Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood – Review



Title   Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood - Review
Developer  Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft Annecy
Publisher  Ubisoft
Platform  Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Windows PC
Genre  Action and Adventure, Historical Fantasy, Stealth
Release Date  19th November, 2010 for consoles, Spring 2011 for PC

Welcome to the Brotherhood...

At the end of a retrospective I wrote earlier in the year for Assassin’s Creed II, Requiescat in Pace, I commented that I fully expected to revisit Ezio Auditore da Firenze’s story again. At the time I meant that I would be replaying Assassin’s Creed II again, but those words turned out to be prophetic in another way as well. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood has been released exactly one year later, and follows immediately on from where Assassin’s Creed II left off.

Brotherhood has been the subject of some considerable emotional wrestling for me personally ever since it was confirmed. On the one hand, I clearly recall Ubisoft making a pledge when Assassin’s Creed II was released that they would be alternating Assassin’s Creed games with another franchise of theirs, with similar gameplay mechanics, the more venerable Prince of Persia series.

This would result in a cycle where each new game in either series would see at least two years of development time, allowing them to be done properly. Ubisoft going against this to push Brotherhood out the door, a year after Assassin’s Creed II and a few months after the latest Prince of Persia (which I enjoyed a great deal, but was arguably not quite up to snuff), was a source of worry. The announcement of a new multiplayer side of the game was something I was ambiguous about too, holding the opinion as I do that there’s bugger all wrong with making a really good single-player only game, and that online multiplayer isn’t always a welcome feature. On the other hand though, it’s Assassin’s Creed, and I’ve loved the series since the original came out in 2007, despite some of the more lukewarm reception that game received at the time.

If you’ve not completed Assassin’s Creed II yet, you might want to skip over the next couple of paragraphs – here be dragons! Well… spoilers. Considering the nature of the two games’ continuation of each other you might want to finish the previous game before looking at Brotherhood anyway.

At the end of Assassin’s Creed II we saw the face of modern Templar villainy, Warren Vidic, assaulting the warehouse where Desmond Miles and his assassin allies were hiding out during Desmond’s exploration of the life of his Italian renaissance ancestor, Ezio Auditore. Our heroes managed to escape in the back of a van after fighting off Vidic’s goons, and that’s where the game ended.

Brotherhood starts with Desmond, Lucy, Rebecca and Shaun arriving in present day Monteriggioni following their flight from their previous hideout, and setting up operations underneath the ruins of the Auditore villa within the family crypt. Following the revelations about the Apple of Eden and the origins of human civilisation that Desmond learned through Ezio within the Animus, during Assassin’s Creed II, Lucy decides that Desmond needs to go back into his genetic memory of Ezio further, and try to discover clues as to the Apple’s current location.

Ezio, as it turns out, is at home in Monteriggioni following his quest to avenge his father and brothers’ murder, anticipating an early retirement from the business of killing and looking forward to re-establishing a closer relationship with his estranged sister and mother. This of course doesn’t last very long, as Ezio made the mistake of showing his nemesis Rodrigo Borgia, the pope and head of the Templar Order, mercy and sparing his life in the Vatican at the end of Assassin’s Creed II. Rodrigo’s son and captain general of the papal army, Cesare, mounts a massive attack that decimates Monteriggioni and forces Ezio and his family and allies to flee. Rather than keep running however, Ezio decides to immediately retaliate, and relocates to Rome in order to finish off the Borgia threat once and for all.

Ezio defends Monteriggioni

The single player campaign in Brotherhood alternates as before between Desmond and Ezio (though Altair, from the first game, is now nowhere to be seen), and whilst the bulk of the game is spent again in Renaissance Italy following Ezio, there is a greater emphasis on the modern day side of the story. Aside from having to open up the crypt, and provide it with electricity to power the Animus and turn it into a functional hideout, Desmond can now exit the Animus at any time in order to read his email and sneak out from the Auditore villa at night to explore Monteriggioni. Interaction between Desmond and the other three assassins with him are also slightly more expanded, though the relationships between the four characters remain more or less static; Lucy giving the orders, Rebecca geeking out about the Animus, and Shaun generally being a dick whilst Desmond tries to cope with the turn his life has taken and the ghosts that now haunt him even whilst outside of the Animus.

