Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

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.

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.

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

Brotherhood only adds to what makes ezio the best assassin, he shows development and becomes more then a vendetta seeking killer, he seeks to expand the brotherhood for the freedom of italy

I was very impressed with Assassin's Creed 2, which picked up on everything that worked about the original game and turned out an overall beautiful sequel that improves in every category. Brotherhood is not as much of a leap forward, but it didn't need to be. It makes welcome additions to the mechanics and overall game quality, though, and continues a story very much in the same spirit as it's predecessor, blending the beautifully-executed Renaissance-era Rome and Ezio's effortless charisma, with the modern-day intrigue and heady mystery of Desmond's modern-day fight against Abstergo.

STORY: In both timelines, this game picks up exactly where AC2 left off; with Desmond and co on the run after Abstergo raids their hideout, and with Ezio in the vault beneath the Vatican following his battle with Rodrigo Borgia. The opening sequences make for a great welcome back to prime the player for another adventure in both timelines. From there, the pacing is very well-done, drawing focus to the main story when necessary, but never unnecessarily closing off the open world to the player. Overall, I found this story a little easier than that of AC2 to follow the first time around, possibly because I was already familiar with the cast of characters. Ezio's story ends in a decently satisfying way, and never seems to get less compelling. Desmond's story remains fairly static until the very end, per the game's internal logic, until, just like in the previous game, it kicks off a crazy ending that leaves the player with many more questions than answers. I can't imagine what it must have been like to play this game back in 2010 and have to wait a year for the follow-up.

GRAPHICS: The trailer for this game, as with the rest of the series, boasts insanely realistic graphics, and the gameplay pales in comparison to it. That's why I'm grateful for more modern trailers that clarify that the footage was captured from a console. For 2010, the graphics are decent, but in 2023 they're nothing to write home about. They're not BAD graphics by any stretch, but they don't hold up to some other games of the time (God of War 3, for example).

GAMEPLAY: There are a few additions to gameplay mechanics here - nothing reinvents the wheel, but they don't need to, and the changes are mostly welcome. My favourite change is the ability to use the titular brotherhood, and send other Assassins on contracts and missions around the entire world, bringing in passive income and generally boosting the immersion of being a leader in the Assassin movement. There is also a general improvement to some of the navigation and UI like the weapon wheel that just makes the game a little easier to use. The one change I'm not really in love with is the addition of 100% sync goals, bonus objectives that aren't necessary but that I feel the need to accomplish, which makes a handful of missions frustratingly difficult. However, the feeling of accomplishment from getting that 100% sync is very gratifying.

OVERALL: AC: Brotherhood is a worthy successor to AC2, with another captivating story and cliffhanger ending, and small improvements here and there to keep the gameplay immersive and fresh. Playing in 2010 may not have felt like a mechanical leap forward players might have hoped for, but playing the games back to back on The Ezio Collection keeps them all feeling very consistent. 9/10, a great addition to the series.