Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

Release Date: Nov 16,2010

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood Preview

Assassin's Creed II might be a thing of the past, but that doesn't mean Ezio is entirely out of the picture. He's returning in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, a sequel that picks up directly where his previous adventure left off. The game will feature a number of new features, including even more story developments for Desmond along with a multiplayer component, a first for the franchise. For this preview, I'm going to talk about a recent demo of Brotherhood's single-player portion.

After the climactic events of Assassin's Creed II Ezio returns to his Villa, the stronghold players spent the majority of the previous game upgrading and making as fancy as possible, only to be assaulted. As Ezio's lying in bed a cannonball smashes through his ceiling. He runs outside to find buildings on fire and a surging army at the gates as more cannonballs rain down from above. He does something unexpected: gets up, runs outside, and jumps on a horse.


That's unexpected because previously in Assassin's Creed, a horse would rear up and stall at the entrance to a city like it was the edge of a fiery chasm. But in Brotherhood, the main setting of Rome is so large -- three times the size of Florence -- that a faster mode of urban transportation is required. As Ezio thunders through the streets an explosion collapses the side of a building. The stone shattering across the street knocks aside the horse, forcing Ezio to continue along on foot. He jumps at a ladder and loses his grip when a large chunk of stone is shot out from above. When he reaches the top of the ladder and emerges onto the walkway along the top of the Villa's ramparts, he's finally able to get to a perimeter mounted cannon to try and cut into the hostile forces converging on the city gate.

Though I didn't get to play this part, it's basically a turret sequence. Ezio stands behind a cannon and it's your job to aim and fire at masses of troops and siege towers. The sense of scale here is as impressive as the battlefield is enormous, with hundreds of troops moving around as cannon fire arcs overhead and wood splinters at places of impact. When enough damage has been done Ezio steps away from the cannon only to find a siege tower has made it all the way to the wall, unloading soldiers onto the rampart. Ezio approaches and engages in combat.

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