Assassins Creed: Brotherhood

Some readers may remember that a few months ago I posted a review of Assassins Creed 2, mostly because I was really excitied about Assassins Creed: Brotherhood. And now that its here, I can't help but have mixed feelings for it. Lets get into it, shall we? Oh, and just a little heads up, if you havent finished the two preceeding games, there are gunna be spoilers.

STORY
Brotherhood continues on from AC2; following the story of Desmond Miles, the apparent "Chosen One" who is reliving the memories of his assassin ancestor Ezio Auditore. Why? To save the world of course!

The game features a nice little recap at the beginning, so anyone who's forgotten the previous major story points can catch up again nice and easy. Desmond is back in the Animus, leaping around Rome and stabbing people as Ezio Auditore; but dont think this is just for fun. The Assassin's (Desmond and pals) are searching for the Piece of Eden that Ezio seems to have been the last to have his hands on.

While searching these memories in the Animus, everything Ezio had worked towards in the last game kinda goes to hell. The Villa Auditore is ransacked, and some of his Assassin buddies are killed or captured in the process. Now he's out for revenge against the guy who should have died in the last game.

Now, this game seems like it could have been added to AC2 (although the size of that game would have been fucking gigantic). While the story does add lots to the rich background of the AC universe, it seems like we would have learnt more if we had fun with a new ancestor. That said, Ezio's story was largely entertaining and it drew me in; so thats all you can really ask for. Oh, and if you liked the WTF ending of the last game, trust me when I say that Brotherhood will not disappoint.

PRESENTATION
Assassins Creed: Brotherhood largely looks and feels like AC2, and with only a year between the two games, thats fair enough. That said, the look of everything in the game; from Ezio's kill animations to the expansive landscape of renaissance Rome looks alot more smooth and polished since last time. While keeping the same basic look, Brotherhood does a good job in smoothing out AC2's rough edges.

The soundtrack is fairly cool, and really picks up during open combat with guards. The music really suits the games intended atmosphere (including the creepy subject 16 files) and its nice to see so much effort put into sucking us back into this world of Templars and Assassins.
Voice acting and dialogue remain at the high standard they were at last year, with the Italian dialogue in particular being quite cool. Its great that by the time I finished the single player, I had learnt a few new phrases in another language. Not what I expect from a game, but I can't complain about it.


GAMEPLAY
Once again, Brotherhood remains largely the same as its predecessor, whilst providing some much needed polish on various gameplay elements.
While sometimes when free-running, Ezio will miss a jump or not go where you want, the free running is still the smoothest it's ever been. While it was easy to get bogged down in earlier games, Brotherhood feels fast paced, whether you're running through the streets, on rooftops or galloping along on a (slow) horse.
Not sure why the horses are so friggin slow, but its cool to jump to a beam, flip up, assassinate the guy behind me, and steal his horse.

Combat also feels alot smoother, with execution chains spicing things up nicely. Get on a roll while fighting, and you can now dish out the pain with one hit kill streaks. While this doesn't solve the problem of AC2's combat being too easy, the more aggressive AI takes care of that to a degree.
Enemies will often attack simultaneously, making you think quickly as instruments of death fly bast your face.

About the best thing I've found about the new single player story was, in fact, the addition of 100% synchronisation. This feature forces you to play through missions as Ezio would have in real life, if you want to unlock some repressed memories. The stipulations for 100% synch could involve time limits, or damage limits, or force you to be as stealthy as possible.

While not bringing a WHOLE lot of new stuff to the table this year, Assassins Creed: Brotherhood is a lot more of what was good about AC2, with a bit more polish.

REPLAYABILITY
While free running and killing in AC2 was fun and all, it did get old pretty quick. While there are a plethora of side missions and collectibles, Brotherhood brings one extremely new feature to the mix. That's multiplayer. One of the most interesting parts of this game for me, simply because Ubisoft are trying something new in this world of Multiplayer frag-fests like Halo and COD.

I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time here, but I do want to talk about this. Brotherhood's multiplayer casts you as the villains; agents of Abstergo Industries, who are training in the animus in preparation for any confrontations with the Assassins. Game modes like Wanted and Alliance (team wanted) are basically games where you hunt your prey but at the same time, must watch your back, lest you be killed horribly.

It makes for some of the most intense multiplayer around. Black Ops can suck a lemon.
Oh, and there are trophies and achievements for all you hunters and whores. Go nuts!

OVERVIEW
While the general message of this review has been that Brotherhood is more of AC2, with polish; I can't help but feel like Assassins Creed: Brotherhood is just AC2.5. And that seems really harsh, considering the size of the map, the amount of missions and collectibles PLUS the addition of a stellar (if a little buggy) multiplayer.

So do I recommend it? If you're a fan of Assassins Creed, hell yes (although you probably got it day one, didn't you?). If not, I can still recommend it, but I highly suggest diving into the previous installations for a more in-depth catch up. Not that desmond doesn't cover things adequately. But he doesn't.


Next week.. I don't know. Could be Borderlands GOTY, could be your mother. Anyways, see you next time!