Eurogamer Expo 2010: Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood Hands-On Impressions

When Assassins Creed: Brotherhood was first announced, following hot on the heels of the super-successful Assassins Creed 2, I was very sceptical. I think it’s safe to say that I wasn’t the only one who felt like this. Many fans couldn’t conceive how the game could go multiplayer, but still maintain the free-running, open-world aspects of the main game in-tact. After this past weekend at the Eurogamer Expo, I can come clean.

I have been converted.

It was only a matter of time before multiplayer was added to the mix for such a successful series. Unfortunately, none of the single player campaign was playable or even being shown on video, so I will be only talking about multiplayer today.

I won’t go too much into the in and outs of the game as we will be running a full review of the game closer to its release, but the game mode running was a basic assassin game – eight players (each controlling a different citizen of the town; doctor, courtesan, butcher) do battle to gain the most points. Points are attained by killing your assassination target or by escaping your would-be murderer. The control system and game mechanics are much the same as before, with added environmental features to aid in your escape.

The graphics look amazing. Set in Italy once again – as in the previous game – we were playing in Rome, and it is a very faithful representation of a Renaissance city. It all looks more or less the same as in the last game – but perhaps with a little more polish. What struck me was that the game could still look this good, and perform brilliantly with eight assassins running around instead of the usual one. Throughout my gameplay time, I experienced little to no slowdown and animations seemed smooth and quick.

Scaling a wall now feels more fluid and dynamic, you don’t feel the tempo of the multiplayer is slowed at all by having to climb from building to building – which was something I thought might be an issue. I’m not sure if this has been tweaked because multiplayer games are more fast-paced, but actions like these seemed to be carried out quicker than in previous iterations of the game. This made the game feel much better – lighter and more exciting.

We could pick from three sets of special skills for your character – although you could see that more are available, or will be unlockable, in the full game. This allowed for the use of smoke grenades, the gun or throwing knives. The gun was difficult to make good use of though. It incorporates the same aiming system that was used in the single-player game – which is fine when you are aiming at an AI character – who is likely to move slowly, and logically – but is not very useful for trying to shoot another player, as the aiming is too long-winded. I assume this is all intentional though, as the gun would be too powerful a weapon if it were any quicker. Instead it is balanced well, so that it can only really be useful if you have been patient and waited for the perfect opportunity.

And isn’t that what being a good assassin is all about? The multiplayer certainly still keeps very close to the feel of the single-player campaign. Now that I have tried it out, it feels like a natural extension. Who doesn’t want to murder their Xbox Live or PSN buddies in variety of cool ways?! Well, not long to wait now, soon you will be able to just that.

The game is due to be released in North America on November 16^th, and Europe on the 19^th. Watch this space for a full review soon.