Review by: William Abner

A quick disclaimer: I loved Assassin’s Creed II. It almost reached the point of obsession for a couple of weeks as I tried to find every feather, discover every tomb and find every statue – even after I finished the game by pummeling The Pope with a Mike Tyson-esque left hook. So when given the chance to play more of the game via the first DLC I was eager to see what new adventures were in store. And that’s the real problem with The Battle of Forli: The new stuff just isn’t all that compelling.

Part of the problem is that you are backtracking – it’s safe to assume that if you are buying the DLC then there’s a fair chance you have played, and likely finished, the main campaign. So when the bad guys (two brothers in this case) start talking about the Maestro – it’s not all that threatening since you have already dealt with him in the main storyline. The Maestro? Yeah, what else you got?

But a bigger problem is that this DLC focuses on the weakest part of Assassin’s Creed II – the big swordfights. Combat in the game is a means to an end. It’s thrilling to stalk and finally kill your target, but when the game breaks down into a large sword scuffle with guards, it loses its craftiness and becomes another button masher. That’s what Forli is.

You get six new memories and a special memory where you get another chance at the 5 point Achievement for kicking a guard while flying Da Vinci’s machine. That’s the only possible reason for adding that here – it makes no sense from a story perspective.

The memories consist of escort missions and some big brawls and a few other mundane tasks. You also have to kill both brothers – who prove to be the two easiest assassination targets in the entire game. I killed one from horseback. You’ll be done with this in about 30-40 minutes. The fact that there are no new hidden tombs is absolutely mystifying. I was really hoping to do some more high wire platforming with Ezio…but there’s none to be found in Forli. Sure it’s only 320 points on Xbox Live but there’s just no real reason to grab this unless you want to hear that countess of Forli lady talk about touching and kissing her breasts and flashing her privates as she taunts some guards. She’s all class, that one.

There’s a cliffhanger at the end as you begin to track down another target which is sure to be the subject of the next quick and dirty DLC. Let’s hope the next one emphasizes what made Assassin’s Creed II so much fun in the first place.