Preview: Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood

It seems like almost yesterday that the hype was in full flare for Assassin’s Creed II, the second game in the highly acclaimed franchise from Ubisoft. Many might argue that it’s too soon for a sequel, and they’re not entirely wrong in saying that, but Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is no slouch. In fact, it’s a complete new entry in the Assassin’s Creed series, fully ready to live up to its name – and go beyond.

Name: Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
Genre: Action Adventure
Players: 1
Multiplayer: Online (1-? players)
Platforms: PC, PS3, Xbox360
Developers: Ubisoft Montreal
Publishers: Ubisoft
Release Date: 16 November 2010

Firstly and most importantly, there’s been a lot of confusion regarding whether or not this is Assassin’s Creed 3, the last game in the trilogy. To clear it up, this is not the final game, but rather a direct sequel to Assassin’s Creed II, so you’ll once again be jumping into the agile shoes of Ezio Auditore da Firenze, the protagonist from the second game in the series. The game in fact kicks off shortly after the events of Assassin’s Creed II, in the year 1499, where Ezio is a master assassin – and still a ladies man of course. Even better is that you’ll still be following Desmond Miles in the present.

At the beginning of the game, Monteriggioni, Ezio’s home, is placed under siege by the Borgia clan, which is headed by Cesare Borgia – son of Rodrigo and Ezio’s nemesis. In the fierce battle, Ezio’s uncle, Mario – those of you who have played Assassin’s Creed II will remember his funny introduction – is killed and the Apple of Eden is stolen by the enemy. This leads Ezio, the master assassin leader of the Assassin’s Order, to venture off to Rome, which is deemed to be the center of power and corruption, and take the war to the Templar Order, with his assassin friends there to aid him. Once again, it seems, Ezio is on a revenge quest, except this time the stakes are even higher as the enemy possesses the magic of the Apple of Eden.

At E3 2010, we got an in-depth look at both the single player campaign and the all-new multiplayer component of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. Multiplayer is a first for the series, and it apparently was a huge fan request at the time of Assassin’s Creed II. At this point in time, while Brotherhood looks to be very much the same as its predecessors, the addition of multiplayer and a brand new story, which Ubisoft promises will take 15 hours to complete, looks like it will definitely make this game a worthy entry in the franchise.

Those of you who have played Assassin’s Creed II will know exactly what to expect from the single player of Brotherhood. Essentially, it is more of the same, just with lots of new features and gameplay additions. You’ll still be platforming, climbing every building in sight, traversing and exploring large cities, finding treasures and secrets, battling armies of enemies and stealthily going about your business. With regards to what’s new, that’s quite a list. Firstly, back in Assassin’s Creed II you were able to upgrade Ezio’s villa in order to generate more income. This time, you’ll be able to upgrade the entire city of Rome, as well as recruit and train novice Assassin’s that can be deployed across the city for defensive purposes or called to the front lines to help Ezio in battle. Essentially, Ezio will be building an army and increasing the strength of the Assassins, so he’ll be needing all his famous friends, like genius inventor Leonardo Da Vinci, as well as the aid of the citizens – because helping them out will unlock new factions and missions.

Gadgets and weapons wise, Brotherhood plans to carry on Assassin’s Creed II’s trend and include a large variety of them. Admittedly, in the last game, there were not that many gadgets and there really wasn’t a big incentive to care for weapons, because you could simply steal your enemies’ and it was easy to kill anyone even without one – but the game still boasted a huge arsenal of them. Unfortunately, it looks as though that will still be a problem with Brotherhood, but nevertheless, too much variety, with certain elements, can’t really be a bad thing, right? Among the list of new weapons and gadgets are the syringe, poison darts, crossbow, claw, blade fan, dagger, parachute and switchblade. A lot of weapons will be carried over from the previous game, including the all-too-famous hidden blade and gun as well as an advanced version of Da Vinci’s flying machine. Diversity is still a primary goal for the developers, they’ve said, and there will be lots of new weapons, gadgets and machinery. An example of this is being able to use a cannon to take out massive towers, hoards of enemies and, of course, other artillery.

