Sneaky killing in both a great singleplayer and multiplayer, what's not to like?
So here we are then, a new entry in a quality series! Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood came out only a year after Assassin's Creed II and one might wonder whether it can be as good as it's predecessor with only a year time of development. After all, a lot of mistakes could be made and that would be too bad for such great franchise. So let us not hesitate any longer! This is Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood.
First of all I want to warn you before you read this summary of the story. I will reference to ACII because it's important to the story. So if you don't want me to spoil anything, go straight away to my opinion on the story.
AC:B basically start of where its predecessor, Assassin's Creed II stopped. The main protagonist is still Desmond Miles, an assassin who tries to find the pieces of Eden before another faction, called the Templars. Last game you stepped into the animus to play as your ancestor Ezio Auditore. Through him you tried to find the 'apple' of Eden. You eventually succeeded in doing so by defeating the pope, Rodrigo Borgia. You also meet Minerva, one of 'those who came before', they are basically gods who made the human race and the pieces of Eden to control them. Desmond now knows that Ezio managed to find the apple, but he still doesn't know where to find it himself. That's why he goes into the animus one more time to relive the memories of his ancestor once more.
It all starts when Ezio goes back to his hideout in Monteriggioni to bring the apple to safety. Unfortunately everything goes wrong right from the beginning. The city is attacked by the legions of the Borgia family with Cesare Borgia, son of the pope, as their general. The city is destroyed, Mario, Ezio's uncle is killed and the apple is lost. Luckily Ezio and his mum and sister manage to escape with some of the other villagers. Now it's Ezio's task to go to Rome, stop the reign of the Borgia family and retrieve the apple of Eden.
Once again the story is pretty good. It's very well told, interesting to follow and most things make sense. With this I mean that, just like in ACII, the ending is somewhat 'strange'. I won't spoil what happens but expect once again an ending that won't satisfy for some of you. But again I think that the ending is quite good. It still fits in the overall story and it's even shocking what happens and makes you feel like you want to know what will happen afterwards immediately. The rest of the story is, like a said, fun and interesting and everything makes sense, but it isn't quite as good as in ACII. Where ACII started as a 'revenge' story and everything turned out to be much bigger in the end, here you kind of know immediately what's going on and everything is quite straightforward. So don't get me wrong, AC:B delivers a great story that is very well told, but don't expect really big surprises until the end of the game.
Like every AC game, one thing they definitely do get right is the character development. Because, oh boy, these characters are once again very, very strong indeed. Every character has its own history, wishes and personality and completely fits in the story. For example, Cesare Borgia. He's almost psychotic, he wants to conquer all of Italy and he will do anything to accomplish that, once again I won't spoil anything, but expect shocking things. Also Ezio is once again a very strong character with his own ways and thoughts about the world and being an assassin. This strong character development comes with great voice acting and especially because of that these personalities feel very realistic.
In terms of gameplay, most is kept the same from your predecessor. You still climb on top of building to get a look of your surroundings or to get away from guards, you still have to accomplish missions and side mission and last but not least, you still got your trusty hidden blade. You still use it the way you're used to. You try not to get noticed and then kill your target, after that you have to get away by running and then hiding on, for example, a bench, or you could try to blend into the crowd. The battles have somewhat improved. Basically you still use the same mechanics of blocking and counter attacking, but this time the AI of your enemies is somewhat improved. The battles are still quite easy, but this time you don't face only one enemy at the same time, but another one could, for example, grab you while another one attacks. Further, you still have the same other weapons, you're used to have like your hidden gun and throwing knife, but this time you also have a shiny new crossbow.
You still have to accomplish missions in order to progress in the main storyline and once again these missions blend perfectly into the story. Most missions are extremely enjoyable to do and still are quite inventive. There are more missions who require you to be 'invisible' for the others in order keep being synchronized(not 'die', for those who never played an AC-game before). In my opinion this is a good thing, just because being an assassin really means to be able to adapt in a certain situation and never be suspicious. So it really makes sense, but there were some missions who were rather hard and even a bit irritating because of this. Further you have of course the side missions which provide more diversity than in ACII and they make more sense because they blend better into the main storyline, whereas in ACII it often just felt like extra missions without any meaning whatsoever. The biggest difference with ACII is the fact that missions now can be synchronized for 100% and 50%. If you complete a mission you get 50% synchronization, but every mission has an extra task you have to accomplish in order to get the 100%. Most of them are quite straightforward like 'kill your target with the hidden blade' or 'don't be detected', but there are some more challenging ones too. This brings some more depth in the missions, which is great, because you have to adapt and really think about how you will accomplish a certain mission in order to get that precious 100% synchronization.
Just like there was an economy system in ACII, there is one in AC:B. This time you get to restore Rome by reopening stores, banks and buying monuments. It basically works the same as it did in ACII, but it's a lot bigger and just cooler to see a city as big as Rome being restored to its former glory. Before you can restore the city, you have to destroy a Borgia tower in order to get control of the area though.
The biggest difference with ACII is, of course, the addition of your brotherhood! This time you are able to recruit up to 12 assassins and you can use them to help you in your battles. For this there is some kind RPG structure implemented. Don't expect great RPG fun, it basically comes to this. You can send your assassin's on missions, they gain exp. and they increase in level and gain new abilities over time. I really think this is a great addition to the game. It drastically changes the way you have to act and brings new possibilities to destroy your opponents. I do have 2 minor complains though. First of all it makes the game which is already quite easy, even easier. Don't get me wrong, it is really cool to use your assassin's, but it also takes away the difficulty. My second complain is that these assassins don't have any personality at all and that's kind of sad when you think about all the other great characters. Basically there just puppets with a name that you can summon, but you never interact with one of them. It goes that far that you even don't feel any regret when one would die, because they don't have any personality whatsoever and you can recruit another one if you like.
Biggest shocker for most was probably the announced multiplayer that was announced. People couldn't think of a great multiplayer for a game that was a complete singleplayer experience. But in the end Ubisoft really did it, they made an awesome multiplayer! The most normal mode is called 'Wanted' and it goes like this. You are an assassin and you get yourself a target to assassinate, you have to hunt down this person, but at the same time you are hunted too by another player. So at the same time you have to hunt, but also be discreet so you won't give yourself away. You also get more points for a kill without the target ever knowing.
This delivers really intense battles and chases. You simply never know what will happen and the tide can turn really fast. This is a really addicting multiplayer and to me one of the best I ever played.
Once again this Assassin's Creed game looks stunning. Rome is a beautiful city to explore and quite big, but not as big as all the cities together of ACII. There is a lot of diversity in the city so you'll have always something new to look at. And God, do the new execution moves look awesome! AC:B didn't get rid of some problems of ACII tough, it even got somewhat worse. There is still some pop – up, it even got a bit worse I think, or at least it was more noticeable. The characters are still a bit stiff like in ACII, but there has been some improvement on that. But sadly there occurred a new problem, now you encounter some frame rate problems that you didn't have in ACII.
So how does it hold up? Extremely good for a game that has only been in development for about a year! Assassin's Creed Brotherhood delivers once again a strong story and great gameplay. It improves the gameplay enormously by introducing the brotherhood and the % - sync system. Graphically it is a really good looking game, but I think that they might have needed a bit more time to get things completely right, because right now, sometimes it felt a bit unfinished.
And last but not least there is the addition of the multiplayer which is awesome.
So I ask you… What's not to like?