Social stealth

A major theme in this game is social stealth. Other games have worked with the idea of stealth play while out in the open, notably the disguises in the Hitman series, but few if any have included the crowd dynamics found in Assassin's Creed.

The social stealth system keeps track of how much attention is being paid to you and your actions. Citizens and guards will react to the way you treat and interact with them. While walking around town, you can either shove people out of the way and to the ground or you can lightly push past them. The first will attract a lot of attention but get you through the crowd more quickly, and the person you knocked to the ground may get up and push you back. Lightly pushing past people will attract little attention but will take more time. Socially questionable actions will also increase the attention that people pay you. If you quickly climb the front of a building then you will attract a lot of attention, as will jumping from a rooftop and landing in a crowd. Slowly climbing a ladder or dropping quietly into the street will attract much less attention.

Avoiding attention is key in this game, since your investigation missions and assassinations require you to be anonymous. Remaining anonymous will also refill your synchronization bar. If you attract too much attention, the omnipresent guards will recognize you as an assassin and try to kill you, ruining your anonymity. The guards are implacable, if easily dispatched, foes who will follow you over rooftops and chase you through streets, often while gathering reinforcements.

With the social stealth system you won't find any shadows to hide in if you are being chased by soldiers. Instead you have to escape their sight and then hide or blend in with crowd, like joining a group of scholars. The scholars have the added benefit of being a mobile source of social camouflage. Other places to hide after losing the guards are bales of hay, rooftop gardens, and even benches (while sitting between two people).