Assassin's Creed II was a very well made and enjoyable game, but where could they go from there? When Ubisoft announced Brotherhood everyone thought it would just be a cash in with a slack multiplayer to draw people in, but how wrong we were. Brotherhood is a stand alone game no doubt about it, but is it an improvement over AC2 or is it just the same old?
The story follows Ezio once again and is a direct sequel to Assassin's Creed II. This means that you'll have had to have played AC2 to understand what is really going on even though there are some flash backs. Ezio has tracked the Borgia to Rome, and this is where the majority of the game takes place. Rome is slightly larger than that of AC2. The missions you encounter during Ezio's seek of revenge are done across 9 different sequences, all of which have a variety of missions and ways to complete these missions. Anything from rescuing people by scaling the castello to simply fighting off a french army the old fashioned way. Brotherhood continues Assassin's Creed's variety of weapons and missions in such a way that everything seems reasonably new and fresh.
Along with playing as Ezio, Brotherhood also gives you the continuing story of Desmond which you'll visit a few times in a mandatory state, but you can also explore with Desmond by going into options and selecting 'leave the animus'. This allows you to travel around the Monteriggioni Villa you owned in AC2, and there are a few hidden things to find around this area.
Ezio's goal in Rome is to fix the city up bit by bit while getting rid of all Borgia influence. This is been done by creating a Brotherhood, which you will not meet until a while into the game, but Ezio from the very start is trying to form an alliance with people to take back Rome, starting with the Mercenaries. You will meet familiar faces from previous games which will help Ezio - these being the likes of LaVolpe, Bartolomeo and Machiavelli. After you receive the help of these it is then your duty to make your own Brotherhood by recruiting citizens, this can be done first by killing Borgian captains and burning down their towers which gives you the opportunity to recruit assassin's. You then have to save the citizens from an attack by guards which will then cause them to be forever in your debt. This recruitment process is repetitive but if you treat the recruits right you will only have to it a few times. These recruits have levels with 10 being the highest. In battle you can call in these assassins which will help you in combat, depending on how many you have is how many you can call in, from just one to a whole army.
Despite Ezio being very efficient with a blade, you'll encounter a vast amount of enemies alot of the time however Ubisoft have now added the ability to chain executions meaning you can jump from enemy to enemy destroying them in a beautiful fashion. However to get full sync on each memory is not so easy; you do this by completing a set requirement during a mission, such as "do not loose any health" or "do not kill anyone apart from ....". This makes getting 100% overall very hard indeed, and if you are a perfectionist you're going to find the game extremely frustrating.
Besides the fantastic story line, there is much to do in Rome. With faction challenges to complete, virtual training, several secret tombs and also the villa to explore - there is a vast amount of content which will keep you busy for a long time, even after you finish the main story line.
For the first time in this franchise, Brotherhood offers a multiplayer component. With many singleplayer games slapping on sub-standard multiplayer nowadays the worry was that Brotherhood would fall into the same trap. This is not the case however as the multiplayer seems extremely polished and Ubisoft have obviously been working on this for a long time. Multiplayer puts you in the position of a templar whom is training in the animus, this gives you all the elements of the assassins you experience in the singleplayer but put it into a competitive environment. You are rewarded points for kills on your target and receive more points if you do it silently and by flanking your opponent. There are several modes to play, the standard being Wanted which is essentially a free-for-all where you're assigned a target to kill, but are also being hunted by someone else. Then there's alliance which is similar to wingman where you're with a partner and are trying to kill targets. Manhunt pits two teams of assassin's against each other one being the hunters and the other being the hunted, this mode can get pretty hectic at times but is good fun. There's talk of other modes coming in through DLC. But with there being 50 multiplayer levels/ranks this'll take you some time to reach the top, and creates for an addictive online experience.
Overall i feel Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is one of the best games this generation, with its stunning visuals, fresh gameplay and new innovative mutliplayer, it's a game which will be being played for months to come. Along with all that it is one of the best storylines in any game I've played which will grip you from the start and provide many surprises. This game is worth the entire £40 it costs and is very worthy of being a sequel of Assassin's Creed II. The game is not perfect, there are a few control issues and some repetition during the side missions, but regardless of this you'll undoubtedly be fully satisfied with your Assassination experience.
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood Gets An Offical Game-Pad: 9.4/10
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