Note- reviewed as part of the Ezio Collection: https://backloggd.com/u/RedBackLoggd/review/519626/

Spoilers only at the very bottom

The Battle of Forlì takes place soon after the events of Sequence 11, with Ezio and co. deciding to hide the newly-acquired Apple in Forlí due to Caterina Sforza’s fortress being the best protection available to the Brotherhood. I’m not quite sure I bought Sforza being the best bet, but I was so happy to see a natural transition from the penultimate end of ACII that I was more than willing to overlook that. The only problem with their plan is Forlí is under attack by mercenaries Caterina once trusted. The rest of the story involves you having to defend the city.

One of the things you’ll immediately notice is how forced narrative is as many of the missions don’t have a decline option like their counterparts in the base game. This is an arc the writers are keen for you to play without stopping, leaving me wondering why they didn’t just combine them into longer memories- it would’ve served the same purpose without the artificial breaks.

I theorize it was to hide the length. This is an incredibly short add-on, running maybe a little more than an hour, but if you market it as having 6 new missions for Ezio to complete, well, who can resist that call?

Unfortunately, even if I was fine with the $4.00 asking price, I can’t quite recommend it. There are several issues at play, the first being the amount of mandatory combat. You can read my review of ACII that delves into the matter, however it goes without saying that combat is not a strong part of the game. I get it, you’re dealing with a siege and fighting was to be expected, but as no improvements have been added here, it doesn’t elevate the enterprise.

That being said, it is only the weaker variants you clash with, who can be grappled from the get-go and/or easily dispatched without much effort. The majority of the combat sections also provide you with allied AI who actually contribute to the fighting, providing another partial panacea to this ailment.

Besides these parts, there are other issues, beginning with the dialogue. Caterina’s writing is absolutely atrocious- I don’t like to bring up gender, but it truly feels like a man’s attempt at writing badass dialogue for a sexy female character, which, for the uninitiated, almost always guarantees excessive references to certain body parts. Not only that, but she comes off more like a gender-swapped Bartolomeo than the feisty, alluring Vixen we met in Sequence 6. I know that these are more stressful circumstances than the island entrapment, but she was still grievously obnoxious. Thankfully, most of her words are optional to listen to.

The story, in general, begins on a decent note but falls apart when a certain event occurs+. Combine this with the most dumbfounded cliffhanger ever composed for a DLC and you’ll see that I ultimately cannot recommend this side adventure at full price++.

The partial good news is that it comes for free as part of the Ezio Collection. Sadly, this is countered by the fact that it is mandatory for progression to the endgame, and while the transition to it from Sequence 11 is smooth, the ending ruins the initial promises of this set-up.

On a final note, I have an overarching complaint, which possibly concerns the limitations of the engine. This is supposed to be a city under attack, but it never feels that way. Outside of a beginning moment showing some civilians dashing for their lives, you never get a sense of panic in the streets: NPCs stroll about like it’s another Tuesday, enemy soldiers conveniently spawn only at designated mission checkpoints, and the big clash between armies is reduced to maybe 10-15 guys at any time. It just feels lackluster, though I understand the Anvil could only do so much.

Note - disappointingly, this entire Battle of Forli is made-up and never happened. Would have been cool if the writers could’ve found something actually historical around this period.

Note 2- why are Caterina’s own soldiers in non-story missions hostile to Ezio?
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+Two of Caterina’s children are kidnapped and Ezio is dispatched to rescue them. It’s a fine enough premise, except the children are barely guarded. Two soldiers oversee the girl, while the boy is held by just one of the Orsi Brothers. I understand this was intended to be a diversion, but come on, could they really not spare more than three guys to handle a task this sensitive?

And on the topic of that diversion, Caterina’s loss of the Apple is a joke. For starters, she only dispatched Ezio, so how were her defenses so diminished in capacity that the Orsi’s were able to succeed the second-time around? I know Ezio’s amazing, but one man should not have made that much of a difference. And as the Apple was held by Caterina, it begs the question of how exactly she and Machiavelli lost it considering she is without a mark.
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++The ending sees the last of the Orsis stab Ezio during the Confession scene. Okay, not a bad twist. However, when Ezio drops the Piece of Eden, wouldn’t you believe it, Savanorola is right nearby to grab it!

Talk about contrived nonsense- could they not have come up with a better way of handling this train of events? Why even begin it now? The Monk wouldn’t even rise to power till many years later. I speak on this more in my review of the next ACII DLC (https://www.backloggd.com/u/RedBackLoggd/review/513832/), but Ezio’s story post-Barbarigo/pre-ACII ending was honestly butchered. This was a lame attempt at setting-up/hyping up fans for the Italian Assassin’s next outing without it making logical sense timeline-wise. Need further proof? It literally concludes with him riding off to Florence as though the Bonfire of the Vanities were about to occur next month!