Took only 1 year to make this sequel with a new story and great multiplayer.
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is the third installment that gives us a new story and actually pretty good multiplayer. But first, the story. Now when I say "new" I mean a new plot line but the same character's are used. The game starts where ACII left off: Ezio finds a hidden room after killing the Pope, Desmond goes to the Villa in Italy to find clues from his ancestor, and a new evil is among them. Ezio returns to the Villa, makes love to a woman and then his wall is blown apart as the village is ambushed. You loose the Villa, you get shot in the side, and you try everything as your Uncle is shot in the head by his your nemesis Cesare Borgia who holds the Apple of Eden. With help from some old friends, you go to Rome to retrieve the Eden and destroy the Borgia army.
The story in this game isn't as intriguing as it's predecessor. In the second game you see Ezio become this master assassin. You see him go through the ranks before taking down his enemy in the end. You don't see Ezio becoming an even more powerful assassin this time around. You do loose your gorgeous armor from the second game which is a bummer. I also found it a little stretched out between assassinations. The first true assassination didn't happen in the first hour at all. There is combat, a lot of it, so don't be disappointed in that part of the game. Oh and if you thought ACII's ending was confusing, the ending in Brotherhood is even more confusing. Figure this one out and you should win a prize.
The gameplay has made some changes. You can now use your horse in the city and attack enemies on your horse but they will also be on horses as well. This time around, there are Borgia towers. Destroy the captian of the troops there and ignite the tower in flames and you can open blacksmiths and banks and bring this city back into shape. This also works as your economy. When you open shops, they will give you money that you can withdraw from banks. Then you can buy weapons and such things like that. But the newest part of the game is recruiting your new assassins. While it is fun for creating a diversion using your new assassins, they really are useless. The game is easy enough that makes using assassins "a waste of time".
The multiplayer is the last part of the game that is new and relatively works. I must say I loved playing the multiplayer. I only did the free for all where you just assassinate different players. It is quite fun standing in a circle waiting and then attack the person you are told to assassinate. But you have to be cautious and find another person who looks just like you in the game and hide and try to trick the other player who is trying to assassinate you. I guess you would call it a game in the same rules as "Hide and Seek". You hide, you seek, you assassinate so I guess it should be called "Hide and Assassinate".
The one problem with the game is using Ezio again. I wasn't very fond of Altair in the first game and I loved Ezio in the second. I liked playing as him but Ubisoft needs to know that new characters is a good thing. I still believe that Italy is an excellent place to have this storyline but sometimes change is a good thing. Changing from Altair to Ezio was a great thing so why not make the game better by changing it again. I guess when you found a part of the game that really worked, why not stick with it.
So Brotherhood is another way of calling this game Assassin's Creed 2.5. The use the same style from the second game except for the story and multiplayer. I hope they take two years to create Assassin's Creed III or IV (depending on how you call Brotherhood) and improve on where Brotherhood slightly fell.
Score: 8.6