The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

UPDATES AT BOTTOM
I thought I would begin compiling a list of gameplay changes I've noticed in Brotherhood. I'll add to this list as I think of things. I'll avoid spoilers so that this thread is friendly to those who are anticipating the game or are simply curious as to what is new or different.

Virtual Training
Taking a page from the Metal Gear Solid series, AC:B has a VR mode in which you can practice various gameplay aspects. There are race challenges, stealth kill challenges, survival combat challenges, etc. And they're quite challenging if you're going for top rating.

I imagine this will be a huge source of AC:B videos and competitions.

Execution / Kill Streak
With a bit of timing (or just mash on the attack button), you can one-hit-kill enemies in a chain after doing one kill with a weapon in any ordinary way (counter, combo, etc). Just hold a direction and press the attack button as the kill animation from an enemy is finishing and Ezio will leap over and kill the enemy in that direction (if there is one).

The timing felt a little unnatural to me (this system isn't nearly as smooth as Arkham Asylum's), but you can just keep jamming on the attack button while holding a direction and it will always work. Just watch out that you don't get attacked or grabbed while lunging towards your next opponent. To be the most successful, you have to try to time it since you might need to switch to a counter or a dodge at the last second, otherwise you'll simply be hit out of your streak.

Thankfully, the execution system can be practiced in the VR mode. I recommend beginning on the "Long" kill streak challenge and stick with it until you get a gold rating. By then you'll be much better prepared for this game's more challenging combat (more than AC2).

Oddly enough, the timing window for counter attacks is really widened compared to AC2. Even with the hidden blade, it's a cinch to pull off counters. I guess this is to support the kill streak system, which is the star of the show now. It feels like killing a single enemy just doesn't mean so much anymore. Thankfully there are a lot more of them to kill now.

AI Combat
The AI is more advanced in combat. The AI will attack you more often and sometimes more than one enemy will attack simultaneously. The AI can now grab you as well. You can easily break out of this by pressing [High Profile] + [Empty Hand], but if another enemy attacks immediately after you've been grabbed you usually won't get out in time. Thankfully, you can (usually) counter in the middle of the grab-break animation with some precise timing.

There are tougher AI opponents now. I just went after a Borgia guard captain and he was no pushover. He'll punish you for attempting counters and he can break your block. He's quick and takes a lot of punishment. He was able to survive many more hits than I was. It gets pretty hairy when you're trying to take out one of these guys and your fight moves out onto the street and more and more guards keep jumping in to join him.

Enemies will attack you from horseback now, and they're brutal. They're very quick and they rarely miss, especially in narrow alleyways. Don't get yourself cornered in a narrow space when you're up against an opponent on horseback or you're in trouble. They're not so easy to knock off their horse either.

Combat Shortcuts
A nice surprise is the fact that you now have easy shortcuts for several combat abilities hidden right within your normal ones. The sword is linked to the pistol – press and hold the attack button with the sword equipped and Ezio will aim the pistol (release to fire). The short sword is linked to the throwing knives and works exactly the same way. Poison is linked to shooting poison darts, though I haven't been able to play with this one yet. Any weapon you pick up can be thrown by holding (and releasing) the attack button. This always results in a one-hit kill for normal enemies. And of course the unarmed special ability of throwing sand is back.

As shown in preview videos, the special attack of large weapons is to throw them. Ezio hammers that throw for some big distance, so go to town with this move. It's extremely satisfying.

Weapon Shortcut Customization (d-pad)
This is a very welcomed change. I simply changed the left direction to the short/small weapon as in AC1 and left the other three as they were. Now that you have shortcuts to the pistol and throwing knives and medicine was never very needed, it works better like this. With the execution streak feature, the short blade once again becomes a very useful weapon, so I was very happy to be able to set it to the d-pad directly.

Low Profile Kills (non-combat)
If you're equipped with a weapon that is sheathed and you approach an enemy that is not in combat and press [Armed Hand], Ezio will perform an unarmed finisher. For instance, walk up behind an unaware guard with your sword equipped (and sheathed) and press the attack button and Ezio will punch him in the spine, twist around and crack his neck over his shoulder. Why take out your weapon when you don't need to?

