Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood Beta: A Live Journal

We're spending all day playing the new multiplayer game, and sharing what we learn.

Ubisoft Montreal has some big ambitions for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. Among them are plans to expand the franchise from a single-player experience to a broader multiplayer game, while still maintaining the tight fiction that has been the core of the franchise. We've dug into the beginning of that experience in the newly released beta, and we'll be updating throughout the day with our impressions. Make sure and check back throughout the day.

UPDATE 1, 0:43:

It's a big download onto my PS3, so I had a long wait before I could dive into the action. With the full beta finally up and running, I hopped in from my cross media bar, and was greeted by the stark white UI that has characterized the series so far.

It looks as if the frontend of the beta uses the same menu as the main game eventually will. There's an entry for Story Mode, and several other options, but everything except for Multiplayer is grayed out.

Once in the multiplayer selection, the game wastes little time in setting up the plot conceit that lies behind the multplayer game. I learn that I'm an Abstergo employee/Templar, and I'll be training through the animus in order to better confront the Assassins. The best "trainees" will be graded and progress through the training. So, yeah. While in multiplayer, you're basically playing the bad guys.

Right away, the game kindly ushers me into an introductory session in the streets of Rome. Though I know some additional customization options are coming soon, the initial choice I'm given is quite simple – choose a skin for my in-game avatar in the upcoming match. These skins are merely cosmetic, but they do each have their own movement and kill animations, and each one of them has a little one-sentence story point connected to them.

The skins on display at the beginning include: an old priest, a hunchbacked nobleman, a prowler who looks very much like an Assassin, a sexy courtesan with a fan blade for a weapon, a beak-nosed doctor, an axe-wielding executioner, and a foppish engineer. There are slots for more, but none are playable right now.

The match that follows, roaming through the streets of Rome, is pure tutorial. It teaches the basics of interaction and user interface, which are quite clever. A circular radar of sorts sits over your character. A cone on the circle indicates your target's direction and distance – the cone gets wider the closer you get.

Even while I take down my target, there's someone else who is chasing me. I have to keep my eyes out for their approach, since I don't know what my pursuer looks like. Once he shows himself by starting to run or do other high-profile actions, I'm alerted to his presence, and can try to run and escape, and then hide.

The interplay between hunting and hunted is the centerpiece of play in the Wanted game mode. With that, I'm ready for some real throwdowns, and I head off to confront other beta players. More after my first few matches.

UPDATE 2, 1:30:

Brotherhood multiplayer has a nice matchmaking system in place if you're not already playing with a group of friends. Tap "Play Now" and the game drops you into a match with seven other players.

I'm only seeing two maps show up as options this early in the beta, but I know for a fact that are more that will roll out with the game. The first is Rome, a sprawling city map with lots of cool places to hide and run along the rooftops. The centerpiece of the map appears to be the world-famous Pantheon.  It took me well into my second or third match in the level before I had any sense of the map's shape and strategic advantages.

Castel Gandolfo is a much more symmetrical and easily understood map, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Set within the confines of a large front-end of a castle, the action occurs in either the outer corridors or in the large courtyard near the center of the map. There are not quite as many places to hide up high, and little in the way of rooftop running, but the level has a court intrigue vibe about it that is pretty fun.

First-person shooter multiplayer guys are in for a shock when they find out how stupid it is to go running around the map like a crazy person. High-profile jumps and sprints should only be brought out as a last resort. Otherwise, it's far too easy to alert your pursuer to your location amid the crowd – a lesson I learned all to quickly after getting a knife in the back.

Instead, carefully walking towards your target from afar seems to be a better option. The sense of stalking is quite unlike anything else I've seen in a multiplayer game, and it's really awesome how much I find myself rotating the camera around to see if anyone is following me. I had some thrilling kills with my Doctor in my first match, and took 3rd place. Afterwords, a rematch headed me into the same competition again with the same players, to see if I could outdo my score.

That score, whether I win or lose, goes toward leveling my Templar trainee. It only took a few matches to get into the leveling progression system, and realize its potential depth. I'll detail that in the next update, after I get a few more new abilities under my belt.

UPDATE 3, 2:20

Leveling in Brotherhood happens automatically as you play. Your score on each match determines the winner of the match, but it also goes toward improving your character, whether you score well or not.

