Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

[Nappi]

Didn't complete the Truth puzzles this time but I stumbled upon this question in IGN guide for the game.

I finished The Truth puzzles, what do I do in this red wireframe world?

You just keep running forward. After a while, you'll collect a floating item and get reset in the level. Just keep replaying the last part of the wireframe level until you collect all of the floating items and the scene will end.

I'm not sure if this is the problem, though.

[Erkki]

I finished The Truth puzzles, what do I do in this red wireframe world?

You just keep running forward. After a while, you'll collect a floating item and get reset in the level. Just keep replaying the last part of the wireframe level until you collect all of the floating items and the scene will end.

I'm not sure if this is the problem, though.

No I'm past that bit, after "the truth" was revealed, it went to a loading screen, and then threw me into some white/gray place with pillars or something around me in a circle. Then it started loading again after a second or less and loaded the same place, and then again and again and again. I can't move in there and can't even open the menu screen easily without good timing.

[Scrobbs]

I'm loving this game. Not bought a boxed game since Halo Reach (which sucked imo) and before then RDR (which I kind of enjoyed, but got tired of). This has distilled great components of other games into one package that works well. I deliberately avoided AC1&2 as I was interested in them, but there didn't look like enough variation. This has got lots of different things to do, and exploring is a pleasure (mostly) compared to the boredom/frustration that set in after a few days with GTA and RDR. I'd say it was more like Arkham but with more free roaming - especially the combat which is grand fun when you time it right and effortlessly and elegantly pincushion the 7 guys surrounding you. Enjoying this very much - although not having played either of the first 2, I think the game assumed awareness of the story:I spent the first couple of hours being totally bewildered about what exactly was going on. Multiplayer seems nice too - 'Wanted' pits you with 8 other players, each if whom is assigned one if the other 8 as a target. You have a proximity indicator, at which point you have to identify your target in the crowd from the pic in the corner of your screen, while keeping an eye out for your assassin. It's a gleeful cat and mouse. I haven't played the other gametypes yet.

Still, enjoying it immensely and it's exactly what I was after. I've felt such disappointment at so many games over the last couple of years that I was going to give up on boxed games if this didn't work out, with notable exceptions (Arkham for example).

[Thyroid]

So I'm a few hours into this (I'm where

you save Caterina from Cesare and his sister

). I figure I should post something video game-related on these forums. Here are some quick thoughts, probably meaningless:

1. I like how slick the animation is. Ezio's killing sprees make sense, and I especially like how you're given a degree of control over them. If you're stabbing soldier A and soldier B is making a move, you get to choose whether you stab B or block and counter-attack him. It's a satisfying system, with a degree of believability that wouldn't have worked in AC2 - since Ezio is now this Templar-murdering killing machine.

2. The title sequence - where Ezio and Mario jump off the tower and into the water - is cool. It harkens back to AC2's "may it never change us" scene, but manages to stand on its own. I like how you can compare the two to how Ezio's changed.

3. I'm not sure I'm entirely happy with Ezio now. It makes sense that he's a cold-blooded killer these days, but he's always too willing to go out and kill; it's such an off-handed decision. It's almost like he's aware he's a video game character, not a human being.

4. I love how beautifully vast Roma is, but I miss the variety of AC's differing cities. The music has also lost some of its willingness to be cheery, and instead falls back on being a quiet chant that, I think, lends a too-continuous atmosphere of foreboding that the game needs to clear away.

5. The numbering system doesn't work. If I'm supposed to be feeling like a man whose reputation as a threat to all life precedes him, then why keep telling me I'm only achieving 50% synchorization? It's like saying you're only 50% of the real thing. It's a small nitpick, but I think they'd have benefited by saying, "Synchronization complete," then thrown in a "Extra points" mark for achieving full status (for example, not getting caught killing someone, etc).