Back with Ezio, however, things are vastly bigger in scope, despite the action now revolving almost exclusively around Rome instead of spread across Florence and several other Italian cities and towns. This is partly because Rome is a much more sprawling and expansive city than any seen before in the series, but also because there’s a lot more to do in Brotherhood. The main story is roughly analogous in length to the previous two games, perhaps somewhat shorter, but the optional side quests and tasks provide a huge variety of things to be getting on with, all of which more or less contribute in some way to your ability to tackle the campaign.

Rome is divided into regions controlled by different regiments of the papal army, each with their own commander and fortified tower, enforcing the will of Rodrigo and maintaining Borgia influence and rule over the tyrannised populace. As the game progresses, Ezio must stealthily assassinate each commander, then climb the towers and ignite the weapons stores within to remove Borgia control from each region. Alerting the commanders to your presence, by failing to use stealth or by cocking up in the process of killing them, results in their gallantly running away to fight another day, literally, as they do not return to allow you to try again until the in-game clock reaches either sunset or dawn, bringing with them fresh reinforcements and further fortifying their position. Towers cannot be destroyed until the commander is dead and his surviving forces flee, so making sure you get it right on your first attempt is vital, as shops and some missions cannot be accessed in that area whilst the tower stands. Fortunately, provided you’re patient, scout the area out and learn the patterns of the commanders’ movements, killing them becomes a fairly simple matter. Once destroyed, the tower is replaced with another that houses your own allies, and results in Ezio being able to use that region’s local businesses, access missions in the area, and dramatically reduces the number of enemy patrols and guards in the city.

Missions still involve assassinating various members of the Templar Order, as well as assisting locals with problems, but also now extend to Ezio having to actively support the Thieves Guild, Mercenary Guild, and the city’s courtesans, in return for their help in your own struggle. This means anything from helping fund the construction of a guild headquarters or brothel, to taking part in fights, spying, leading rescue missions, or stealing things that your allies need.

There are also flashbacks dotted irregularly throughout the game of Ezio courting Cristina Vespucci just before fleeing from Florence in Assassin’s Creed II. These memories within the memory, apart from messing with your sense of temporal location, eventually lead up to the couple being reunited, with Cristina bearing certain unwelcome news for Ezio that leads to missions based around Ezio’s attempts to restore their relationship. Unfortunately, Cristina has been written to be a manipulative bitch and Ezio to be an over-the-top lobotomised smarmy idiot in her presence, which ruins the idea somewhat by having most of the worst dialogue and characterisations in the entire franchise.

Leonardo da Vinci returns too, though in a much more limited capacity than previously. In exchange for his building gadgets for you this time around, Leonardo asks Ezio to go around locating and destroying various advanced war machines that the Borgia have forced him to design and construct for them in their bid to conquer all of Italy. There are four in all, and these missions are undoubtedly the hardest in the game, as Ezio cannot be detected at all or the mission fails. That wouldn’t be too bad, if each machine wasn’t surrounded by a huge and very vigilant army, with increased alertness and more intelligently positioned guards than elsewhere in the game. The learning curve going from the rest of the game to taking on one of Leonardo’s inventions is brutal.

The acrobatic and environmental puzzle sequences from Assassin’s Creed II make a comeback in Brotherhood, though now instead of exploring the tombs of Ezio’s forebears, you are tasked with raiding the hideouts of a dangerous cult movement, the Followers of Romulus. These pagan lunatics dress up in the head and fur of wolves, and have large caches of treasure stored in their bases along with artefacts called Keys of Romulus that you need to collect.

Whereas in Assassin’s Creed II Ezio was tasked with rebuilding Monteriggioni, in Brotherhood that idea is taken much further, with Ezio having to restore dozens of shops and monuments right across Rome that have fallen into disrepair due to the corruption of the Borgia regime. There are still blacksmiths, tailors, doctors, and art galleries, but now every one of these must be purchased and rebuilt before Ezio can buy anything from them. I don’t really understand why Ezio is forced to pay for goods from shops he owns, but as before this is how you obtain armour and weapon upgrades throughout the game. In addition to these shops, you also have banks now that need to be restored in order for Ezio’s profits to be stored and withdrawn. The more banks you rebuilt, the more money you can store, making this at least a bit more realistic than the small chest in Mario’s office in the villa that performed the same task during the previous game. Money is still deposited every 20 minutes, with any excess cash over the storage limit being lost.

