
I'm kind of glad that I get to review AssCreeBro as a noob meaning this is the first AssCreed I ever play. No rampant fanboism in this review no way!
AssCreedBro is the third game by Ubisoft (And all the multicultural people who work there) in the AssCreed series and the second game featuring the oh so sexy Ezio Auditore Da something something.
Starting off the game I was completely lost on what was going on but luckily some light recapping done by Ezio and various cutscenes got me caught up with the main bullet points of the AssCreed storyline. Apparently the world has been taken over by some horribly oppressive force and it up to Desmond and his Scooby gang to chase down an ancient artifact that might be the answer to bringing down the corporation.
In the beginning you get to test out the basic controls fro controlling Ezio and I would like to say, hand cramps. I've never had to hold so many buttons to do things before. It felt weird in the beginning when you were being forced to keep up with someone as you ran through a small villa and I couldn't stay on the rooftops for more that 3 seconds without flailing and falling onto the ground below. As the game progressed however I got the hang of the basic jump,climb, run mechanic and found it to be fluid. Not one of the easiest games to learn the controls for.
The fighting is where this game puts me off. Its just so clunky and awkward I avoided fighting unless I accidentally stabbed a guard (which happened way too much). I'm not going to lie, when you landed a hit it felt solid and the clang of metal against metal or flesh was music to my ears. The thing was that you had to hold a button to do counters or dodge an attack and when you're being attacked by 10 or more guards you don't have enough reaction time and wind up getting sliced up. Even when you do try to do a counter if its off by a second you end up doing this weird mystical hand wave thing that leaves you open for attack. Regular attacking is just a one button mash until you land a hit and kill your opponent so there are no combos to preform. There is a kick button which is insanely helpful when the asshole guards block 98% of your attacks; it breaks their guard by delivering a kick to the balls. When you do manage to counter Ezio preforms glorious dance of death that has him kill an enemy in such a great way; from double eye stabs to a blade in the stomach to neck breaking, its really something. The silent assassinations are pretty easy to do and incredibly satisfying. Dropping a Borgia guard and continuing your badass mofo walk is easy and highly awesome.
I got a bit lost with the story but from what I gathered, a man named Cesare Borgia son of the first Borgia you kill in the second game (So I've heard) is back for revenge or something but he attacks Ezio's city, kills his Uncle Mario, and confronts Ezio inviting him to Rome then shooting him. This pisses off Ezio and vows revenge. The story circles around Cesare and how Ezio takes him down bit by bit. Then some orb comes into play that has amazing amounts of power (but bogs you down extremely when you actually use it in-game) and needs to be taken away from him. You meet alot of great characters during the span of the single player story(Leonardo is here again), each with their own problems that Ezio MUST help them resolve. In the real world, Desmond and the gang find out where the orb is and some things happen in the end that left me going wtf. Cliff hanger ending that irritated me but my friends say that's how the first two AssCreed's ended.
Ok now to the main thing about the new AssCreed, the Assassins you can hire. You can spot them being attacked by Borgia guards and you must defend them and kill the guards before you can hire them. You can send them on on assassinations to different locations and although the descriptions sound awesome the assassination contracts occur via tons amount of texts and commands. You can also call assassins into battle to help you out and kill certain targets so you don't have to or want to remain hidden. There's also a pretty awesome Arrow Storm ability when you have a certain amount of assassins that lets you rain down arrows on groups of Borgia for fast crowd control. All and all they are insanely helpful in a pinch and are easily replaceable if one falls in battle (which is rare anyway).
Quick note, this game is incredibly gorgeous. Seriously I've never seen such a great looking game. From the cobblestone streets to the architecture to the sky, everything is very nicely made and makes you feel like you're in there during that time period.
There are tons of collectibles with the Feathers and Flags and there is also renovation of buildings which I find kind of stupid since the money you earn from renovating them is the same money you use to renovate other buildings so its a vicious cyclone of money. You can use money to upgrade your gear but they don't cost much and neither do health potions so you end up with all this extra cash and nothing to spend it on which just keeps on growing until your wallet explodes I guess. You get tons of weapons but you'll end up using your double blades the majority of the time and the rest feel like random knickknacks you can't get rid of.
In all this game is great and if you're a pre-existing fan of the franchise you probably already have it but if you're a new player I suggest it highly. It inspired me to go out and buy AssCreed2 and see what I've been missing.
(Note: I didn't talk about the multiplayer partly because I had no one to play with and I forgot it existed before returning it.)









