Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood preview

I am new to the Assassin’s Creed series and my short time with Brotherhood was my first time playing an AC title. That being said, I did go into the preview knowing the storyline from where AC2 left off and I knew of the characters and the overall idea of the gameplay and its mechanics. From everything I had heard and read from the past Assassin’s Creed titles, I had little to no interest in the game, but part of my job is going to these preview events whether I am excited for the game or not. I went, I played it, and I loved it.

As you probably already know, Assassin’s Creed is a sandbox style game that relies heavily on stealth assassinations and what they are calling “parkour movement” which, in short, is Prince of Persia style of gameplay. A lot of jumping around rooftop to rooftop, scaling walls and hanging from ledges. The fact that this game is dripping with the requirement of blending into crowds and hiding in the shadows is what kept me away from the past two games. I am a “run n’ gun” type of gamer, I don’t like sneaking up on my prey and I definitely don’t like having to keep a low profile. But Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood had plenty of in-your-face violence to keep me quite happy.

There were a few missions that had me remembering why I don’t play a lot of these types of games though, one in particular was a mission where I had to follow a guy through the streets by jumping along on rooftops like a cat. I had to keep him in sight at all times without myself getting spotted. The game was not very forgiving at all, as it would continuously prompt me to keep him in sight and although I could see him below me clear as day, the game for some reason kept thinking he was not in sight and I would fail the mission. I hate babysitting missions, especially babysitting missions where all I do is follow some fat guy through the city. What a waste of time and a completely annoying way of “extending gameplay”. That’s right developers, I know your sneaky little tricks of making your games feel longer than they actually are. But for this gamer, I need more action than that. I did love calling upon my posse to help me fight; watching them appear almost out of nowhere and quickly take out an enemy was quite entertaining.

Also, a small aspect that kept bothering me was during the few times I played as Desmond Miles, his voice was throwing me off and I kept feeling the urge to quit Assassin’s Creed to go play Uncharted instead. It’s not a good thing if the voice actor reminds players of how similar that particular portion is to another game yet the other title is far superior. I know Nolan North as Desmond Miles is not a new thing for Assassin’s Creed fans, but it is a new experience to me.

I was impressed with the controls and the general mechanics of the game. I had no trouble jumping from flag pole to wall ledge and the controls felt fluid and very responsive. Which, as we have unfortunately seen from many other titles, is overlooked a lot of time. Even in combat, the character was agile and easy to maneuver.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time with Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. I see the appeal and I see how gamers can really have a great time with this series. Personally, I also can see how I could get tired of the game within a few hours if the whole stealth aspect is extremely prominent, but as long as they keep a good balance with some sections of hack n’ slash violence, then I just might become a new fan of the Assassin’s Creed series.