Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood Q&A

Hey all, 

            I found out that the site i did the podcast for -we had a Assassin's Creed:Brotherhood Q&A, so i thougt i'd post it up here as well.

 

An exclusive Q&A with some of the team behind one of 2010 biggest upcoming games. They answer some questions that the fans wanted to know. Read on assassin.

 

• What made you guys decide to continue Ezio’s story instead of a new Assassin?

 Answered by: Vincent Pontbriand, Producer

 

We love Ezio as much as our fans and thanks to their response to AC2, we are honored to share the story of the second part of Ezio’s life to our fans. Also, it enables us to delve deeper in the entire Assassin’s Creed universe, including Desmond’s story, and to approach new themes. For example, AC2 story was the personal revenge story of Ezio while in Brotherhood, it’s about Ezio becoming a leader and how his actions affect the world. I believe fans are in for a treat as the story touches many new grounds and will showcase the grandiose battle between the Assassin and the Templars.

 

• I’ve heard that you can now take your horse in to the city’s rather than leaving them outside the city walls… can you ride in the city at any time or is it only during storyline cinematic events?

 Answered by: Vincent Pontbriand, Producer

 

Players have complete freedom of movement when riding a horse you can travel throughout all of Rome’s districts! It provides also some of the game’s strongest moment; for example reaching the Coliseum at night, for the first time, is a very powerful moment. For us, this is a big evolution as it transforms the way players interact with the world. You can free-running from and onto the horse, hijack horses, and assassinate targets from your horse that are on the ground or on other horses. The result is stunning and feels great when you achieve these cool new moves.

 

• How many unlockable characters are available for online play?

 Answered by: Vincent Pontbriand, Producer

 

As you progress in the multiplayer and achieve certain objectives, players will unlock new characters to play with. However, their number and who they are will remain a mystery until launch.

 

• Now you are a brotherhood of Assassin’s are the missions broken down into parts where you do a certain bit of it & the AI Assassin’s do another part or can you decide to do the whole mission yourself?

 Answered by: Vincent Pontbriand, Producer

Ezio will recruit in his Brotherhood, citizens with special abilities and will train them to become assassin’s themselves. A totally new development in the franchise is our new Brotherhood system. There are actually two separate features: one is the actual calling the Signal Assassin’, the other is the Assassin’s Guild Management. Brotherhood assassin can be called using the Signal Assassin feature and will appear and fight alongside the player. They can be summoned at any time and will dispatch any foes you have targeted. This means Brotherhood assassin will come in a support Ezio on his mission but all missions must be completed by Ezio. Thus, there is no mission where the players will take a seat back and watch the action they must be proactive.

 

The Assassin’s Guild Management is important for us the way you customize your assassins in the Management part directly impacting what happens when you call your brotherhood assassin in-game. For example, a recruit that you equip with a red outfit will effectively appear in red once called. Also, all their weapons and armour will be up to date and their skills will evolve as well. The end result is that calling a level 1 in battle is not as efficient as calling a level 5, which is not as efficient as calling a level 10. That’s why the contracts are so important and the player will realise it very early. The earlier they invest time in developing their guild, the quicker they will become more powerful! Evidently, this affects the pace and dynamics of each mission but we ensure that every mission is challenging whether you use the assassins or not.

 

• Being part of a Brotherhood, do you control the other Assassin’s like a squad, issuing orders & commands?

 Answered by: Vincent Pontbriand, Producer

 

Ezio order his assassin to attack using his Signals Assassin by pressing the RB (Xbox 360) / L2 (PS3). Pressing this command quickly will call-in the assassins who will assassinate the target designed by Ezio as efficiently as possible. For example, if equipped with smoke bombs, they will throw the smoke bomb to create confusion among the enemies and then assassinate them. Ezio can also order what we call a shower of arrows by holding the command (L2/RB) Brotherhood assassin will position and shoot multiple arrows to kill the targets designed by Ezio. However, all of these actions can’t just be called continuously; they are tied to a Token system. Each action require a token which, when used, takes time to reload before it can be used again. Simply calling assassins will take one Token but a shower of arrows will take much more. Thus, players must use their assassin carefully and when the moments ask for it it’s not just a win button where Ezio can just sit back and watch his assassins do all the work.

 

Assassins follow the Creed’s rule and attack the foes you initially targeted. Their actions are very organic and they will react to the world around them. For example, if they attack a group of soldier by surprise they will dispatch them quickly but if they are spotted by other guards, they will have to defend themselves. Assassin’s with little experience will be quickly overwhelmed and die at the hand of Borgia soldiers. When called, they will also react to you and your strategy; for example if you are riding on a horse and plan to enter directly in an enemy’s camp, the Brotherhood assassins will appear on horse too and help you breach the camp.

 

• Is the game set only in Rome or are you able to visit other locations such as Spain or other parts of Italy?

Answered by: Vincent Pontbriand, Producer

 

The story takes Ezio to other locations such as Viana in Spain and other region of Italia while tracking down and trying to destroy Leonardo’s war machines. For examples, players will be able to explore a harbor in Naples.

 

• Will Leonardo’s inventions such as the tank be usable outside of the story?

Answered by: Vincent Pontbriand, Producer

 

Ezio’s goal is destroy them as soon as he finds them, thus they will not be available outside of these missions.

 

The war machines pose a major threat to Ezio. These are all based on drawings Leonardo made for actual inventions. One of them is the naval cannon which can render useless an entire boat fleet in minutes. Mounted on top of a gondola, the cannon shoots flare which enflames the sails of boat, making them immobile and useless. Another war machine is Leo’s version of the machine gun. On top of a chariot is a mounted wheel with multiple small cannons. Like the chamber of a revolver, each cannon is one shot transforming the mounted wheel into a deadly, but primitive, machine gun.

