Assassin's Creed Brotherhood

Like many others, I've been a fan of the Assassin's Creed series since the first one. It may have been more than tedious, but it was so different in both play style and story that I couldn't help but enjoy it. Then the second one came along and varied up the gameplay nicely, though it still had several issues with freerunning and combat, and the money system seemed a little extraneous. So now Brotherhood comes along, an unforeseen new title inserted into what was originally going to be a trilogy. The best description I've heard explaining this was that they ran out of development time for Rome in Assassin's Creed 2, so they took it out and bloated out the edges to make it complete. Then they took Rome and bloated it up to make a complete game out of it, basically making it Assassin's Creed 2.5. Does that mean it's bad?

Goodness no. Yes, we're still playing as Ezio, who while being a great character can't help but have the same motivations and pretty much the same story as last time. And despite good intentions Rome feels much the same as the other Italian cities, this one is just way bigger and has open countryside incorporated instead of on the outskirts as it was with the others. Oh, and you can now ride a horse through the city, which unfortunately more often presents an inconvenience than a faster method of travel (especially since galloping is restricted to certain memories). But with all that being said, there's a lot of much needed improvements that make Brotherhood what Assassin's Creed 2 should have been.

First up, the story. There are two components here. One is Ezio's story, which revolves around his search for Cesare Borgia, who lays waste to Monterrigioni at the beginning, and the assembling of the assassin order to take him out and restore Rome to its former glory. The plot is unfortunately rather straightforward, with little surprises, but there are still some fun set pieces along the way. They also revived from the first game the ability to replay specific memories, which is much appreciated, especially since they also added challenges to each mission to get full synchronization. The other component is Desmond's story, which keeps getting more and more interesting as the series progresses. In another semi-revived feature from the first game, you can leave the animus at any time (it was in between sequences the first game) to explore the now crumbling ruin of the Monterrigioni mansion and modernized town. Unfortunately there is almost no development during these trips out of the animus. You can check yours and (thanks to a suspicious sender) others' e-mails to keep up to date on what they do when you're under, but most of it is inconsequential bickering or status updates on other assassin teams. There are also some artifacts you can find around town (which you are given 10 minutes to explore at a time since the Templars are looking for you) but I only found one and it appears there isn't much use to finding them all. However, I don't even care. You know why? Those beginning and ending sequences with Desmond are stunning, and tease you with what you can expect for the final installment. In traditional AC style the ending left at a cliffhanger with my jaw firmly on the floor.

Now here's the odd thing about Brotherhood. Most of the meat of this game lies far outside the actual storyline. This game, as a completionist, is both my heaven and my hell. It is my heaven because there is so fucking much to do that even after I have completed the story I've still been playing for a couple hours trying to get 100% completion. There are Borgia towers, which present a challenge where you must first kill a captain and then burn down the tower to reduce Borgia influence in the city, allowing you to renovate buildings like blacksmiths/tailors/doctors/etc. And the shops closest to your base have shop quests where you trade in certain items to get better weapons/armor. There are courtesan, thief, and assassination missions. There are all the assassins you recruit and send off on missions (more on them in a bit). There are 101 borgia flags, 10 feathers, and over 140 treasure chests to collect (and this time chests give items too, meaning there's a reason to open them all now). There are Lairs of Romulus, Brotherhood's assassin tombs equivalent, which once you complete unlock the armor and dagger of Brutus, equivalent to Altair's armor in AC2. There are challenges to complete for each guild, along the line of killing x number of papal guards, escaping pursuit by hiding x number of times, etc. There's a virtual training simulation along the lines of Mirror's Edge where you can race against the clock on freerunning courses or try to get to a 20 kill streak or many other things, each giving you a gold, silver or bronze medal depending on how you do. There are various deadly machines Leonardo Da Vinchi was forced to construct for the enemy that you then must destroy.

