Assassin's Creed Brotherhood Review

Full Disclosure: I have always enjoyed the Assassin’s Creed franchise. Even though the first one put off a lot of gamers with it’s repetitious structure, I was not among them. I’ve enjoyed the story as a whole, and the gameplay was enough to warrant several playthroughs of both AC and AC2.

Story: The story in Brotherhood is mediocre. It continues the story of Ezio from Assassin’s Creed 2 and does so with almost no need. It largely centers around three main themes, avenging the loss of a loved one, a possible traitor amongst the assassins, and restoring the League of Assassins so that you can retrieve the Apple which again has fallen into enemy hands. The ending has the most issues. It’s largely unentertaining and hampers mysticism of a certain character introduced late in AC2.

Gameplay:  The gameplay in the series has largely been the main draw. This does not change for Brotherhood. Ezio still feels the same way when traversing across rooftops and bolting through crowded city streets. There are still minor occurrences where you may jump where you weren’t intending to, or not grabbing the next ledge when you ought to be able to, but it much less frequent. Horse riding through the city is a nice addition given the size of Rome, but in the countryside the horse feels slow and seems to be handicapped to better suit the player whilst in the city streets. The combat is mostly the same, adding in a new kick move to help take down more protected enemies. When all else fails, you can rely on other assassins that you recruit and train by sending them on missions to level them up.

Graphics: The visuals in Brotherhood are largely the same as the second installment. Everything looks great. From the character models, to the buildings in the distance, it all looks good. Female characters look especially better in Brotherhood than in previous iterations. There is some small pop-up with grass and a few buildings but it is largely unnoticeable.

Sound: The audio in Brotherhood great. From quality voice acting, metal against metal fights in the street, and running and climbing on buildings, everything sounds as you’d hope. The score is largely pulled from Assassin’s Creed 2, but there are a few new additions that tie in nicely with it.

Replayability:  The big new thing for Brotherhood is the addition of multiplayer. The main draw to this is its uniqueness. Playing as an Abstergo employee training against other employees to learn the skills of the Assassins, Ubisoft has given the multiplayer a story and a purpose. It’s great trying to sneak up on your target getting those precious extra points while simultaneously watching your back for the people after you. There are plenty of perks and character customization, as one would expect from a modern game. The multitude of maps and variation within all have their own unique style and offer great hiding places and rooftops.  The single player has so many sidequests it’s a bit daunting. From Assassinations, Templars, Flags, Feathers, Borgia Towers, and more, Brotherhood seems to never stop giving the player something to do.

Pros:

·      Great setting

·      Overall story is good

·      Massive open world

·      Gameplay has great improvements

·      Training and using your Assassins is fun

·      Combat is faster and more satisfying

Cons:

·      The last hour is boring and annoying

·      Horses don’t go to you when you call them if you’re running.

Editor: Raymond Segal

8/10 Great

Value: Full Price ($60)