Assassin's Creed Unity Co-Op hands-on: this ain't Ocean's Eleven

Assassin's Creed Unity is about two months away from release on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. Not only will the events take place during the bloody French Revolution, but there's a new cooperative multiplayer aspect to look forward to.

I recently had a hands-on session with one of its heist missions. In this mode, you and your allies must sneak into a building with your crew and score some loot without getting caught.

Any time that an enemy is alerted to your presence, your reward shrinks. The more people they notify, the worse it gets, and soon you may be completing the mission for the equivalent of spare change. It's best to play as a team and strike carefully.

The mission we took on, which is highlighted in the video below, takes place in a hotel, where several high-ranking soldiers are lounging about. I learned that it's important to get a lay of the land and figure out to strike next.

Teamwork is vital to scoring the biggest reward possible, and you and your fellow assassins will need to coordinate to succeed. For example, one of you can try drawing a guard toward a hiding place so that the second player to pounce on them without alerting other parties.

The level itself doesn't just consist of the building (in this case, a hotel), but also the surrounding areas leading into it, including what resembles a large cornfield where several patrolling guards are on point. This means you have your work cut out for you, as your crew will need to plot out a course of action, and then act on it without giving away your position. This mission doesn't have a very complex map, just a large one that requires you to move from section to section as you get closer to snagging a gold chalice.

The best way we did this in the demo was making our way to a nearby farmhouse. From here, we used the high vantage point to get a lay of the land, and to plot our moves from across the field to the catacombs. We were able to spot guards, plan our path, and ambushes.

Things got trickier once we switched from the open corn fields to the narrow tunnels of the catacombs. Sneaking up guards here would be no easy task.Fortunately, there are enough doorways for your allies to duck through, so you can one again do the distractive tactic, then have them strike. And you can always switch up, so your friend doesn't end up racking up all the kills.

After you reach your objective, it's just a matter of working past any leftover guards and making your way back to the city streets to collect your reward. In this particular mission, getting out was a lot easier than getting in, but that may not always be the case for Unity's co-op missions, as some may have bigger guard patrols that stand in your way.

Even with the simple objective in play, Unity's co-op missions provide a breath of fresh air for those who are tired of doing all the work on their own. The more the merrier here, and involving fellow players in your raids and attacks on certain bases make it all the more fun. Just as long as you don't dwindle away the rewards you're actually going after.

Assassin's Creed Unity releases on November 11th.