Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

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.

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.

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!

Desmond and co. arrive at their destination(I'm not giving it away... it's a nice idea, and, well, Templars could be reading this. That last part was a joke), and over the course of this, Ezio gets the closure he's been needing since II(which this expands upon, if it leaves a lot intact... and that, I will not go into a lot of detail on, you can read my review on that one, instead) began. The story(that *again* leaves us with a cliffhanger and more questions than answers) is interesting(as is following what happened with the characters, who are so diverse, developed and varied that everyone will find someone to like and look forward to seeing more of), and for being less grand than the one before it, its beginning, middle and end are made of pure win and epicness. Prime examples are when you have to take care of the somewhat anachronistic war machines Da Vinci has been forced to create, where you literally get ahold of these vehicles(I'm not giving away what they are, it's too badass to spoil) and turn them on the other ones already completed, to even the odds in the battle. This also aids in distracting from this being the first in the series limited to a single city... Rome, and you have to rebuild her, by restoring shops(as well as the aqueducts, and a nifty tunnel system that, along with your ability to now whistle for a horse, allow you to get around much quicker) and buying famous landmarks(making your earnings go up), giving power back to the hands of its people, and you can do this in an area once you've cleared out the corresponding Borgia Tower(kill the captain running it, then *set it on fire so it explodes*), to limit their corrupt influence. Doing so also makes other missions in the area easier, and in addition to the ones you have to complete(making up maybe 20, 25 hours of play, roughly the same for the stuff that isn't mandatory), you again get assignments from the thieves(who can be upgraded to pulling enemies off their steed, by accomplishing the tasks they list; they are still distractions for hire) such as races(although now only with a set time, not against anyone running at the same time, the same course) and spy-ish ones, the courtesans(who will eventually lure away and *poison* guards... how awesome is that!; they'll have you beating up others; and they help you look like you're not up to no good) and the mercernaries(they'll tell ya who to kill; and they can fight alongside you). And that leads nicely into one of the new things this has, and one of the two that lends this its title. You're the leader of the resistance, so you're not alone. In this, you recruit, and then, through use and sending them out in the world(with objectives to deal with), train, assassins. You wind up with a total of 12, and their availability is represented by three meters(that refill over time) on the HUD. When all are full, you can use them entirely on a storm of arrows, that will take out every single foe that you can see at that time(we're talking, tens of them, no problem, if they're close enough to you), and if you use them one by one, it means 1-3 of them showing up to murder whoever you targeted when calling for them. As they gain XP, they will gradually reach the top level and be armed with the double-blades, pistol, smoke bombs and crossbow, just like you. Yup, they finally put it in, and somehow, along with the feature I just mentioned, they still manage to keep it from being just a walk in the park. In fact, for all their teeter-tottering on providing challenge or being excessively streamlined that these have done, we're finally reaching this giving you something to do that takes skill. 60% is the ratio of that, now, where it was 40, maybe sometimes 50, before. And finally, we're getting back to a Prince of Persia approach to how the climbing and parkour is done, at least on some of the more important buildings(you can still mindlessly roam about rooftops), meaning you don't just move into it and rush up it, you have to find the path that will let you scale it(and you may be under fire at this time!). And the other half of the duo? The unique multiplayer experience. Heck yeah. The range of rules and 7 or so modes boil down to basically: every player is out to eliminate others(with instantly lethal means, at first up close, later, as you unlock them by earning points, with slow guns, etc. - yup, like what you usually have in these) with and/or hide from those who are(sometimes, you are only to run and hide from them, you can "knock them out" briefly, but only if you take them by surprise), helped along by everyone(including the AI civilians, similar to SP - some stand in a group, others walk around) taking on the appearance of one of the dozen and a half models(all with their own animations for causing death of others) you can choose, meaning, you can literally blend in with others that look exactly the same as you, actually potentially tricking another human to snuff the wrong "person". Sometimes solo, sometimes on teams, one has crates to steal and another has VIPs that you either have to protect or attack. While you can do the physical feats that you are accustomed to in this, it will paint a huge bullseye on your clothes. Graphics haven't changed, nor has you buying bigger, better stuff in stores, or the gameplay being fun and you being able to take things very much at your own pace(except for when directly out to solve something specific). There is bloody, violent and disturbing content in this. I recommend this to any fan of the franchise, GTA, PoP and Hit-man. 7/10

Growing up, I use to love Assassin's Creed; and would obsess over it. Now, I really don't care for it, and have better things to focus on. Luckily, I care enough to type this review. This game made improvements in areas such as combat, making it fast paced, and map size. That's great. But there were flaws with the game. Well, a personal grip I had with this game was feeling this title was a mislabel. The game's sub title is called "Brotherhood." But you don't see much of the brotherhood in the story. The only reason it has that title is because you get assassins you can command to aid you in battle when you want. That's all. They have no impact or place in the story. The next title, Assassin's Creed Revelations, had the brotherhood be more apart of the story, really the side missions did, than AC Brotherhood did. I think before the game was released, the community manager said there would be cut scenes where the protagonist, Ezio, visits the graves of dead assassins to "pay his respects," but there were no instances of such cutscenes. I don't know if they were removed, forgotten or if that was a mere idea that was scraped, but there was no grave scene. I can't find records of this on YouTube or Wikipedia. I can't even find this in the game. Obviously, it was never in there in the first place; I'm just trying to make a point. Another thing about the brotherhood is that they feel so unneeded, due to the combat being fast. Really, you can take out most enemies on your own, and perform missions without their help. There were a few missions where you couldn't call them though, and if you call them into battle, that makes the fight less challenging. I mean, after three hits, you can take out the enemies in one hit; what's the point in calling these novice killers into battle? It degrades the challenge. I know, I'm mostly rambling about the assassin recruits, but it was/is just a big deal to me. Aside from the assassins, the story was good. The story was decent, some memorable characters returned from the previous game and a few improvements were made with you exploring decently built environments. Now multiplayer was a step in an interesting direction. You have targets to kill while you have pursuers in a mode called wanted. There are other modes where you have different objectives and goals, such as capturing or protecting chests, and hunting a group of targets with a pack of players or protecting your self and your team from pursuers. There were good concepts, it's just the servers got bad, and things lagged out on matches. At times, it would be several minutes before I could get into a session. In a session, sometimes bugs and glitches would be every where. But I had fun most of the time. In all, AC Brotherhood is a fairly good game with great concepts and a decent story. Angles such as its story suffer from features it doesn't need and which degrade the challenge of stealth and combat; as well as not having what I thought would've been a significant part of the story not be apart of it much. On the multiplayer side, it suffers from bugs, glitches and slow servers. But the game is great though, and is pretty memorable. I give this game a seven out of ten.