[E3'10] The Secrets to Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood

Assassin’s Creed is a series that seems to be going places. Improving on their original design in a multitude of new ways, Ubisoft managed to redeem the franchise’s cred in ways I had only dreamed of. Not wanting to rest on their laurels, the team is now about to release a new entry that will pick up right after the climactic events of the sequel. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is no piece of DLC, and while chronologically it could be considered Assassin’s Creed 2.5, all of the new abilities, weaponry, storylines, and multiplayer modes mean that this is in fact a full fledged stand-alone entry in its own right. Below are what I found to be the most game-changing additions to the series, aspects of the title that are sure to inspire once you realize how much they can alter the way this series plays.

• Intelligent Design: Enemies will actively seek you out and engage only when they feel they have the upper hand or benefit from a numerical advantage. Players also can’t count on idling through the combat waiting for a one-hit counter based kill, as enemies will now jump into the fray at will, breaking up combos and forcing the player to position themselves so they can strategically take out each opponent in turn without having a comrade breaking up a successful jab or parry. Allies also act with a higher degree of self awareness, and while they might need Ezio’s assistance when faced with superior forces, can still manage to take out most opponents with ease.

• When In Rome: Brotherhood takes place almost entirely in the Italian capitol of Rome. Before balking at losing access to Florence and Venice, keep in mind that the playable area is about 3 times the size of Florence. This is the biggest single location Ubisoft has ever developed in an Assassin’s Creed game, and with the multitude of unique districts, monuments, churches, and other historic landmarks, any assassin worth their hood is going to have a veritable playground of parkour to hop/skip/run/stab/shoot their way through come release.

• We Want You: Due to Ezio’s choice in sparing the life of the evil Templar/Pope from the second game, the Brotherhood is now in shambles and in danger of completely imploding. Ezio must now actively recruit new Assassins while wandering through Rome by coming across NPC’s getting roughed up or otherwise accosted by enemy guards and corrupt officials. Furthermore,  players must spend  funds training, equipping, and sending these new Assassins on missions all over Europe, resulting in a further level of customization and control akin to the upgrading of the villa in the previous game. Ezio chooses exactly who is equipped with what and ensures that his new charges gain experience by sending them off on missions which will raise their skill level and abilities (based on whether or not they return alive). Each new Assassin is a future investment and react differently to engagements depending on their skill. This will be especially important , seeing as how Ezio can call them to assist him in battle , which leads me to…

• Friends in High Places: When Ezio feels his new recruits have enough experience, he can choose to bring them on missions throughout the city. Used as a token of sorts, this ability has been coined the Brotherhood Assistant Move, or B.A.M., and can be utilized in a number of different ways. First, Ezio can target a specific enemy for a silent take down by single Assassin to ensure that he can enter an area without breaking cover. B.A.M. can also trigger a limited number (between 4 and 5 I believe) of fellow Assassins to quickly take down a cluster of enemies from above in a veritable “rain of death”, the arrival of which is marked with the telltale cry of the hawk fans of Assassin’s Creed have come to associate with attaining certain lofty goals. Finally, your group of Assassins can be called in if Ezio is surrounded, immediately throwing up a smoke screen and allowing their leader to quickly take out dazed enemies or make quick his escape. If Ezio leaves, though, some of his crew may die, meaning he will have to re-train and re-equip a brand new Assassin from the ground up and thus losing a profitable investment in a now deceased comrade. Also, this ability has a sort of cool-down factor, and while we weren’t given any specifics on how it will play out, players should treat B.A.M. sparingly as they won’t have instant access to Assassins all the time.

• Of Horse and Crossbows: Horses are now able to be used within the walls of a city, which inevitably led to the ability for any horse to be hijacked mid-trot. Ubisoft has also announced the inclusion of the crossbow, something they had wanted to put in the original sequel but just didn’t make the cut. Put these two together, and you have yourself a recipe for some serious drive-by action!  The combat extends to sword and axe-play as well, and the camera work for steed-based combat really gives off this great sense  of speed and chaos as you gallop through Roman streets hacking hither and yon.

• Going Up: Some of you may have already heard about this, but the coolness of this new free-running move just proved to glee-inducing to ignore. When out and about, Ezio might see a stack of crates or a platform of some sort hooked to a pulley. Running up and slicing the rope will drop some weights and create an impromptu elevator that shoots Assassins skwyward several stories, shortening certain tedious climb times and making for an awesomely thrilling escape.

• Memorable Moments: Assassin’s Creed 2 really gave gamers some fantastic events to play through. Laying siege to a Venetian palace, accompanying Leonardo Da Vinci and his runaway chariot and soon after testing his elaborate flying machine; these were great standout moments amidst the equally compelling adventures of Ezio’s normal assassination missions. The developers noted audience response to such so called “Memorable Moments”, and promise to deliver even more this time around. During the demo we witnessed Ezio firing cannons at enemy siege towers, throwing battle-axes at enemies and deftly avoiding a collapsing cathedral all within the same mission.

• Real Estate Agent: Rome is a pretty big place, and Ezio will have his work cut out for him when it comes to turning the populace against their sinister upper-class. The city will be broken up into specific districts, each over-seen by a Borgia tower that serves as a fortified base for local Templar operatives to keep a stranglehold on the locals. When Ezio takes out a tower’s inhabitants, he frees the neighborhood and earns himself incentives like lowered prices in that district and perhaps some valuable assistance in certain “other” areas.

• Storied Multiplayer: I unfortunately didn’t have time to sink into Brotherhood’s sizeable new multiplayer component, but what I did see has me extremely excited about this new turn in the series. I usually think adding multiplayer to an otherwise mainly single-player game detracts from the overall experience, but in this case I’m glad to say I’m being proven wrong. Helping to ease my worries is the fact that multiplayer is explained within the canon of the single player story in a fundamentally sound way. The Templars were revealed to have a whole army of Animuses (or is it Animi?) in their possession, and in order to train future soldiers they decide to insert new recruits into the hacked memories of Assassins. Knowing thy enemy is being taken to a whole new extreme here, but it makes perfect sense in the flow of Brotherhood‘s overarching plot.