Gamescom 2010: Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood Campaign Impressions - Assassination & Liberation

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Dan Webb

If we were being honest, the Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood demo at E3 caught us a little off guard. It’s very rare that a sequel churned out in less than a year can add so many new features, that it warrants a purchase. I’m not talking about multiplayer here either, oh no, because in our eyes, Assassin’s Creed always has and always will be a single player experience. We’re talking about the new brotherhood mechanics, the improved combat, the new weapons, the Rome upgrade system, the new kill moves and even the new elevators and such. Not bad for a year’s work, huh? At Gamescom, we got too see a few of these new features, mainly the Rome upgrade system and the brotherhood mechanics in action. Oh, and a parachute as well… crazy!

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is the first time in the franchise where we revisit the continued story of one of Desmond’s ancestors. Taking to the streets of Rome, which is said to be 3 times the size of Venice - and after glimpsing at the map, that sounds about right - Ezio must build up his brotherhood and take down the Templar threat in the Italian capital and more importantly, take revenge on the latest thorn in his side, those pesky Borgias again.

Picking up with Ezio in the Antique District of Rome, Ubisoft Montreal kick things off in style, leaping off from a building onto one of the local horse-riding militia; dispatching him to the afterlife and stealing his horse in one swift move. But wait, if you thought the air-to-horse assassination kill sounded cool, how about horse-to-horse? Spotting an armoured steed, Ezio suddenly flicks himself off his horse and onto his new thoroughbred in an instant, taking down the guard on horseback as if he never existed in the first place.

Spying a couple of guards who stand guard outside one of the district’s shops, Ezio calls in for some brotherhood assistance to take them down. BAM. Two assassins drop off the roofs above and Ezio loses one of his two Brotherhood Assassin Move tokens - something that was new to this build and not visible at E3. The shop however is currently boarded up and under the influence of the Borgia, so it’s Ezio’s job to head to the local Borgia tower, kill the ranking officer and liberate the area.
 

Racing through the streets of Rome on horseback, Ezio kicks off the horse, grabs a pole and fluently transitions into the franchise standard free-running. Before heading over to the tower to reduce the Borgia influence, Ezio spots a potential assassin recruit - as indicated on the map - and heads over to help his potential brethren out. Two throwing knives and a crossbow to the throat later and Ezio had a new fan. Grateful that he was still alive and equally as seething at the extended influence that the Borgia have, the young assassin offers to support Ezio’s cause and join the brotherhood.

Crossing the street - on foot for once - Ezio makes his way up to one of Rome’s pigeon coops and while Assassin’s Creed 2 used these for assassin missions, Brotherhood uses them for something entirely different: brotherhood management.

Producer, Vincent Pontbriand, was on hand to run us through the ins and outs of how we train, upgrade and customise our assassins. With what looked like 12 potential slots for the brotherhood - with every two assassins equalling a BAM token - Ezio will have to send his troops out all over the world to gain experience, so that you can spend it on upgrading their weapons, armour, equipment or even simply change their clothing. It’s all a rather simple text based mini-game and will require that Ezio choose who to send where, and whether they return is based on a percentage of success.
 

Recruiting the new assassin may have rounded Ezio’s crew up to 6 - meaning he now had 3 BAM tokens - but when he sends them out on the road, then they’re no longer available for BAM - depending on where they go, assassins can be gone for about 4-5 minutes real time before they are available again. Unless they die that is...

After sending various assassins over the world and changing the look of those left behind, Ezio headed across the way, scrambling up a handful of Rome’s pillars, to a secret tunnel that ran under the tower that he has to liberate. Collecting a flag on the way - with the indicator signalling that he’s collected 1 of 101 flags - Ezio looks to creep in unnoticed.

Shimmying his way around the dank tunnel’s ledges, Ezio spots a guard walking past. Seizing on the opportunity he quickly pulls him to his death, watching his body crunch into the dirt floor below. Moments later a couple of guards underneath him turn up to investigate the commotion and upon investigating the dead body, Ezio leaps down from the ledge above to double assassinate them both, just as he’d done so many times before. Upon looting the bodies, we discover that Ezio can get more than just cash this time around as he lifts a couple of health potions and throwing knives from the lifeless corpses, essentially meaning it will be more worthwhile to stick around after the kill this time around.
 

It’s not long before Ezio is upon his final target - the leader of said Borgia tower - and after being spotted by him, one of AC2’s traditional chase sequences kicks off. Although this time, if you fail to catch him before he reaches his quarters, the tower will be closed down till later another day, meaning you will have to retry at a later date – meaning this time, it’s essential you don’t fail. Generally the sequence played out very similarly to that in AC2, but this time, you’ll have to contend with blocking guards as well by finding an alternative route. After doing so and sidestepping our shielded foes, Ezio is able to take down his target, which in turn affects the morale of the Borgia tower guards, causing some to run in fear.

