That said, if I had never played Assassin's Creed Brotherhood: The Da Vinci Disappearance, I wouldn't have missed it. It's not that the downloadable content is bad or flawed, it's just that it isn't exciting and feels no different from the dozens of missions on the game disc.
The single-player portion of the Da Vinci Disappearance picks up after the events of Brotherhood. Ezio reunites with Leonardo da Vinci for a short time before cultists kidnap the artist in an attempt to find a hidden catacomb. From there, it was up to me to complete the game's missions that had me hopping across rooftops, tackling couriers, and tailing bad guys.
In short, it had me do the exact same things I had already spent countless hours doing.
This isn't a bad thing as I dug the gameplay of Assassin's Creed Brotherhood and hence the Da Vinci Disappearance. Sneaking up on folks to stab them in the back, beating up jerks who talk crap about Ezio's sister, and finding hidden images in paintings are all things I enjoyed in this game, but they're not experiences I couldn't live without. On top of that, the final battle and platforming sections are cakewalks. None of these are experiences I'd pay $10 for.
Worse is that the story -- which isn't all that long -- just isn't important here. While Assassin's Creed Brotherhood had an ending so important to the series that I tell people they have to play it, this DLC doesn't. The Da Vinci Disappearance is bookended by some mysterious voices, Leonardo's disappearance is abrupt and easily fixed, and the reveal at the end is blown off by Ezio, so why should I care?
Attempting to balance out the value equation is the fact that Assassin's Creed Brotherhood: The Da Vinci Disappearance comes with multiplayer bells and whistles -- four new character skins and two new gameplay modes known as Escort and Assassination. If you missed multiplayer in Brotherhood, it tosses you and the other players into a world packed with NPCs and leaves you to figure out who the other assassins are. In Escort, one team protects a pair of computer-controlled VIPs while the other team tries to kill them. In Assassination, it's a free for all with no hints from the game. Rather than be told another player was in the area, I had to scout the playing field, make an educated guess as to who the other players were, and then strike.
I found Escort a bit boring as I waited for someone to attack or tried to get close enough to attack without giving myself away. On the other hand, I enjoyed Assassination for a bit. Watching the masses for the one person who wasn't acting like an NPC was interesting. Still, I found myself getting antsy at the slow pace of the affair.
