Ezio's back, and this time he's not alone

Assassin's Creed was another one of those games that I never really played much. I had heard so much about the first one, about how it tried to be different but ended up being slightly repetitive, that I felt like I had played it. I then bought the second one, played it for about five minutes... and just kind of forgot about it. I should really get back to that. But having seen and played Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, much like the Bioshock Infinite demonstration, I now feel inspired to want to get back into it again.

Even if you take down your own taget, who knows who's going to come up behind you and take you out

Ubisoft have been showing off Brotherhood for a while now, but at this year's GamesCom we finally were able to see some of the single-player, and as such give you a more complete preview. In all honesty, Ubisoft's latest edition to their faux sci-fi assassin action franchise may prove to be the most ambitious yet. A bigger game-world, increased seamless integration with the free-running feature, multiplayer, other assassins... with five studios working on the game, it better be good anyway.

The first and most obvious plus point for this game has to be the multiplayer, which will be a first for the franchise. There was always a danger that Ubisoft could have done something generic with the online counter-part, so far the multiplayer system for Assassins Creed Brotherhood is in all honesty looking like one of the most inspired and fitting creations we've ever encountered. The only confirmed mode at the moment is 'Wanted', and it involves 6-8 players being dropped in a map, populated only by people using the same character models as the ones available to choose, and the premise is simple. Everyone is given a target to assassinate, whilst also being pursued by an assassin in turn. It's this highly-charged twist on the cat and mouse theme that proves really engaging as not only must you stalk your target (whilst trying to tell him/her apart from the clones), but you must do so without them seeing you, and then kill them without your own predator seeing you and avoid getting killed yourself.



This juggling can get very intense, and things can get bloody and scrappy really quickly, and so far it's proven to be a lot of fun. Before you spawn, you can choose a 'load-out' of two special skills that aid you during a match. There are no 'classes' or anything, just character models, so everyone can have access to all the skills. We hope there's at least one extra mode though, aside from Wanted. As fun as it is, if that's all there is to do it could probably become stale eventually.

Horses are now fully integrated into the game world

Brotherhood also obviously has the single player mode as well, which looks like it's going to be good, although we have to say it's not as striking as the multiplayer is going to be. Taking up from where the first game left off, you continue Ezio's story as he strives to rebuild the brotherhood of assassins, with the game action moving towards the city of Rome. In Brotherhood, you haunt the streets as you take Ezio on a mission to liberate it from the Borgia, as well as starting up your own guild. Rome is the largest city that the Assassins Creed engine has ever generated, so there will be plenty to do. Much like previous games, you can invest in the restoration of the city, and you do this by clearing our garrisons and then paying for shops and services to reopen, which in turn provides you with equipment. They've dubbed this the 'Rome Upgrade' system, but it's very visible how the city changes and improves over time.

As mentioned before, the other half of the story concerns you setting up your Assassins Guild, and so this takes up a fair portion of the game as well. You recruit new assassins by finding them around Rome and helping them out, and then once they're in your guild you can equip and upgrade them, as well as send them on missions around Europe. This abstraction is the only form the rest of the continent takes in the game, but it's one of the prime methods used to level up your characters. The missions you can send them on are varied, and can even be completed by teams to ensure success.

Once your assassin corps is lean and mean though, you can put them to use in the game world by utilising a B.A.M., or a Brotherhood Assisted Move. Basically, with some control options, you can order your assassins to take out a target instead of you doing it, and then they either disappear once they've completed their task or join you in fighting off other enemies. BAM's are initiated by earning tokens, and as you level up, free Rome, or recruit more assassins, you get more slots for BAM tokens.

Rome, the great city

If you're not already excited about Assassins Creed Brotherhood, then you should be. So far, Ubisoft seems to be taking on board what previous iterations have done wrong, and then trying to improve them. Whether they can keep this up is a question for another day, but so far, so good, and we can't wait to get our hands on this game. Who knows, maybe I'll even complete this one. Assassins Creed Brotherhood is due out on the Xbox 360, and PS3 on November 16th in North America, and November 19th in Europe. The PC version is supposed to be coming in Spring 2011.

Most Anticipated Feature: Multiplayer, hands down. We can't wait to practice our stabby stabby skills.