Behind the times a bit aren't I? Well, yes, but I do have a copy of Revelations on order (free gift with this year's Empire subscription). Due to the impending 4th game in the series arriving on my doorstep, demanding me to play it right that instant, I'm going to take a few moments to collate my thoughts on the series as a whole, before having those thoughts altered by a 'tower defense-esque mini game.' Those of you who've already played Revelations will know what I mean, and I am very much hoping that all the bad words people have called Ezio recently aren't all true. (He is however, sadly still an Italian.)
Assassin's Creed Synopsis
Wayyyyy back in 2007 came the first installment of the series. Set in the Middle East, during the Third Crusade at the end of the 12th century. The main aspects of gameplay revolve around Altaïr ibn La-Ahad, a high ranking member of the Assassin's Brotherhood. During the opening sequences of the game, Altaïr brakes all three of the Brotherhood's most sacred rules, and is demoted to the rank of Novice. After this demotion, the player then seeks to reclaim Altaïr's status, and equipment, by assassinating nine choice targets for the head of the Assassin's Order, Al Mualim.
Running parallel to Altaïr's story, is the tale of Desmond Miles, a lowly bartender kidnapped by a mysterious organisation known as Abstergo and forced to use a strange device; The Animus. Conveniently, Desmond is a direct decedent of the assassin Altaïr and The Animus allows him to access and re-live Altaïr's memories buried within his genetic code. Abstergo has asked Desmond to help them trawl Altaïr's memories and help them search for some mysterious object; The Piece of Eden.
The game time is split about 70/30 in favour of Altaïr, with the interactions with Desmond only really progressing the story with Abstergo after each Memory Sequence or assassination has been completed. Slowly, Desmond begins to suspect all is not as it seems. Upon returning to his room each night Desmond begins to see images and text written on the walls; the writings of the so-say insane Subject 16, the Animus user before Desmond. These messages speak of a great disaster coming in 2012. Desmond begins to question Abstergo's motives and connections to other organisations. Finally, after finding and killing the last of the assassination targets as Altaïr, Desmond awakens to a huge revelation about Abstergo, and the people he'd been working closely with, thus ending the first game.
Response to Assassin's Creed
Well, as a first crack at doing a game like this, Ubisoft did a reasonably good job, in my opinion. The stealth was easy enough to understand; killing, jumping, running etc gets you detected, walking, blending into crowds, hiding on rooftops keeps you inconspicuous. Simple enough. The game was large, spread over three cities in the Holy Land, Jerusalem, Acre and Damascus, each full of a variety of side missions and assassinations all leading up to one of the nine main targets. The more side missions you do, the better an understanding of each target you get. Very simple, very well done.
However. 'Unpolished,' is a polite way of describing this game; there is a huge section of the map in-between the 4 main locations that has absolutely no point other than padding and space for more collectibles, the free running system (whilst effective most of the time) has a habit of throwing Altaïr off in a completely random direction at a critical moment during a chase/escape, and when you fail at stealth and are attacked by the city guards, the majority of the time it's an absolute bastard of a fight with Altaïr outnumbered around 5:1; especially if you don't yet have the Short Blade of +10 counter-kill win.
However however, I can only say all that after having played Assassin's Creed 2; a game which very much IS what the first was trying to be. Therefore, retrospective judgment aside, Assassin's Creed was a great start to the series. Acceptable combat/stealth balance and a gripping story that lead neatly into the second game.
Assassin's Creed 2 Synopsis
During the present day sections of this game, Desmond begins to feel the "Bleed Through" of Ezio and Altaïr's assassin skills. His Brotherhood companions are quick to urge Desmond to continue developing these skills by spending more and more time in The Animus as Ezio.
Back in 15th century Italy, Ezio begins a quest to avenge his father and brothers who were hanged as a result of a political entanglement. Ezio discovers his father was a member of the Brotherhood, and takes up his mantle in the name of revenge. During the game, Ezio meets and befriends several figures from history, namely Leonardo da Vinci and Niccolò Machiavelli, both of whom are members of the Assassin's Brotherhood. Under the impression he is avenging his father and brothers, Ezio searches Italy for clues that might lead him to the culprit.
This is integrated into the gameplay in a similar way to in Assassin's Creed, several side missions surrounding a key assassination, each bringing Ezio a step closer to the true villain behind the attack on his family; Rodrigo Borgia. However, eventually it is revealed that there is more going on than mere politically motivated murder. It is revealed that Borgia possesses The Apple of Eden, another Piece of Eden. The Apple is key to finding The Vault, which some believe holds untold riches, power, knowledge or something far greater. This is why the modern day Brotherhood are so interested in Ezio.