This doesn't apply to the hidden blade(s) and poison blade, naturally. If you want to kill the unaware target with a weapon, just unsheathe it first.

Kicking
You can now kick an opponent any time during combat by pressing the button (while not pressing [High Profile]). Kicking them (in the sack, it appears) will momentarily stun them, causing them to lower their guard. Great for tougher guard-heavy opponents.

Archers
Rooftop archers are now all equipped with crossbows (and guns later, I imagine). They act pretty much the same, but they'll never run up to you and pull out a sword. Now they fight strictly with their ranged weapons and they keep their distance. You can't counter projectiles and you can't use the hidden blade on them while they're aiming at you, so you end up having to whip out a blade or dash over and grab them and toss them off the rooftop. They're more of a pain than the AC2 archers ever were.

Looting
Looting is finally useful! Instead of 3 or 4 flourines at a time, guards carry a lot more. I've seen quite a few with several hundred flourines on them (usually tougher guards like brutes and captains). And just about every single guard offers up medicine, poison, bullets and/or throwing knives. It's a cinch to refill your stocks simply by taking out a wandering group of guards and looting their corpses. And you won't even need to feel guilty as the passersby won't even ridicule you for stealing from the dead now.

As a side note, guard corpses no longer slide off angled rooftops like Teflon on sheer ice. In fact, I haven't seen a single one fall off a roof, even when killed right at the edge. No more accidental crowd scares and you won't loose your looting chance.

Another nice perk – when you pick up a body and then drop it or throw it, you automatically switch back to whatever weapon you had equipped before you picked it up. No more being stuck on unarmed after carrying a body.

Bothersome Civilians
In addition to the lute players we have...begging women? Where have we seen this before? And now they come in three's! But don't worry, they're no more bothersome or annoying than the lute players of AC2.

There are drunks walking around, very much like in AC1, however (so far) I haven't had a single one do anything to me. They just seem to be another type of regular wandering civilian. They don't show up in Eagle Vision either. I still don't trust them though... Damn you, AC1!

Horses
You can now ride horses inside cities, but it doesn't save a ton of time and all you're doing is mowing down dozens and dozens of innocent civilians and pissing off guards left and right. I haven't really seen anywhere that this has been useful.

By tapping the button, Ezio whistles for his horse and it just appears out of nowhere and comes trotting up to him. I'd gladly give up the horse in order to use the whistle as a guard distraction tool instead.

Fast Travel
Since Rome is so huge, there are fast travel points all over. You have to renovate them first, however. They cost around 350 flourines (at least the early ones do) and you have to wrestle zone control away from the Borgia first before you can renovate them (or anything else).

Zone Control
Most zones of Rome are under Borgia control and the people won't cooperate with you and you won't be able to purchase/renovate any buildings until you show them that they are no longer under the Borgia's influence. You do this in two steps – kill the Borgia guard captain and burn down the Borgia guard tower.

The captains are the difficult part. They are often in places that you cannot air-assassinate nor blitz very easily. They're often surrounded by guards and it's kill-on-sight since these zones are all red on the map. Borgia guard captains will do one of two things once Ezio's presence has been discovered – they will fight or they will flee. If they are the fleeing type, you need to stop (and kill) them before they get a certain distance away. If they escape, you have to wait until the guard shift change (dusk and dawn) before he'll be back. And thus far, I've discovered no way to speed up time.

Those who stay and fight are challenging. You'll really enjoy fighting them and might even die a few times before you get some armor. They're always surrounded by guards, and more will join in as the fight drags on, especially if your fight becomes mobile and you attract other guard groups with your fighting. Throw in some guards on horseback and it gets pretty hairy.

Once you've killed the Borgia guard captain, you need to burn down the guard tower. This is simply done by climbing up the tower and pressing the specified button when you're at the top. The climb itself isn't so simple, however, as the climb leap ability becomes unavailable again and I have no idea what point in the game Ezio regains it.

