The A-Team

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Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is more GTA: Vice City than a full-on Assassin’s Creed sequel, but that isn’t stopping UbiSoft from adding loads of new action and gameplay in Ezio’s continuing adventures.

Brotherhood takes place years after Ezio’s encounter with Rodrigo Borgia at the end of Assassin’s Creed II. Now older, and a bit wiser, Ezio Auditore da Firenze has settled into his villa in Tuscany. Older, wiser… but no less of a ladies man as the E3 demo opens with Ezio snuggling in bed with familiar redhead just as a cannonball comes barreling through Ezio’s window, crushing the special black armor players worked so hard to claim in ACII.

As cannonballs fly into the villa from all sides, Ezio charges from his villa where he learns of a new threat, Cesare Borgia – Rodigo’s son – who has come to personally invite Ezio into his family’s war. Unlike ACII, which placed more emphasis on Ezio’s personal quest, Brotherhood brings the series' focus back to the war between the assassins and Templar. In the midst of this battle is another family war with the Borgia. If you’ve ever looked up the Borgia family, you’ll know they weren’t the sanest of folk, so Ezio has his work cut out for him.

As the demo continues, Ezio takes a bounding leap from the villa’s front steps, landing atop his horse. This highlights one of Brotherhood’s new features, expanded horse gameplay. In ACII, Ezio’s horse was merely a mode of transportation and a means to impress a lady or two through side-quests. Now his horse can enter town walls, providing loads of new options, such as expanded horseback combat – including the ability to assassinate targets.

According to developers showing off the game, Ubisoft listened to issues players had with ACII and worked to improve them. Chief among the changes is combat. The original system was great, though lent itself to easy kills for players who could hang around for an easy one-hit instant kill. The new system rewards aggressive combat against multiple enemies. Ezio has a slate of new moves at his disposal, including a set of heavy weapon skills, such as a devastating heavy weapons throw he used to take down an armor-clad enemy in the demo’s waning moments.

Developers were also quick to point out what they call “Memorable Moments.” These are special gameplay moments – like your first glider ride in ACII – highlighting Ezio’s skills or other story elements. In the demo, Ezio took command of a cannon and used it to topple siege towers approaching the villa’s walls. Another highlight was the ability to use a merchandise lift to quickly scale a wall.

The demo ended with Cesare and his army breaching the villa’s gates, Apple of Eden in hand. After shooting Ezio’s uncle, Mario, in the back, Ezio crumbles from his rooftop perch… only to see the game fast-forward to Brotherhood’s new venue – Rome.

Most of Brotherhood’s gameplay will take place within the walls of Rome, a city reported to be roughly three to four times the size of ACII’s Venice. Players will once again be able to outfit a stronghold, but will also gain the ability to assemble a crew of assassin’s to help Ezio carry on his war with the Borgia.

As you progress through the game, you’ll recruit assassins through various missions. Help someone in need, and there’s a good chance they’ll join your roving band of neck-slitters. Once recruited, you’ll be able to send them on missions outside of Rome, or have them tag along on missions. The command interface wasn’t clear based on the short demo, but it looks impressive in action. Ezio was able to send followers to perform different tasks during a mission.

Successful missions equal tokens to improve your assassin’s skills. You’ll have to balance skill sets correctly to fill roles on your team and better their chances of survival. Keep them alive long enough and they’ll become master assassins.

As with every Assassin’s Creed game, there are still many questions left to ask and even more to answer. We’ll have more in the future, including a look at the game’s multiplayer component (and it is awesome) in the coming days.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood arrives in November.

STAT BOX
Product
Assassin's Creed
Company
Ubisoft Entertainment
Date
06/21/2010