Each level unlocks various abilities, profile options, and even additional cosmetic skins. After only my first match I already had my first triggered ability, called Disguise. This ability can be used with a tap of a button, and transforms my character into a different skin. If my pursuer is after me, they wouldn't know it was me unless they were watching their radar very carefully.

Along with the new Disguise ability, 2nd level also opened up my first profile set. Each profile set is a unique loadout of abilities that you can select between deaths during a match, or prior to the beginning of a match. Profiles include two triggered abilities, two passive perks, and two streak bonuses that go into effect when you're doing really well (lots of kills in a row) or really poorly (lots of deaths in a row). Initially, most of these special features are locked on my profile set.

Looking ahead, there are at least 20 levels that appear to be available in the beta. I can look at what unlocks at each level, but I can't use those abilities yet. Beyond level 20, more locked levels beckon, but they are grayed out for now, so I assume those higher levels will only appear in the final retail game.

After a couple of hours I'm well into my 5th level. I've got a sprint boost option now, as well as two streak bonuses equipped on my profile. However, I'm not far enough yet to have a second profile set. That will come later.

Next up, I'll detail some more in-match hijinks, including one or two awesome kills of my own, along with more than a couple embarrassing deaths. That guy came out of nowhere, I swear!

UPDATE 4, 3:20

It's a little tricky to encapsulate what makes this Wanted mode so much fun, since so much of any given match involves just walking around the board, trying to look inconspicuous. What makes the game thrilling are those occasional bursts of action and how fast they come out of nowhere. To that end, here's a few standout moments from my first few hours of play.

Situation 1 – I'm walking around Castel Gandolfo as the Courtesan. I'm keeping my profile low as I slowly walk outside towards the front courtyard. I think I've spied my target, the Nobleman, across the expanse. He's even walking in my direction, because he hasn't seen me yet. At the same time, out of a nearby door comes an Engineer, and he's definitely not an NPC. Even though he's walking, he is weaving around like a crazy person walking one way for a second, and then changing directions. The one consistency is that he's moving my way – this is my pursuer, for sure. I move to the top of the stairs, around the edge of a pillar. To stay low profile, he'll have to walk around the pillar, rather than leap over and tackle me. As he rounds the corner, I furiously tap the Circle button, and my courtesan gets in close to stun my pursuer. This is absurdly gratifying. Since he's my pursuer, I can't kill him, only stun him. But as he reels from my attack, the nobleman I've been chasing has gotten close. Abandoning all pretense of subtlety, I charge down the stairs and leap towards the nobleman, even as he tries (too late) to get away. My fan cuts a clean kill across his neck, and he's gone. With the death animation complete, I run away before my engineer friend recovers further.

Situation 2 – I've been tailing this prowler character for two blocks. He hasn't noticed me yet, I think, and he's entirely intent on his target. I'm slowly getting closer. Out of nowhere, a robed priest leaps off the building nearby and skewers me. I am dead. I should have been paying more attention to the rooftops. With my death, my target is gone as well. Time to start over.

Situation 3 – She's definitely seen me. The courtesan I'm pursuing through Rome must have been clued in by something I did, and she's making a run for it. I'm playing as the hooded executioner, with a gruesome looking hand axe. She runs. I chase. I clearly see her, and she knows it, so she smartly ducks into the marketplace in front of the Pantheon and starts making turns left and right to throw me off. I stay with her. She leaps to a windowsill, and climbs up to a low roof, and I'm right on her heels. She throws me off at one point as she leaps across to a roof across the street. I miss the jump, but continue my pursuit on the ground, and then ascend to the roofs later at an opportune time. This is one of my longer chases so far. Then she makes her mistake. She's a little slow as she climbs up a ledge, and I'm right on her heels. With a tap of the Square button, my executioner grabs her ankle and flings her from the roof to finish my contract. Points for me! Sadly, all this shenanigans has attracted my pursuers attention. As I turn back to look where she fell, a doctor is standing 5 feet away from me. He kills me before I can even turn away.

Next up, I'll explore what gets points/experience. And what doesn't.

Update 5, 4:00:

The scoring and experience system in Brotherhood are one and the same. Do well in a match, and you're moving that much faster toward leveling.

