Sunday, June 27, 2010

Foresight: Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

I've already made quite a few posts about Brotherhood, but there is quite a lot of new info since E3, including details on the whole assassin clan deal, how you'll be able to use it to your advantage and how multiplayer will work.


So, Assassins Creed: Brotherhood is a direct sequel to Assassins Creed 2 and puts you back in the mind of Ezio after his home of Monteriggioni is invaded. The game takes place in Rome as Ezio gathers a brotherhood of assassins to fight back against Cesare Borgia. New character's won't simply be added during the story though, you will literally have to build you brotherhood, from recruitment, to training, upgrading and sending them on their own missions. The work won't be for nothing though, as a new feature was revealed. Brotherhood Assassin Moves (or BAM's... yes, BAM) allow you to call in brotherhood members for assistance at any time. Be it a group of assassins dropping out of the sky to eliminate a target's bodyguards or a barrage of smokebombs lobbed from rooftops to allow an escape, your brotherhood can be used to help eliminate any problems you run into.

Problems will be found too, because while Assassins Creed 2 was an attempt to fix the repetitiveness of the original, Brotherhood is also working to improve something... Combat. Focus is being placed on the combat system with new moves and weapons being added (you can now throw weapons at people, and not just knives) and not just that but an entire upgrade to the combat mechanics. Fights will now be bigger, faster and much more dangerous as enemies increase in number and aggressiveness. Luckily you'll also have the new combat system at your disposal which allows you to switch targets mid-combo to keep the ever increasing horde of guards at bay. Take down a guard and want to start on the next but he's out of reach? No worries, just move the stick towards him and continue your assault as Ezio draws his gun and keeps the combo alive (plus totally reminds us of that scene from Indiana Jones).

The other key thing about the game is multi-player though. While many people (AKA me) weren't exactly thrilled when they announced multi-player, i'm certainly interested now. Apparently the game will work like a giant game of cat and mouse with each player given a unique character and set of tools, then sent after someone with just a picture of the target and their general location. Where this becomes interesting is in remembering that while you have the picture of one person, someone else may well have been given your picture. So the game becomes a balance of tracking and taking down your target without being noticed, while also watching your own back to make sure you aren't about to be poked with a very pointy object. If you DO see an assassin after you it will trigger an escape sequence where you'll have to flee the assassin and use 'Chase Breakers' (essentially gates that close behind you) to evade the pursuer and his deadly intent. Spotting neither your target nor your pursuer will be easy though, as the entire map will be littered with civilians, all dressed in the exact same costumes as the players. When you DO find and eliminate your target you'll earn points, thus putting you ahead in the game, but beware, the longer you go without being killed, the more people will be given your picture. So when you've got that awesome kill streak going, you'd best be watching your back for the rest of the players who will likely all be out for your blood.

Assassins Creed: Brotherhood is definitely shaping up to be a worthy addition to the franchise and the multiplayer looks to add a fun, frantic element that will give everyone an alternative to playing one of the billion FPS's online.

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