Assassins Creed Brotherhood
Developer : Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher : Ubisoft
Platform : Xbox 360
Due to the belated timing of this review, it’s hard to know where to start. Most of you will have played the game in the year since it’s been released, and for those of you that haven’t will have almost certainly heard about it know the details.
But for that small percent of you that haven’t, here it is :
Brotherhood is the third game in the Assassins Creed franchise, following Desmond and Ezio as the games lead characters. The time period is the same as the second game, following a period of around 40 years after the second game, watching Ezio grow older. In the present, the time that has passed since Assassins Creed 2 is mere moments.
This time around, the game is set almost entirely within the walls of Rome. Gone are the days of trapsing the surrounding fields from city to city. In this sense, it almost feels like the world has shrunk - there are still the outlying rural areas of course, but the lack of travelling from the different areas is noticeable.
As I said earlier, Brotherhood picks up right were AC2 left off - after the confrontation with Rodrigo Borgia, and the confusing (for me at least) scene far beneath the Vatican, most would have thought that Ezio’s days of scampering over rooftops was over. Cesare Borgia has other ideas, and much like his father goes after the Assassins in style - starting with burning down the lovely villa in Monteriggioni. All of Ezio’s possessions are destroyed in the fire, giving Ubisoft ample reason to remove all of Ezio’s awesome equipment he earnt in the second game, and having to start all over again.
To avenge the fire, where else can Ezio go but to the capital, the fabulous city of Roma? The city itself is gigantic ; divided into twelve areas all under the Borgia rule. Each area has it’s own tower, much like the watchtowers from previous games. If Ezio feels so inclined, he can remove all Borgia influence by killing the Borgia captain who guards the area. Then by climbing the defenceless tower and setting it ablaze, he raises the citizens morale and starts an uprising in the district, removing all Borgia influence in the area. This changes a few things; once the Borgia oppression has been removed, shops in the area will open up and the amount of soliders in the district will reduce dramatically, making the towers destruction a great bonus, but not a necessity. The game doesn’t require a single Borgia tower to be destroyed, but removing them makes missions in that area an lot easier due to the reduced number of guards. Once unlocked via a towers destruction, shops play an integral part in Brotherhood, in more ways than one. Firstly, the amount of shops owned increases the amount of items Ezio has access too. Secondly, the shop type themselves play a part to upgrade items ; for example, the amount of parachutes you can carry around is dependent on the amount of Tailors you have renovated throughout the city, and the more Banks you own means the more money your savings account can hold before it needs emptying.
The question on a lot of Creed fans lips is, “can the campaign rival that of AC2?". Well, fear not, because Brotherhood has stepped up to the plate and equals, if not beats the exceptional AC2. The campaign is a long one, taking a decent 20hours or so to complete, even longer if need be. It follows Ezio over a much longer time period than previous games, spanning almost 30 years from start to finish. I really don’t want to go into detail about the campaign itself, but it does contain a few twists and turns along the way. It’s well told from Ezio’s point of view, and the characters progress nicely. Friends and Foe alike have returned from previous games, including the magnificent Leonardo Da Vinci, playing a more integral part in the game than the second, and even getting his own peice of DLC to boot. It’s due to some of Leonardo’s side missions, entitled War Machines that we get to see a different side to the Assassin’s Creed series. Leonardo has crafted six machines designed to reak ultimate destruction, but they’ve all fallen into Borgia hands. It’s Ezio’s job to find the blueprints to the machines and destroy them ; then to ride off into the sunset on the machine itself before you destroy it. This gives us chance to play a bit of an arcadey mini game, to break up Brotherhoods gameplay nicely. These range from flying his “hand-glider bomber”, driving his “mounted machine-gun” whilst chopping down mounted guards and driving the tank. These missions are nothing special, but they do deliver a much needed break in pace in the game. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with the gameplay in Brotherhood, it’s fantastic, but we’ve been here before. There is nothing really groundbreaking to separate this iteration from the previous ones, the missions are all fairly similar and there is nothing truly new. There are tweaks and improvements in the game of course, but the same underlying mechanic is there - get given a target, find your way to him, assassinate him as you see fit.
A few of these tweaks are major overhauls of the system that are great to have in the game, but once again nothing groundbreaking. In previous games, you were unable to ride your horse wherever you pleased, but now gone are those restrictions. You’re now free to ride wherever you please, from the rural fields of the outskirts to the busiest of streets. A small change, but one that’s removed one of those “invisible walls” that seem to break up gameplay. The biggest overhaul, can be guessed from the games title : the Brotherhood. As you destroy Borgia Towers, you can rescue oppressed citizens and recruit them to join your very own Assassins Guild. Train them up from rookie peasants to fully fledged killers. You can micro-manage their assignments, sending them all over the continent to fulfill contracts, or have them by your side in Rome. Well, when I say by your side, they are a mere button press away. Picture the scene ; a prominent figure who needs to meet his end, overwatched by two lookouts upon a barricade wall. You can’t reach all three before one of them notices, so what do you do? Select one of the guards, and hit the button. Select the second, and hit the button. From the shadows will strike two of your recruits, dispatching the guards before they’ve noticed Ezio sneaking in to take out the main target. The system works very well, and is managed by an “energy bar” so that it can’t be abused. It refills over time, but from personal experience I’d say it refilled too fast. Max out the bar, and you’ll find you’ve got three assassins with you for all major points of the game. To make things even easier, if you use up all three recruits powers at once, you’ll enable arrow storm : arrows will fall from the sky killing every enemy on screen at the time. You can also customise their loadouts, as well as their armour pieces so they look however your guild wants them to look. Overall, the system does what its intended to do - it shows that Ezio is no longer a solitary assassin against the Borgia and the Templars, he’s now a leader, head of his very own army as the war takes on a much greater scale.
