Direct Sequels
Whereas Assassin's Creed 2 is by any logical suggestion a sequel to the original Assassin's Creed game (the clue being the "2" in the title), Assassin's Creed 2 bore 2 further sequels that are direct sequels of the AC2 setting as well as the game series. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood and Assassin's Creed Revelations continue the story of Ezio Auditore da Firenze and his battle against the Templars
Brotherhood
AC Brotherhood begins directly after the events of both the modern day protagonist Desmond Miles and our historical character Ezio. Ezio's world was blown wide open at the end of AC2 and he has a lot to understand. Despite his victory, Ezio's familial enemy, the Borgias, remain at large. The Borgia let Rome sink into delapidation and disrepair, so Ezio oversees efforts to bring Rome back to its rightful glory.
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| Ezio returns for AC Brotherhood, a little older, a lot wiser. |
AC Brotherhood brings us the new mechanic of.... The Brotherhood. Ezio can save people from their oppressors and in gratitude they will join the local Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. Despite the name, women can be recruited as well as men. Once recruited, Ezio can call on the Assassin's at almost any time to assist him in his missions. Furthemore, Ezio can send his compatriots on their own missions in order to increase their experience and level, which in turn makes them more powerful and less likely to die when Ezio asks for his assistance himself. The Assassin missions are accessible from the pegion coops dotted around the city as well the headquarters. Each machine takes a specific amount of time to complete and has a precentage chance of success, which you can increase by sending more than one assassin on a mission, or by sending higher level assassin's.
This subgame element of time-based missions, which rewards you with benefits in the main games, becomes a staple in the AC series for quite a while. The basic premise of what the subgame is about changes,but in general they are always time-based machines and give you tangible rewards if you complete them. They are an interesting side-attraction which can bring a useful benefit if you invest in them, but ultimately can be ignored if you find them boring.
Desmond and his colleagues are forced to escape at the end of AC2 and in Brotherhood, set up shop in modern-day Monteriggioni.
The setting for Brotherhood is also a continuation from the previous game. The main "hub" is Rome, which on its own is larger than any two cities from AC2. Additional locations include the Colloseum as well. After the wealth of history in AC2, Brotherhood servers up another helping of the same.
Brotherhood retains all the qualities of AC2 and builds a few additional bits and pieces on top. It's not particular evolutionary, but simply by serving up more of the same, AC Brotherhood is another wondeful romp in the Assassin's Creed world, and it is a joy to see the further development of Ezio.
Revelations
To a great extent, Revelations is yet more of the same from AC2 and Brotherhood, but there is one major difference, which I guess is the attempt to keep things fresh enough for a third installment to avoid just being accused of cranking the wheel and just churning out more of the same.
Revelations is actually set in Constantinople (in present day Istanbul, Turkey). As a result, the environment and characters are different. There is brand new architecture to climb over and now, instead of having to watch out for Borgia guards, there are two factions of city police to watch out for, which you can actually turn against each other for your own benefit.
The characters around Ezio are all brand new as well. Ezio is now starting to move past middle age in to what would be his retirement years if he was like most people. However, as a still-active assassin, he is more like the wise mentor character to the local Assassin Brotherhood he works with. His interactions with the youthful Yusuf Tazim, who is the leader of the local order, is fun to watch. Yusuf originally and somewhat playfully treats Ezio as an old man who can learn a few tricks, and indeed some new mechanics of the game come apparent this way. The main one is the hookblade. Taking the place of the second hidden blade, the hookblade can serve all the functions of its predecessor but can also be used to traverse the many zipwires in the game, which can greatly speed up exploration as well as add new opportunities for stealth and taking out enemies.
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| Constantinople features ziplines, which makes moving around the city a lot quicker! |
Another large addition to Revelations is the expansion of bombs. Smoke bombs are still there, but now we also have flash bangs, poison bombs, caltops, fake blood bombs and more. You can craft your own variations to suit and the new bombs are genuinely worth taking the time to master for the tactical benefits they bring.
As well as the continuation of the overall Assassin's Creed plot, Revelations brings yet further development to Ezio's character, and we start to feel like we've been with Ezio for a lot of his life. The third game in the AC2 trilogy brings further warmth to our love for Ezio along with some moving spiritual and uplifting moments.
Overall, Revelations does just enough to justify their being a third game in this series. The setting is very different from Italy, which makes things interesting but at the same time makes the third game feel a bit disjointed from the other two. What keeps this disjointment from becoming jarring is Ezio himself. With the additions of the new features in the hookblade, bombs and so forth, Revelations is interesting enough.
Overall, AC Revelations is probably the weakest of the three games, but if nothing else, interest in the continuations of Ezio's story is a great reason to persist in playing this third installment. Weakest of the three it may be, but Relevations is still a great game to play in its own right and in fact, if you continue on to play Assassin's Creed 3 afterwards, you may reminisce about the AC2 trilogy, all of them, and wish AC3 was a bit more like it.
Assassin's Creed: Embers
If you have played through the AC2 trilogy, you've now been with Ezio from pre-adulthood to the beginning of the senior years of his life. You absolutely should close his story by watching Assassin's Creed: Embers, which is freely available to watch on Youtube.
Embers is an animated short film that lasts around 21 minutes, which chronicles the retirement years of Ezio's life and brings his story to a close. I challenge anyone who has played the AC2 trilogy and invested this much time with Ezio, not to be moved by the short film and to feel a sense of satisfaction in knowing what happens to Ezio after the last game.
I don't think there is any other game series where I've been so interested in finding out more about the life of the character I've played, and where he ends up as a result of all his hard work.
Review Score
To an extent, although Brotherhood has a few new tricks up its sleeve, particularly the Brotherhood feature itself, it does not show the same kind of development over its predecessor as AC2 does over AC. However, AC2 got so much right, Brotherhood is successful in its approach of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." The relative lack of innovation in the game might be an issue, if the richness and depth of the story and setting wasn't so great. Running around as Ezio for a second time is great, it's a joy to continue the story from the first game as well as see the development of Ezio and his peers. I believe Brotherhood deserves the same top score as its predecessor, so it gets a 5.
For Revelations, the main "concern" with Brotherhood is also apparent here, in that again, there are a few new tricks, but nothing even as major as the Brotherhood feature itself. Also, I feel that whilst the continuation of the story of Ezio's life remains a joy to follow, the stark change in the setting to Constantinople does leave the player with somewhat of a disjointed feel as far as the wider story goes. The complete change in setting is probably Ubisoft's attempt to keep some freshness in the game, with this being yet another story about Ezio, and it is a successful attempt to a great extent. However, it does leave Revelations as feeling like it is not quite up there along with its two predecessors, and for this reason I give Revelations a 4.
Next Up
With Revelations played and Embers watched, we move through time again to play Assassin's Creed 3, set during the time of the American Revolution.
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