Note: This is the PC version of The Da Vinci Disappearance.
There’s was a bit of a bromance going on between Ezio and Da Vinci as if it wasn’t for Da Vinci, Ezio wouldn’t have used all the cool stuff like driving the tank or even use (a very primitive though) Gatling gun. Nevertheless, both played a major role for both Assassins Creed 2 and Brotherhood however in this DLC, it was Da Vinci’s turn to be in the spot light. Here, Da Vinci disappears in the hands of the Hermeticists and we all know Pythagoras has something to do with it. So with an obvious title ‘The Da Vinci Disappearance’, take a wild guess what needs to be done here.
So the setting plays out after the events of Brotherhood in the year 1506 where the Borgia are no longer there, well their numbers have been seriously reduced. The Hermeticists, interested in ‘transforming mankind’ knows the existence of The Temple of Pythagoras via the one and only Da Vinci. So the best thing to do is to kidnap him aiming to get the whereabouts of this temple. Ezio, tasked by Da Vinci to fetch his ‘apprentice’ Salaì, arrives back only to discover Da Vinci is gone and so are his paintings. Salaì knows that there are secrets within those missing paintings so forms the basis of this DLC – that is to go on a paintings hunt, like an Easter egg hunt I guess.
The premise is actually quite decent as it introduces another faction that wants to control humanity, just like the Templars / Assassins however the game doesn’t really explains this very well though. Thankfully, my knowledge of history is decent however to those who’s not, will have some difficulties following the plot. Also, basing on hunting five paintings is not exactly an ideal thrilling adventure.
Yet Ezio needs to pull all strings to collect those paintings – meaning each painting has a certain way to obtain it whether be not being discovered, cannot use rooftops and so on. So basically it’s not that painstaking as it initially seems as you need to use different approaches for each painting. Not only that, Ezio will use his ‘eagle vision’ to solve the painting’s puzzle and what’s Assassin’s Creed without some dungeon romp. So you can look at it as Brotherhood in a very condensed design.
Other things included in this DLC are the hazard dice game (located in the thieves’ guild), two more Templar lairs (which was originally in the Brotherhood's Limited Codex Edition), more multiplayer modes (escort / assassinate), and more multiplayer characters (the Dama Rossa, the Knight, the Marquis, and the Pariah). Because I wasn’t interested much in the multiplayer aspect, I only mucked around in escort where you need to escort (oddly enough) an AI and the other team needs to assassinate only the player characters. Kind of boring as you just sit and wait until you see some sort of ‘human’ pattern then go for the kill.
The single player has eight memories to complete with ten new achievements. You can easily knock this DLC off within an hour or so and that’s a shame considering the decent backstory. Ubisoft could have added more single player content as The Hermeticists are an interesting lot thus fleshing them out can easily enhance the Assassin’s Creed already rich history. Well unfortunately that wasn’t the case consequently made me a little cheesed off as this was a massive lost opportunity. Nevertheless, it is what it is and can be easily missed unless you are a diehard fan of the series.
5.5 / 10