Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is Ubisoft’s third full-length foray into the Assassin’s Creed universe, although you probably didn’t realise that.
For whatever reason, the admittedly surprising inclusion of multiplayer in Brotherhood was the main thrust of the advertising leading up to the game’s release. This meant that when it was released many people, myself included, were very (pleasantly) surprised to find that it in fact included a sizable singleplayer component that I’m here to tell you is the best of the series to date.
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood would have been better served by being titled Assassin’s Creed 2: Brotherhood. The game picks up directly following the events of AC2 and returns to the world of renaissance Italy and Ezio Auditore da Firenze (I pronounced that with a flawless Italian accent, trust me). In this instalment, Ezio and the Assassins are basking in the glory of their recent victory over the Borgia by relaxing at Monteriggioni when they fall under attack by the new primary antagonist Cesare Borgia. Monteriggioni is razed forcing Ezio and the other Assassins to flee. Ezio chooses to travel to Rome, the centre of Borgia and Papal power to rebuild the Assassin order and break the Borgia’s hold over the people of Rome. Meanwhile in 2012, Desmond Miles and his crew of modern-day Assassins are attempting to find the location of the Apple that was hidden by Ezio centuries earlier by scouring Ezio’s memories, locked away in Desmond’s DNA.
Returning to the world of Renaissance Italy and Ezio was initially surprising, but eventually welcome. A significant amount of work has gone into both, enough that it would have seemed a waste to have left it behind for a new time period so soon. The reuse of the engine and a lot of the underlying technical architecture has allowed for a relatively short release schedule, while avoiding the necessity of day-1 bug remediation patches we’ve come to associate with yearly releases.
The result is a beautifully realised interpretation of the City of Rome circa 1499. All of the landmarks that you’d expect to see in Rome are present, the Colosseum, the Pantheon and multitudes of aqueducts all make an appearance. The player is now able to purchase these landmarks, along with the various stores throughout the city in an expanded version of the villa upgrade minigame from AC2. All of these purchases increase the amount of money that is generated for Ezio and deposited awaiting collection in one of the many banks scattered around Rome. If you found the villa upgrade minigame in AC2 frustrating, you’ll be just as frustrated (if not more so) by it in AC:B. The building purchase locations are legion. However the inclusion of purchasable sewer entrances provides a much needed quick-travel system to the proceedings allowing Ezio to cover the vast distances of the largest city in Assassin’s Creed history. Travel time is also ameliorated by the inclusion of horses within the city walls. A cue lifted almost directly from Red Dead Redemption (by the developer’s own admittance), Ezio can now summon a horse to his location by simply whistling. The horse animations and controls are significantly improved over previous titles, but still leave something to be desired when compared to RDR’s implementation.
Ezio’s arsenal has also been expanded to include a crossbow, poison darts, and the ability to sheathe and carry heavy weapons. To complement the additional weaponry, the combat system has seen significant change. One of the major complaints levelled at the previous two Assassin’s Creed games was the fact that the combat was easy, a simple and tedious matter of waiting for an enemy to attack you and mashing the counterattack button. In a somewhat counter-intuitive move, AC:B’s counterattacks have been made even more powerful. Now, upon successfully killing an enemy, the player can use the right thumbstick to select the next target and hit X to perform a one-hit-kill. These can theoretically be chained indefinitely as long as the player can manage attacks vs counter attacks, as any hit will cancel a chain mid-progress. No longer is the combat in Assassin’s Creed a passive, cinematic-only affair. The combat looks incredible and has a level of depth which requires the player to concentrate on their enemies in order to predict their incoming attacks.
These skills can be honed to a hidden blade’s point in the new VR Training feature which fits nicely into the Animus contrivance. Challenges are put forth for the player to complete which include chaining attacks together, stealthily navigation and assassination and quick traversal. The player is rated upon completion of a challenge and issued with a bronze, silver or gold completion award depending on their performance. While not as much fun as performing these actions in the game world itself, the VR rooms provide a risk-free chance to practice using Ezio’s various abilities in a quickly repeatable environment without the player needing to seek out particular configurations of enemies for themselves.
It is also possible for the player to exit the Animus and roam about the environment as Desmond, complete with his shiny new Assassin abilities that he has learned from his ancestors. Unfortunately, aside from some somewhat interesting interactions between Nolan North, Kristen Bell and Danny Wallace it’s a forgettable addition. Emails are sent back and forth between Desmond and the other characters, but they are mostly inane, not unlike the all-staff emails you receive during most work days.
By far, the single greatest addition to the game is Ezio’s cadre of Assassins that can be called on at any time to assist in his fight. A quick tap of the left bumper will see one to four assassins emerging from the closest rooftop, doorway or hay bale ready to perforate any hapless guard unlucky enough to be in Ezio’s way, punctuated by the sound of an eagle’s call. These assassins get their start as career-murderers by being rescued by Ezio from some terrible fate wrought by the Borgia. With little left to live for, they throw in their lot with the assassins hoping for training and eventual retribution. These trainees gain gear and abilities through the completion of tasks given to them by Ezio. At any time Ezio can visit a pigeon coop to view the currently available missions and assign them to trainees for completion. Each mission comes with a financial, experience and (sometimes) material reward. The XP is split between the trainees that were sent on the mission meaning that progression through the ranks will be faster if you send fewer trainees, but will subsequently be more likely to fail. The florins earned will be deposited in the guild’s coffers for Ezio to withdraw later. I never found the mission system to be particularly difficult. In fact, throughout the course of the entire game, I only lost one trainee due to overestimating their combat ability against Borgia heavies in Rome. My trainees didn’t fail a single mission that I sent them out to do via pigeon.
This is something of a defining feature of the Assassin’s Creed series as a whole. The games aren’t really that difficult. They focus instead on being cinematic, flowing and open. The addition of kill chains, more one-hit ranged weapons and a detachment of trained killers bound to an I-Win button all lead me away from classifying Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood as a Third Person Stealth game, rather considering the direction Ubisoft seem to be taking the AC and Splinter Cell franchises, I would prefer to refer to them as Third Person Badass Simulators.