Upon reliving Ezio's memories of attempting to assassinate Borgia in The Vatican (he became Pope Alexander IV) Ezio discovers that when The Apple is combined with The Papal Staff, another Piece of Eden, the Vault is revealed to him. Within the Vault, Ezio finds a hologram of the goddess Minerva, recanting the tale of an ancient race who came to earth long ago. These aliens created Eden, the Pieces of Eden, and Adam and Eve themselves. During the game, finding glyphs on key buildings and then solving the associated puzzles compiles a short video of Adam and Eve fleeing the Garden, and features several Pieces of Eden. Minerva warns of a great disaster in the near future, and ends by directly addressing Desmond, through a confused Ezio, saying "the rest is up to you, Desmond."
In the final chapter of the game, the modern day Brotherhood comes under attack from Abstergo forces and has to flee, forcing Desmond to demonstrate how much the Bleed Through has bestowed assassin skills upon him, by defending his fellow assassins. In the closing seconds, it is revealed that a solar flare is going to hit the earth, causing widespread destruction, just as Subject 16 and Minerva had predicted. This leads the modern Brotherhood to the conclusion that they must find the remaining Temples across the globe to prevent this disaster from happening.
Response to Assassin's Creed 2
As you can probably tell from the MUCH longer synopsis, 2 is a much more in depth game than 1. Something that works greatly for its benefit. I previously mentioned that once I'd played 2, it revealed all the shortcomings of 1, and that is indeed the case. However, I choose to look at the situation slightly differently than "1 was crap, don't play it because 2 is better." With Assassin's Creed, Ubisoft made what I like to consider the pilot for the series. The in-depth story doesn't really kick in until the second game, having built on the first' teaser of greater things. The combat, stealth and general world interactions in 2 are all just great improvements on the first game. Ubisoft most probably didn't want to commit a large amount of money to a new title, in case it failed. Having seen the above average (but not shockingly high) success of the first game, more money was probably pumped into the second title, allowing it to build on the good elements of the first game. This is, in general, how sequels work.
Notable improvements to gameplay in the second game are numerous, but here are some of my favorites:
The economy is no longer only based around what you can steal, pickpocket or earn through missions. Your Uncle Mario has given you control of his walled town, Monteriggioni. Here you spend your hard earned cash buying shops within the town limits. Each shop then generates money for you, as well as earning you a discount. Purchasing different armour and weaponry also increases your income. I very much enjoyed this, as my style of gaming is focused around doing all the optional missions/objectives that I can before moving on. Therefore, quite early on in the game, I had more money than there were things to buy, giving me a clear advantage in armour and equipment during the middle stages of the story.
Assassins's Creed 2 features nearly double the equipment of the first game, and with lots of different variations in each class. Whereas in Assassin's Creed, there was the Hidden Blade, Sword, Short Blade, Throwing Daggers and....fists, in Assassin's Creed 2 you get all that, plus a second Hidden Blade, a wheellock wrist-mounted pistol, poison dart gun, complex disarm and counter-kill moves as well as a variety within the standard 'Sword' and 'Short Blade' weapon classes, including swords, maces, cutlasses, axes, spears and various daggers, each with different stats based upon Damage, Speed and Block levels.
A bigger emphasis on platforming is also present, as is expected from the dev team that brought you Prince of Persia, but this time there are specific rewards for navigating an area of pure puzzle/platforming.
Last one, here we go...
Brotherhood is a direct sequel to Assassin's Creed 2, taking place directly after the events in 15th century Rome as well as 21st Century Italy. The modern Brotherhood is hiding out within the ruins of Monteriggioni, attempting to evade Abstergo's satellites. Meanwhile, in Ezio's timeline, Monteriggioni is attacked by Cesare Borgia, the son of Rodrigo, who takes the Apple of Eden and leaves the villa in ruins. After escaping the villa, Ezio continues his quest to rid Italy of the Borgia, as Cesare has taken control of Rome and seeks to conquer all of Italy.
During his time in the Animus, which features nearly all of the gameplay time in Brotherhood, Desmond re-lives Ezio assembling and rebuilding his alliances with the various organisations in Rome; the Thieves Guild, the local militia and the courtesans of the Rosa in Fiore. Alongside thwarting the Borgia actions, removing their influence over areas of Rome and hunting Cesare, Ezio begins to rebuild the Assassin's Brotherhood with the help of Machiavelli and da Vinci, recruiting Roman citizens to be trained as assassins in the fight against the Borgia. This struggle is presented as a constant search for an opportunity to assassinate Cesare, achieved by assassinating everyone in support of the Borgia. Eventually, Ezio reaches him, reclaims the Apple and restores order to Rome.
