#442: Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
Ezio returns for a more focused round of stabbing
Initial release: 2010
Platform: Playstation 3, XBox 360, PC
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
“Annual franchise” is something of a dirty word in gaming circles, largely because of the industry’s tendency to charge $60 for something that’s largely iterative. Sports games, for instance, often will feature only roster changes and the occasional technical tweak, making a year-to-year purchase largely not worth it without a substantial update. To maintain a yearly release schedule, Call of Duty has no less than three studios working on new entries, each with their own style and focus (Infinity Ward, for instance, is the most openly fascist in the years since the mass staff walkout in 2010 led to the loss of some of the company’s greatest visionaries.) So when Ubisoft wasted no time in putting out a new Assassin’s Creed with the second one’s sales barely cooling off, there was some concern that it would dilute the franchise.
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood isn’t so much a dilution as it’s a refinement. While Assassin’s Creed II was a major step forward for the nascent stealth-and-stabbing series, it was also rather unfocused, trying to tell a story that stretched over twenty years and covered four cities. Not so with Brotherhood, which picks up immediately where II left off; after a violent prologue at the family villa from II, the action moves to Rome and stays there, covering only a few short years. While Rodrigo Borgia is still lurking in the shadows of the Vatican, his son Cesare is the primary villain this time around, a violent, ambitious man who means to conquer all of Italy for himself.
From Ezio’s perspective, the main thrust of the game revolves around not just finishing what he started with the Borgias, but also rebuilding the Assassin Brotherhood, drawing new blood from the citizens of a depressed, decaying Rome, hungry for change and eager for a chance to fight back against the oppressive Borgia regime. To this end, the game adds a means of recruitment and an assassin contracts system; by destroying the towers that represent Borgia control over an area, you (eventually) unlock the ability to recruit someone to your cause; from there, you can send them out on missions, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker style, earning them money and experience after the mission timer elapses.
The town rebuilding mechanic from II, in which you would re-invest in the cute little town of Monteriggioni that served as your home, has been greatly expanded; now you have an entire city to rebuild, allowing you to unleash your inner real estate mogul. You’ll be opening shops all over town, buying up the sewer entrances that serve as fast travel points, famous landmarks (which is misleadingly called renovation, despite nothing actually changing upon purchase) and abandoned houses in which to place agents (choosing from mercenaries, thieves and courtesans.) In the PC version, you can also “invest” in a shop, spending a little money in hopes of getting a bigger sum in return at the next money deposit (which occurs every 20 minutes.) The investment system isn’t very well explained, and seems to be at least partially dependent on online play with other players, who are making investments of their own. It’s not terribly necessary to get involved with, and more often than not is a waste of money. Capitalism, baby!
Very little has actually changed in terms of movement and equipment; while there are new wrinkles, such as parachutes to make jumps a little safer, you’re pretty much going to be doing a lot of the same stuff you did last time (with the added annoyance that much of your equipment and even the ability to jump higher on walls from the first game is improbably lost and must be regained.) It’s in this sense that the game feels the most iterative; but, then again, much of it doesn’t really need changing. Missions are mostly the same; while sidequests have been expanded (largely tying in with one of the factions,) there is the additional wrinkle of special optional objectives to get “full synchronization” in a given mission, for example not killing anybody, or killing your target with only the hidden blade. As your completion meter goes up, you also unlock sad memories of Ezio’s former girlfriend in Florence before everything went bad.
The modern day segments have been improved upon. No longer are you pulled out of the Animus at set times; rather, you can simply log out on your own and go check your email, talk to the rest of the cast (resulting in a few funny and/or painfully cringeworthy scenes) and run around modern-day Monteriggioni, not that there’s terribly much to do. It’s a clear attempt on Ubisoft’s part to get players more invested with the modern day stuff, as if that’s what people play this series for.
Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood isn’t quite the revelation that its predecessor is, but as the middle entry in what would turn out to be a trilogy of sorts it is quite a solid game, with a more coherent story that’s more willing to unearth its secrets. And if you liked Leonardo, you get to spend some time with him in the DLC, a welcome change from the main game in which he is largely absent.
And if nothing else, it’s an excuse to spend time with Ubisoft’s most charismatic protagonist until Watch_Dogs 2 gave us Marcus.
