GAMES: Assassins and Spies: Double B, Double Review! AC:Brotherhood and 007 Bloodstone

Not going to apply numbers to this anymore. It just isn't working for me, sorry numbers. It's not you, it's me.

Just for time and because I've been trying to make these things shorter, for your sake, I'm going to combine these two games.

I think, in fact, if I could combine these two games it might be the greatest game of the sneaky/assassin/kill-tons-of-people game ever.

Assassins Creed: Brotherhood is great. I like the series, the first two were awesome. A bit frustrating with the free running every so often, especially in the rooftop foot chases of thieves or messengers.

The bitch of it is, I don't have to chase them. It's completely extra. But I WANT to chase them. 1. Because it is often quick fun and 2. (more importantly) it is VERY gratifying, after losing a couple chases because of a stupid mis-step that sent you flying off a roof into the river, to barrel down on that bastard and tackle him to the ground. I feel like a lion chasing some stupid zebra that tried to steal my wallet. "Yeah, that was a mistake and now you are MINE!" If he happens to get thrown off the roof...well, accidents happen.

AC: B isn't a sequel, it's basically a continuation of AC:2, picking up exactly where 2 left off. It grows the story line and grows the core of the game. I wouldn't be surprised if it started out as DLC, but they just kept adding stuff until they realized it would take forever to download.

The big things it adds, mechanically and story-wise, is the title referenced Brotherhood. Instead of Ezio being the lone wolf BA killer McGee, he is now in charge of a growing band of hooded, wrist-blade wielding acrobats. You have to liberate Rome from control of the Borgia by killing the bosses of several towers and then burning the tower to the ground. Getting the bosses is fun and can be very challenging/impossible if you want to do a clean one body assassination. Burning the towers is just like climbing for the lookout points, but with a fiery explosion!

You are able to use the brotherhood at anytime, after a short "recharge" from previous use. It's a simple target and single button death signal. It can make the game too easy, if you let it. Because, strangely, your brothers can swoop in (actually accompanied by an eagle screech) and eliminate guards in your path and then vanish without a trace most times. It's nice they draw no attention to you, and can actually act as a diversion allowing you to sneak somewhere you might have had to work hard to get too otherwise.

It's a neat mechanic. You also send them on separate missions around the world to get them to level up. But if you send them all and get in a pinch you are on your own. You can whistle all you want, Rocco probably won't be able to make it back from Moscow in time to help you with those guards.

I really, really want to try the multiplayer...but don't have the internet at my house yet. So I only had the story and the many side quests to entertain me, darn. That's just a drag. :D

As usual, tons of exploration goodies to find.

A little tip for you, if you are a treasure hunter like I am. DON'T SELL the stupid stuff you find. Keep all the ivory and shrunken heads or whatever else. Because later you get shop quests for fancy items and that is the crap you need to find. I sold a bunch of crap then got the quests and it took forever to find it because I'd already found so many of the treasures.

Good fun though.

One thing I think Assassins Creed needs to embrace is the use of cover systems. I know it's the popular thing to do, but for a profession that dwells in the shadows it is a must. So many times tailing a subject or sneaking into a place and I walked up to a corner to observe, only to be beyond the corner and they spotted me. Super annoying.


007 Bloodstone, sadly, didn't get the same amount of time in my console tray. But I feel confident I experienced what the game had to offer. I just have a threshold that sometimes sees games come to an early end.

I liked it though, for what is and tries to be. It is a sort of fun game, it tries to be another piece of the James Bond pie of entertainment fiction. The last movie was kind of..."meh" in comparison to Casino Royale and the game story is kind of "meh" in comparison to a lot.

It is a completely original story, voiced by Daniel Craig and Judy Dench (whose character model looks AWFUL in the cut scenes, she looks like Leatherface), but only Dench's work sounds like the movies. Craig's work seems like he phone it in, maybe it was the script but I swear there was a "scene" where someone was talking to him for awhile and he said "yes" or some other one word response...and that was it. Come on, give me something.

The Game here is very movie like, there are lots of cool spots where you see really awesome stuff, explosions and all that. There are several parts where Bond is trying to escape or catch up from/to something/someone and the use of music and effects makes the urgency seem quite real.

One such chase/escape (you are chasing someone on a train and escaping a helicopter at the same time) has Bond in the beautiful Astin Martin driving on a mostly frozen river. It is quite fun, but by the sixth time I was a little annoyed. This may be my crappy Low Definition TV but I don't think so. The ice and open water parts of the river are very similar colors, so it makes high speed navigation more likely to end with wet socks.

On the flip side one of the times you swing the ass end of the car out and it starts to go into the water but you continue the slide and escape will make you feel like a bad ass.

There were several WOW moments in the game, most, if not all, were in said chase/escape moments. But they were fun and the basic mechanics of the game are entertaining for awhile, but repeat themselves quickly.

The movement is...less than fluid. 007 runs like he has to pee, but you get used to it.

The cover and fight systems both work well. I would have liked to see a little more involvement in the hand to hand combat. Since it is listed as "BRUTAL" on the back of the box. It's a single button and you watch the awesome thing. I want to be part of the awesomeness.

Even a three button mash timer, because Bond doesn't dominate all his fights. That's what I loved about Casino Royale, he got all messed up.



Now, if I were a magician or game Czar of the world, I would take the cover system from Bloodstone and put it in Brotherhood. It would be awesome to have your back to a wall on a corner waiting for a target to come by and you just pounce. Kind of like when hidden in a haystack or on a bench, but much more realistic. Plus it would make tailing people a lot easier. As long as they don't make a common mistake, like in Gears of War, where the cover button is a shared button. Don't do that.

I really think Bloodstone could use some more of AC's free running; there is a little, but nothing of your own choosing, Bond is basically Super Mario. You walk to a ledge and are actually prompted to jump. Free running was also featured nicely in Casino Royale, but not over done, which was good.

AC could definitely use 007's "restart from checkpoint" menu option. Especially since AC added qualifying actions to missions to reach full synchronization. Stuff like don't get noticed or only kill your target. Those are fun things to try but if you mess up once, even if you die (which takes a lot sometimes), it remembers that you made a mistake. Which really sucks if you were two feet past a checkpoint.


AC: Brotherhood is worth a lot of time, likely purchase if you liked either of the others. I've heard nothing but good stuff about the multiplayer, and its something I said the first one should have had. Co-op would probably make my head explode.

It's doubly good if you like the storyline. Because this one continues it and has a hell of an ending.

007 Bloodstone is probably worth a rent, especially if you have a game pass (yeah!) because you can take it back as soon as you get tired of the grind.