Trust no-one…
You could easily be forgiven for focusing solely upon the single-player of the up-coming Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood and passing off its brand-new multiplayer feature as a tacked-on cash in, but you may not want to be so quick in casting it aside; if the recent Playstation 3 online Beta is anything to go by, this title may end up being one of the most original and engaging multi-player efforts on the market in quite some time.
Cat and Mouse
The goal here is simple; taking on the role of one of many gorgeously detailed, distinct Templar assassins, players are deposited onto the Renaissance streets and tasked with hunting down a target as stealthily as they possibly can. The twist? Someone else is al
so looking for you too, meaning that you’ll have to be quick about it and use as much wit and brain as you can possibly muster in order to survive. As you would expect from such a tense game of cat and mouse, paranoia is rife and patience - along with a healthy serving of quick reactions and good observational skills - are vital if you want to succeed or make a decent notch upon the end-of-match leaderboards. And keen observation is a necessity here; because every crowd member on the busy map is a duplicate of each participating player’s avatar, danger could be waiting anywhere, at anytime. Moreover, each AI participant has been actively programmed to act unpredictably, frequently imitating the behaviour of a flighty player and pushing you ever closer to the edge of a seat you’re already practically falling off of.
This quite obviously leads to some fantastically enjoyable chases though the cluttered alleys and to some truly heart-pounding man-hunts across the map in a fantastically nerve-wracking game of acumen, but the fact that it comes so neatly packaged in such a polished, well-balanced and thrilling experience is absolutely breath-taking. As for the sceptics out there, it’s not quite as straightforward as it may sound either - although you can admittedly snag a couple of easy kills by dashing pell-mell across the arena, it’s also almost certain that you’ll be found and eliminated in the process as surely as planting a hefty bulls-eye right over your head. To add insult to injury, you will only receive the minimum point-score for your efforts too, for the stealthier and more original the kill, the larger the reward you will receive.
What’s more, the odds are very evenly tipped both ways so that each player has an equal chance of success; if you think that you’re being followed, melt into a crowd of doppelgangers to confuse the would-be-killer (they lose the contract if they murder a civilian) and then ambush them when they’re in your grasp. If you’re unsure of where your mark is, follow your compass on the HUD to track them down - it glows brighter when you’re near. If you’re being pursued, use counter-measures such as the smoke-bomb to momentarily stun your suspect before making your escape. In a nutshell, creativity and patience prove to be far better tools here on the terrifying knife-edge then a quick trigger-finger and a fast connection, meaning that you’ll have to rely on your gut and grey-matter rather than your high rank to succeed.
Balanced
Not that it’s one sided, of course; developer Ubisoft have intelligently put many fail-safes in place to stop anyone gaining an unfair lead largely through giving high kill-streak players multiple pursuers, ‘death-streak’ bonuses to struggling assassins, a great kill-streak bonus that will help most catch up so long as they keep their wits about them and fantastic, unlockable perks such as the ‘disguise’ ability that can change your appearance briefly (fortunately even these abilities must be recharged after use before they can be accessed again, and this leads to a very varied and engaging - but vitally balanced - game). If you are spotted, however, it’s not the end of the road - if your foe makes a blunder or is discovered, you enter into a chase sequence where all secrecy is out of the window and you have to use every skill of free-running or old-fashioned hiding you possess to escape with your life, not to mention utilising traps, obstacles and escape routes (illuminated on-screen) to your every advantage.
The only problems present in the beta even worth me
ntioning would be the fact that misfortune is often a rather contributing factor to failure (spawning and then accidentally walking into your pursuer is a right pain), and occasional technical glitches sincerely cause annoyance when they eventually rear their ugly heads, but seeing as the former was thankfully uncommon and the latter will undoubtedly be ironed out for the big release, there’s not much here that could manage to put a downer on proceedings come the November 19th release day.
The Bottom Line
In spite of being initially met with a certain level of scepticism, the latest Assassin’s Creed could well end up being the run-away multiplayer star of this year. If you’re tired of the familiar to-and-fro of traditional online shooters or are eager for something very different from the usual bread and butter of Xbox LIVE or the PSN, then this most definitely deserves a look both online and off.
