➤ A battle to forget 🎮

Tested Version: Xbox 360

The practice of creating additional downloadable content is spreading across all genres of video games; we could discuss at length about the real usefulness in extending the life and contents of a product rather than constituting an additional source of income for the publisher, the fact is that the quality of the DLC can rarely be defined fully satisfactory. In the case of Assassin's Creed 2, one of the best products to appear during 2009, Ubisoft has foreseen the release of two expansions intended to fill the holes in the sequences of the memories of the Animus; the first, entitled The Battle of Forlì, has been available for a few days on Xbox Live and PSN at the affordable price of 320 Microsoft Points and 3,99 euros respectively.

Caterina and her friends

The contents of the DLC are practically inserted almost at the end of the plot narrated in the main game; consequently it is necessary to have reached a precise point in Ezio Auditore's story - or to have concluded it - in order to access the memory in question. As the title suggests, The Battle of Forlì it takes place entirely within or near the Romagna city already visited during the assassin's adventure; in this case, however, the main relationship of the protagonist is with the character of Caterina Sforza - and marginally of Niccolò Macchiavelli -, in a rapid succession of events with a strong emotional rate which, to avoid enjoying the surprise, we will avoid mentioning. Without a doubt, among the greatest qualities of this expansion, Caterina Sforza herself must be indicated, an expression of that decidedly pragmatic, lustful and very unromantic Italic nobility that constitutes one of the leitmotifs of the Ubisoft product.

Nonetheless, he is basically a positive character, an ally of Ezio and who should in the premises provide help to the protagonist, eventually finding himself on the contrary instead to request it from the young Auditore himself. Unfortunately, the plot is quite interesting after all The Battle of Forlì it is not supported by balance and satisfactory gameplay development. First, much of the time spent on this mission is spent in combat; assuming that this component certainly does not represent the best aspect of Assassin's Creed 2, this situation is made heavier by the large number of enemies that at the same time it will be necessary to face, often making the aggressive approach preferable with consequent furious pressing of the keys rather of the more reasoned and tactical one. Secondly, the artificial intelligence of their companions reveals gaps especially in the cloying sequence of the siege of the citadel, certainly the most frustrating point of this DLC. The extreme brevity of The Battle of Forlì, which can be completed in about an hour of play, the total absence of new objectives (or trophies), objects or places to unlock and the modest incisiveness of the events within the main plot therefore undermine the final evaluation of Ubisoft's effort . The only extra element of note is to be found in the presence of a "special memory", thanks to which it is possible to use Leonardo's flying machine again to take a ride over Forlì; without the choreographic power of the Venetian equivalent and the orphan of a real goal, this passage soon reduces itself to an inconclusive and not very incisive parenthesis.

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The Battle of Forlì is a particularly disappointing DLC, which paradoxically was built around the weaker elements of the Ubisoft product gameplay. The exaggerated emphasis placed on a series of chaotic and repetitive fights, the cloyingness of the artificial intelligence of the allies and the total brevity of the mission, make this downloadable content basically aimed only at the most ardent fans of Assassin's Creed 2, who in any case will not be able to fail. to be embittered by the general paucity of the offer and the lack of new objectives and objects.