Brotherhood is scheduled to hit SA retail shelves on 19 November 2010 and we thought it was high time to have a look at all the sneaky stabbing action in store. Because there is so much in store with this game, we’ll take a look at the single player experience first and visit the all-new multiplayer aspects in a follow-up article.
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is a direct sequel to Assassin’s Creed II (AC II) and we’ll once again be stepping into the shoes of that charming murderous rogue Ezio Auditore. After slaughtering practically everyone with political, religious and social clout during AC II, Ezio missed one guy right at the end and now it’s time to settle unfinished business.
Brotherhood begins much like AC II – with Ezio making moves on a young lady. Looks like all that hard work spent sprucing up the countryside villa in AC II really paid off – babe magnet! Unfortunately an army of 30 000 Templar is lurking over yonder hill, ready to lay waste to all of Ezio’s home improvement.
Luckily there are some cannons mounted on the villa battlements and Ezio has a chance to lay waste to the approaching army and their siege weapons, giving the townsfolk time to escape. After a valiant defence, even Ezio can’t hold back an entire Templar army. A familiar motivational factor is supplied shortly before Ezio is forced to flee. Wounded from battle, Ezio passes out and Desmond emerges from the Animus.
The modern day characters of Desmond and Lucy reappear and it has been promised that they will feature more prominently in this outing. During AC II Desmond began to realise that he could transfer the skills he learnt in the Animus into the real world, albeit with some hallucinations confusing matters. This ability is explored during Brotherhood and the relationship between Desmond and Lucy will apparently be developed more fully during Brotherhood.
Stepping back into the Animus, Ezio has made his way to Rome circa 1503AD in order to settle the score with the Borgia family, leaders of the Templar order. Although Brotherhood is confined to a single location, the ancient city of Rome has been modelled with the stunning attention to detail we’ve come to expect from the series. Brotherhood’s Rome is apparently three times the size of AC II’s Florence – plenty of space to stretch one’s legs and many environmental exploration segments have been promised.
With Rome under the tyrannical and corrupt rule of the Borgia family the city has fallen into disrepair. Ezio will have to build up his brotherhood of assassins (which will include women) in order to beat the Templar into submission. Rome will be divided into twelve sections in which a Borgia tower is the primary goal.
Ezio and his assassins will work towards bumping off the papal troops stationed in the towers and then razing the tower to the ground. Doing so frees the section of the city from Borgia rule and adds new members to the Brotherhood. The ‘protecting citizens’ mechanic also returns and completing these tasks makes Rome a friendlier place for assassins. Money earned throughout the game can be used to spruce up Rome, an action which will win the support of the general populace.
A new meta-game has been introduced. Ezio will be sending his assassin’s on missions around Europe and this essentially levels them up. The recruits can also die while out on missions – a handy way of pruning out weaklings.
Ezio can call in reinforcements during missions and use the assassins in a variety of ways, helping to level the odds during large battles or cause a distraction so Ezio can make his move. Some of their tricks include a storm of arrows and sneak attacks. Ezio’s assassins will be customisable in appearance, weapons training and particular skills by spending the experience points they earned whilst traipsing around Europe.
Horses will once again be present but they can now be ridden in the city. Horseback combat is also vamped up and players will be able to engage other mounted fighters, steel to steel or from a distance with projectile weapons. There are also some ground based attacks that Ezio can perform to dismount mounted enemies.
The combat mechanics have also been overhauled. The same fluid motions we’ve come to expect are present, but now the enemies will be far more aggressive and merely blocking and counter-attacking will no longer suffice. According to Ubisoft, the enemies won’t hang about and politely take turns at swinging at Ezio – they will attack en masse. Players will have to strike hard, fast and first.
Some might say that this is the natural evolution of Ezio’s skill as an assassin coming to the fore and more cynical folk might say that it is a much needed revamp of the dreary combat in previous titles. Ezio will be kitted out with some familiar and new gadgets courtesy of his old friend Leonardo da Vinci. These include the return of the hidden wrist pistol, a new crossbow and poison darts. Ezio will even be able to throw certain weapons adding to his already dazzling flourish of moves.
Ezio is apparently a far more gifted assassin these days and he will have access to some new equipment to help him pull off stunts. He can use a parachute to glide across rooftops and there is an advanced flying machine billed for appearance. An armoured car has also been revealed, along with a bunch of mounted cannons and even a chariot machine gun.
All things considered, this is shaping up to be another fantastic assassin romp. The improved combat system and Brotherhood metagame should be enough to freshen up the gameplay and undoubtedly there are some surprises in store that Ubisoft hasn’t revealed to the press pre-launch of the title. AC II had a compelling story and set of interesting characters so it will be interesting to see how it all plays out as the Auditore ancestor’s story comes to a close.
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