Some shops have quests where Ezio is asked to locate certain items in exchange for more exclusive and powerful items. These are a massive pain in the arse, as some of the items required for the earliest available quests might not turn up until the end of the game, when you’ve already gained access to stronger items than the ones offered as reward. Fortunately, you are given the reward items outright, rather than simply given access to buy them with additional money.

In addition to shops and banks, Ezio is able to buy various historical landmarks around Rome, such as the Coliseum and the Pantheon. There are also eight broken aqueducts around the city that need to be repaired in order to bring fresh water to the populace, resulting in their goodwill to your cause and an increase in the economy (and subsequently Ezio’s share from the profits) of those areas that were previously cut off from the supply.

Perhaps the most innovative new feature in the single player is the ability to recruit potential assassins to your cause. For every Borgia tower you destroy you are given a new slot to recruit a disgruntled citizen to follow in Ezio’s footsteps and assist you in your fight against the Borgia. These citizens are located by their having gotten into a fight with the papal forces, and are recruited by going to their aid and rescuing them. Once recruited, you can dispatch these disciples on missions from pigeon coops and your underground base, of gradually increasingly difficulty in order that they can gain experience and level up. There are 10 levels, each of which enabling you to upgrade their equipment until they reach the final rank of assassin. When a recruit acquires enough experience to make assassin, you are called back to your main base to witness a brief ceremony similar to the one Ezio himself took part in, with the recruit’s finger being removed and their then performing a leap of faith. Some contract missions require you to send out more than one assassin or recruit, with the odds of success being given as a percentile. If you risk sending out one or more of your followers on a mission that they cannot handle, there is a good chance that they will fail to complete the assigned task, and it is also possible for them to be killed, requiring you to employ strategy and be patient before ordering them to futilely attempt the most difficult contracts.

As well as dispatching members of your brotherhood on these missions, it is possible to signal them to assist you by taking down a target that you are unable to get to, or by joining in a fight where you are vastly outnumbered. There are four levels of assistance that you can unlock, though continued access to that level of support is dependent on how many of your people you have away on contracts. On missions where Ezio must remain undetected, the ability to call for help to deal with trouble just before it runs into you is invaluable, so it is a good idea to always keep at least one or two back from going on missions to answer your summons as required.

Travelling within the game world is changed from previous games, with Assassin’s Creed II’s fast travel system being further refined in Brotherhood. Rather than paying to be ferried about, you have to restore a network of sewage tunnels, with entrances all over Rome. Once restored, you can use that entrance as many times as you need to get around the city without walking or clambering over the rooftops, without needing to pay any further. Also, in a major change to the franchise, it is now possible to ride horses within the city. Previously horses were only allowed in the countryside around towns and cities. The trade off is that horses are now rather slower than before, with the ability to gallop flat out removed regardless of where you’re riding. It also results in certain other problems, such as enemies on horses who are much harder to kill, and the unrealistic sight of every single horse you pass randomly knocking down pedestrians in its path without harming them or gaining their ire in return.

Combat is slightly tweaked from before, and further expanded upon, in order to make it seem more fluent and aggressive than before. In previous games, the best approach in any fight was to take a defensive stance and pick off enemies by countering their attacks on you. Now, however, that doesn’t work as well, with enemies attacking you all at once rather than waiting in turn, and generally being smarter, such as kicking dust into Ezio’s eyes or grabbing him from behind whilst an ally takes a swing with a sword or an axe. There are also more enemy types now, with guards armed with harquebus guns, or mounted on horses, requiring Ezio to take a different approach in fighting them too. Now, the best defence is a good offence, with more lethal and fast combination attacks, and the ability to use even more weapons, including axes and hammers and poison darts, and even combine weapons in one attack such as swords and Ezio’s hidden pistol; blocking them with your sword one-handed and blowing their head off with the other, for example. The improved enemy AI and more advanced fighting techniques take some getting used to, but are particularly visceral and more exciting than in the previous games.

The more OCD players out there will rejoice to hear that many of the same collecting activities from previous entries in the series have survived. You still reveal new sections of the map by climbing and syncing with lookout points marked by a circling eagle. There are twice as many treasure chests as before around the city and, less welcome, both feathers and the dreaded Templar flags, not seen since the original Assassin’s Creed, are back. Mitigating the chore of finding the flags and feathers somewhat is the new option, later in the game, to purchase maps of their locations from art galleries, similar to the treasure maps. However, Ubisoft still don’t want to make it easy on players for some twisted reason, with the maps costing 20,000 florins or more for each region of the city.

