Watch Dogs has seemingly stolen the entire Ubisoft spotlight in 2013, but that doesn’t mean that people have stopped caring about the long-running Assassin’s Creed franchise. In actuality, the launch of a new sneaking-and-stabbing simulator on next-generation consoles has both fans and semi-interested onlookers ready for what’s sure to be a swashbuckling good time. Instead of simply sitting around and waiting for the game’s October release, though, game director Ashraf Ismail has decided to come out and answer a few of the most burning questions the fans have concerning Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag.
As you’d guess, some of the answers are exactly what you’d expect to hear from a man spending so many hours each day putting the project together. Ashraf won’t comment on any future Assassin’s Creed projects, is excited for Vita protagonist Aveline to be added into the mix, and promises new gameplay videos to be released in the coming weeks. However, when asked about the third game’s incessant use of the cutscene, the director confirmed that Black Flag won’t be nearly as cinematic as past games. Instead, the majority of the narrative will be told through the actual gameplay.
And unsurprisingly, there will be plenty of time to explore the wonderful world of Black Flag. The game’s main story will run players about 15 to 20 hours, but if you really want to see each piece of content the open-world has to offer, expect to sink 60 to 80 hours into Ubisoft’s work. That’s quite a long time to spend in this current and next-generation project, but if you’ve seen some of the gameplay the developer has released thus far, it seems likely that we’ll all want to get grab a controller and get cozy with Black Flag later this year.