One of the perks of being involved with this industry is getting some hands-on play time with the hottest up-and-coming releases. One of these awesome releases was Assassins Creed: Brotherhood. While campaign play was restricted to members of the Ubisoft team, I did get the chance to try out the multi-player aspect to the game, something that all us fans of the franchise have been crying out for.
Playing as an assassin, you get to pick your look (multiple versions of the same character are not allowed, so choose wisely and quickly), as well as your own specific weapon of choice. The aim of the mode played was to assassinate a target assigned to you (an image of the target appears in the top corner of the screen). This is where things were starting to get a little more interesting, as the target happens to be one of the other assassins you’re playing with.
So in an 8-player match, conbatants will be travelling around in a circle trying to kill each other. The realisation that not only are you trying to take out someone but someone else is trying to take you out too only really dawns on you when, following an assassination and the inevitable trash talking that follows it, someone else jumps down from a rooftop and stabs you in the back. It then all clicks into place, letting you see the glory of it all.
In addition to the 8 human controlled players running, walking and climbing around trying to kill each other, the entire (AI controlled) population of Rome is also present, throwing you off guard and making things that bit more interesting. This allows you to test your stealth skills by blending in and making yourself anonymous to unsuspecting prey and, hopefully, predators.
For the hunt to be able to work effectively, a radar is required to detect your target – as opposed to just trying to put a character to the face you have been given to kill. You radar acts in a similar fashion to a compass, but instead of the NESW markings you have what I can only describe as a doughnut ring. Initially one small segment is brightly lit, which acts as your tracking device. As you head in the direction of the highlighted segment, it starts to grow until it fills up the entire ring. At this point, you’re really close to your target, and it becomes a matter of ensuring you assassinate your target and not a civilian. Doing the latter will essentially mean game over, as your target will know your identity. You’ll then be left waiting to be assigned a new target.
Trust me when I say that this is quite an impressive multi-player mode. One thing that became clear is that the more cunning and discreet you are, the more likely you are to rise to the top of the leader-boards and become the best assassin out there.
Onto the single player campaign which, as mentioned earlier, we were restricted to merely watching while the Ubisoft gang played a mission. The entire game is set in Rome, which is easily 3 times the size of Assassins Creed 2′s already massive Florence map.
You have all the usual favourites from the previous games, such as assassinations, dealing with wife beaters, and several other intriguing side quests. New this time around is the ability to call on your brotherhood to help out. For example, if you need to get through a guard-surrounded walkway without getting seen, you can signal your brotherhood to attack them. While this is going on, you can help them out or simply sneak past to your destination. You can also increase the size of your brotherhood as you progress, which allows you to become stronger, more effective and ultimately more lethal as the group grows.
Da Vinci makes a welcome return, as do his inventions and gadgets. Including amongst these gadgets as Da Vinci’s famous parachute and also his machine guns and tank. Yes, that’s right, a tank. Other than Leonardo, Ezio will also come across other famous faces and witness famous happenings from this era of Roman history.
Those of you that are into 1500s renaissance Italy will be happy to know that the team behind Brotherhood have worked very hard in keeping the city as close as to what it’s imagined it to be like. This is achieved through the monuments still standing and the art work still around today. If you’re anything like me, that will provide additional entertainment and appreciation for all the hard work that has gone into the making of the game. A “Making Of” DVD is certainly in order here, in my opinion.
Returning from the last game, Ezio has now matured into a hairy, 40-odd year old man. In the story, he is basically at the heart of bringing the renaissance to Rome, making the time-line of the game very significant to the city’s real life history. Of course, to say too much would spoil the story, so I’ll let you play it on the 19th to understand what’s going on.
You also still get to play as Desmond in the modern day section, meaning you’ll be jumping in and out of The Animus at times, learning more skills to deal with today’s Templars. Desmond, as you would expect, will still be aided by his usual band of brothers (and sisters).
So what do have to look forward to? A lot, in all honesty. Assassins Creed 2 was a brilliant game, and in multiplayer, we now have the only thing it was ever really missing. The game looks gorgeous and plays really well, just as you’d expect it to. It has history which you get involved in, plus more the additional gadgets and inventions that we were all crying out for. That’s not to mention the ability to recruit, train and then direct your Brotherhood around the city, even sending them out on errands if you like.
Brotherhood still plays and feels like its predecessor, and that’s not exactly a bad thing. While there’s a few that people will merely see it as more the same with tacked-on multiplayer, if you take anything away from this article, please let it be the following statement – “Rome wasn’t built in a day – but now you get to see it happen”.