In order to advance, Ezio had to finish off a handful of the most loyal Borgia guards, and using the new combo system we talked about at E3, the task seemed to be a breeze for the main man. All that was needed then is for our charming assassin to climb the tower to set off a fire and signal to the neighbourhood that the Borgia influence in this area is no more. Upon hearing that, it not only frees up the shops that Ezio was attempting to use earlier, allowing for him to use them, but it also reduces the military presence in the area.

A quick parachute - well, it’s more of a glider in all honesty - down from the high tower to ground level later, and the presentation was done and dusted.

With plenty of new kill moves, a parachute, and an all-new feel to the mission structure, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is shaping up to be a fine addition to the Assassin’s Creed universe. Valve recently proved with Left 4 Dead 2 that they could churn an equally impressive sequel out in a year and Ubisoft Montreal are looking to join those ranks. If they can provide the same level of variety that we saw in AC2, combined with the interesting and riveting story we almost expect now, then Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood looks like it could be one of, if not the, big gun this Christmas for those looking for something a little more than your traditional FPS. BAM!

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is scheduled for a November 16th and November 19th release in North America and Europe respectively.
Comments
63
  • Finally, a way to decrease the military prescense in an area.
  • Can I kill everyone in the city?
  • this looks pretty fun, i still have to polish off a couple achieves from AC2 tho...
  • Mm. Can't wait.
  • BAM!
  • Did I read flags? :(
  • @6 Your sad...anyway I can't wait to play this.
  • They better polish up the horses controls, they were horrible in AC2
  • This is sounding more and more like an absolute MUST HAVE title for me. Which, given my initial scepticism is pretty impressive. I'm curious to see how the Brotherhood management aspect of things works - the 'text based minigame' doesn't sound all that engrossing - because being able to send your lieutenants off on missions without you in order to level up sounds very similar the system in place in The Godfather 2. If there is a limit on how many recruits you can have, I wonder if you'll be able to dismiss some of them in favour of new discoveries that may have more training / skills from the outset? Of course, that's assuming that there's more than 12 recruits to find ... maybe there are only twelve available UNTIL one of them dies or is dismissed.
  • BAM! Wanna take it from here bam-bam? BAM! wanna take it from here Emeril? BAM! But this game looks amazing.
  • My most anticipated game of 2010. Hell yeah, Can't wait.
  • Seeing how good this one is starting to turn out, I might have to just start playing AC1&2.
  • @15 If you haven't played any of the others yet you might want to start they might take a while. They are some of the best games I have played tho!! I can't wait for November to get here this game is gonna be awesome!!!
  • Still worried about the multiplayer it could either make the game or absolutely ruin it. Unfortunately as it comes out in November I will have no money left from Sept and October, back to eating cat food for me.
  • i cant wait for this game ='(
  • haha sweet cant wait
  • It looks really good, but after playing Red Dead all other horses in game look awful xD Can't wait for this :)
  • I've just finished playing AC2 and im pretty sure that you could get throwing knives and health vials from looting bodies in that game anyways. So i don't think that is a new feature, but the rest sounds amazing! Im definitely buying this. November is looking expensive - AC:Brotherhood, Black Ops and Hot Pursuit :(
  • "Valve recently proved with Left 4 Dead 2 that they could churn an equally impressive sequel out in a year and Ubisoft Montreal are looking to join those ranks." I'm pretty sure this has been in development for more than a year.
  • @6 So Halo CE and Halo Reach are exactly the same, and Cod 1 and CoD WaW are exactly the same apart from graphics? Sure, whatever you say... I enjoyed Assassin's Creed 2 so I'll probably get this. I wonder what excuse they'll come up with for making us buy everything again, if they do that.
  • I'll look around view some demos before I purchase.
  • @6 do you understand what a sequel is... It's a new version of something that was already very good. The highlight of a sequel is the continuation of the story and not new features.
  • I want this game for sooo many reasons and one of them is the second picture. Shooting someone in the neck while impaling another is what i want to do.
  • @8. Yup and I feel your :( brother. I hate collectables...
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3i-PNcOAKo&feature=related - Video for this article.
  • I'm not too thrilled with having to find flags again, but at least it's just one set and not multiple sets of flags. IMHO however, what will make or break this game is the multiplayer aspect and without a beta to help shape the 360's multiplayer experience, I hope that it doesn't ruin the game as a whole.
  • GodBAM this look awesome
