I don't see why AC3 couldn't have the main character recruiting assassins. I mean, even a fully established guild always needs new recruits, right? Personally, I'd love to see the game set in revolutionary era America. Just think of all the possible tie-ins with the whole Founding Fathers + Freemasons history (look it up! 
) History nerd overload! 
I didn't mean to sound like they should nix the concept of recruiting in future games. It just seems like recruiting was one of the main concepts in Brotherhood (hence the name of the game). They could definitely improve on the system as it stands. It looks to be a simple micromanagement of NPCs. They could definitely do a lot more with it, beyond just recruiting. I also think an American Revolution era would be fitting for a future title.
Well technically, by the end of the game the Americas had been discovered by the contemporary Italians, so I'm not sure how new the idea was to Ezio. I can't remember if he remarks on it in-game or not.
In a cutscene where Ezio discovers the map of the world on all of the codex pages, he makes a comment along the lines of: "It's a map of the world, but some of these lands don't exist." Then Machiavelli had interjected with a pompous: "The lands exist, they may not have been discovered yet." I do believe that this time period (the end of sequence 11) takes place before Columbus' first voyage to the Americas in 1492. You are right about the end of the game being past this point though. The game ends around the year 1499. I just noticed that there was a huge gap in between sequence 11 and sequence 14. The adventure that Ezio had during sequence 12 and 13 was very short and couldn't have lasted more than a year. However, more years had passed before sequence 14 had occurred.
There was a Nintendo DS installment that was titled, Assassin's Creed II: Discovery. It takes place somewhere after sequence 11, and sometime before sequence 14. In this title, Ezio goes to Spain during the Inquisition and runs into some more historical figures to add to his friends' list on Facebook. One of these figures being Christopher Columbus himself. I figured that Ezio had made a rash argument about the existence of the Americas far too soon, in the big scheme of things. The timeline that occurs in AC2 is kind of confusing, considering that it takes place within a 30 year period of Ezio's life (from when he was 20-50 give or take, I'm not counting that baby Ezio tutorial).
Now, if you'll excuse me, my head hurts and I need to go take an aspirin.
(Posted on: December 07, 2010, 08:38:11 AM)
Something that I'm noticing in Brotherhood is how useful it is to loot bodies now. In AC2, when you looted a body, you would get an average of 10 florins, and on a rare occasion, you'd get to replenish your supplies (like medicine and throwing daggers). In Brotherhood, it seems like soldiers carry a lot more florins, and a hell of a lot more supplies. Quite an improvement if you ask me. The combat seems more fluid than ever before. This could be a bad thing though. The kicking element makes taking down brutes a lot easier. I liked having to disarm them, and then cleave their axe into their head or their spear through their chest. But now, you can kick them, and then stab them. Still, the system does allow you to feel like that
badass assassin.
Brotherhood with its ups and downs is a fitting installment to the series, but it's still kind of lacking in longevity. Not nearly as many viewpoints or sequences. The game seems like it'll be shorter than AC2, but this inspires hope that the next
real installment in the series will have the fixes that Brotherhood has presented and then some.