The graphics haven’t changed a great deal, using much the same engine as in Assassin’s Creed II. This isn’t a bad thing, on the whole, as Assassin’s Creed II is one of the most beautiful looking games of this generation. Character models have been tweaked in order to suit the better animation that the improved combat demands, and some textures are even more intricate than before. Unfortunately, there is now also, on occasion, a tendency for the game to suffer minor framerate issues, which detracts from the polish somewhat.

This diminished polish, no doubt the result of the short development cycle involved, is even more evident in the sound however. The sound frequently crackles, and the surround mix just doesn’t work at all anymore, with background noises from something happening miles away from Ezio drowning out things happening right in front of you. At one point in the game I was plagued by the very loud sobbing of a child, drowning out all other sounds and dialogue, despite the child sitting on the end of a pier a good five minutes run away from Ezio’s position. When I first encountered it I had no idea where the hell it was coming from either, and I was searching around for so long unable to locate the source because it was just that far away from where I was, that I started to think it was in my own head and I’d finally completely lost my mind. Not content with training us gamers to stab people in the throat with hidden knives, they also want to turn us into paranoid schizophrenics! I can see the headlines in The Sun and on Sky and Fox News now. Yay…

It’s a shame, because for the most part the sound effects themselves, and the voice acting, are just as good as they were before. Most of the recurring characters in the game are voiced by the same actors as before (with one or two very noticeably jarring exceptions), and the level of quality in the actual acting, and the writing of the dialogue, is just as strong as ever. At least, outside of Ezio’s involvement with Cristina, anyway.

Jesper Kyd has composed the soundtrack again; his work gets better with his continued association with the franchise, with Brotherhood having a musical score nearly as artistically accomplished as that of Halo Reach (which became my new benchmark earlier in the year).  The music alternates between flowing, period orchestral movements, chants, and adrenaline pumping action sequences. What lets it down however is the production, similar to the problems with the dialogue and sound effects. Whereas before the music reflected what was happening on screen, organically changing style to suit whether you were climbing up a ten storey tower overlooking the city or exploring a sewer or engaged in battle, now it seems to jump around more, with the action sequences playing even outside of fights. It makes the soundtrack more of a distraction than before, instead of the flawless and atmosphere enhancing background accompaniment that it used to be.

Perhaps the biggest deal about Brotherhood, certainly the one that Ubisoft has based all of their marketing of the game on, is the inclusion for the first time in the series of a multiplayer side to the game. Entirely separate from the single player campaign, the multiplayer is given a loose contextual entry point into the series by depicting it as a Templar training regime, whereby they insert agents into the huge numbers of Animus (Animuses, Animi?) seen in Abstergo in Assassin’s Creed II during Desmond and Lucy’s escape at the start of that game. It’s a nice touch, rather than simply tacking the multiplayer on without any kind of explanation, and also hints at Ubisoft probably having intended to include the feature in Assassin’s Creed II.

Maps are taken from right across the franchise, with locations from all three major console releases to date, and representing a good mix of terrain types, helping to keep things fresh each match by changing the dynamics of hiding and pursuing your targets accordingly. There are also four different multiplayer modes; Wanted, Advanced Wanted, Alliance, and Manhunt.

Multiplayer doesn’t play the way I expected it to, and that is a very good thing. There is no free-for-all neck stabbing here – rather, the multiplayer in all of its guises is most similar to cult PC game The Ship and its spiritual follow-up Bloody Good Time, especially in Wanted and Advanced Wanted with players assigned one single target that they must kill, and being penalised for killing non-target players and AI controlled NPCs. At the same time you have a different player or players pursuing you; the more successful kills you make in a row without being taken down, the more of the other players are told to deal with you. This results in a very tense experience, as you have no idea who’s been sent to kill you until they suddenly appear from the crowd or a hiding place in order to bring you down. You do have very limited options to defend yourself. If your would-be assassin reveals themselves too early by being clumsy or impatient you are able to stun them. You can also run away and hope to find a hiding spot that isn’t too obvious that they’d simply follow you into it and kill you anyway. Points are scored for successfully evading your pursuers as well as killing your own targets. Advanced Wanted is nearly identical to Wanted but further adds to the tension by removing an indication of your target’s relative height to you from your compass.

