Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is an upcoming direct sequel of 2009's Assassin's Creed II. Featuring Ezio once again, the game pictures him, now a legendary master assassin, leading his newly found brotherhood in a hunt for Templars. This is also the first game of the series to include a multiplayer mode of any kind.

Desmond Miles will make an appearance in Brotherhood, so the main storyline does progress. His voice actor Nolan North has admitted to be working on a new Assassin's Creed game and game developers announced that his story would "take an interesting turn".

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is confirmed to be the final game with Ezio as the main character, since Assassin's Creed III is confirmed to introduce a new protagonist.

Story
Following the events of Assassin's Creed II, Ezio Auditore da Firenze is now a legendary master assassin. However, after a surprise Templar attack on the town of Monteriggioni, led by Cesare Borgia, the Assassins are brought to the verge of extinction, and the Apple lost.

With uncle Mario dead and his villa in ruins, Ezio must now travel to Rome, center of corruption and power and home of the Templar Order in Italy in order to regain the Apple of Eden and bring the Templar Order to its knees once and for all.

Characters
Below is a list of known characters to appear in-game;

Assassins
 * Ezio Auditore da Firenze
 * Mario Auditore
 * Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli

Knights Templar
 * Rodrigo Borgia
 * Cesare Borgia
 * Lucrezia Borgia

Allies
 * Leonardo da Vinci
 * Caterina Sforza

Multiplayer characters

Note: Ubisoft has stated that all of the multiplayer characters will make an appearance in the Single-player game as well.




 * The Doctor
 * The Courtesan
 * The Executioner
 * The Banker
 * The Priest
 * The Hunter
 * The Barber
 * The Merchant
 * The Blacksmith
 * The Soldier
 * The Harlequin (limited edition/pre-order exclusive)
 * The Officer (limited edition/pre-order exclusive)

Weapons

 * Singleplayer

Note: Weapons with an asterisk (*) next to them are introduced in Brotherhood. Multiplayer Abilities
 * Longswords
 * Crossbow*
 * Double Hidden Blades
 * Poison Darts*
 * Hidden Gun(s)
 * Daggers
 * Arquebus* (unknown if usable by player)
 * Spears, Halberds and Pikes
 * Throwing Knives
 * Warhammers and Maces
 * Calivers*
 * Wheelock Pistols
 * Axes
 * Multiplayer
 * Axe - used by the Executioner.
 * Fan - used by the Courtesan.*
 * Syringe - used by the Doctor.*
 * Dagger - used by the Priest, Harlequin, Merchant, and Officer.
 * Switchblade - used by the Hunter.*
 * Claw - used by the Banker.*
 * Razor - used by the Barber.*
 * Warhammer - used by the Blacksmith.
 * Shortsword - used by the Soldier.
 * Hidden Gun (used as an ability)
 * Smoke Bomb (used as an ability)
 * Throwing Knives (used as an ability)
 * Morph
 * Speed Boost
 * Disguise
 * Decoy
 * Poison
 * Power Charge
 * Firecrackers
 * Smoke Bomb

Other Tools
Other than the weapons, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood will include some old and new tools avaliable to Ezio Auditore.
 * Horses
 * Advanced Flying Machine
 * Mounted Cannons
 * Merchandise Lift
 * Chase-Breakers
 * Parachutes

Enemies

 * Papal Guards
 * Brutes
 * Seekers
 * Arquebusier
 * Militia Guards

Singleplayer
Ubisoft claims (through conferences, videos and announces) that Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood will include new features, especially small gameplay add-on (i.e.: the flying Sequence in Assassin's Creed II, different from the rest of the gameplay). New weapons such as the crossbow will be introduced, and new combat elements will also be introduced, rewarding those who attack first, for example. Additionally enemies will more likely attack together instead of just one at a time as seen in previous instalments.

It is also likely that the player (through Ezio) will have to train apprentices, help other assassins, and confront enemies along with them.

Ezio's ability to train and send other assassins on jobs and missions may have a key gameplay element in such that their success may have a small impact of the storyline, much like the progression of the game through upgrading Rome. This success will depend on abilities of the assassins sent, where younger, less experienced assassins will have a higher failure rate than older, more experienced ones. If your assassins die on a mission, they will not return. Ezio may also have the ability to select and bring along a group of assassins to assist in his missions, Ubisoft has said that in Brotherhood leadership is as vital a skill as the ability to use a sword. Also mentioned was the ability to select an assassin as Ezio's "personal assassin", no further information about this was given.

Multiplayer
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is the first Assassin's Creed game to feature a multiplayer mode. The players are Templars in training at the Abstergo facility. They use the Animus and the Bleeding Effect to train in combat, stealth and free running. The simulation consists of stalking and killing one another. The area in which the Templar assassins train is selected manually, as pre-set maps.

