"While a lot like its predecessor, Brotherhood adds a little few innovation that nonetheless make it a great Assassin’s Creed experience."
Positive
+ The new setting of Rome is marvellous
+ High quality presentation and historical details
+ Some minor improvements that make it better than its superb predecessor
Negative
- Assassin Recruit system is a good idea, but very undeveloped
- Some common AI glitches
- Feels like déjà vu of Assassin’s Creed II in too many things
Assassin’s Creed II was a lot of things, and a giant step forward and realizing the untapped potential of its predecessor were amongst them. The third instalment continues charismatic assassin Ezio Auditore di Firenze’s story that takes place in Roma, the capital, after obtaining the Apple of Eden from Roderigo Borgia. Brotherhood understandably keeps pretty much Assassin’s Creed II did, while adding only minor things to a hugely successful game.
After successfully escaping the Templar’s attack at the end of Assassin’s Creed II, in the modern times, Desmond, Lucy, Shaun and Rebecca find refuge in the old Auditore villa in Monteriggioni. Meanwhile in 1499, Monteriggioni is besieged by the son of Roderigo Borga (who was left alive by Ezio), Cesare Borgia, and the Apple of Eden falls in the hands of the enemy. With uncle Mario killed, Ezio flees to Roma, once again seeking vengeance on the Borgia. Being the center of the Templar Order, Ezio finds the need to restore the assassins in Roma, and only with the help of characters such as Machiavelli and other key characters will that be possible. The story keeps a high moving pace despite with the series’ open world structure and succeeds. Cesare as a primary villain is quite convincing, especially his voice acting which ranks amongst the best in the series. Brotherhood lacks as many high profile assassinations as its revered predecessor, but still manages to pull of an interesting story.
There was a sea of innovations between the original Assassin’s Creed and its successor Assassin’s Creed II. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood doesn’t take the title of Assassin’s Creed III for good measures; because it does only minor updates on the second instalment. But no means, everything great and not so great remains. The great was always the joy of ascending virtually any structure with ease thanks to Ezio’s agility; jumping from rooftop to rooftop and finally performing a heart-stopping leap of faith in a pile of hay or in the sea are still the most enjoyable activities in the game. Ezio’s combat remains mainly untouched, often pitting him against multiple odds in a fairly straightforward combat system, which offers multiple weapons, and the best combat options remaining of waiting, and doing a lethal counterattack. Of course you can save yourself the trouble of combat when you can avoid it but doing stealthy assassinations without being noticed, which definitely more is satisfying than manhandling a group of foes.
The open-world structure remains, allowing you to leisurely explore the city for extra quests or just sightseeing, especially with many historical landmarks existing in Roma, like the Coliseum. Story missions persist in forcing you in tailing and chasing missions which vary from exciting to dead boring. All that was there before remains and the additions are welcome. A new addition is the Assassin Recruit, where Ezio will save citizen which will in turn aid you in fights at your signal. Similar to the original’s citizen rescue, Ezio must save the citizen without his target getting killed. These assassins can be sent on missions to gain EXP which will make them more efficient. They are very efficient on one or two targets since they practically come out of nowhere and kill your designated target, giving you more breathing space. Against multiple targets, a fight will ensue, which again works in your favour, since the guards would be distracted. It’s a system that works, but it’s underdeveloped since you when they level up, you can only increase their skills in armour and weapon, and nothing else. Beware that there is a waiting time that is needed to resummons assassins, and if they are away on missions outside of Italy, you obviously can’t summon them. The assassin AI suffers from some issues. Occasionally arriving on horses, and don’t immediately attack their designated target. And on one occasion, the assassin that finished off his targets, remained standing near the corpse of a Borgia soldier. It is nothing ground-breaking, but it is still an occasionally noticeable glitch that hurts the immersion the historic franchise creates.
Another addition is Leonardo’s missions. Between the two games, Leonardo had been forced to create these war machines, and he tasks Ezio to eliminate them. These missions take out in a small area outside of Roma, and force you to remain undetected and then use the war machine to escape and destroy you. Some of the war machines are fascinating and fun to use, but some, like the Bomber, are outrageously frustrating to use.