And all of that is why it is also my hell, because there's simply TOO much to do. For the casual gamer there's plenty there to simply occupy your attention between missions, but for the completionists like myself who are bothered by that spot on the map that needs to be CLEARED there's simply too much to this game to make it fun after a lengthy period of time. It's all well and good when you've still got a story mission ahead of you, but once those are gone there's still so much left over you're left wishing there were more than 9 sequences to complete, the last two of which are fairly rushed through. Once you're on to sequence 8, it's pretty much a straight road to the end.

But enough complaining, because this is actually a really fun game. So what did they do right?

Combat. Hoo boy is it improved. While in AC2 battles were a matter of blocking, waiting until someone swung at you, counter killing them, and rinsing and repeating, combat has been so amazingly streamlined that you won't even recognize it. The main method of getting through battle is still counter killing, but on top of that you can amass some major kill streaks by pushing the left stick towards your next target in the middle of an execution and then hitting attack, leading to a one hit kill. It's hard to manage since enemies now attack you in the middle of these maneuvers, and even when blocking you still take damage (like in AC1), meaning fights are much more feverish and finish in much faster time than in AC2.

The Brotherhood. Your new cadre of assassins is managed almost perfectly. With a simple push of a button you can summon a recruit to take out a guard in your way or a fleeing target. They pop up out of nowhere and disappear just as quickly once the job's done. Once you have enough assassins you can do this up to three times, or even use all three at once for an arrow storm that eliminates all guards in the area. Each time you use this ability it takes about a minute to recharge, which often isn't a big deal, and it really lets you feel like you've got an army at your beck and call, especially once they're leveled up. To do so you send them on missions throughout the continent to gather experience and sometimes rare items. Of course, sending them off means you can't summon them to help you, so especially at the beginning it's a hard decision of whether to send them off to get more experience or keep them around to help you with the next mission. Thankfully most of the errands you send them on keep them away for 10 minutes or less, but it's still something you have to plan.

Subject 16. He's back, and creepier than ever. It's quickly revealed that the codes you get after solving the glyphs from AC2 are actually coordinates for further puzzle madness in Rome. While the puzzles remain largely the same (pick the 5 pictures that are similar, use a code wheel to decipher a code) the things you listen to and find out, especially from the computer that says "Loading" between each puzzle, are just plain insane. And what's finally revealed at the end takes the surprise and confusion from the previous subject 16 revelation and cranks it up to 11.

Freerunning. In AC2 it could often be hard to navigate the rooftops from one area to another simply due to large gaps between buildings or a lack of things to jump on between them. Those problems have been solved here, though at the expense of horse riding, which is fine by me. While you will still spend a lot of time cursing at Ezio for jumping in slightly the wrong direction and plummeting to his death or severe harm (alleviated by parachutes sometimes), it's quite easy to get from point A to point B most of the time by a combination of horse riding in open areas, freerunning in close quarters, or using waypoints scattered throughout Rome if the distance is really great. It all flows wonderfully, though it certainly helps to have practice, which brings me to...

Virtual Training. Admittedly I haven't done many of these yet besides the short freerunning time trials, but they actually do teach you a lot about how to move in the environment. And that quest for a gold medal makes sure you have those techniques down and can apply them in game. They're varied enough and present enough of a challenge that you can keep going back to them to hone your skills.

The Lairs of Romulus. One of my favorite parts of AC2 were the assassin tombs, and their equivalents in Brotherhood are no less spectacular. Featuring combinations of Prince of Persia like platforming with heated chase sequences all set amongst highly unique backdrops/environments, with the added challenges to get 100% synchronization, these lairs are a joy to run through.

Multiplayer. Boy has a lot changed from the beta. While most elements remain the same, they've tweaked several underlying mechanics to make it much more playable and FUN. Unfortunately Alliance mode (Wanted mode but with teams) falls flat because nobody works together, but Manhunt (teams of 3 or 4 spend 5 minutes as hunters and then 5 minutes as hunted, earning bonuses for staying hidden) is surprisingly entertaining. There are also WAY more abilities and perks to unlock along with different gear and colors for each persona and tons of new maps. Basically everything plays a lot smoother and requires much more strategy than it did in the beta, which is highly welcome.