6. One thing that diluted AC2 for me was that, by the end of the game, everything had a video game function. The prostitutes were a distraction, thieves...something, mercenaries for hire. You'll have heard everything by the end. I like how in this one, you see lovers, the insane, people goofing off, making jokes, having fights. It makes for a much richer, far more believable world, and is all the better for it. I hope it stays that way. The only thing I don't like is how they re-used so much secondary dialogue from AC2, though I'll never tire of a hysterical woman's, "The Lord is my Shepherd! THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD!" Still, I'd have preferred new dialogue. It's not that hard to write some decent throwaway lines.

7. I wish they'd drop the modern world storyline about the Templars, the Animus and so on. It's all so silly. How hard is it to just stick to an interesting, captivating adventure/thriller set in Renaissance Italy? The setting just begs for it. And they have all this access to classic literature...The worst thing is that they keep reminding you of it. For instance, AC2's descriptions of buildings and characters you encountered made for interesting and mood-setting historical information, whereas here they always inject some snide remark from that asshole you have working with you. It completely shatters the suspension of disbelief. There's a million more examples.

8. The best part so far:

Seeing how Ezio met Caterina. It's pretty boggling to see how far that man has gone in the few years since.

9. Riding horses in cities is the best thing ever.

[Erkki]

8. The best part so far:

Seeing how Ezio met Caterina. It's pretty boggling to see how far that man has gone in the few years since.

I thought it was ten or even twenty years? maybe my memory is wrong

[toblix]

Just wanted to bump this thread to point out that this is one awesome game. I've spent hours running around everywhere, opening all the stores, burning towers and doing the occasional story quest. I just did the first of Leonardo's quests, and I'm getting the feeling I've been doing way more entrepreneurial stuff than is needed. I've opened every store I can reach, money is pouring in, and from what I can gather there's still lots more story left. The assassin training mechanic is fabulous. The fact that you can buy maps for all the collectibles is marvellous. Killing men is sweet. It's incredible how they managed to polish the huge turd that was Assassin's Creed, and make it shine brighter than the devil's armpits on the 4th of July.

One thing – in one of the conversations with one of the three people in the hideout something was said about the translation. Something about Italian being all right, but French and German being terrible. It almost seemed like a reference to the localization, but I didn't quite get it. Did anyone play it with another language? Maybe they switch the languages around to make fun of the other localization languages or something ANYWAY this game is fucking awesome.

[Roderick]

Wow, that's pretty high praise. Pity I burned out on Assassin's Creed after the second one. I hope I get the itch in a while again.

[Squid Division]

The multiplayer is quite good too, even with the matchmaking being kinda slow.

[Erkki]

I especially liked killing the generals or whatever they were called in this game. They were like mini missions that you could fully plan yourself and it didn't matter if you succeeded or failed, if it was too tough you could go and do something else.

[miffy495]

I started this earlier this week within an hour of finishing my replay of AC2. The difference in interface, just in terms of slickness, was the first thing that struck me. The second: Man do I love just running around and doing things. This is a fun game just to explore and I'm looking forward to exploring the world some more. After the way that AC2 ends, I was really hoping to get back into the next setting and see what's up, but it's nice to be back in Italy as well. I guess it's only fair that I play 2 games as Altair and 2 games as Ezio, but while Bloodlines was clearly not meant to be a core game, Brotherhood seems to be considered one. Oh well, I'm having fun and want to get back to it. Will probably do so tomorrow night and can't wait. The 2 hours that I've played really whetted my appetite.

Also, just as a thing to say, upon seeing the box my girlfriend asked me "So... you play as George Michael?" Now I can't unsee that. Damn it.

=

[toblix]

I finished this a couple of days ago, and think it's just an awesome game. I'd list all the cool things, but why bother. It's an improvement in every way – even the multiplayer was fun, the little I played anyway.