Alliance and Manhunt further mix things up by introducing teamwork to the game, with Alliance partnering players up with one other who assists you in taking down targets and evading pursuers, and Manhunt splitting all of the participants into two teams of four. Manhunt is especially unique in that one team hunts the other, who can only run away, and all players of each team are forced to play as the same character type. Manhunt is won either by the hunters killing all of their prey, or the opposing side managing to evade them for a set amount of time. Naturally the advantage is on the side of the hunters, but each team swaps places between rounds to even things out.

There are extensive character customisation options for your multiplayer avatar, if not on the same scale as in Halo Reach, but still far more than you would normally expect. There are no less than a whopping seventeen player classes, all with their own unique signature weapons and assassination moves. Fourteen of these are available right out of the box, with the Hellequin unlockable via Ubisoft’s uPlay rewards scheme. Two characters, the Harlequin and the Officer, were only available individually to people who preordered different versions of the standard game or special editions, or both together to people who bought the Limited Codex chest, and are unlocked by entering the code provided with the game disk. Players level up as they play the multiplayer, and additional options to customise each character are unlocked in the process.

Pros
  • Single player revisits one of the best written and most compelling characters in recent years, Ezio Auditore, for one final time.
  • It’s still one of the best looking games ever made.
    Some of the best voice acting outside of a Bioware title.
  • Combat finally feels as real and as dirty and as violent as you’d expect from a game with assassin in the name.
  • Enemy AI couldn’t get much smarter without making the game unplayable, and is a big leap forwards from previous entries in the series.
  • Enough varied gameplay options to give the game almost endless replay value.
  • Recruiting and training other assassins makes you feel like you’re genuinely at the head of a hidden order with a reaching impact on historical events.
  • Multiplayer modes that take the road less travelled rather than the easier option, and profit from it tremendously.
  • Character customisation options that put most other online multiplayers to shame.
  • A really good musical score. I mean, like, properly good. Go listen to it. Now.
  • An innovative take on the franchise, rather than just retreading old territory.
Cons
  • Very rough around the edges in places, with framerate and especially sound mix the most obvious victims of a rushed development period.
  • Unforgiving and sudden fluctuations in difficulty in some side missions.
  • Despite Ubisoft’s claims, you absolutely need to have played Assassin’s Creed II and completed it, or the single player story will make no sense to you at all.
  • Pointless gimmicky integration with Assassin’s Creed: Project Legacy; an iPhone/iPad only game that’s a) rubbish, and b) been played by a very small minority of people who will play this game.
  • Xbox and PC owners get screwed over by the PS3 version getting a bunch of exclusive missions where Ezio meets Copernicus, one of the great astronomers.
  • Flag and feather collecting are back and just as tedious as ever.
Summary

There’s a reason why this review has taken more than two weeks to finish. This game is huge. There’s more than ever to do and, most impressively of all, most of it is stuff you’ll want to do. It would be fair to say that, for me personally, this has been the hardest and most intimidating game I’ve ever had to write about. There is a lot more to say about it that I’ve not gone into, but then I’d have written a book, and to be honest you’re better off just playing the damned game for yourself.

This is the best action game I’ve played. Even better than Arkham Asylum, or Grand Theft Auto Vice City, or Uncharted II, or anything else I can think of. It’s definitely the best Assassin’s Creed to date, despite some, occasionally, rather rough edges. It has one of the best multiplayer modes I’ve played too. It’s not as out and out fun as Need for Speed Hot Pursuit or Halo Reach or whatever, but it is incredibly tense, and exciting. The Ship does it slightly better in my opinion, but I suspect that Ubisoft were trying to emulate it, so that’s to be expected (though I don’t doubt they’d strenuously deny that allegation, so put it down as a hunch of mine).

As hard as it was to try and cover every aspect of this game, it’s even harder to come to a satisfactory conclusion. Except to say that you owe it to yourself as a gamer to give it a go. I don’t think you’ll regret it. And I have no bloody idea how they’ll manage to top this when Assassin’s Creed III comes around.




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10 Comments

  1. Ste says:

    Great review Sam, I recently got this for my birthday and I have just started the single player after deciding to give the multiplayer a quick blast, (which coincidently lasted a couple of days!) I agree that this is by far the best AC to date. It’s good to be Ezio again as I think he really is a brilliant character.

    When I first played the multiplayer I thought the wanted mode was abit too chaotic but its grown on me alot now. I’ve not played any of the alliance modes yet, I may give them a bash later.