  • I borrowed AC1 from a friend around the time AC2 came out, so I'll probably borrow AC2 when this comes out. Always a step behind...
  • this comes out the same day as my birthday. destiny much?
  • "Ezio can get more than just cash this time around as he lifts a couple of health potions and throwing knives from the lifeless corpses". I'm sure you could do that in AC2, no? Also, am I the only one that actually enjoys the collectibles in these games?
  • Everyones talking about comment #6 but i dont see one. Did they remove it?
  • plz no MP achievements and its a def buy
  • @ #34 Yes, the comment was removed. @ #35 Fail. Step your game up. Anyway, I loved the previous console games, so I'm really looking forward to this one. I'm not sure if I want to PO from Best Buy and get the Officer or from Gamestop and get the Harlequin.
  • @13 hilarious
  • I cant wait for it, even though Halo REACH is my first priority of spending my money.
  • #22 It's being released within a year ding dong
  • THIS GAME IS GOING TO BE AMAZING. FOR ALL THOSE FREAKING OUT ABOUT THE FLAGS, THERE ARE ONLY 101 LIKE THE 100 FEATHERS IN ASSASSINS CREED 2. SINCE IT IS ONLY IN ROME THERE AREN'T MORE THAN 101 FLAGS SO ITS JUST LIKE ASSASSINS CREED 2.
  • @32 Nice man Dead Space 2 comes out 2 days after mine. :D OT: AC2 was one of my all time favorite games, so I can't wait for this.
  • I can almost guarantee that they'll have MP cheevos... but who cares? The MP looks pretty cool, anyway! Anyone wanna make a large bet that one of the achievements will be to parachute and land on your horse? I can NOT wait for this game!! =)
  • Alright!! I was already getting AC:Brotherhood and this just makes it more desiring can't wait to see how the multiplayer will be like..
  • damn too many good games i want! AC:Brotherhood. ST:TFU2. Fable 3. Fallout: New Vegas. My Student Loan is f*cked...
  • @36 how can you tell @35 to step his game up? Multiplayer achievements just aren't fun to go after...easy or not they're more annoying than AIDS
  • @45 I half-way agree with you, but that's just his style, ignore him. He sent me a message over LIVE just to tell me I typed the wrong name for a character in some old ass post, he even had a snarky attitude about it like he was doing something significant (he might even bitch about this post). So yeah, ignore him. Back on topic I've been ignoring this game up until now, but this article has me switching my opinion up fast.
  • @36 i would say preorder from Gamestop cause the Harlequin looks freaking amazing and who wouldn't want to assassinate people looking like bad ass jester. @44 i hear ya man. This year is looking very well for a lot of games. The games you mentioned are on my wanted list as well and so are a few others. Other than that, all i have to say is that im totally stoked about this game after playing AC2 and keeping up with info on this one.
  • I'm really excited about this one, especially the multiplayer. The only thing I'm still wondering about is Desmond. The Desmond sequences were my favorite part of AC1 and I was dissapointed that he was almost absent from the AC2. Is Brotherhood Desmond's story or just Ezio's? Either way I can't wait!
  • I've been replaying AC2 just to get myself ready for this. Was going to overlook this but other outside influences have been biding at my love for the Crusades, Templars, Assassins and Conspiracy. Read a great book that got me wanting to play again. @48 - I believe this is just an extension of Ezio's story much like how Bloodlines was more of Altairs story. Though I never played that one so I'm not 100% sure.
  • I'm very pumped for this game! AC2 blew my mind in terms of gameplay and graphics. i can't wait to see the new features. "99 problems... - Use a brothel to distract 5 or more guards. 10gs" That'd be sweet!
  • yes yes yes yes
  • nothing better than AC...
  • Sounds really awesome. It's basically AC2.5 to be honest, but still don't mind paying full retail price for added full blown story as well as a lot of new features (not to mention multiplayer) I have preordered Collector's edition with jack in the box anyway^^
  • Every article I read for this game just makes me want it more! Not a fan of MP achievements but it would take something much worse than that to stop me buying this.
  • I was not really interested in thsi game until this read. thanks!!! another $60.00 gone and spoken for. LOL!!!
  • tl;dr But the game does look good....
  • Actually Rome is 3 times the size of Florence, not Venice. :3 Sorry, Assassin's Creed nerd took me over.
  • Assassin's Creed II was my favourite game of 2009, definately going to buy this.
  • Assassin's Creed was AMAZING! Assassin's Creed II was EVEN BETTER! Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood should be THE BEST GAME IN THE WORLD EVER! In my opinion anyway!! =]
  • nice
  • so nice i cant wait for this game & coming out on my bday
  • since four games are coming to £300 with all the collectors editions etc ive got a feeling my 18th bday is gonna be awesome XD seriously need to get Ass creed brotherhood before xmas so i can get a heads up on the game before halo reach takes over my life.
  • Cant't wait the assassins creed trilogy is always getting better hopefully this one will raise the bar again.
  • can't wait
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