O’ Brother, Where For Art Thou?

by exterminat

©2011 Nicholas Laborde

Few times in my life have I ever called a game the “essence of perfection.” Even fewer are the times I have given a perfect score (none, by the way, prior to Brotherhood).

But of course, Ubisoft Montreal once again blew me away with the newest iteration in the Assassin’s Creed franchise, the single-player part of the game scoring a perfect ten out of ten from me.

If you think I got excited over the campaign mode, you can’t even begin to imagine my excitement when I discovered that Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood’s multiplayer mode was developed by Ubisoft Annecy.

Why, you may ask, am I flipping out over this? Let me tell you why.

They made Spies versus Mercenaries in the Splinter Cell series.

That should be enough pedigree for you to understand that Annecy was NOT messing around with this multiplayer addition, and it is in NO way a tacked-on experience. (I’m totally not a fangirl…)

Cogs In The Machine

Everyone was, in the slightest, a tad skeptical when Brotherhood was announced to have a multiplayer mode. My exact first thought was, “I’ll play it once and probably stop the game, because the campaign will suck, since the game will be made around this multiplayer mode.”

At this point you know that the campaign was the best of the series to date (I should get money every time I reinforce that…), but you’ve waited for my multiplayer analysis.

Friends, it took me this long because once I put my disc in, I haven’t been able to stop.

Okay, that was a lie, but the multiplayer is pretty awesome, if I may say so myself.

• Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood Multiplayer Slideshow

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You play as one of many Abstergo test subjects, who happen to be Templars. They are training in animi (plural for animus) via the “bleeding effect” with the memories of Assassins.

The multiplayer takes place across many maps from Assassin’s Creed 2 and Brotherhood, with around a dozen characters in the game to use (some unlockable via Uplay). Recently added through free DLC is Mont-Saint Michael, taking place in wonderful Normandy, France, and another one called Rome at Dusk, coming later this month.

The multi essentially has the same mechanics as the campaign portions of the series, but twisted based on the game mode selected.

There are five choices of play in total: Wanted, Manhunt, Alliance, Advanced Wanted, and Advanced Alliance.

Creeping In The Shadows, Except Not Really

Wanted is the de facto standard and definitive mode of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood.

Imagine walking around a marketplace in Rome. You have an assassination contract, and your target is somewhere in the crowd. However, you are also aware of the fact that others are out for your head as well (up to four others based on how well you are doing).

Your eyes are trained for any movement out of the norm; every unnatural move is suspicious, a potential threat. You round a corner, and all of a sudden, your target is in view.

Slowly, you start stalking toward them at a steady pace. As you plan your assassination method, out of nowhere bounds your pursuer, sprinting in anxiousness for your death. Immediately you vault in the other direction, determined to put as many people and places in between you and your attacker.

When you think you’ve lost him, out bounds another pursuer from the next corner! Frazzled by the fact that a SECOND attacker was out for you and that you are out of breath, the attacker easily goes up to you and snaps your neck.

Thus is a single life in Wanted, where every round is worthy of retelling. It’s one of the most unique modes I’ve ever played, and is reminiscent of what we were “leaked” about Splinter Cell: Conviction‘s multiplayer, before the game was redone (you guys don’t know how badly I miss SvM, or even versus for that matter…).

The Multiplayer HUD is the same as the campaign mode’s, with the addition of a threat indicator at the bottom. It is used to determine the distance from your target and to let you know if they are above or below you.

Manhunt is essentially a team version of Wanted, with six to eight players divided into two teams. One team serves as the offensive assassins, while the other serves as the defensive targets that must adapt and survive. It’s fun, but not as entertaining as Wanted.

The fun in Manhunt is derived from how you play and who you play with, to be quite honest. If I’m by myself, it’s very boring to be part of the defensive team. I know I’m going to be killed, and I can’t prevent it. But of course, messing with the attacking team always leads to a good time.

Alliance is like Halo‘s “multi team” mode, where several teams of two team up to take down targets. It’s almost like a co-op version of Wanted, you could go so far as to say.

The remaining two modes are sort of like the “hardcore” versions of Alliance and Wanted, making targeting harder and engagement a bit more challenging (although I don’t personally notice much of a difference).

But Nothing Else Compares

Brotherhood, as with all multiplayer components of titles these days, features your typical leveling system, capping out at level 50. It also features “perks” (because we’ve never seen that before!) that range from simple smoke bombs and disguises all the way to throwing knives and the overpowered hidden gun.

It’s sure to keep you interested for dozens of hours, especially with a party of friends to share the death with.

Brotherhood presents one of the most unique multiplayer experiences that I’ve seen in years. Am I the only one that is reminded of the small game on Steam, The Ship?

No experience is available that isn’t with its own problems, though. The major flaw in Brotherhood’s multiplayer is the players themselves.

More often than not you will find situations of the players being smarter than the game. You sometimes will know who a person is, but you can’t kill them, because that’s how the game works: you can kill innocent civilians, which results in the loss of your target. But you can’t kill random players! Flawless logic.

A pursuer that hasn’t been spotted yet is usually the case here, with the player knowing that this person is an enemy. You can’t do anything about it, and just have to be extra careful.

Another flaw is the Counter move that allows you to try and protect yourself from attackers, but the move has almost no use. It works maybe one in five times if you’re lucky, and usually your attacker beats you to the punch (no pun intended).

It’s so bad that on launch day, Ubi issued a Message Of The Day ordeal stating that it’s not supposed to be a fallback defensive move.

Although Brotherhood’s multiplayer has issues that need to be addressed, it’s one of the most original experiences in multiplayer gaming. Ubisoft Annecy managed to once again reinvent how we kill our friends.

Now if only they would make a stand-alone downloadable Spies Versus Mercenaries game, for PSN/XBL, at around $10-15, Annecy would be at the top of their game. (I swear, these puns are really unintentional).

(Ed’s Note: It might also have been nice to see additional ‘training modes’ for offline multiplayer co-op play,  a sort of stealth version of Gears of War 2′s Horde Mode where you have to survive waves of more and more bot assassins, avoiding and eliminating them by moving in the crowd or in wells etc. while they are quickly alerted by suspicious behaviour as in the single player game.

Sure, they would rely on numbers and never be as clever as human opponents, but then all can enjoy the varied and well constructed multi maps without having to use the more competitive online- some gamers just like mucking about in new playgrounds.  What do you readers think? Possible? Fun?)

OXCGN’s Golden Award

“9.0/10

©2011 Nicholas Laborde

And even more Assassin’s Creed:

• Next Assassin’s Creed Teased Via Da Vinci Disappearance DLC (Spoiler Alert) - Read More
• The Assassin’s Creed Effect: 3 Templar Games in 2011 - Read More
• Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood Review (Single Player)
• Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood Review (Multiplayer)
• Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood: (Almost) Modern Warfare – do you agree with new direction? Look Here.
• Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood novels HERE
• Assassin’s Creed Ascendance Animated Film teaser HERE
• Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood: Beta Kill Video and Verdict here.
  
• Assassin’s Creed 3 – Where and When to Next Part 1. – Read more.
• Assassin’s Creed 3 – Where and When to Next Part 2 – Read more.

xxxxxx

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