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Assassin’s Creed II was a hugely enjoyable game for me – one of the best sandbox style titles I’ve played. Unlike it’s predecessor, the game was chock full of things to do and places to see – taking the original concept and melding it into something vastly more exciting. Truth be told, I’ve still yet to get the DLC, since I’d long since stopped playing since it’s release – but I could quite happily say I was satisfied with my purchase and even managed to get my first Platinum Trophy by tracking down every last feather in the beautiful Italian regions of Venice, Florence and Tuscany. It’s rare I say that a sequel surpasses a predecessor in every way – but this time I think they managed it.

The upcoming release of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood this November did get me wondering what exactly we should expect. Firstly – the game is not deemed a true numbered “sequel”, secondly - it’s only been a year since the release of Assassin’s Creed II, as opposed to the two-year gap between the first two titles, and thirdly - I haven’t noticed nearly as much advertising for the latest installment. It’s perhaps because they’ve simply decided to follow the plot of the same character that they have made these choices (akin to Final Fantasy X-2), but the reluctance to number the title does make me wonder if the game will feel more like an expansion than a true sequel. So what do we know? I’m here to tell you what I can.

Although we are returning to Ezio as the lead character – I’m happy to say that the game will not be set in the same area as Assassin’s Creed II – it’s not recycled content, but instead the vast city of Rome for you to explore. However, the city is not as beautiful as you might expect – the city rife with corruption, the Vatican having drained the city of its wealth through its ruling of the Templars. A new area is a good sign – but actually, it seems there may be even more to Brotherhood than you might expect. The game introduces multiple new features that are making the game look like something very interesting indeed.

Rebuilding Rome

That’s right - in the same way that you could rebuild the small district of Monteriggioni in Assassin’s Creed II, the vast city of Rome can be rebuilt and improved. This means that by investing in the city you will actually see the world change as you progress, on a much larger scale than we’ve seen before. This feature is supposedly integrated into the storyline itself – so I do wonder whether you will need to have reached a certain ”city level” for the story to progress, or otherwise capped on improvements until you hit certain points – but either way it sounds very exciting. I did enjoy Monteriggioni in ACII, so this definitely sounds exciting to me – especially since Rome is supposedly the biggest city in the whole series to date; although the previous titles did consist of two or three cities, so that’s not to say the game will necessarily be larger in total. Rome will be composed of five districts - Vatican, Downtown, Tiber, Country and Antique – hopefully each with its own distinct style.

Recruiting Rome

Perhaps one of the biggest new features in Brotherhood is the new recruiting system. Now a Master Assassin out to retake Rome, Ezio understandably needs allies. Using a new management system, Ezio will be able to take on rookie assassins and train them in his ways. Said recruits will be customisable, including their specific weapons. These recruits can then be sent out on various tasks, called in as support in missions, and will gain experience as they do so to become more powerful teammates. Although similar systems have been seen in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, I’m quite intrigued to see how this all works, as I can’t say I’ve seen such a system used in a home console title before. One thing I will say – the idea of being able to call a group of assassins down to take down an unsuspecting group of Templars sounds like good fun to me. Oh – and I’m glad to note that there will be female assassins in the mix - not just a selection of grunting generic males but  a variety of different characters.

Fighting in Rome

While I expected Brotherhood to simply clone the fighting mechanics from ACII, it seems even the combat has been at least worked on, if not rehauled - it’s hard to tell until we can get a more hands-on experience. However, it looks as though there are a few new features worth noting – firstly, the introduction of ranged weapons in combat. While previous titles allowed such weapons for long ranged stealth-kills, it seems these weapons will now take a much more active role in battles, allowing Ezio to interchange sword combat with his hidden pistol and throwing axes. There are also new enemies to keep you on your toes, such as horsemen and riflemen – both of which sound nasty in their own way. While I find the fighting mechanics to be the weakest area of Assassin’s Creed’s gameplay – being far too easy to master – it’s said that Brotherhood will have more focus on quick strikes, rather than focusing on counter-attacks – and enemies are supposed to be more aggressive, ditching the habit of only attacking one at a time when in a group. It may be a little early to know for sure – but these definitely sound like changes that could improve the combat vastly. Not only that – but now horses will be available inside the city itself, and horseback attacks have been introduced, giving a lot of potential for some new scenarios such as horseback chases through marketplaces, for instance. Could be tricky to control – but I’m glad to see that Ubisoft are making an effort to improve their game rather than churning out a clone.

Multiplayer

Perhaps the biggest love/hate inclusion to Brotherhood is the new addition of an online aspect to an Assassin’s Creed title. Since it has already been stated that there will be no co-op, it doesn’t appeal to me hugely over the much larger interest in the solo aspect of the title. If, however, you are one of those people who loves to spend your evening fighting your best friends to the death, then perhaps this will be your cup of tea. There will supposedly be various modes, including one called “Wanted” which involves up to eight players, each of which is tasked in hunting a specific player.  The idea - to kill your target before your hunter kills you. There will be a selection of different characters available to play as, each with their own signature weapons and animations to mix things up – and players can even level up to gain new abilities - such as disguises, attack boosts and various other skills. Although I’m not a huge fan of multiplayer modes, one of the cool things that does interest me is that the modes will still use civilians in the same way as the story mode, allowing you to work yourself into the crowds - which could create one of the most interesting stealth experiences seen in a multiplayer mode if done right. So long as the online mode hasn’t taken any of the manpower away from the quality of the main game, it could actually be quite good – a nice break from the huge hoarde of gun-based online titles that saturate the multiplayer market. I guess we’ll just have to see how it pans out once we get access to the real thing.

Overall, I was really surprised with what seems like a lot of work put into Brotherhood. Although a quick glance had me thinking it would be another cash-cow spinoff such as Bloodlines, it looks as though the new title will be bringing back all of the features that made ACII great, with a fair amount of new content to get excited about, too.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is set for release in November – just enough time to play through ACII one more time, and maybe the DLC, too.

Leon