It is only then that Desmond becomes properly involved with the story. The modern Brotherhood use the memories of Ezio to locate where he hid the Apple, and race against Abstergo to claim it first. Desmond, positively brimming with Assassin's Creed due to the Bleed Through effect, tracks down The Apple and subsequently The Vault. Once The Vault has been opened, another of Minerva's race, calling itself Juno, appears to Desmond alone. Juno talks of how humanity is underdeveloped, and should have been "left alone" by the ancient race. Juno states that Desmond is born of her race and of her enemy, and forces Desmond to kill Lucy, the assassin mole who helped him escape in the first game. The game ends with a voice over of Desmond's father wondering if he should put Desmond back into the Animus. A nice thick chunk of plot to be carried over into Assassin's Creed Revelations, in my opinion.
Response to Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
Upon starting Brotherhood, I was very much of the opinion that DLC had been padded out into what was probably going to be half a game at best. I was wrong, this is nearly as long as 2, if not indeed as long, if you include all the side missions and collectibles as well. For all intents and purposes, it is the same game. Same characters, mostly, in pretty much the same world, only this time 90% of the game takes place in Rome (the largest by far of all the cities across all the games) only travelling to other destinations for specific missions. The combat and stealth are the same, the missions follow much the same pattern, so it is reasonable to assume that not much has changed.....
Well, there's Pokemon now.
Yep....Sort of. I am referring to the reconstruction of the Assassin's Brotherhood. Ezio finds and recruits up to 10 citizens and then trains them up as assassins. Ezio sends recruits out on various missions across Europe, harassing the Templars or helping fellow Assassin sympathisers. Each mission earns experience and money, and each recruit ranks up from rank 1 to rank 9, unlocking better armour and weapons to increase survival rate on missions. Eventually they undertake a graduation ceremony, taking the leap of faith and becoming fully fledged assassins, but still rank under Ezio. This is Pokemon, and I enjoyed the grind. All my assassins were fully ranked as soon as possible, because when utilising the Call Assassins ability (where you...call assassins to attack targets for you) it meant the little buggers had more than a cloth hood and a ridiculous mustache to defend themselves with.
The economy has been overhauled. Ezio now has the power to buy everything in Rome, once he's cleared the Borgia influence. There are a over a hundred different shops, landmarks and aqueducts to repair or purchase across the city, and each one earns you more money. By the end of the game my income was 20850f for every 20 minutes of gameplay. You make money to buy things to make money to buy things and so on until you drown. This income is deposited into one of the ten banks in Rome. The more banks you renovate, the larger their vault is, up to a maximum of 80000f. Any money earned after this is wasted. However, your personal purse is unlimited, which seems a bit counter intuitive.
My only real problem with Brotherhood, and the series as a whole to some extent, is the inability to fix the free running/climbing aim system. So many times Ezio, Desmond or Altaïr would be lined up perfectly for the next ledge or beam, only to jump wildly into thin air/a wall/a guard/to their death. It seems that the Prince Of Persia guys should be better at this, having said that those games suffered from the same problems so maybe the dev team/physics engine is to blame.
Apart from that, it really is just a continuation of the same story that was set up in 1, expanded in 2 and now continued in 3, hopefully to be resolved in 4. I was very satisfied with Brotherhood, once I'd accepted the fact that it was just more of Assassin's Creed 2 with a few more bells and whistles, not to mention a multiplayer. Which I will not mention. For personal reasons of bile-spewing hate.
Conclusion
The Assassin's Creed series has to be one of my favorite stories in video games at present. I love the science fiction elements and how well they're blended together with Da Vinci Code-esque grand mysteries as well as a solid and very satisfying stealth/combat game. I can only see the series getting better, and I do think Revelations will be another string to the franchise' bow. As far as the possible 5th game is concerned, at present I'd like to think that Ubisoft will shift the story completely. There was talk of a WW1 female assassin, but that was quashed. Feudal Japan and Arthurian England were also mentioned, both I think would be welcome additions to the mythos. We can only wait and see.
A review of Assassin's Creed: Revelations may be written in the coming months, but that depends on A) if it arrives, B) if it's different and C) if it's either much better or much worse than my expectations.
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