I had one tower that the only way I could find to get up further past a certain point was to do a full jump parallel to the wall I was climbing and use [Free Hand] to reach out and grab the next handhold. I missed on the first attempt and plummeted to the street, resulting in desynchronization. That's hardcore. Furthermore, if you desync after killing the guard captain, you have to kill him again before you can burn down the tower.

I just noticed that while many Borgia guard towers also contain a viewpoint, you don't actually need to sync the viewpoint. Just ignite the tower as normal and it will automatically count the viewpoint for you. Nice time-saver.

Flags and Feathers
Both flags and feathers are back, and this time they show up on the map if you have the nearest viewpoint synced. Note that for some people they do not always seem to show up. You may have to pass within a certain vicinity of them.

Once you have collected enough flags (25?), flag and feather maps will be available for purchase from the art merchants. There are separate maps for each district.

Mission Synchronization
Every mission has a specific objective or limitation to it that you can strive to match to get "full synchronization" of that memory. If you want 100% completion, you'll need to meet this objective on every one.

I really like this idea. Often it's something simple, and it fits within the context of the story/mission. It makes it feel more like you're following Ezio's footsteps rather than just doing whatever random stuff you want. You still have the freedom to complete missions any way you like, but if you want to do it the way Ezio actually did it, then you'll have to work a bit harder.

Replay Missions (seriously?)
Yes, we can finally do it. In fact, Shaun gives Rebecca a jab about that feature not being available earlier.

This is quite useful now that missions have a full sync capability. If you miss the objective, you don't have to restart the mission. You can save it for later.

Puzzles
There are puzzles similar to 16's The Truth puzzles in AC2 hidden on major landmarks. You still find them via Eagle Vision, but instead of them syncing up some computer code with the animus and whisking you into the puzzle, they're a sort of 'hole in the world' where you actually go "off the grid", as Rebecca calls it. You cannot see nor enter these holes without Eagle Vision engaged, and with EV turned on you'll see white light pouring out of these holes. They're tough to miss.

Leaving the Animus
You can leave the animus any time that you're not on an active mission and you can run around as Desmond. I haven't really done much of this, so I don't know if there's much to explore. Apparently you can read emails and stuff.

Atmosphere
Okay, so this one isn't gameplay-related. But I wanted to mention that this game has much more of an AC1 flavor to it. It's tough to point out exactly what sorts of things make it this way, but this feels more like a good mix between AC1 and AC2 in terms of atmosphere and appearance.

UPDATES BELOW
Salable Loot
On occasion, Ezio will pick up salable loot. These can be found in chests or on corpses. They're fairly common in chests, but quite uncommon on corpses, with the exception of thieves (see below).

These items can be sold at any shop, though it appears that certain types of loot are worth more to certain shops (for instance, wool sells for a higher price at the tailor than the blacksmith). It's best to never sell them, however, as they can be turned in at particular shops for their 'shop quest', which unlocks additional items available for purchase. Be forewarned, as the game doesn't tell you which items can be turned in to a shop for a shop quest, so it's best not to sell any loot at all until you've done all of the shop quests. More shop quests unlock as you progress further into the story, so you'll probably want to wait until the end of the game before selling any.

Shop Quests
Some of the better items that a shop offers at any given time must be unlocked by doing a shop quest. This isn't so much a quest as it is a grocery list. Just collect the listed loot in the listed quantities and return to one of the key shop locations to turn it in, making those items available for sale.

I have yet to complete a single quest, however, as it's completely random which salable loot drops and that kind of loot is pretty uncommon in general. And there are a lot of different kinds of loot out there. How soon you can complete a shop quest is entirely up to chance. The Captain's Sword is still locked for me at the blacksmith shops, yet much better swords are already available for sale from me having progressed further into the story.

Can't say that I'm fond of the shop quest idea, particularly because completing them is so random in nature.

