GAMING
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Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood games reviews
* Format: PS3 (version reviewed), Xbox 360 * Unleashed: Out Now * Publisher: Ubisoft * Developer: Ubisoft Montreal * Players: 1 (plus multiplayer) * Site:
http://www.ubi.com/UK/default.aspx
Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood has been waited on with baited breath this year; some have been saying they expect it to be AC 2.1 with mutiplayer tacked on, but thankfully this is not the case. ACBH picks up exactly where we left AC2, but with Ezio seeing off an attack from the Borgia at his home, which sets this AC’s story in motion and sees us travelling to Rome. Rome is a huge sprawl of rooftops, waterways, tiny lanes and roaming coun- tryside. Because of its size, there’s the option to ride your horse within the city walls. Although not the most graceful or low-key form of travel for an assassin in a pedestrian heavy street, it is still quite liberating being able to bustle plebeians out of your way by riding straight through them. You can also summon your horse at any time wherever you like, with the exception (obviously) of rooftops, flag- pole tips, cliff faces etc. We’re told horseshoes don’t have the best grip for scaling towers. Ah yes, towers! There are now “control towers” dotted around the landscape that keep the Borgia influence right in the face of the population. These can be destroyed and reclaimed first by finding the main general of the tower and dispatching him, then climbing and burn- ing the tower to complete the conversion. This adds an extra dimension of strategy, where conversions of these towers will
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make later missions easier to handle. In fact, strategy plays a large part in almost every aspect of ACBH. The new addition of recruiting assassins to your cause and having them at your beck and call at al- most any time means you never have to murder anyone again, but then, where’s the fun in that!? Having assassins at your command how- ever comes with responsibilities; firstly you need to train them up, and this in- volves using carrier pigeons to deliver contracts to each member. Then there’s the combat side of things. Bringing them into fights with you that you can’t handle alone is very useful, but only if they are able to handle it themselves. The Thieves Guild will have you trailing and killing ex- ecutioners, intercepting passing informa- tion or proving your worth in checkpoint races. Then there are the Courtesan Guild missions and a fight club where bare fist fights are done for money. There’s also the “Building Rome” meta game which involves restoring and investing in the blacksmiths, art merchants, doctors, tai- lors, banks, stables and Guild buildings once the Borgia influence has been dealt with. If you still have cash left over from buying shops, armour, weapons, art or poisons you’ll be glad to know you can also purchase large landmarks like the Pantheon or the Colosseum. There are Leonardo missions too, which have been sectioned into parts where the objective is to destroy his war machines in each mission. These will see you dishing out hot cannonball mayhem in a circular tank or bombing Borgia strongholds via flying contraptions of death! There are virtual
training modes to hone your skills with, and medals to obtain from each. All of this, on top of the main storyline (and DLC missions) makes the complaint the AC games before “didn’t have much to do in them” sound like a childish whine and we haven’t started talking about the new multiplayer aspect yet! In short, there is no aspect of this game that hasn’t been improved since the last effort, and the results are nothing short of overwhelming; AC 2.1 indeed… As for the multiplayer there are various modes including Play Now, Ranked and Private Matches. Wanted Mode (6-8 players) sees you killing Templar targets for high scores; Alliance Mode has you grouped into teams of two for rounds where you kill as many on the oppo- site side as possible within a time limit. There’s a good selection of maps that include places like Firenze, Forli, Roma and Venice, as well as varied custom op- tions for Profile and Personas to (we’re not sure why) stand out from the crowd. If anything Ubisoft Montreal have listened to feedback and given their fans exactly what they’ve asked for, and as a result have infinitely improved AC. Now if only every developer could do that!
written by Critical Gamer’s Ross Furie
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