The developers have also placed emphasis on horses in Brotherhood. They will play a bigger role in the game, both in movement as well as combat, so they won’t only be restricted to traveling out in the open as they were in previous games. You’ll be able to use both your melee weapons and ranged weapons, like the new crossbow, against enemies, while riding a horse, as well as use the horse for escape strategies and platforming sections. They will now be able to be ridden inside cities and confined spaces and overall will feature more and be involved more in Brotherhood. I don’t know about you, but that spells “trample people” to me. Hopefully.

A new dynamic has been adopted with regards to the combat. The combat system has been changed to now suit a more offensive style of play, so the player that strikes first and strikes fast will be rewarded – meaning you’ll get the jump on your enemies and off them quickly. Ezio is now better suited to fight multiple opponents at once (as if he needed more buffs – he’s already an imba hero), which fits the changes to the enemy AI. Speaking of, there will be both new enemy and ally archetypes featured in the game, supposedly to add more strategy, but honestly it doesn’t really make much of a difference because they’ll still be eating your blade easily enough. That said, the enemy AI will be much more aggressive and they’ll now attack in groups and simultaneously, but fortunately Ezio can now combine his ranged and melee weapons while fighting in order to up the fluidity of combat.

Basically, you’ll be able to do things like stab an enemy through the chest and then gun down another one about to attack you without missing a beat – meaning you won’t have to first change to the hidden gun and then use it, there’s now much more flow. Also, Brotherhood is keen to give the player new ways to kill people, and one of the new moves that Ezio has is the ability to throw weapons, such as those large axes you get to steal from the heavily armoured soldiers. Fundamentally, based on what we’ve seen, it’s pretty much Assassin’s Creed II again with more stuff, so it’s mostly going to be the story that will be excitable, purely looking at it from a “what’s new” perspective. Of course, that’s just talking about single player, because if you’re after something new, there’s the Brotherhood multiplayer component.

As far as the multiplayer is concerned, the premise is relatively simple. Ubisoft has fitted the multiplayer into the story by saying that, in the real world, the Templars are in training at the Abstergo facility, using the animus to train, apparently, by stalking, chasing and killing each other, and running away from others trying to kill them. The multiplayer will be class based, and will feature lots of different characters for you to play as. Eight characters have been confirmed, namely the Courtesan, Noble, Hunter, Barber, Priest, Banker, Executioner, and Doctor. The multiplayer will come complete with a variety of game modes, weapons, gadgets and classes, a ranking system, innate Perks, which are special, unlockable moves and abilities to give you the advantage and, hopefully, a great deal of fun.

The multiplayer looks to be where it’s actually at, to be an assassin, because here it looks like stealth and cautious playstyles will be essential. Assassin’s Creed has always had this problem of making you primarily kill everyone in sight like you’re some sort of legendary samurai warrior, and they seem to miss the plot when it comes to being sneaky and stealthy like a real Assassin. However, it seems that they might just have gotten it right with the multiplayer – at least, that’s judging by what we saw at E3 of the game mode “Wanted”, which is simply an awesome, exciting and hellishly tense mode. The concept is basically a proper assassination game, where you will be after other players trying to kill them and, at the same time, they will be after you. You’ll be needing all of your skills to play this mode, especially stealth and platforming.

In this mode, up to eight players (it’s not confirmed whether this is the maximum amount of players for the entire multiplayer or just this mode alone) are placed into a game world and are given a pre-defined target to assassinate. The target is displayed on the top right of the screen, and a number on the top left shows how many players are after your head. A small, circular radar beacon in the center of the screen points you in the direction of your target, and it gets wider as you get closer to your target. Once it becomes a full circle, you are very close to your target, and can be identified at any time if he spots you, meaning you’ll either have to run or stand and fight. The idea is then to assassinate the player. Discretion is key, because if your kill isn’t subtle, you could be spotted by another player, which means you’ll then have to run and hide. The point is to stay alive and kill the other players at any cost, as well as to earn yourself points which will most likely unlock new things and upgrade your rank.

