Those that played Assassin’s Creed II to completion will be aware that as great as it is, there’s a bit missing. While to some the omission of Sequences 12 and 13 might just seem like a bizarre design choice, the more astute will likely have seem the gap for what it really was – the hole left when the last few chapters couldn’t be completed in time for the game to hit its proposed street date. But now, Ubisoft has decided to plug this gap and release the two lost Sequences as DLC, meaning those willing to fork out another couple of pounds’ worth of points can enjoy Assassin’s Creed II as it was originally intended. You bought the game, now trade up for the Director’s Cut. Simple.

Only it’s not that simple. Most of the great DLC we’ve seen has added to and extended the game in question rather than fill holes in it, so Battle Of Forli is immediately off to a shaky start. Not that anyone could really bemoan the length of the game as is, mind, but it just feels strange cutting back to an earlier chapter when you’ve already seen what happens at the end. Whisking you back to just after Ezio recovers the Apple of Eden from The Spaniard, this DLC explains a little more about the artefact and its importance, leading to it being taken to the stronghold of Forli where, as the content’s title suggests, it all kicks off. The focus here is on combat on a larger scale than elsewhere in the game, with huge rucks going down everywhere you go. Unfortunately, this doesn’t exactly lend itself to Assassin’s Creed’s more personal combat system, meaning many enemies can simply be backstabbed while engaging another ally or, in a pinch, a single smoke bomb can lead to a clean sweep.

At around an hour in length, Battle Of Forli has the chance to try out some interesting mission templates and does so fairly well – you escort your guys to Forli, defend the city then depart on an urgent rescue mission-cum-assassination, which is easily the chapter’s highlight. It even goes on to subvert on of the staple elements of the game in an interesting twist and set up the next Sequence, The Bonfire Of The Vanities, which has the potential to be a far stronger standalone ‘episode’ if it can live up to both the promise hinted at here and indeed the historical source material.

And just to trouble our cynical minds one last time, Battle Of Forli introduces a new special memory location. Intrigued by this, we darted all the way to the farthest corner of the map to start it, only to discover it to be another chance to play around with Leonardo’s flying machine – a fine idea in principle since the main game only uses this much-touted feature once but with no actual mission and the option to abort flight at any time, it’s clear that this was only shoehorned in to allow players that missed the Fly Swatter Achievement the first time another shot at it. Weak.

… continued