An AC game to die for
If you’re familiar with the Assassin’s Creed series, you’ll probably remember that the first game was… divisive. While the premise of the game was enticing, some found that the execution was lacking. Complaints of repetitive quests, not enough content, and a generally disappointing presentation compared to what was promised left a lot of people closely watching the game disappointed. With the release of Assassin’s Creed II, it seemed that Ubisoft had taken the criticism of the first game to heart. The general consensus being that the sequel was a marked improvement over the original in every way, but still had imperfections. About a year after that, Ubisoft released Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. Because Brotherhood followed so quickly on the heels of Assassin’s Creed II, there were accusations of the game being a cheap cash-in. While Brotherhood does re-use assets and game mechanics from AC 2, it’s an improvement over the previous entry. The multiplayer, alone, stands as one of the best, most original ideas this generation and might be worth the cost of admission.
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood continues the story of lady’s man Ezio Auditore, the main character of Assassin’s Creed II . Brotherhood picks up the instant that AC: 2 ended: Ezio, having punched-out the Pope himself, has liberated the Apple of Eden (a ancient device used to create religion, among other things). Since clocking the Holy Father stands among the pinnacle of achievement for some, Ezio decides to retire back to his family’s estate in the Italian countryside, ready to fill his calender with crazy parties until the end of time. But Cesare Borgia, sworn enemy to Ezio, has other plans for our young Cassanova. Cesare’s army sieges and eventually destroys the Auditore estate, stealing the Apple of Eden, and leaving Ezio fleeing to Rome with little more than his raw sex-appeal. Now, Ezio decides, is the time to build up the Assassin Brotherhood, and reclaim the apple.
Rome, in Brotherhood , is spectacular. It’s among the best digital representations of a “living city”. From the painstaking recreation of Italian renaissance fashion, art, and architecture, to the little things, like bards running up to Ezio with lutes in-hand, only to have them rudely knocked out as Mr. Auditore pushes the annoying little bastards aside – it’s evident that Ubisoft put a lot of love into Brotherhood . The city becomes a playground as Ezio runs around finding several different kinds of collectables, subverting the influence of his hated enemy, the Borgia, and completing missions for different factions and NPCs (Leonard DiVinci, amongst them). At any given time during the single player, you’ve got at least a dozen or so missions open for completion, each part of their own storyline, which contribute to the story overall.
In fact, there’s almost too much to do in Brotherhood . And not all of it feels meaningful. For instance, you can renovate shops which earns you money, which is basically only spent on renovating more shops. And as you form the Assassin Brotherhood, you can send your underlings out on missions, which would be awesome, but you don’t get to participate or watch them complete their tasks in any meaningful way. Sending Assassins on missions boils down to you fiddling around in menus every few minutes. Sure, your Assassins level-up when they complete contracts, but whatever level your underlings are has no meaningful effect on the game world. In short, much of it feels like busy-work.
If you’re the kind of person who absolutely must finish everything in a game before moving onto your next one, prepare to spend a lot of time with Brotherhood . I’ve completed the main mission and have finished about a third of the side-quests, and I’m about 37 hours in. Overall, the single player is incredibly polished. Sure, there are some reused art and assets from the last game, but even if you played AC 2 to death, you’ll still enjoy yourself here. Also, if you liked the ending of AC 2, Brotherhood’s ending is every bit as crazy.
There’s also multiplayer in Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood . It’s nothing short of awesome. Brotherhood is easily among the top multiplayer games this generation. However, if you’re looking for a run-and-gun, kill him before he can react game, keep looking. Brotherhood is no Call of Duty . This game plays much slower, but no less intense.
To give you an example of Brotherhood’s multiplayer, I’ll tell you about my favorite mode: wanted. Ostensibly, it’s your basic free-for-all deathmatch. In wanted, you’re on your own against up to seven other players. Every player is given a “contract”, which is another player they have to find and kill, but there’s a twist! At the beginning of a match, every player picks an avatar. This avatar is then duplicated throughout the map and controlled by AI, creating several dozen copies of every player in the match that move, react, and generally wander around the city-scape as a player would. Your job, having a contract to kill your target, is to find out which NPCs are dummies, and which one is the player you’re hunting. Once you’ve figured that out, you get to split you target’s skull in half with an axe, or slice their neck with a straight-razor. Get it wrong, and you lose your contract, negating any points you could have earned for the kill.
Keep in mind that another player, or sometimes multiple players, will have you as a target. As you’re stalking your pray, chances are someone isn’t far behind waiting for you to reveal yourself by doing something an NPC wouldn’t do (for instance, hopping around on rooftops, or killing someone). This makes for very intense games of cat-and-mouse where you’ve always got an eye behind your back, watching for any strange movement. The potential for mind-games and misdirection are practically limitless, creating deep strategy for the game – also it’s ridiculously fun.
You’ll receive points based on how “skillful” your kill is. That score is determined by how stealthy you were approaching your target, and what you did to land the final blow (for instance, you’ll get a bonus for waiting in a haystack, and then jumping out as your target walks by, pulling them back in with you). Conversely, if you think someone is following you, you have two options for escape: run or stun. Successfully doing either earns you points and your pursuer loses their contract on you, denying them points. Running works whenever you can manage to do it . It’s your best option most of the time, but it isn’t easy. Once you start sprinting around, you’ve effectively revealed that you’re not an NPC, and become an obvious target. Stunning, however is another beast entirely.
As you start to play online, you’ll probably wonder why stunning your pursuer rarely works. You’d be surprised to learn that’s the intent. Ubisoft takes the position that Brotherhood should be more about cunning than reaction speed – meaning you’ll need to get the drop on your pursuer if you want to stun them. If every encounter turned into “who can push the button faster than the other guy” it would ruin the mood of a Brotherhood match. Understandably, many people are turned off by the perception that they aren’t able to directly defend themselves. However, I think it’s one of the many things that makes Brotherhood great. Because stuns only work under very specific conditions, a player is forced to be smart when eluding a pursuer. And make no mistake – the multiplayer in this game is all about intelligence.
If ever you were to play an Assassin’s Creed game for the single-player, Brotherhood is what you’ll want. It’s an improvement upon its predecessors in every category, and it’s just plain fun. It has its small problems, but they’re nothing that should keep you from enjoying yourself. If you’re looking for multiplayer different from the shooter-of-the-month, you absolutely need to play Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. The multiplayer on offer here is deeply satisfying and unlike anything that has come along this generation. Simply put: you owe it to yourself to play this game.
