Alright. We have our new base set up in the ruins of Monteriggioni, so it’s time to return to the Animus to continue our adventures as Ezio Auditore da Firenze.
Streamed at https://www.twitch.tv/newdarkcloud
Since our first target was a multiplayer skin, this seems like a good moment to discuss the other big elephant in the room with Brotherhood: The multiplayer mode attached to it. Those of you who might not remember that far back, Brotherhood was released in a unique moment in time where it was believed that every video game needed a multiplayer mode in order to retain players and boost profits. Thus, game like Spec Ops: The Line, Dead Space 2, and Bioshock 2 were saddled with gameplay modes that weren’t popular and occasionally ran contrary to core identity of the single-player campaign.
Assassin’s Creed wanted to jump in as well, but there was the issue that it wasn’t a shooter thus it couldn’t be grafted onto the standard multiplayer shooter framework. And although it was a tacked on mode mandated by corporate, the creative spark born from that mandate resulted in one of the coolest multiplayer games I have ever played, even to this day.
The concept was simple: The players were Templar agents using the Animus in simulated assassination games for the purpose of using the Bleeding Effect to speed up the training process. In those simulations, players assumed the personas of former Templar operatives and hunted each other not only to score the most kills, but to score the highest quality kills possible.
Thankfully, there are people who have documented enough footage of it that you can gain a rough idea of how it played, but as of January 2024 the servers are no longer up and running. Even if you own an original copy of Brotherhood that included it, it cannot be accessed. And that’s tragic because I have vivid memories of spending hours upon hours with it, agonizing over which approach to my target would leave me least vulnerable to being detected by both them and my own pursuers. It was a cat and mouse game the likes of which I have not played since and likely will not play ever again simply because so few people would be interested in recreating it.
Another in a long line of lost moments in gaming history that future generations won’t experience.
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