Perhaps the biggest surprise of the Brotherhood package is the multiplayer, which is refreshing and inventive. In a neat twist, you're actually playing as the bad guys: as Abstergo agents – the modern day Templars. Turns out this is how they're training to hunt the assassins.
The basic idea is that you're given a target to locate and kill, while also being hunted by another player. The radar helps you track your foe, but the games take place in bustling locations full of NPCs, so it's entirely possible for your target to blend in with the crowd. Literally so, in some cases. One of the special abilities transforms all the people around the player into your character model, while another lets you change character models altogether.
Brotherhood has four multiplayer modes. Wanted and Advance Wanted are free-for-alls, with the latter being a more challenging version of Wanted with tweaked rules. By way of example, the radar is far less accurate in this mode. You'll only ever be able to narrow down your opponent's location to the general vicinity, leading to a tense game of observation – looking for the tell that reveals your target. Alliance, on the other hand, sees the players split into pairs, and as you'd imagine, coordinated hunting is key, while Manhunt divides players into two teams. One team hunts, while one team hides. The hiding team earns points for remaining undetected, and the closer they stay to one another, the more points.
Overall, this is excellent stuff, and turns the usual adversarial frag-fest on its head. Forget being the guy who runs the fastest and racks up the most kills – Brotherhood rewards being a true assassin. Players are awarded points on a sliding scale, so an overt kill will net a whole lot less than a stealthy assassination while hidden. In this multiplayer contest it's the gamers who learn to be patient that will ultimately prevail. Plus, the ranking system means that the contests continue to evolve as you play, with tactical depth increasing the more abilities are unlocked.
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