REVIEW: Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

No funny tidbits here. This is a truly amazing game, and definitely not an expansion pack.

I'm going to keep this review on the short side, if possible, mainly because I feel the urge to repeat the same phrase over and over again. "WOW! What a great game! Go buy it now!" is about all you need to take out of this review, so if you want to scroll down to the 4/5 star rating now (Oh shit! Spoiler!) and see my usual attempts at signature humor, go for it. 

Premise

 Two minutes after the cliffhanger ending of Assassin's Creed 2, the game sets off toward an equally awesome cliffhanger that will *most likely* lead into Assassin's Creed 3. If you aren't familiar with the story of the games thus far, don't be swayed by my review. I'll keep the story spoilers out, and touch more on game play.

Welcome to Abstergo: Evil Since The Dawn of Man! (Or Else)

You are still playing in the year 2012 as Desmond Miles, a guy who hooks up to a machine called an Animus, which lets him relive the memories of his ancestors. By doing so, he is helping a group of modern day Assassins uncover secrets left behind by their predecessors in the distant past. Desmond happens to be a descendant of an Assassin, and, well... there you go. The assassins (good guys, oddly enough) are in an eternal conflict with a pesudo-cult knows as the "Templar." The Templar (plural = Templars? Templari?) are your typical villains: rich, world-spanning backers of every damn company and government on the planet. You and your assassins are poor and on the run from Templar agents. DAMN YOU EMPEROR PALPATINE!

Wait... wrong story...

Anyway, In the first game you were reliving the memories of Crusade-era assassin, Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad. Spoiler! You discover the roots to a conspiracy plot that continues to expand through the game. Both in and out of the Animus, you realize that something with the word isn't right, and Desmond's ancestors were privy to it in the past. In the second game, you move into the late 15th century and play as Ezio Auditore da Firenze. Desmond clearly has some very rich cultural ties, moving from the Middle East and into Italy.

In Brotherhood, you still play as Ezio. Instead of running around Italy, you stay pretty grounded in Rome, hoping to topple a corrupt Pope and his military family who own Rome. Surprise! They are all 15th century Templar agents.

See? No spoiler there, just some honest to goodness framework, right?

Gameplay 

The game is built on the exact same engine as AssCreed (HA!) 2, so veterans shouldn't look for a drastic departure from what they already know. It still is a very good looking game, considering it hasn't even been a year since the original. That all being said, the game has better weapons, a tweaked interface, and a very large game world.

Rome looks beautiful. Strikingly beautiful. Pack-up-your-shit-and-get-in-your-Delorean beautiful (remember: 15th century). It is also quite large, so don't expect to get bored roaming the streets and the surrounding countryside. It has all the things you'd expect from Rome's history: Ruins, Colosseum, aqueducts, COLOSSEUM, the Vatican, THE FREAKING COLOSSEUM.

Complete with actual structural damage!

Oh, and you can buy the Colosseum when you earn the cash. Do it.

There is a lot to do in this city. Aside from the story missions, there are assassination contracts, races, covert op missions, escort missions... you name it, its on here. The story itself is shorter than its older brothers, but its actually quite entertaining. The mission structure is very diverse, so don't expect the monotony that plagued the original game, and you won't be repeating the equally diverse missions of the second one either. This game has enough content to stand on its own.

The only MAJOR enhancement this time around is the ability to find and train fellow assassins as the game progresses. You can call on them for help as they improve their skills, and eventually you'll have a private army of assassins at your back. The most fun I've had so far playing this game is purposefully angering as many Roman guards as I can, luring them into the center of a busy market or square, and then calling in my brothers. The battle turns out to be quite epic, especially as numbers of combatants rise. During one sequence, you fight a French army. Calling in your assassin buddies quickly makes the scene reminiscent of one of the larger battles in the Lord of the Rings. It is fun and quite a sight to see.

Multiplayer

Yeah, this may be the one thing the game touts the most, mainly because it is new and 100% original. I personally believe the meat of the game still resides in the storyline and single player experience, but damn did Ubisoft make a fun multiplayer game. They even went ahead and tried to tack on some of the game's fiction to it, which I can respect. It works, and doesn't interfere with established fiction of the series at all. 

The idea is that you actually work for Abstergo, the modern-day company that is actually the cover for the Templar organization. All the other kiddies playing on the Internet, as well as yourself, are Abstergo pawns in a giant room somewhere, plugged into their own Animus. Essentially, you are all being trained like assassins to fight the... uh... real assassins. If the third game uses this fiction, we are in for an epic clash.

I knew I hated French Soldiers ever since they insulted my parents and farted in my general direction.

Your task: Find one of the other players and kill them. Everyone has one other player in the game set as their mark, and at the same time, is being hunted (perhaps by the very same player you are tasked with killing). This cat-and-mouse game is very intense, mainly because the best tactic is to pretend to be a computer player. It is slow paced, but that's what makes it great. Patience wins games, unlike most multiplayer games these days. It can even be a bit nerve wracking at times, because while you are moving slowly through this crowd, you have no idea if the guy next to you is human or not.

It makes for a good time, especially if you get a kill streak going. You really feel as if you are improving your skill set as you play, even though everyone is on an equal playing field. As you score kills, the other players begin to fear your abilities, even though you are most likely just a lucky player. 

Downsides, in closing

This game sure isn't perfect. The controls can be wonky at times, especially when you are trying to really move fast from rooftop to rooftop. Often times the speed at which Ezio runs is so much faster than him climbing up on a ledge that it takes you away from the action a bit. 

I've also noticed that you can't skip cutscenes. That sucks, especially since some of the "busywork" missions have the same into each time you choose to start one. I don't need to see the carrier pigeon land on Ezio's hand EVERY SINGLE TIME I CALL THEM Ubisoft. Just start the damn mission.

I also think that the game could have been longer. Truthfully though, I said that about the last game too, and that was easily 50+ hours. Brotherhood clocks in around 30ish, if you don't rush through it, which is still much longer than most big-budget blockbuster titles these days.

Why So Serious?

Another thing I couldn't stand was the map system. For one, it suffers from the UI setup. Sure, the UI is beautifully designed, but it relies on animations and transition times to really shine. Moving between menus is a second or two longer than I like. If I hit the options button, I just want to see the options. I don't want the screen to slide to the right and show me options 2.4 seconds later. That's not necessary, and the map also suffers from this same downfall. 

Also with the map, I noticed there was way too many things shown on the map by default. You do have the ability to shut of icons in many different categories, but having them all on automatically really clutters up the screen.

My closing thoughts? Well... let me phrase it like this: "WOW! What a great game! Go buy it now!

Shazam - !

Oh... sorry I lied. This review was long.

~ Jimmy "Requiescat in pace" the G.

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This post has a Shenanaganary rating of:

"What is truly amazing is that I am more anxious for Assassin's Creed 3 than I was at the end of Assassin's Creed 2. Damn you, Ubisoft!"