The really cool thing is that each character has their own kill animations and that gadgets and perks will play an important role in the multiplayer. For instance, if you’re on the run, you can make use of smoke bombs to conceal yourself. Perks and abilities are very interesting, and can be used for a variety of different things, such as to give yourself the advantage or evade your enemies. An example would be the chase breaker, which is an activated ability that interacts with the environment. Say you’re running from another player and you go through an open gate. Using a chase breaker would close that gate, meaning your pursuer will have to find another way after you, like climbing over. Those precious seconds will help you escape.

In the multiplayer demo we saw the Courtesan character use an ability called “Morph” to evade a player in pursuit. This ability actually changed her into someone else, allowing her to blend in with the crowd and avoid detection. There is also an ability that will give you a speed boost, so that you can outrun other players. Effectively, these are evasion-focused abilities, which tells us that there should also be ones that have attacking and stealth in mind. It’s really elements like these that will make the multiplayer exciting, interesting and tense. And guess what? You can shoot other players with the hidden gun too. Judging by what we saw in the “Wanted” game mode, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood’s multiplayer looks like it will be an absolute winner. There will be a beta version of the multiplayer, but it will be exclusive to the PlayStation 3, and there is no word on when it will launch.

Graphically, the developers promise an upgrade from Assassin’s Creed II, complete with improved physics, due to the new edited “Havok” engine. Many would know that ragdoll physics has always been a problem in the Assassin’s Creed games, but this time they’re set to be much more realistic and upgraded. So far, the game is looking pretty much the same, graphically, as Assassin’s Creed II, which isn’t entirely a bad thing considering that the second game was very impressive visually. Still, the game is only releasing in November, so there are bound to be improvements made by then. Furthermore, the size of Rome will be so large that, according to the developers, it will literally take hours to cross from one end to the other, on foot, and there will be lots of variety in the design. This is to be expected when considering that the entire game takes place in Rome, as opposed to a number of cities like in Assassin’s Creed II. It’s unconfirmed what tools you’ll have to get around the large city, other than horses.

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood plans to be more than a hurried sequel. It has a complete single player campaign as well as a completely new multiplayer mode. While the single player looks to be more of the same, which is still great, the multiplayer component is shaping up to be incredible, and if they can pull it off correctly then it might just be reason enough to buy Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood on its own.

The game is due to release on the 16th of November 2010 on PC, PS3 and Xbox360. These are early days, so we should have a lot more information as we get nearer to launch day.

It’s more Assassin’s Creed – we’re game for that!

Extra information:

Game Overview

Live and breathe as Ezio, a legendary Master Assassin, in his enduring struggle against the powerful Templar Order. He must journey into Italy’s greatest city, Rome, center of power, greed and corruption to strike at the heart of the enemy.

Defeating the corrupt tyrants entrenched there will require not only strength, but leadership, as Ezio commands an entire Brotherhood who will rally to his side. Only by working together can the Assassins defeat their mortal enemies.

And for the first time, introducing a never-before-seen multiplayer layer that allows you to choose from a wide range of unique characters, each with their own signature weapons and assassination techniques, and match your skills against other players from around the world.

It’s time to join the Brotherhood.

Key Features

• MASTER THE POSSIBILITIES – As Ezio, a legendary Master Assassin, experience over 15 hours of single-player gameplay set in the living, breathing, unpredictable city of Rome.

• LEAD A LEGENDARY BROTHERHOOD – Recruit and train promising young Assassins. Deploy them across the city as you see fit, or call upon them to aid you in your quests.

• EXPERIENCE A RICH HISTORICAL TAPESTRY – Collaborate with real historical characters such as Leonardo da Vinci, Niccolo Machiavelli and Caterina Sforza.

• WIN THE HEART OF A CITY – Use your hard-won currency to revitalize the crumbling capital city. Rally the citizens to your cause and unlock extra factions and missions.

• DEPLOY SECRET WEAPONS – Swiftly eliminate your enemies using tools such as poison darts, parachutes, double hidden blades, hidden guns, and an advanced flying machine at your disposal.
• MEMORABLE MULTIPLAYER – Choose from multiple authentic character classes, each with their own signature weapons and killing moves. With richly-detailed maps and a wide variety of unique multiplayer modes, you’ll never fight the same way twice.