Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

Preview from Sarge - Monday, 18 October 2010 @ 12:10pm

Ubisoft recently launched the Beta release for their latest in the Assassin's Creed series, Brotherhood. This is actually the first multiplayer experience that Assassin's Creed has offered, so took the smart move to test the experience first.

There's currently only one multiplayer mode available, called "Wanted". Players assume one of 8 character models who are assigned assassination tasks. You then wander around a number of maps, and gain points by assassinating your targets, which more often than not are other players. Points are also given for effectiveness, and obviously, the most points at the end of the game win. As you build up your points, perks are also unlocked which help both assassinate, and avoid assassination easier.

When played the right way, Wanted can be quite the tense game type, but in the games that I played, more often than not, the biggest drawcard for multiplayer is it's biggest downfall. As well as the players in the game (up to 6), the map is filled with NPCs. Of all the players in the map, there's only 8 different character types, so it's quite easy to blend in - which is the point. You're supposed to stealthily walk around, blending into the scenery, creeping ever-closer to your victim and at the last second, take out your victim with them barely being aware of your presence.

Shopping List: Eggs, Milk, Kill That Guy With The Grey Hoodie
Now, that would be great, but unfortunately, that's not quite always what ends up happening. Most games are littered with people sprinting around the maps, leaping from rooftop to rooftop, and generally not blending in at all. At first, I got mad at everyone else playing the game, quite often shouting "YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG!" at my television, but then quickly realised that those few that were sprinting around the map, trying their best to not blend in? They quite often were the ones at the top of the leader-board at the end, so perhaps the game is to blame? I guess it's just one of those moments where I have to remind myself, this is still only in Beta, so I need to trust Ubisoft enough that the data that they're gathering will be enough to make improvements once the game is launched - especially the ability to easily mute other players. Numerous times I had to endure inane trash-talk, or friends playing together having discussions about their private lives that I really could've gone without hearing.

As I mentioned, as you build up points, you start to unlock perks. At first, they seem fairly simple perks - smoke bombs which stun everyone around you, the ability to sprint faster than usual, ramping up in their effectiveness. These are quite often game-changing perks, and only add to the excitement.

That guy keeps me awake at night. So damn creepy.
Game-wise, very little seems to have changed from Assassin's Creed 2. The graphics are much the same, the controls are no different, and the character models, while some new, all look familiar. There's two ways to look at this as to whether or not you consider this to be a good thing or a bad thing - while it may be seen as lazy game production, it's still important to keep in mind that Brotherhood is a continuation of Assassin's Creed 2, with the storyline picking up literally minutes after the previous game ended, meaning that if you suddenly had a graphical change, it just wouldn't fit.

I'm also puzzled that you play as an Abstergo agent (the Templars, or for those that have never played an AC game "the bad guys"), rather than an Assassin. I'm curious to see if this actually means anything. And why are Abstergo agents killing other Abstergo agents? ARGH! SO MANY QUESTIONS!

oi, you're nicked!
As you can probably tell from what I've written, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the Multiplayer. For everything I enjoy, I find something else that I don't. I love that they're trying something new, but I'm not sure it quite works how they've intended. However, there are a few more Multiplayer modes to try out once the game is launched, so I'm very keen to see what else they have in store.

You can make up your own mind on November 18th.