Former Assassin's Creed lead's new game has a roguelike twist with randomized abilities that reset on death, and your witchy protagonist will look great using them

Promotional screenshot of 16666 Amsterdam showing a red-robed witch floating through a charred and desolate outdoor landscape as fire burns on torches ahead.

Assassin's Creed creator Patrice Désilets has been keeping one of 1666: Amsterdam's coolest mechanics under wraps: abilities found in jewelry box coffers that currently offer limitless buffs and perks… with a catch.

"When you die again, you lose those abilities that you found, and then you go back into a lottery [when you find a coffer]," Désilets tells journalists during a later level demo following a hands-on 1666 Amsterdam preview. "And so each time you lose, and you have to restart [the mission], you will have a different set of abilities with which to play the mission." So does that mean there is a limit to how many abilities Noa can equip if she doesn't die at all in the game? "Right now, no."

A coffer is a jewelry box, and you'll find loads dotted throughout the districts of Amsterdam — mainly inside peoples' homes, which requires a little puzzle work with the help of cat companion Aaron's lithe feline capabilities. Opening a coffer presents three abilities to choose from, represented by different symbols that you won't be able to read straight away.

(Image credit: Panache Digital)

The guesswork links back to the game's curious time-spanning framing, with Aaron's daughter Clio reading her father's book in the modern day (oh, Aaron is a human man by the way) to work out what happened to the pair when Aaron's time-traveling spirit visited Noa in 1666.

"Clio is the one deciphering the book, and right now she's not quite sure what that symbol represents, so she will make an hypothesis of what Noa actually found in that coffer. And every time there's a [choice] lottery like that, it's a new one, and I'm not quite sure what I'm going to play with. And that's the beauty of it."

The examples GamesRadar+ were shown include Kinesia – "this is the one thing that lets you fly faster over the water, and you receive that energy by breaking stuff" – and a very special Assassin's Creed parkour-adjacent Travel ability where Noa can fly high above the rooftops of Amsterdam. It's just the tip of the late-medieval iceberg when it comes to all the surprises Panache Digital has in store for us when 1666: Amsterdam launches on August 25.

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