The Glade 4.0

Isn't it too soon for another Assassin's Creed? Fans who have soured over the many annual reheatings of Tony Hawk or Lara Croft rightly wonder if Brotherhood comes too soon and, because it's more Ezio in the Renaissance, isn't different enough. Brotherhood is neither brief nor dull and harnesses much of the familiar core technology used to previously render Ezio's Florence and Venice in Assassin's Creed II to render a distinctive Rome full of fresh faces and fascinating locations. Both the game's main and side missions are generally more interesting than those of Assassin's Creed II and the slightly shorter primary campaign keeps the setting from wearing out it welcome. Some of the multiplayer characters to choose form in the game's fun online competitive assassination mode, which does not involve our heroes Ezio or Desmond.


Is this one mostly multiplayer? The first thing the public was ever told about Brotherhood was that it had multiplayer, a fact that has given the mistaken impression that this game's main feature is its assassination take on modern Call of Duty-style ranked multiplayer. Well, it turns out there's 20 or 25 hours of single-player content here too.

But this is just a side story, right? Ezio's sci-fi discoveries about the truth behind the Assassins and Templars at the end of ACII — handily recapped so newcomers aren't confused — appeared to close his story. The new narrative for him here is focused on his quest for revenge against the son of the Pope he almost murdered in the previous game. It doesn't feel as important, though the game's brief bits featuring Desmond do advance the master plot. Plus, as before, there are hundreds of details tucked into personnel files, location descriptions, mission briefings and in secret codes the player can crack, all of which add color to the vast historical conspiracy woven through the series. A sharp-eyed completionist will end the game knowing more about assassins located everywhere from Sao Paolo to Moscow.

Is combat still the worst part of this franchise? No way. In fact, Ubisoft has managed to fix combat completely. The old problem was that any fights between a player assassin and a crowd of enemy guards always involved the player holding the block button, waiting to counter-kill each enemy as they took their turn attacking. Tedious. Ubisoft gracefully solved that in Brotherhood by letting the player transition from their first counter-kill into a succession of chained one-button execution moves against the rest of a crowd of enemies. The player can still be foiled, but a skilled gamer will use that first kill to start a swift ballet of stabbing and shooting. Alternately, a few hours into the game, the player can begin to summon assassins to do all the fighting for them. (See the videos below for much of this in action.)

The player gets to train Assassins? That's the Brotherhood part of this? It is. This is the best new feature in the series. Players can recruit citizens to fight for Ezio, amassing up to 12 trainees who can be summoned with the press of a button. Assassins gain experience over time, earning better weapons, armor and tactics. This crew can also be dispatched on assignments throughout Europe to do cool things off-screen. The one problem with this system is that it is nearly devoid of challenge and hard decisions. Even a mediocre gamer can avoid getting any of their assassins killed. Doesn't stop it from being very cool.



It looks like a lot of things have returned from previous Assassin's Creed games. All that climbing and stabbing people in the neck with hidden blades in your wrists. Is there too much re-hash? There are a mountain of features and mission types brought back from ACII but mostly with twists. To name just a handful: Yes, you still have to climb towers to survey your surroundings, but this time many of those towers are guarded by enemy captains who require special strategies to defeat. Once the captains are killed, those towers can be scaled, blown up and the liberated surrounding region is suddenly available for real estate investment and renovation. You can still hire a quartet of prostitutes to surround you and mask your presence in the Italian streets, but now you can also upgrade their abilities (nothing dirty!) by completing a list of Achievement-like challenges. Same with thieves and mercenaries. Even Subject 16 and Secret Locations are back, franchise fans should be happy to know, both more fun and complex than before. The only downside is that this series has gone from boldly letting its gameplay be its own reward to offering cheese for every completed maze.