To sum up, while story-wise Brotherhood does at several points feel like a bloated DLC, they improved and added so much that it easily stands on its own, and in many ways outshines its predecessor.

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood gets an 8.5/10.

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood Multiplayer Beta

To all those waiting to see what it's like out there, I decided to give my first impressions on the Assassin's Creed Brotherhood multiplayer beta which just released today exclusively for the PS3.

First, some minor SPOILERS. At the beginning of Assassin's Creed 2 we saw row upon row of animus chambers at Abstergo, but had no idea why they were there. Well, as you might have guessed, it appears the Templars got the same idea as the assassins with Desmond and are training their followers to be fighters using the Animus' bleeding effect. And this multiplayer, it seems, is that training. END SPOILERS.

Entering a public match is basically the only option they give you at this point (though both ranked and private matches are there, just inaccessible), so jumping on in you are able to select one of several different types of killers. Unfortunately, at this point it doesn't appear to make much of any difference which one you choose, and if you don't choose quickly then you're either forced into one as the other players (up to 8 I believe) takes the rest, or the timer counts down and auto-chooses for you. All those commercials implying that each class had their own special ability at least so far is a lie. Instead, as you make kills you gain points which help you progress in levels, and about every two levels you unlock something, whether it be a special ability, a perk, a kill/loss streak bonus, or even just the ability to have more than one profile.

The only match style available is called Wanted, where you are given a player to assassinate while another player is hunting after you. You are given your target's type of killer, as well as a blue slice of a radar pie which gets bigger as you approach your target. Once you're in view of the target, a little notice tells you that if you run or do something in high profile for long enough, the target will notice you and be told to escape. There are various doors and obstacles throughout the map to help whoever is fleeing, and if you break line of sight you can hide somewhere until the counter ticks down and your pursuer fails to find you. Also, even if you do catch them, it's worth less points than killing them while incognito. You get points for killing people in certain ways (from a ledge, from a hiding spot, etc.) . So while you're locating your target, the objective is to remain indistinct from the crowd so that whoever is pursuing you has as hard a time as possible picking you out. You get points for escaping from a chase, or even something like tricking your pursuer into killing a civilian instead of you. Still, judging from the scoreboards at the end of matches, your hunter will find you. Often. The real trick is to go for those big point kills so you can stay ahead. At least, that's my strategy, I'm sure other people will have other ways to do it.

To help you along the way, you're given some special abilities. The early ones include being able to temporarily shapeshift into another type so your pursuer can't recognize you, or being able to sprint at an increased speed for a short time. Use wisely though, they have a long (shapeshifting is 1 min, haven't tried speed yet) recharge time which makes a big difference in a 10 minute match. Eventually you also earn bonuses for a kill streak (extra 100 points per target after 3), and a loss streak (radar is extra sensitive after you die 3 times in a row). So far I can see the rewards up to level 20, and even though there are levels after that it appears they won't be available in the beta (but who knows, I'm still just level 6).

But what you really came to know is...is it fun? Is it worth it? And the answer is...yes.

This mode is almost excessively simple in its premise and play quality, but there's something really fun about tracking your target through a crowd while also trying to stand out as little as possible. Then when you get close there's the more high risk options for extra rewards, like waiting 3 seconds with the kill button above their heads before committing the act. It gets your blood pumping every time you do something out of the ordinary and have to decide to either run for it or hope that isn't your hunter walking straight towards you. More often than not you'll be caught completely unawares by your hunter, but thankfully you respawn so quickly that it's more funny than irritating that they got you.

The point is, it's addictively simple. It's easy to jump right into, easy to have fun with, and easy enough to leave behind if you get tired of it. Of course, being so simple it does lack that extra oomph that would make it really spectacular (aka different and balanced character abilities instead of just different skins), but if you're looking for a fun, new take on multiplayer then you can't go wrong.

If there's more that I find out, or they make improvements before launch, I'll make sure to update things. However, so far...

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood multiplayer beta gets a 7.5/10.