 

Ezio’s going to need to destroy them to stop Cesare’s advance through Italy. We’re not going to reveal how Cesare got a hold of the plans for these inventions just yet. There will be more about this closer to launch of the game.

 

• In Assassin’s Creed II you were able to spend in-game credits on better weapons & gadgets, is that mechanic still apart of Assassins Creed Brotherhood & do you now have to spend the credits across your squad as well? (follow on from previous question)

Answered by: Vincent Pontbriand, Producer

 

Florins can’t be used to improve the assassins. Brotherhood assassins can be sent on mission across Europe where to stop the Templar influence. When they come back, and they might not as they can die on those missions, they will have earned experience which can be invested in upgrading them. For example, you can improve his arsenal of weapons to include smoke bombs which they can use when you call them in-game  which is very spectacular and create a lot of confusion among unsuspecting guards.

 

However, Florins can be used in the economic system that has been revamped and now applies to the entire city of Rome. In the game you see it tied to the Borgia Towers gameplay; after defeating a Borgia Leader, you free the zone and can upgrade the neighbourhood. Visiting an Architect will enable players to open and improve shops, stables can be purchased, aqueducts renovated and faction HQ improved.

 

This unlocks more items and also changes the whole economic settings. The sky will change, so does the crowd life; the NPCs of Rome going about their duties will change to mirror the fact that you are making Rome a richer place to live, a nicer place to live.

 

• Is the Single Player more hands off than previous e.g. ordering archers & Help?

Answered by: Vincent Pontbriand, Producer

 

Not at all, as I previously mentioned the assassin’s are not just a win button that can be called continuously. In addition to the restriction from the Token system, Brotherhood assassins can die if they are overwhelmed by Borgia soldiers. As such, Ezio can use them very effectively for quick and effective strike but if there are many enemies, players will have to fight too if they want their assassins to survive. If they die, they are gone forever; all the time players will have spent upgrading them by sending them in mission throughout Europe will vanish. Thus, careful use is necessary to ensure they are used effectively.

 

• How long exactly is the Single Player Campaign?

Answered by: Vincent Pontbriand, Producer

 

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood singleplayer is as large, or even larger, than Assassin’s Creed 2. Add in the new sync system which provides the ability to replay each mission with constraints that challenges players to do the mission like Ezio did and you have our biggest game yet.

 

• The ending of ACII was strange; will Brotherhood expand on what happened?

Answered by: Vincent Pontbriand, Producer

 

The events of Brotherhood begin immediately as Assassin’s Creed 2 ended. A lot of revelation will be made, both in the past and the present 

• Is their AI Bots in Multiplayer?

Answered by: Vincent Pontbriand, Producer

 

No, Multiplayer is all about confronting other human opponents. It wouldn’t make sense as all the tension and fun is built around the idea that human opponents are unpredictable. We have announced for the Multiplayers BETA the Wanted Mode and the Alliance Mode. Wanted can be explained like this: at the beginning of each round, players are assigned a contract; a target they must assassinate. However, aside from the target’s appearance, they do not know who it is among many similar characters in the crowd. Players have at their disposal a blue radar (HUD) which reveals the approximate location of the target, enabling you to track down opponents like a bird of prey. When players are close, they must analyze the potential targets for visual cues or behavior outside social norms (free-running, crowd pushing, etc) to identify who exactly is the character aimed by their assassination contract. If, unfortunately, players kill an innocent they assumed was their prey, they lose their contract and reveal their true identity to everyone witnessing the scene. While a players tracks down his prey, he also is hunted by another player which is true for everyone. If I had to explain Wanted with a simple image, it is like a big game of cat and mouse, where players are simultaneously the predator and the prey. Thus, players must be careful and use different techniques (such as blending in a crowd) as not to be spotted by the assassin who is hunting them. It’s very fun tracking down you target but also all the stress that comes from knowing someone is doing the same with you and never knowing whether success or failure comes first.

 

Alliance is a team-based mode which relies on similar mechanics of cat and mouse. Up to 8 players can play against each other in each mode.

 

• Will split screen be available and as well as guest sign in?

Answered by: Vincent Pontbriand, Producer

 

The multiplayer will not feature split-screen but does include the ability to invite you friend to the session you are currently playing.

 

• How many game modes will be available at launch?

Answered by: Vincent Pontbriand, Producer

 

A total of four will be available. As I already mentioned, there will be the Alliance and Wanted mode.

 

• What made you think of using characters like the Harlequin for Multiplayer?

Answered by: Frederic Saclier, Lead Character Art

 

The story of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood takes place in Italy during Renaissance. We wanted to keep a strong historical coherency, and that was at this time that the Commedia Dell Arte was played, and this gave life to the famous character Harlequin. He was immediately considered as a serious candidate from our very first research. We have of course emphasis his mystical/ worrying side, and rework his visual identity in order to fit with the whole cast of character.

 

He’s a very charismatic character, who loves staging and show, and that can be visible in his way of killing , sometimes acrobatic / sometimes violent / but always in an appreciate manner.

 

• Can you see Assassins Creed using Kinect or Playstation Move in the future?

Answered by: Vincent Pontbriand, Producer

 

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood exclusively uses the classic controller of each console. I can’t comment on anything related to AC and these new controllers for the future.

 

• Can we expect to see an Assassins Creed 3 being announced sometime next year or have you even thought about the next Assassins Creed yet?

Answered by: Vincent Pontbriand, Producer

 

Currently, I am fully committed toward the launch of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and I do not know what the future holds. Your guess is as good as mine I don’t know like you.

 

A big thank you from The Gaming Round-Up team to Ubisoft. Assassins Creed: Brotherhood launches in Europe on November 19th.