himself into a swashbuckling life, he realizes that piracy alone won’t bring him happiness. Somewhere on a deeper level he suspects there’s more to his existence. “When he gets mixed up with the Assassins, he starts learning about the Creed,” Ismail says. “He starts understanding that maybe this is an interesting way of life, this Assassin’s Creed. But it goes against his inherent selfishness.” That conflict – between the selfish and the selfless, or the pirate and the Assassin – is at the heart of Edward’s story. Ismail says.

Whereas Edward’s story is all about his internal turmoil, the gameplay goes offers the opposite experience: “We wanted to make sure that the pirate and the Assassin elements were really fluid,” Ismail explains. “Edward acting and behaving like a pirate but having the skills of the Assassin – “THIS IS ONE EXAMPLE OF DIRTY PIRATE COMBAT THAT REALLY ENHANCES THE COMBAT OF BEING AN ASSASSIN”the two really merged well together.” Pirates, being outlaws, are naturally stealthy. (Because, duh, it’s counterproductive to thunder while you plunder.) “Pirates were sailors and they would climb rigging, they would climb masts, so they had this really incredible navigation ability,” Ismail says. “This is another reason why the navigation abilities of an Assassin really worked well with Edward.”

And perhaps most important: the combat. “Pirates fought a lot, and they also used pistols,” Ismail says. Edward also spends a lot of time aboard his ship, the Jackdaw, both navigating from place to place and engaging in naval combat. All of this works together intuitively, Ismail promises. For example: Edward has an assassination target on land, whom he chases. The target escapes Edward by boarding a ship and sailing away. “All of a sudden, you have to climb onto your ship, and you have to sail after him,” Ismail says. “If he’s just a target you have to kill, you can destroy the ship. Or you can board the ship and assassinate him as Edward. But any of this goes. It is important to make sure the players feel that the two mechanics of being a pirate assassin is fluid and seamless.”

But it’s not just about a seamless integration. The two styles of gameplay that stem from being a pirate and an Assassin allow for some altogether new aspects of combat. Take, for example, Edward’s pistols. In Black Flag, you can upgrade Edward so eventually he’s carrying four guns, all of which can be used in a combat loop: pull out one, then the next, the next, and the next – bang, bang, bang, bang – to do some serious damage. “This is one example of dirty pirate combat that really enhances the combat of being an Assassin,” Ismail smiles.

Finally, Ismail points to a common pirate navigational tool that also can be used as an Assassin: the rope. “It’s part of the pirate fantasy to swing across ropes. From here, we have assassinations that you can do from the rope. So a lot of the new ingredients that are pirate-themed also have a connection to the Assassin gameplay.”