Review by: Mitch Dyer

I’m really tired of this long-running trend in game design where the overwhelming number of arbitrary objectives serves as nothing more than inconveniences. Most of the time, they only exist to artificially inflate the running time. The “find these five things” fetch-quest works, sure, but it’s made worse when things go awry – of course. You came to collect three of the five, but even the bundle that’d save you time and effort you’d rather spend elsewhere wind up scattered across the world – or Rome, as the case may be. I’m dying to see the day developers abandon the idea that the player’s sole goal in games should be to complete boring missions that unlock the next cinematic. Until then, we’re stuck with unsatisfying DLC such as The Da Vinci Disappearance for Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood.

Thankfully, the rotten solo game isn’t the only thing you’re paying for; $10 also nets you a couple excellent multiplayer modes – but more on those after I get the single-player out of my system. The Da Vinci DLC’s missions are so aggressively poor that it’s a wonder they exist at all. How a series of dull stealth missions – with instant failure upon detection – ended up entrenched in the middle of Brotherhood’s otherwise varied and well-designed to-do list is beyond me. That completing one of these missions simply leads to another is irritating like fixing one busted pipe only for another to burst as a result.

Under no circumstances should I fail a mission for wandering an art fair and observing the pieces on display. This mission was one of the worst in Da Vinci Disappearance, if only because it was inconsistent with itself to an annoying degree – everyone else is allowed to get close, but the second you stare at a canvas you’re made. Worse still, you have to walk up to each and cut them. Who thought this was a great change of pace? Basic Brotherhood mechanics like hiring courtesans don’t work here, either. My ladies were “lost” the instant I hired them.

If you insist on owning The Da Vinci Disappearance, the new multiplayer modes save it from becoming a loss. The Escort and Assassinate multiplayer modes are excellent enough that I would have paid for them separately. Seeking out one target protected by an entire team in Assassinate matches feels much like the existing modes, with everyone frantically running to their target, guarded by an entire team, to earn their points. Escort encourages a much calmer method of play, as Brotherhood’s multiplayer is meant to be played. Killing A.I. enemies prevents them from walking through markers that give your opponents points. Coordinating who’s taking out who is more important than ever here, and it’s my current online favorite in ACB.

The issue is it’s guarded behind the $10 price tag containing a largely insubstantial waste of hard drive space. Mario made “Your Princess is in another castle” cute, but The Da Vinci Disappearance uses it as the basis for its boring, tedious mission design. The story didn’t do anything for me, even as an Assassin’s Creed lore nerd. The combination of its weak story setup and the arduous grind to see it through completely killed the single player portion of this DLC add-on for me; thankfully, the multiplayer additions allow me to cautiously recommend it for those who enjoy playing AC:B online and have ten bucks to burn – everyone else, there’s nothing much to see here.