Just finished the plot-line of this game a couple days ago. Finished "the Truth" last night. There's a whole lot going on in this one, I gotta say.
The artwork is fab, as usual, and all the original voice actors are back, which is very nice. The story line follows pretty much from the end of AC2, with Ezio moving from thinking his job was done to having to rebuild the Assassin Brotherhood pretty much from scratch. The opening sequence is pretty dramatic, and has a few personal twists I don't think they capitalized on. I just have to remind myself that it's a video game and not a "real" story sometimes. Oh, and the end bit has a really interesting twist for Demond & Co. It's hinted in in "The Truth" part of Ezio's story, which was very nice.
There's secret locations--this time it's the lairs of Followers of Romulus, but there's also Templar Lairs as DLC. Doing the lairs is the only way to get the invincible armor of the game. Getting Altair's armor from Uplay is only cosmetic, unlike AC2. In a spin-off of rescuing citizens from AC, you now have to kill the twelve Borgia captains and then climb the towers and blow them up. The graphics on igniting the towers are great fun. Ezio's such a bad-ass doing it. There's special assignments from the Thieves, Courtesans and the Mercenaries, as well as special "guild challenges" for each, including the Assassins. Most of the assignments are the races, beat-ups and contracts done in AC2. There's also "memory" options where, after achieving so much, Ezio has a chance to relieve part of his youth. There's also feathers (only 10), treasures and Borgia flags (101) to be collected--only later in the game you can buy maps for the feathers and flags like you can the treasures. Very convenient.
Leonardo's back with more inventions: the naval cannon, the tank and machine gun. The flying machine's been converted into a bomber. Great fun here.
After a certain point in the plot, you get to recruit baby assassins, one for each tower you've brought down. Looking at it before playing, I thought I was going to hate this. As it turned out, it turned out to be great fun and one of my favorite parts of the game. Having them graduate and go through the initiation ceremony felt like an accomplishment.
The biggest new challenge to AC: Brotherhood is the interpretation of 100% sync with Ezio. At the start of a plot arc, it will tell you what the objective and what you have to do to achieve 100% sync. Sometimes it's a time limit, sometimes it's a restriction on how much health you can lose, sometimes it's a weapon or a movement restriction. For the most part, I didn't have a problem with hitting 100%, but everything in the plot and all the assignments, secret locations, guild challenges, count towards that total sync.
One thing they gave us in Brotherhood is the chance to go back and re-do anything you've already done, which is great in the secret locations if you want to pick up the missed flags and treasure. Their purpose is, of course, to let you get 100% sync.
I haven't played with the multi-player option of the game yet, since no one else in my PS3 crew has finished the single-player version yet. You don't need to do that, mind you, but my crew is weird in that way.
All-in-all, I think it's a good addition to the AC franchise. I was a little disappointed in the end fight between Ezio and the Borgia, but in that same way I was disappointed at the end of Arkham: Asylum--I wanted more and didn't get it. Might be totally me, so take that with a grain of salt.
Highly recommended, if you enjoyed the previous AC games.
Anyone else playing it?
The artwork is fab, as usual, and all the original voice actors are back, which is very nice. The story line follows pretty much from the end of AC2, with Ezio moving from thinking his job was done to having to rebuild the Assassin Brotherhood pretty much from scratch. The opening sequence is pretty dramatic, and has a few personal twists I don't think they capitalized on. I just have to remind myself that it's a video game and not a "real" story sometimes. Oh, and the end bit has a really interesting twist for Demond & Co. It's hinted in in "The Truth" part of Ezio's story, which was very nice.
There's secret locations--this time it's the lairs of Followers of Romulus, but there's also Templar Lairs as DLC. Doing the lairs is the only way to get the invincible armor of the game. Getting Altair's armor from Uplay is only cosmetic, unlike AC2. In a spin-off of rescuing citizens from AC, you now have to kill the twelve Borgia captains and then climb the towers and blow them up. The graphics on igniting the towers are great fun. Ezio's such a bad-ass doing it. There's special assignments from the Thieves, Courtesans and the Mercenaries, as well as special "guild challenges" for each, including the Assassins. Most of the assignments are the races, beat-ups and contracts done in AC2. There's also "memory" options where, after achieving so much, Ezio has a chance to relieve part of his youth. There's also feathers (only 10), treasures and Borgia flags (101) to be collected--only later in the game you can buy maps for the feathers and flags like you can the treasures. Very convenient.
Leonardo's back with more inventions: the naval cannon, the tank and machine gun. The flying machine's been converted into a bomber. Great fun here.
After a certain point in the plot, you get to recruit baby assassins, one for each tower you've brought down. Looking at it before playing, I thought I was going to hate this. As it turned out, it turned out to be great fun and one of my favorite parts of the game. Having them graduate and go through the initiation ceremony felt like an accomplishment.
The biggest new challenge to AC: Brotherhood is the interpretation of 100% sync with Ezio. At the start of a plot arc, it will tell you what the objective and what you have to do to achieve 100% sync. Sometimes it's a time limit, sometimes it's a restriction on how much health you can lose, sometimes it's a weapon or a movement restriction. For the most part, I didn't have a problem with hitting 100%, but everything in the plot and all the assignments, secret locations, guild challenges, count towards that total sync.
One thing they gave us in Brotherhood is the chance to go back and re-do anything you've already done, which is great in the secret locations if you want to pick up the missed flags and treasure. Their purpose is, of course, to let you get 100% sync.
I haven't played with the multi-player option of the game yet, since no one else in my PS3 crew has finished the single-player version yet. You don't need to do that, mind you, but my crew is weird in that way.
All-in-all, I think it's a good addition to the AC franchise. I was a little disappointed in the end fight between Ezio and the Borgia, but in that same way I was disappointed at the end of Arkham: Asylum--I wanted more and didn't get it. Might be totally me, so take that with a grain of salt.
Highly recommended, if you enjoyed the previous AC games.
Anyone else playing it?
