Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

Essentially an expansion to Assassin's Creed II, but as a full game. It plays the same and looks quite similar, but it's all accompanied with improvements. The gameplay is smoother and the visuals are sharper, but there's more.

I like to look at Brotherhood as a hub or platform of content - because it kind of is. There are TONS of various side quests and collectibles to keep the sandbox compelling. Some of the content offers some fun and unique gameplay opportunities, while others allow for more worldbuilding and storytelling. It's kind of overwhelming how much content this game has, and that's not even counting the expansions.

The main campaign is also pretty solid from a gameplay and mission design standpoint - and thank goodness we can replay story missions again. But the biggest gripe I have with Brotherhood is the story. While Assassin's Creed II's story wasn't perfect, it had memorable characters, a compelling plot, and just some good writing. A lot of Brotherhood's story feels a bit rushed. Certain plot points aren't that well fleshed out, story arcs get wrapped up quickly, and characters don't really develop all that much. When it comes to playing through missions, there is the addition of optional objectives that add to the overall completion of the game. They are fun and add some replayability to accompany the replayable story missions (and some of the side missions). But when you fail an optional objective, the only way to try again is to completely restart a mission instead of from a checkpoint (which there are plenty throughout missions). The more challenging optional objectives become MUCH more frustrating and tedious because of this flaw.

The greatest aspect of Brotherhood is the gameplay. While it all feels like Assassin's Creed II, there are some improvements that add to the fluidity of things. Most notably is the chain kill system. To spare the clunkiness of combat, players can now chain together finishing blows on multiple enemies in fluid motion (as long you're not hit or interrupted). This makes combat feel more stylish and snappy. There's also the addition of hiring recruits to assist with getting rid of enemies - while I barely used this mechanic, I appreciate the effort. While the parkour is largely the same as ACII, it does feel a bit smoother with a world that feels more consistently designed for it.

The visuals have also seen very noticeable improvements. Character models look much sharper and the lighting looks pretty great at times. While the setting isn't my favorite, I do have to applaud some of the environmental design.

Speaking of the setting, there's something about the map of Rome that just leaves me feeling conflicted. It's not a bad open world or sandbox by any means, but I never really found it as intriguing as Venice or Jerusalem. The aesthetic of Rome (from the urban landscapes to the countryside) are fine, but admittedly a bit basic compared to what came before.

In the end, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is a noticeable improvement over its predecessor, but it isn't perfect. The variety and quantity of content is impressive. The visuals are a good improvement. But the story leaves a bit to be desired, and I personally didn't find the setting to be that engaging.

let me start by saying that back in may when i heard there was a new assassin's creed game in work i thought to myself that there was no way they could out best the second assassin's creed game. but some how the people at Ubisoft managed to pull it off and make one hell of a game. the story of the game was so well planned and some of the questions left out from the second game was even answered. Although the second assassin's creed game was a very good game, assassin's creed brotherhood manged to have a bigger city with plenty of missions and better graphic quality. the game also introduced a first ever multiplayer. it didn't fit the actual game story line but it was very well done for a first timer. overall assassin's creed brotherhood will blow your mind with yet another cliffhanger ending.

I am a big fan of AC. I loved the first game, and I loved the second. Now, for the third game (AC:B), I thought it is quite similar to AC2, but do not get me wrong, if I say it is as good as AC2, I mean it's a great game.

What I loved mostly about this game is that the whole story was in Roma. You did not have to go from one city to another like the previous games. As for the weapons, I was hoping for much more weapons, but yet, the weapons were amazing. I believe it is a bit more difficult than the previous games, but still not very complex. I hate games that are very difficult, which keeps me in a frustrating state.

I was hoping that the player could have control of more than one character (not only Ezio), but this did not happen. Although you can do it in the multiplayer game, but not the main game. Maybe this is something that Ubisoft should look into when designing their next game.

Excellent job Ubisoft. We will be waiting for the next game.

When Brotherhood was announced it was sold as Assassin's Creed 2.5 as it wasn't a "proper" next game but rather a direct continuation of part 2; the inclusion of a multiplayer aspect also made it feel like perhaps it would be a shorter game, put out as a stop-gap between 2 and 3 – particularly since it had only been a year since AC2. As a result I didn't get too excited about it and was fine waiting till Christmas to pick it up. Surprisingly ACB improves yet again on the previous game, with lots of little things added, changed and improved. The story continues to be an impressively crafted mix of religion, history, truth and Da Vinci code nonsense but it is still engaging. The overall movement of the series story is not great though but in terms of providing a structure for the game, Cesare Borgia and the recovery of the piece of Eden is more than sufficient to engage in addition to the progress made by Desmond towards the end (even if the end does feel a little rushed when it comes).

As before the game plays really smoothly and with a decent amount of variety. Naturally everything involves going somewhere, doing something and then going somewhere else, but the missions are well constructed and the challenged to do them "100% Synch" by achieving additional challenges makes them more interesting and essentially increases the difficulty for those that wish to try it. Around the main narrative though there is loads to be done. I really liked the addition of the Borgia towers to be cleared, the war machines and the many smaller missions for thieves, mercenaries etc that are scattered around. The collectables are still in place but this time the ability to unlock and buy maps makes this so much less of a chore. Developing the Assassins is a nice idea – not nearly as deep as it could have been but quite good and handy for calling them and earning money. Redeveloping Rome is quite easy to do – a bit pointless considering it surprisingly leads to no achievement but not having to go to one place to do it or get money (the Villa in AC2 was a "once an hour" chore). The little challenges from the various guilds are a nice idea as well and a good example of just how many little things there are to do if you want to do them; none of them will extend the game forever but I enjoyed doing all these things in between story missions – sometimes I would play for a couple of evenings without advancing the story at all. Getting out of the animus is also a nice addition even if it isn't particularly meaningful till the end.

Rome is beautifully designed and there were only some parts that were annoying for having to go all the way round the cliffy areas. Once you accept that things will often "pop" onto the horizon as you approach, it does look good and play well. The cut scenes are great apart from some weaknesses in the facial animation, which put it a step behind some other games where it looks better and has better lip synch. The characters remain engaging as well, although I missed some of the humour from AC2 – Leonardo in particular was such fun in 2 but here he seems too drab and a little dull compared to who he was originally. Ezio remains a great character to play while the modern characters are also stronger and more fun.

The multiplayer shows such potential and I do enjoy it but so far I have played only 10 or so games. The matchmaking is poor and for some reason it will not start till there are a full number of players – if one drops one 5 seconds into the game then it continues fine, but to start needs a full number and wait times have varied between 2 minutes to 30 minutes – there is no need to rush to the bathroom like with COD for sure! The stealth aspect and quality of kills beating quantity works well – I won a game with half the kills of the people sprinting around. At times it can frustrate to try and flank your target at walking pace for 3 minutes only have some idiot shoot you for very few points, but it is thrilling to know you can be thousands of points down but still only need one great assassination for the win! With some work this aspect of the game could be great but for me it is a curio – but not one that I want to play so much that I'm happy to spend 10 minute waiting for 10 minutes playing.

Overall, if you loved AC2 then ACB keeps almost everything you loved and makes it better with lots of minor improvements and extensions. It is a really great game and serves to make the wait till the concluding game all the more painful!

This game is amazing. It introduced some Ai team mechanics which made the game fun for a long time. The story was incredible as always.