Hold Ups
There's a rival thief group in town that is loyal to the Borgia, and as you pass through the more open areas of the city they will jump out and attempt to hold you up. There is no actual hold up, as it just results in combat (Ezio's not about to just hand over his stuff). You'll know they're coming because the leader will always shout something out to signify that it's time for the group to attack Ezio. They're not tough to beat and are good practice for the execution streak, but the best part of all is that they always drop fantastic loot. Lots of cash (roughly 220 florins each, on average) and lots of ammo/refills. They also drop rare loot for shop quests.

Training Assassins
This is a potentially large section, but I'll try to keep it simple.

After completing a certain story mission about a third of the way through the game, you can now find recruits marked on your map throughout Rome. Go to them and they will be alone, fighting off a group of guards. Help them out and they will join the order.

You can only have a limited number of recruits at a time, and you'd have to wait until one of them dies before being able to recruit another. You're also limited by the number of Borgia towers you've burned down. This is all shown on the interaction screen for training your Assassins.

Once you have at least one recruit, you can do the Brotherhood Assistance Move. Just position Ezio so that at least one enemy is highlighted in white (so that you could press the lock button to lock onto them) and the ability to press the other left shoulder button pops up. Press it and one or more of your recruits will pop out or jump down and attack the target. Fantastic for a fleeing target! Just get within 30m or so and press the button and he's as good as dead.

You have a limited number of uses for calling in recruits, but the meter refills on its own and it's fairly fast. So you can use them quite frequently, despite what recent interviews implied. When recruits are out on contracts, you cannot call them for the Brotherhood attacks.

Once you have recruits, you can go up to any pigeon coop or re-claimed Borgia tower (now called "Assassin Tower") and interact to get to the Assassin training menu. From here you can spend their upgrade points and send them on missions.

Upgrade points are earned every time a recruit levels up. The max level is 9. This would give you 8 points to spend, and the only places you can spend them are upgrading their armor or weapons, four stages each. You can also dye their clothes, though the color choices are quite limited. This system is not nearly as robust as I thought it was going to be.

As your Assassins complete contracts, more become available. Contracts are listed by city and take place all over Europe. Under any given city there may be several contracts available at any given time. Contracts are given a difficulty rating from 1 to 5, 5 being most difficult. A level 1 recruit has between 90 and 100% chance of completing a level 1 contract all by themselves, whereas a level 5 contract would take several high level Assassins. You can send up to five Assassins to a single contract, and the contract's experience reward is divided equally amongst them. So the fewer you send, the better their reward. Each Assassin adds a specific amount of success chance percentage to a contract, which is based entirely on level. It doesn't matter what order you improve their weapons and armor nor what color you dye their clothes. A level 6 Assassin will always add 54% success rate to a level 4 contract, for example. Throw two level 6's on there for a guaranteed 100%, or a level 6 and a level 5 for around 92% and the experience bonus will be a larger benefit to the level 5. It sounds complicated, but it's really very simple. Overly simple, actually. I'm kind of disappointed.

Once you send recruits off on contracts, you have to wait X minutes of gameplay time before their mission results come in. The time is always listed on the contract and does not change if you send more or higher level recruits. You're alerted in real-time when a contract is complete and whether it was a success or failure. I've had a couple fail already, but the recruits sent did not die and I was able to attempt the contract again immediately. There doesn't appear to be any risk involved. However, a few of the contracts use stars rather than dots for representing the difficulty level. Perhaps the star ones mean the Assassin(s) would die if the contract failed. No idea thus far.

Equipping Large (Two-Handed) Weapons
If you purchase the appropriate sheathe for it at the tailor's, you can purchase and carry large weapons in place of your medium weapon.

Here's a nifty little perk – even equipped large weapons can be thrown (hold the attack button), which is an easy way to disarm your medium/large weapon slot in order to pick up a better one. Once you have a medium weapon, however, you cannot throw it away, so you'll have to return to a blacksmith or the hideout to re-equip a large weapon if you want the ability to disarm yourself again.

Cheats
Completing an entire memory sequence with 100% synchronization unlocks a cheat. These cheats can be activated while replaying memories.

I haven't actually tried any of them out yet, so I can't comment on what they do. Apparently you can turn horses into unicorns, have unlimited Brotherhood Assistance Moves, turn everybody into Desmond and stuff like that.