One of the multiplayer game modes has been announced in the July edition of Playstation magazine. This mode is called "Wanted". Six to eight players are dropped on a map where they find and kill each other. Each player is given a target, which is another player. Your goal is to find and kill your target without being seen or killed by your own predator. If you break your cover and your target sees you, a chase sequence will commence. They will try to catch and kill you and you will have to hide from them.

In Hunter mode, one player will take the role of an assassin while other players play as guards. Before the beginning of the mission the player will have to choose his class - there is no information how many classes will be available, but each class will have different animations and weapons. After the player has chosen his class, the radar will show him the area where his target is located and the number of enemy players that are searching for him. After the player has found the location where the victim is hiding they must then locate their target. There aren’t many skins for the NPCs so the player might find several identical people on the same location. That will make his job a lot harder because he should kill only one person, and if the player accidentally kills an innocent person he will lose his contract. Therefore, observation is the key to success in this mode. Ubisoft hints that each multiplayer character will appear in some form in the single-player mode too.

No further specifics about game modes are known.

The Beta comes out in September. You can only play the Beta on the PS3. However it is only available in North American for the time being. To get it, you must pre-order the PS3 version of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood at Gamestop. You will recieve a code and you must input it on this site.

Note: If you pre-ordered Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood at Gamestop already and did not recieve a code, you may show your receipt of pre-order to a clerk at Gamestop around August 9 and get a code.

Physics and effects
After some criticism from PC gamers about the Ragdoll physics in previous installments, Ubisoft has stated that the physics will be improved upon in Brotherhood, as well as several graphical effects in the game.

Ragdolls will fall much more realistic due to the new, edited "Havok" engine. In the other games, ragdolls sometimes would convulse when hitting the floor after being thrown off a building.

Controlling the Assassins
During the game you will have the option of sending Assassins to different areas to complete tasks. You will have the ability to send new assassins to other European countries and complete missions to gain status. Once they have proven themselves effectively, they can accompany you on missions in Rome. The new assassins are recruited when Ezio rescues them from harassing guards, which leads them to join the Assassins. You can have the ability to train young Assassins and have them do jobs for you.

If an Assassin fails to pass a mission, he can't be used again. You can also customize the assassins' armor and weaponry, and each one has a different personality. Later on you can use experience points they've gained to upgrade their fighting and free-running abilities.
 * So far it's known that you will be able to train at least twelve assassins, male or female, at a time and possibly bring up to five, including the "personal assassin", on missions.
 * So far, Ezio and Desmond are the only known playable characters in the singleplayer game campaign

Limited Editions
Three special Editions have been revealed so far for the game. Europe will have the 'Codex' and 'Auditore' Edition. The Codex Edition will only be available through Play.com, while the Auditore Edition will be available through other retailers. North America will have the 'Collector's Edition' with the exclusive Harlequin figure available at Gamestop, while the Collectors edition with the Doctor figure is available at other retailers

The Codex Edition

 * Renaissance Collector Chest
 * Altaïr's exclusive Codex
 * Hard Copy Strategy Map of Rome
 * Multi player characters cards
 * DVD of the Assassin’s Creed: Lineage short-film
 * Bonus Disc
 * Exclusive Making-of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood Video
 * Digital Sneak Peak at the comic book series
 * Trailers
 * Game Soundtrack
 * 2 Exclusive single player maps: Aqua Gear & Trajan Market
 * 2 Multi player characters: Harlequin & Officer

The Auditore Edition

 * Transparancy box with 3D thermoformed portrait of Ezio Auditore and " Animus" effect
 * Multiplayer character cards
 * Aqua Gear exclusive single player map
 * DVD of the Assassin's Creed: Lineage short-film

The Collector's Edition

 * Collectible black package
 * The Harlequin Jack-in-the-Box Collectible exclusive to GameStop customers only or The Doctor Jack-in-the-Box if purchased anywhere else
 * Two Exclusive In-Game Single Player Maps
 * Hard Copy Strategy Map of Rome
 * Exclusive Art Book
 * Bonus Disc
 * Exclusive Making-of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood Video
 * Digital Sneak Peak at the comic book series
 * Trailers
 * Game Soundtrack
 * Helmschmied Drachen armor(The special armor is only available if purchased at Amazon.com)

Special Edition

 * Trajan Market Map Pack
 * Officer Multiplayer Character

Trivia

 * In the E3 2010 Single Player Walkthrough, the "Press Start/Enter" menu background changes from the original Animus in Assassin's Creed to the Animus 2.0 in Assassin's Creed II. As all of the characters in the multiplayer mode are Templars, it can be seen that they are using Abstergo Animi.

Developer Diaries
thumb|300px|left|The first of the Developer Diaries