Without the strong story, the gameplay elements would fall flat, and Ubisoft have obviously put in a lot of work on this front.īloody "hoodies" get everywhere these days! Fictional characters have been developed well, especially if you have been following the series, and the interaction between them is entertaining and well written.
The fact the story is so based in true events may even lead some players to become more interested in the history of the period, in the same way that the Da Vinci Code made the Templar Knights a fashionable topic once again.
This provides players with a further connection to the game, as we all know who Leonardo Da Vinci is. The huge amount of research into the Italian era visited is clear and it pays off when famous historical figures take part in proceedings. The writers succeed in interweaving the past and the future tightly, linking real-life and fictionalised events to create a narrative that is rooted in reality. The story is beginning to reach Hideo Kojima levels of complexity, but that isn’t all together a bad thing. The player takes control as Ezio must regroup and recruit an army of his own to take control of Rome and defeat his enemies.
The Borgia family – of whom Rodrigo was the nemesis of the second title – are still out to destroy the assassin order, and will stop at nothing to find and kill Ezio. The game goes back and forth between 2012 and the Italian Renaissance, containing playable areas in both times – but the majority of play will be carried out as Ezio. Phew! In this title, we start off where number two ended Desmond and his friends are being hunted down, and find that to get to the information they need, they once again have to delve into the memories of Ezio, who it seems is still in a lot of trouble in his own time. In going back into his past lives, Desmond and the other modern-day assassins intend to find the secrets they need in order to finally defeat the Templar order once and for all.
The first game in the series saw him inhabit the life of Altair – a middle-eastern man based in the holy land, working as part of an order of assassins, and in the second game Desmond took over from Ezio Auditore – Italian playboy-turned assassin, who was out to avenge a terrible act set upon his family.
Not to give too much away, but with the use of a machine called the Animus, Desmond can regress his sub-conscious and experience his past lives. You play as Desmond Miles, a modern-day assassin who finds himself abducted by a group called Abstergo – remnants of the Templar Knights movement, who control most of the world governments to serve their own needs. For those of you who may never have played an Assassin’s Creed title, pay attention – this gets confusing. STORY: Set immediately after the cliffhanger events at the end of Assassin’s Creed II, the game has strong storyline already in place to back it up. Has the game skimped on substance, simply to deliver us this new online experience or can the game stand up as a full-on Assassin’s Creed canon release? Read on to find out.
So, now the game is out, boasting a full single player campaign alongside the innovative stealth multiplayer modes. The early build of the multiplayer showed huge promise, was great fun to play, and got me incredibly excited about the full release. If you read the Eurogamer article, you will also know that we were wrong. Early talk of a radical new multiplayer mode that would be unlike any other console title further worried me – a quick slapdash multiplayer deathmatch wasn’t going to set the world on fire. How could the game really improve on its predecessor and surely this was just a cash-in. If you read our hands-on impressions of this title from the Eurogamer Expo, you will know that we were initially sceptical of a sequel to the amazing Assassin’s Creed II, coming only a year after that release.
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Annecy (multiplayer)Īvailable on: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 & PC ( Xbox 360 version reviewed)