As well as the recruits, Ezio can also enlist the help of three core groups. Whilst these groups add a touch of extended realism to the title, much like the recruits they make it a lot easier. You can employ either the Courtesans (to distract enemies), the Mercenaries (to attack enemies) and the Thieves (to engage in hand to hand brawls). Or at least thats what I think the thieves did. I’ll be honest, I got that bored with all these groups reducing the challenge of the game, that I decided not to utilise them for the most part. I can’t remember if I actually used the Thieves or not, so forgive me if I’ve got their purpose wrong.
My final attack on the difficulty of the game, was the inclusion of the Crossbow. A silent weapon with a ton of ammo, that’s able to dispatch guards in an instant from great range. Gone are the days of sneaking up to guards on a rooftop and hoping to dispatch them without anyone seeing, now all it takes is a fast crossbow shot and the job is done. If I’m honest, I think Ubisoft have really aimed at a casual market here. Is it a bad thing? No, I guess not, but ultimately it has left Brotherhood a very easy game, with only the 100% synch the only challenge in the game. This time around, every mission (main and side) comes with an optional objective, and to reach 100% synch you must complete that objective. These can be anything from “Don’t touch the floor during the chase scene” or “do not kill anyone”. I thank Ubisoft for these, as it’s these little objectives that give the challenge.
Much like the towers are an optional piece, Brotherhood features a huge assortment of sidequests and missions. These range from working for the Theives Guild to helping out the local Brothel, from assassination contracts to rooftop races to maintain an ageing Ezio’s reputation. There are also six hidden dungeons each containing a legendary piece of armour from ages past - clear all six dungeons, collect all six pieces and the armour is Ezios for the wearing. For those who enjoy the open-esque sandbox style littered with sidequests, then Brotherhood has you covered. The time taken to complete all sidequests alone is longer than a lot of games have as their main campaign - I’d estimate at around 10-15hours to finish everyone off, especially if you are going for that 100% synch rating!
Overall, the single player side of the game is a good, solid adventure through Rome. It’s taken everything that the second game did, and made it better. It looks better, it plays better, and it has more features. In fact, I’ve had to leave a lot of content out of this review otherwise I’d be hitting 6-7 pages and you’d be falling asleep. There truly is that much content. My only qualm is the lack of challenge due to the “baby aids” that Ubisoft have included, but due to the quality of the game you can forgive them this.
But thats only one side of the coin, the latest Assassin’s Creed game features Multiplayer.
From my first online match, I loved the multiplayer, I truly did. The first thing I noticed, was that this multiplayer was unlike anything I had ever played - it rewarded patience more than anything else, and I loved that.
The basic premise is simple, your an assassin, in a filled city district. There are other assassins in the area as well, you have your target, they have theirs. The aim, to kill your target in the most “assassin like” way to earn points,without being killed yourself.
There are a few multiplayer modes, Wanted and Advance Wanted, which is basically the FFA modes that you are used too. Spot any opposing player, and dispatch him without being killed yourself. Alliance is a team based mode, where you’re assigned a partner. Your team of two then has to dispatch other teams of two, and you guessed it, try not to get killed yourself. Finally, there is Manhunt, my favourite of the modes. Manhunt splits the playerbase into two teams, and is a two-round game. In a round, one team hunts while one team hides; and then in round two the roles are switched. The highest point total at the end of both rounds wins the game.
The multiplayer features the usual level up/perk/weapon unlock system that we have seen in so many other games, with the higher levels granting access to poison, then fast acting poison etc - it may be a bit unbalanced truth be told, as the higher levels really do have an advantage over the lower levels. But if your good, and you play well, then even as a level 1 you can destroy enemy teams.
Points are assigned based on the style of your kills : running out into the open, and dispatching an enemy with a noisy pistol shot will net you a measly 100 points. Sit on a bench, wait for an enemy to walk past you while you silently clip him with your poison tipped blade can net you a staggering amount. Remember, patience is key here, and you are rewarded for staying in the shadows and not being spotted.
Overall, the multiplayer was fantastic, and one of the freshest experiences I’ve had in a long time. It may sound boring to some, and I guess it may play boring to some, but I loved the slow paced methodical gameplay to a lot of “run n gun” explosive titles that spring to mind.
Overall, the multiplayer was fantastic, and one of the freshest experiences I’ve had in a long time. It may sound boring to some, and I guess it may play boring to some, but I loved the slow paced methodical gameplay to a lot of “run n gun” explosive titles that spring to mind.
4.0