Being a sucker for achievements I tried to get them all, and was very pleasantly surprised when I found that most of the achievements were used in the right way. For example, you don't have to get a gold on all the challenge levels, only a couple. This way they get to show you what they're about, and if you think they're fun, that's cool. If not, you still get an achievement. The same goes for the guild challenges. They make you do a couple of them for the achievement, but don't do the mistake of forcing all the cool stuff they made! down your throat. Of course there's one for getting all 101 flags, but they do help you by showing you on the map where each one of them can be found, so instead of being a giant pain in the ass, it's a fun thing to do while getting from A to B. I almost never used the tunnels, instead planning routes via treasures, feathers, flags, stores I could renovate, etc.

Actually, I think they could've taken the whole shop quest thing even further, forcing me to loot treasure and send assassinos out on missions, earning me sweet loot I could use to buy more information and equipment.

What was the deal with the paintings?

It would've been awesome if they allowed you to use the Italian voices only whilst in the Animus. If they had huge balls like Chris, they'd make you get used to everything being in Italian, and then when you pull out the cyberjack, bam! everything's in English.

[Roderick]

So what you're basically saying is that Chris has huge balls.

[PlastickCouch]

I hated the first one because it was so beautiful, yet so repetitive. The second one was alright, but it still didn't quite hit the spot. Now this one I suppose I'll need to look into.

Also, about Machiavelli's Prince, since the book came up, there's a strong scholastic theory out there (circulated in the ivory towers of academica) that Machiavelli was not only trying to anger the populace, but was actually giving negative advice in an attempt to get the prince (who had tortured Machiavelli previously) in trouble. Look at what the book says:

1. better to be feared than loved

2. arm your populace

3. Don't trust foreign intervention, but rely entirely on your own people (who hate you and are armed)

now that's a recipe for disaster

[ThunderPeel2001]

Also, just as a thing to say, upon seeing the box my girlfriend asked me "So... you play as George Michael?" Now I can't unsee that. Damn it.

Ah! It's true. I can't unsee it!

Also, about Machiavelli's Prince, since the book came up, there's a strong scholastic theory out there (circulated in the ivory towers of academica) that Machiavelli was not only trying to anger the populace, but was actually giving negative advice in an attempt to get the prince (who had tortured Machiavelli previously) in trouble. Look at what the book says:

1. better to be feared than loved

2. arm your populace

3. Don't trust foreign intervention, but rely entirely on your own people (who hate you and are armed)

now that's a recipe for disaster

That's very cool. I'd heard something along these lines, but it's nice to see it laid out like this. It certainly does look like a recipe for disaster when you put it like that, lol!

[Roderick]

I think it's time for Sexy Sax Man again!

[Patters]

It's certainly an improvement over 2, but the draw distance is still awful, I can see what's 20 metres ahead of me in real life so why can't I here.

[toblix]

Draw distance or spawn distance? I could see across town in the Xbox360 version.

[Patters]

Draw distance or spawn distance? I could see across town in the Xbox360 version.

Both, static actors, dynamic actors and textures, it's just annoying.

[PlastickCouch]

so, here's a question - is assassin's creed: brotherhood too easy?

the 1st and 2nd ones were far too easy, imo.

[toblix]

It's definitely easy, especially if you spent some time training guys before doing the story missions. That way you can just wave your hand slightly and everyone in Rome dies.

[Squid Division]

so, here's a question - is assassin's creed: brotherhood too easy?

the 1st and 2nd ones were far too easy, imo.

It's the same difficulty as the other two I think.

[Roderick]

Stop it you guys, you're making me want to play this.

[Scrobbs]

You should. It's the most fun I've had playing a game in ages.

[Sully907]

I absolutely adore this game and I agree with many of the poisitive things you gents have put forth. I also really love the story they've built for the franchise as well. I've spent hours pouring over wikis and forum discussions trying to understand it all better, and try to predict where it's going.

[CaptainFish]

I can't wait to start playing this once it unlocks on steam.

I guess the AC team realized they don't want to deal with DLC on PCs so they just delay AC until it's all out. I don't mind one bit.