There are shops you can renovate, after you rid the area from the Borgia. Borgia Towers are the lookouts you must destroy in order to liberate the area from Borgia oppression, where you must take out the captain of the tower, before igniting a tower (in a classic tower ascension part). Once liberated, you can purchase the shops in the area including a bank; where you withdraw money accumulated from other owned shops, a tailor; where Ezio can purchases pouches and change his attire, a weapon shop; allowing Ezio to buy new weapons and improve armour, and the art merchant; where treasure maps and paintings can be purchased. There are landmarks which can be purchased at a hefty price. Also you can sell items this time around which you find from treasure chests, which may be used in shop quests, requiring specific components.
Being a larger city than Venezia and Firenze, Roma freely allows you to ride horses in its city. That means you’ll be hitting a lot of civilian and pissing off a lot of guards. There are now extra objectives in story missions. These secondary missions toughen missions a bit, while not being obligatory. Succeeding in the secondary objective such as ‘Do not swim’, ‘do not kill anyone’, ‘especially in under 2 minutes’ and such will grant you a 100% sync with Ezio. Failing these optional tasks will automatically grant you only 50% sync, without hampering in anyway with the main objectives. Needless to say, you have to follow the main objectives to the letter. There is also a new multiplayer mode implemented. The main aim of multiplayer puts you as an assassin, and given a target to assassinate another player, while you yourself, are being targeted. With that odd, you’d need to find and kill your target, and avoid being killed yourself by another player.
As someone who has played the PS3 version of the original games, it surprised me how brilliantly the series adjusts to the PC. The controls are smooth and rarely had any troubles at all after a short while. It is a fortune it functions since a controller wouldn’t connect. Also visually, it is quite a feat. There is still some awkward lip syncing here and there, and unrealistic facial animation, but the city, from recognizable landmarks to fallen ruins, and just looking from the top of a building down to the streets littered with activity and people, are excellent. The music is quite astounding as well, capturing especially some of the most careful missions with a good rhythm and engaging pace. Voice acting merges Italian and English at will, and characters are brought to life, especially Cesare’s voice. I was impressed especially in a scene where Cesare was angrily conversing with the Pope, and the terrific voice acting made Cesare outshine other performances.
Brotherhood feels like an add-on of Assassin’s Creed II with its own long 15 to 20 hour story. Whatever was there in the previous year’s release remains plus a few minor updates noticeably the optional objectives in missions, assassin requirement and opening shops after removing Borgia influence. Nonetheless Brotherhood is a really, really good historic action adventure on its own and a successful entry into Ubisoft flourishing franchise.
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Graphics = 8.6
Excluding some glitches and some facial animation, visually Brotherhood is sharp and gorgeous. Ezio climbs and moves with incredible finesse.
Sound = 8.9
Cesare’s voice is brilliant, amongst others. Soundtrack fights the situation and rarely fails otherwise.
Presentation = 8.5
Fast loadings and well works stupendously on pc, especially the controls. There isn’t a whole lot of graphic customization, but it is decent enough for customization.
Gameplay = 8.2
All the joy of climbing, performing leaps of faith, backstabbing, blending in the crowd, and what not is here from Assassin’s Creed II. Small new additions could have used some more variety.
Story = 8.1
Entertaining moments in the story and Ezio is as charismatic as ever. Not enough high profile kills this time around. Desmond’s story ends with the worst cliff-hanger in the series so far, screaming with the ‘go play Revelations to see how things play out’ idea.
Recommendation Level = Medium
If you didn’t like Assassin’s Creed before, you still won’t like it. Series fan need no advise, this is a game to play. Those unfamiliar with the series shouldn’t start here since it’s practically mid-story.
Difficulty = Medium
Assassination recruits are helpful in combat and as distractions and simplify your life quite a bit. Final boss can be a frustrating ordeal, but nothing a skilful assassin can’t handle
OVERALL = 85 / 100
While a lot like its predecessor, Brotherhood adds a little few innovation that nonetheless make it a great Assassin’s Creed experience.