Watch 11 minutes of new Assassin's Creed: Unity gameplay
"No linear paths or narrow level design are forced upon you."
"Study your surroundings and devise your own plan. I'm not here to hold your hand," says a character at the start of a new Assassin's Creed: Unity gameplay video.
This is a cheeky reference to the sort of scripted assassination missions we saw in the series' previous entries that Unity aims to get away from.
Creative director Alex Amancio explained in the new Gamescom walkthrough that "no linear paths or narrow level design are forced upon you." Instead, missions transpire in what Amancio calls a "black box" where it's up to the player to sort out their own method of taking a target down.
There are plenty of ways to do this, including side-missions where you can follow a corrupt official and eavesdrop on them for more information on where the target will be. You can also pickpocket keys to a less guarded route to your objective, and Amancio noted that there are 10 possible entrances to your target in Notre-Dame. Some are at ground level, some are above, while others are underground.
The stealth is still a bit goofy as nobody seems to make much noise as they're being viciously slaughtered, while seemingly everyone in Paris is near-sighted with wax stuffed in their ears. Plus nobody seems to think you leaping from rafters into piles of hay is suspicious, but some things never change.