'Assassin's Creed 3' adds fast-paced, cooperative 'Wolf Pack' multiplayer

Assassin's Creed 3 Wolf Pack mode revealed by Ubisoft at Comic-Con.

Today, Ubisoft unveiled a new multiplayer mode, Wolf Pack, coming to Assassin's Creed 3 this fall. It's a fast-paced, cooperative race against the clock that requires an eagle eye and carefully timed teamwork.

Wolf Pack pits one to four players against a series of AI-controlled targets. Players are handed a bounty, pictured in the upper right corner of their screen, and instructed to quickly, but stealthily take out their target. Teammates will need to identify their respective victim and coordinate their efforts on who will take out which target, aiming to blend in and sync their assassinations.

In the two-player versus AI game that we played at a Ubisoft event in San Diego, we managed to work our way through six contracts. Each kill was an exercise in picking a particular pair of soldiers out from a crowd, spotting their subtle color and wardrobe differences — in some cases one player will target a soldier wearing blue, his teammate seeking a soldier in orange — then stabbing the target in the back. From there, it's a sprint to the next, as a countdown clock ticks toward game over.

Players will occasionally receive quick-hit bounties, targets that appear in a puff of smoke, in between rounds. Taking out those mid-mission targets will score your team additional time on the countdown clock.

In our first attempt, we managed to reach Sequence level six before time ran out. The next attempt, we reached Sequence level seven. Ubisoft reps say Wolf Pack caps out at Sequence level 25, a challenging goal, based on our hands-on time with the game.

Assassin's Creed 3's Wolf Pack rewards players with extra points if they manage to blend in with the cluster of NPCs from which they select their kill, if they sync killing strokes perfectly, and if they kill quickly. Players can employ the special abilities from the game's competitive multiplayer modes, letting them appear all but invisible to decrease a target's awareness, for example.

Ubisoft developers on hand said Wolf Pack mode is playable solo, but makes the experience incredibly difficult. Coordinating with up to four players on kills may provide an equally daunting challenge for a group of friends.

Assassin's Creed 3 is scheduled for release on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC on October 30th.

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