You could easily be forgiven for focusing solely upon the single-player of the up-coming Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood and passing off its brand-new multiplayer feature as a tacked-on cash in, but you may not want to be so quick in casting it aside; if the recent Playstation 3 online Beta is anything to go by, this title may end up being one of the most original and engaging multi-player efforts on the market in quite some time.
Cat and Mouse
The goal here is simple; taking on the role of one of many gorgeously detailed, distinct Templar assassins, players are deposited onto the Renaissance streets and tasked with hunting down a target as stealthily as they possibly can. The twist? Someone else is al
so looking for you too, meaning that you’ll have to be quick about it and use as much wit and brain as you can possibly muster in order to survive. As you would expect from such a tense game of cat and mouse, paranoia is rife and patience - along with a healthy serving of quick reactions and good observational skills - are vital if you want to succeed or make a decent notch upon the end-of-match leaderboards. And keen observation is a necessity here; because every crowd member on the busy map is a duplicate of each participating player’s avatar, danger could be waiting anywhere, at anytime. Moreover, each AI participant has been actively programmed to act unpredictably, frequently imitating the behaviour of a flighty player and pushing you ever closer to the edge of a seat you’re already practically falling off of.This quite obviously leads to some fantastically enjoyable chases though the cluttered alleys and to some truly heart-pounding man-hunts across the map in a fantastically nerve-wracking game of acumen, but the fact that it comes so neatly packaged in such a polished, well-balanced and thrilling experience is absolutely breath-taking. As for the sceptics out there, it’s not quite as straightforward as it may sound either - although you can admittedly snag a couple of easy kills by dashing pell-mell across the arena, it’s also almost certain that you’ll be found and eliminated in the process as surely as planting a hefty bulls-eye right over your head. To add insult to injury, you will only receive the minimum point-score for your efforts too, for the stealthier and more original the kill, the larger the reward you will receive.
What’s more, the odds are very evenly tipped both ways so that each player has an equal chance of success; if you think that you’re being followed, melt into a crowd of doppelgangers to confuse the would-be-killer (they lose the contract if they murder a civilian) and then ambush them when they’re in your grasp. If you’re unsure of where your mark is, follow your compass on the HUD to track them down - it glows brighter when you’re near. If you’re being pursued, use counter-measures such as the smoke-bomb to momentarily stun your suspect before making your escape. In a nutshell, creativity and patience prove to be far better tools here on the terrifying knife-edge then a quick trigger-finger and a fast connection, meaning that you’ll have to rely on your gut and grey-matter rather than your high rank to succeed.
Balanced
Not that it’s one sided, of course; developer Ubisoft have intelligently put many fail-safes in place to stop anyone gaining an unfair lead largely through giving high kill-streak players multiple pursuers, ‘death-streak’ bonuses to struggling assassins, a great kill-streak bonus that will help most catch up so long as they keep their wits about them and fantastic, unlockable perks such as the ‘disguise’ ability that can change your appearance briefly (fortunately even these abilities must be recharged after use before they can be accessed again, and this leads to a very varied and engaging - but vitally balanced - game). If you are spotted, however, it’s not the end of the road - if your foe makes a blunder or is discovered, you enter into a chase sequence where all secrecy is out of the window and you have to use every skill of free-running or old-fashioned hiding you possess to escape with your life, not to mention utilising traps, obstacles and escape routes (illuminated on-screen) to your every advantage.
The only problems present in the beta even worth me
ntioning would be the fact that misfortune is often a rather contributing factor to failure (spawning and then accidentally walking into your pursuer is a right pain), and occasional technical glitches sincerely cause annoyance when they eventually rear their ugly heads, but seeing as the former was thankfully uncommon and the latter will undoubtedly be ironed out for the big release, there’s not much here that could manage to put a downer on proceedings come the November 19th release day.The Bottom Line
In spite of being initially met with a certain level of scepticism, the latest Assassin’s Creed could well end up being the run-away multiplayer star of this year. If you’re tired of the familiar to-and-fro of traditional online shooters or are eager for something very different from the usual bread and butter of Xbox LIVE or the PSN, then this most definitely deserves a look both online and off.
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