    I do have to point something out though young man, the bird Ezio is knocking off in the game is named Caterina not Cristina! School boy error my friend!

  2. Stu Stu says:

    Great writeup, I enjoyed reading that.

    I loved the original and played through it a couple of times, but I found AC2 lacking in soul. It also didn’t sit right that without any training Ezio was just able to run up walls and do ‘Assassin-like’ things so that was probably the first stumbling block the game made that it could never really recover from, despite the ‘advanced’ training from the Uncle later on.

    AC2.5 completely fell off my radar as soon as multiplayer was mentioned, but it seems that a large amount of effort has been applied to the single player which has definitely has me reconsidering. Unfortunately Ezio just bored me as a character and I couldn’t really care about his exploits to be honest – Desmond’s story is really the only one I care about concluding now Altair seems to be relegated to the sidelines.

    If nothing more you’ve given me temptation to go back and revisit AC2 to see if there was something I was missing that didn’t click the first time. Then I think about the annoying combat mechanics (although I hear block/counter is fixed in Brotherhood to be like AC1 which would be most welcome), the irritating catacomb bits and those horrible sequence puzzles and those bloody feathers and all interest just ebbs away. I might beg, steal or borrow a copy of Brotherhood rather than add it to the Chrimbo list.

  3. Samuel Samuel says:

    @Ste – Nah, sorry mate, it is Cristina. Caterina Sforza is a noble Ezio started banging later on, but he was dating Cristina Vespucci before he even became an assassin. You need to play farther into the campaign!

  4. Ste says:

    Ahhhh I see. All is forgiven then and I shall hang my head in shame! So am I right by saying its Caterina he is with when his room at Monteriggioni gets blasted by that cannon ball near the start of the game? He’s abit of a tart is Ezio, I struggle to keep up.

  5. Edward Edward says:

    Fantastic and incredibly in-depth review. Granted, I had to skip the couple paragraphs explaining the story in case I eventually play 2, but otherwise another excellent job, dude :D

  6. Richie richie says:

    I was avoiding this after getting bored by the second half of AssCreed2 but I think I’ll jump in after this review (which is excellent and detailed as ever, Sam).

  7. Samuel Samuel says:

    Thanks everyone.

    @Ste – for an Italian, Ezio is distinctly untarty. Only two women? He’s practically celibate. And yes, Caterina Sforza is the one there for the attack on Monteriggioni.

  8. Lorna Lorna says:

    Fantastic and highly detailed review. I sadly haven’t finished AC2 yet, however, I took the decision to start Brotherhood, knowing that I would have the story spoilt but plan on revisiting the second one over the holiday break. It is as enjoyable as ever, though with a few tiny niggles. The subject 16 stuff is pretty woolly and often a frustrating matter of trial and error until you work out exactly what you are actually supposed to be doing, and I have noticed a few sound issues, just as you have mentioned.

    The story isn’t as gripping so far, perhaps because I played so little of the second game, so only really saw Ezio as a bit of a tool compared to Altair. Hopefully this will change when I get back into the swing of things over the coming break, though I still favour Altair at this time…I must be one of the few folk to actually love the first title! Great stuff, as ever.

  9. Mark R MarkuzR says:

    See, now this really took me by surprise. I still haven’t got around to playing Assassin’s Creed or its sequel, but I remember being more interested in it than Lorna was… but got put off by being repeatedly told by people that it was all very linear and so I allowed it to slip off my radar. When they announced Brotherhood and said that it was multiplayer I just thought “Not going to work” and immediately dismissed it out of hand. I expected that there’d be a single player aspect, but assumed that it was going to be some poor excuse tacked on just to satiate those who don’t necessarily want to go down the multiplayer route… but I’m pleasantly surprised at how in depth it appears to be.

    I can’t honestly say WHEN I’ll get around to playing any of the Assassin’s Creed series but at least now I won’t automatically dismiss Brotherhood out of hand as I woud have before.

  10. Samuel Samuel says:

    Thanks Lorna, Mark.

    @Lorna – I loved the first game too, but I must admit that I like Ezio more than Altair. He has more of a personality, whereas Altair at times feels a bit like a medieval Batman. He’s still awesome, mind.

    @Mark – I made the same exact assumption initially. Ubisoft have traded heavily on the multiplayer in marketing the game, and it does the rest of it a huge disservice. Multiplayer is a very small (but very enjoyable) part of Brotherhood.

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