Assassins Creed Brotherhood. First impressions.

[leo-rcc]

I had the game pre-ordered because I wanted the Harlequin figure and yesterday I got it in my hands finally.

I've played for about 6 hours, and I've noticed a few changes from AC2.

First, a big downside for me. Fighting has become even easier. Even with minimum armour you can bash through most defenses with the greatest of ease.

The entire game has had a major upgrade in terms of graphics (not that I could fault the AC2 GFX much, this one just looks even better).

The way they make you lose all the stuff you worked so hard for to collect in AC2 is pretty clever. You start off carrying everything you had before in AC2 (assuming you've played it to completion) and within a few minutes all you have is the shirt on your back, the single blade on your arm and a sword (and not the good one).

The guards are less prone to memory loss (just because you stand behind a wall doesn't mean the guard just forgets you were there before). Enzio makes more use of his gun now in fights, which fortunately doesn't deduct bullets from your inventory or you'd be out of ammo pretty quick. At the moment, I miss my double blade. ACB for the moment focuses more on swordplay than using the hidden blades anyway, and my favorite move for the moment, specially on the big guys is still taking their own weapon away from them and killing them off with it.

The city is huge, structures like the Colosseum really look the part.

In ACB you can now use horses in the city walls to move around quicker. At least, thats the idea, but in my opinion moving through the narrow streets of Rome on horseback is slow as hell. I'm probably everywhere faster over the roofs even while taking out the guards than trying to reach X on horse. The only exception being outside the city walls of course, then a horse is very handy indeed as the landscape is pretty vast.

There is also more of a bartering system at work in ACB. Besides Florins, you can now also collect and sell goods and ingredients to buy other stuff with. You can also restore shops and landmarks throughout the town, and your money doesn't need to be collected at a central location anymore, but can be withdrawn from banks throughout the city. As you restore and renovate more landmarks the more money is coming in to your bank account.

A lot of the characters from AC and AC2 are back in Brotherhood, some get a more active role than they had in AC2. There is now more time alloted outside the Animus to develop a more side-by-side storyline where you can switch between the two. The missions I've done so far outside the animus are pretty easy and straightforward, and only server to show Desmond is learning the skills of Enzio and it creates the backdrop for the finale I guess (I'm not there yet fortunately).

The truth puzzles are in there again as well. Use eagle eye where you see a building marked with a red eye, find the spot and enter puzzle. The first puzzles are always easy, which is logical since you have to allow for new players that have never played AC or AC2 before.

Well this is what I've got so far. If I find anything more interesting I'll let you know.

[leo-rcc]

As a side note, I didn't want to give away much of the storyline so I kept it as superficial as I possibly could.

[leo-rcc]

Necropost!

After playing both AC2 and AC Brotherhood back to back for the second time, I downloaded a new addon to Brotherhood:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdMLi_CdCYE

AC: Brotherhood ‘The Da Vinci Disappearance’ DLC

The storyline add-on, as the name already implies, is that Leonardo Da Vinci has been kidnapped. This is done by a cult of templars who want to extract information to obtain entrance in one of the secret vaults in the city of Rome. Naturally it is up to Ezio (you) to find out where Leonardo is held captive and free him, but enter the vault yourself and unlock its secret.

These extra missions are seriously cool, and totally worth the 800 points for Xbox or $9,99 for PS3. There are also huge amounts of extra gameplay for multiplayer but as I don't play multiplayer I can't comment on that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRryI1pQzLU

Now I have to wait for Revelations. igh:

[Napoléon]

Does this story carry on from AC2? Because I was under the impression that there was going to be an AC3, not ACB which would wrap up the story. What I mean is does the game work as non-canon? And in the new assassins creed game do you reckon it will carry on from this game or AC2?

[Violet]

This game was an expansion to AC2, and there will still be an AC3.

I'm not all that impressed with AC1, rather the opposite infact. Haven't tried 2 since it seems like more of the same. But maybe it's more polished.

[Napoléon]

This game was an expansion to AC2, and there will still be an AC3.

I'm not all that impressed with AC1, rather the opposite infact. Haven't tried 2 since it seems like more of the same. But maybe it's more polished.

AC1 got stale very quickly. That much is true.

AC2 was a massive improvement over the first. But saying that you kinda have to play the first to understand what the fuck is going on in it. But saying THAT the story is pretty frickin' lame anyway.

[leo-rcc]

Brotherhood continues where AC2 left off, in fact you start exactly where you ended in AC2, in the room of Minerva.

[theVOID]

I think they're pretty damn good games for mainstream Action/RPGs, I'm definitely hooked on the storyline now, each game was better than the one before it too, Brotherhood being my favorite - The meta-plot is really well done, some of the sub plots are a little tedious though.

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But saying THAT the story is pretty frickin' lame anyway.

Compared to what? There are very few games in total with better plots in and almost no mainstream games with better. The likes of the Witcher or Deus Ex were far better sure, but they are aimed at that specific story driven audience, for AC to be even half as impressive as far as the narrative is concerned is a big achievement, especially considering it was made for the average person who likes run and jump playstation games.

---

This game was an expansion to AC2, and there will still be an AC3.

I'm not all that impressed with AC1, rather the opposite infact. Haven't tried 2 since it seems like more of the same. But maybe it's more polished.

It's about 3 time better The storyline actually picks up and there is more plot development outside of the Animus, combat is also more interesting, as is the protagonist and his story, much more epoch driven through significant changes in tempo and setting than the first one which keeps it feeling fresh - Brotherhood was a bit of a let down in this last regard, but the other features made up for it.

[Napoléon]

Compared to what? There are very few games in total with better plots in and almost no mainstream games with better. The likes of the Witcher or Deus Ex were far better sure, but they are aimed at that specific story driven audience, for AC to be even half as impressive as far as the narrative is concerned is a big achievement, especially considering it was made for the average person who likes run and jump playstation games.

That's true I suppose. I'm used to playing games with good stories in them, so I guess I'm a little biased. I don't doubt AC has a good story compared with most mainstream games, but most mainstream games stories' are crap.

I wasn't 'that' impressed with the story, but that's just how I felt about it.

[theVOID]

What plot, the main plot or the character plots? Some of the character plots are a bit dull at times but the meta plot is fantastic imo and very original.

A race of super beings long extinct set up an elaborate plan and a global religious conspiracy to manipulate a man named Desmond to bring them a rare artefact in the present by manipulating both his present circumstances and his 'genetic memory' through interactions with his ancestors; assassins also caught up in various phases of this same conspiracy, by using a machine conveniently designed by the conspirators who are either working with or against the super beings who have tricked the protagonist thus far...

That sort of main plot deserves some credit.