Is that multiplayer any good? Yes, though hard to judge without a few weeks of it being live for regular people to play. The core mode sends up to eight players into a crowd of computer-controlled characters. Each player is ordered to assassinate another, requiring the gamer to try to both blend in with the crowds so as not to be spotted but also to follow their radar, spot their prey and stab them. As with Call of Duty, players gain experience points which help unlock passive and active abilities, like death-streak perks or the opportunity to temporarily don a disguise. It was solid and full of characters and unlocks, but too early to judge whether this has staying power, fun as it was leading into release.

So all's well? Game of the Year? Could be. This review has kept a lot about Brotherhood still hidden, but everything from the game's writing to the soundtrack is top-flight. Mission design is wonderful, with highlights including unusual sequences set at the Colosseum, the Pantheon, a boatyard and at an underground party. In another series first, all missions can be replayed and each has a difficulty modifier (trail your target but don't ever touch the ground, for example). Ubisoft has made it hard to stop playing this game.

It's a quintessentially Ubisoft maneuver, that is to say, getting high on their own supply - in callous disregard of Biggie's Ten Crack Commandments. They've made something beautiful here, beauty practically for beauty's sake, and my fear is that it's just going to languish there, unloved on the disc. This is the second time they've done something fairly radical in the wild wood that surrounds a proven franchise, which is a weird way to spend your money, God bless them for it. Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (as a competitive multiplayer proposition) quickly boiled itself down to a fairly small community, many of whom played a variant of the actual game, one that required the observance of rules by both sides that were in no way mechanically reinforced. I found the tension generated by this game intolerable, but I could (and did) watch friends play it for hours.

In many ways Brotherhood multiplayer is a spin on Assassin, a game I used to play with friends in High School, though I imagine that pretending to kill your classmates may be less of a thing these days. After choosing your player model, you drop into a few blocks of ancient city surrounded by tons of computer controlled units that look like you and your opponents. Then, you are given a target - the only enemy you can kill for points. Depending on the mode, you're probably being hunted yourself - and deflecting their unwanted attentions is also scored. Hiding in a group of similar models and having your opponent choose the wrong one - which makes them lose their contract on you, and eats up valuable scoring time - is one of this generation's must-see moments.

You start to get bery good at observing movement. If they start running around doing parkour and ****, you know, human. But if they don't? If they take their time, and manipulate the social systems? How about that guy? No not that one, that one. The one with the... Yes, the one who is now inserting a syringe filled with caustic fluid directly into my iris.

This is a big part of what constructs the overall feeling. It also works in reverse. Any other game, seeing your target in the distance is a Call To Action; in Brotherhood, the smart play is almost always Restraint. Matches aren't that long, and stalking can be time consuming - these things conspire to make kill quality vastly more important that kill volume. You unlock Ezio's Hidden Gun fairly quickly, but the points it delivers are anywhere from a fourth to sixth what you'd get respecting the aesthetics of the process.

This is one of the most exhilarating "exhibition" games in recent memory, something played to be watched, where observers have as much or more fun than the performer. Having others along with helps stoke the paranoia that fuels these rounds, and I say rounds plural, because it's entirely possible you won't be able to stop.

I would say so.

Dark, you had some good times on the training courses. I did the 3 gold achievement earlier today and found myself not caring about the medals, but about beating your times :p

Edit to mention - The facebook idea is cool in concept, but the reality is that you'll be able to max-level an entire assassin force with available missions in game, pretty easily. If you're being lazy, send them off somewhere and afk for 11-20 minutes. Side bonus of accruing free wealth is in effect as well.

I've gotten a new assassin to rank 7 on a single mission.

So I picked this up as my first foray into the series. Haven't gotten much time to play yet, but I get the impression that it will be quite engrossing once I get a little further in.

Am I the only one who is quite disappointed that there is practically no physical manual to speak of, instead it is contained within the game.

I call foul.

Welcome to 2007, man. I can't even remember the last time a game had a manual that was more than "here's the basic controls, here's the game modes, go to our website". Manuals are a thing of the past. What are we supposed to read in the bathroom now?

LOL. Was thinking exactly the same thing.

@Dark

Thirded.