Unlike many multiplayer games, high-placing finishes aren't the primary means of progress, though you'll certainly finish well if you accumulate a lot of points on a match. Even when you don't finish well in a hard match, if you got some points it is worth your while. The people who score in the the top spots will only get a few more points than you for the finish. However, they may have a lot more points than you from the events that occurred during the match.

Let me explain. Almost all the points you get in the game are based on bonuses. You can even view what these bonuses are in the menu.

Bonuses are split into four categories. The first (and probably most important) are Kills Bonuses. These are the points you get based on individual kills, and the way you complete them. In most cases, high point values come from careful kills that don't garner a lot of attention. So, you might get 100 points for the kill you make while wildly chasing your target. But walk through a crowd, step right up to his face, stand there for a few moments, and then strike, and you might be looking at a 700 point kill. To that end, even players who only get three of four awesome kills in a match can easily beat out players who killed 10 people, but all in a gaudy and obvious way. Some of the kills bonuses include: Incognito (killing a target without going into high profile), Acrobatic (killing while climbing, hanging, or being in the air), Revenge (kill the last templar who killed you), and Focus (stay next to a target for at least 3 seconds before dealing the death blow).

Actions Bonuses mostly reward avoidance of your pursuer. Like Kills, you can gain experience just by wisely staying alive and avoiding your attackers. Examples include: Escape (get away while being chased), Lure (Cause your pursuer to kill a decoy or a civilian diguised as you), and Stun (stun a pursuer). By the way, that last one is really tough.

The third group are team bonuses, which we haven't run into yet in our games, as the matches are limited to the free-for-all Wanted mode. All of these involve special events that can be completed by working together with your co-op partner. Examples include: Assist (your teammate kills a target that you locked-on), and Rescue (Stun a pursuer who is chasing your teammate).

Finally, session bonuses show up at the end of a match. Examples include: Podium (finish in first, second, or third), and Untouchable (never die in the match).

Together, these bonuses result in most of the points I've gotten so far in matches. With eight players all vying to take each other out, it's pretty hard to take first consistently. But play smart, and it's easy to level.

Next up, my overall impressions of my time with the game today.

Update 6, 5:00:

After playing for an extended session today, Brotherhood's multiplayer offers me plenty of reasons to be excited. The competitive dynamic is completely unlike any other I've experienced in a game. Mixing stealth and action in a really exciting way, the game keeps you on your toes with the thrill of nailing a kill, and the utter defeat of getting taken down yourself.

Wanted mode is quite cool, but I'm glad to hear that Ubisoft is implementing other modes into the multiplayer experience. As fun as it is, I'm not sure Wanted holds up over endless repeated matches on two maps. Luckily, there are a lot more of those coming as well, which should increase the fun dramatically.

The progression system is a blast, and should be all the incentive that many players might need to keep playing match after match. Utilizing the classic RPG dynamic, leveling slows down as you move forward, but Ubisoft has wisely dangled the carrot of upcoming abilities in front of players to keep them going. Knowing that in one more level I'll get that hidden gun upgrade really keeps me coming back for more. I could foresee some pretty misbalanced sessions in the retail game if matchmaking isn't handled well. Here's hoping that Ubisoft has a smart system for matching players with similarly leveled opponents. In the beta, it's impossible to tell.

In-game balance of mechanics is really good, even a couple of months before release. No doubt, some features will change in the coming weeks. I'd like to see the Stun ability increase in effectiveness a little bit. Right now it's really hard to implement, so there's not much to do if you recognize your pursuer except run for it. Maybe that's the way it should be, but it would be nice to have a little more potent means to fight back, or counter their assault once it comes in.

The best part of the multiplayer game, in my mind, is the scoring system. Without it, there'd be nothing to keep players from running around the map like chickens with their heads cut off. As it is, the massive point rewards for staying hidden keep players devoted to the quiet assassination mechanic that the franchise was founded on. That said, I'm hopeful that some of the soon-to-be revealed game modes offer some more action-oriented competition, if only for a change of pace.

Needless to say, I've only just scratched the surface of the multiplayer options that are on the way when Brotherhood releases in November. That's not to mention the massive new single-player campaign that Ubisoft is finishing up as we speak.

Put it all together, and it's hard to conclude that Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood will be anything but one of the holiday's most exciting blockbusters. If wrinkles in the tech can be hammered out in the beta, and the single-player experience turns out as well as it looks like it might, Brotherhood has the potential to be the biggest and best entry in the franchise to date.