Assassin's Creed Brotherhood is the third major installment in the series and released in 2010, was this the start of the AC downfall? Following on from AC 2, we are once again in control of Ezio, and Desmond in the present.
The game carries on from the second game, as Ezio carries on his fight with the Borgia. Meanwhile, in the modern-day plot that no one cares about, Desmond is trying to prevent the 2012 apocalypse. Ezio is pit against Cesare Borgia who is attempting to build an army to takeover all of Rome, only Ezio stands in his way.
Straight off the bat, this game has three sequences less than the predecessor, but yet it's the same price. If you stick to only the story, you're gonna fly through this game. Don't worry though, there's a fair amount of content and a multiplayer that died faster than you read this sentence. The side missions are mostly boring and repetitive though, but don't fear as there's thirty side missions that are spread about between three different factions, but they're just the same thing over and over! Tomb challenges make another appearance with all new puzzles and are by far the best of the side missions. As well as viewpoints, there are now Borgia towers, similar to view points but surrounded by enemies and you have to take out a captain before you can claim them.
You can purchase shops that will in turn give you money back, you get 'X' amount of money every twenty in-game minutes. The more stores you invest in, the more revenue returns. You can only purchase stores once you've cleared a Borgia tower, this goes the same for buying aqueducts, historical locations and fast travel tunnels. Yes, you can fast travel, however you can only travel to other travel tunnels once they have been purchased. Most features from the previous installment are present, being able to recruit Assassins and send them on missions to level up is the best of the new features, the more Borgia towers you clear, the more assassins you get. They are extremely handy at taking out groups of enemies and even your target. The arrow storm is even better, having three full bars and not calling in an assassin results in a barrage of arrows taking out every enemy in sight.
The short story was enjoyable and you were never interrupted by dull Desmond moments, only at the start and end. The main villian, Cesare, was by far the best villain so far, and gave us a great final showdown. I even liked the side characters, there weren't too many and some we'd seen before, but I actually wanted to fight with them and help them when I was needed. Most of Ezio's targets were quickly introduced and immediately slain, I never really cared about killing them because they were shown so little, I felt more like a hitman rather than fighting for a cause. If you chose to skip a cutscene or decline a mission, you were treated to an overly long loading screen, you may as well have watched it or even played the mission.
The boring and repetitive assignment missions I chose to save for after the main story, often referenced things that needed to happen after I already done them, the developers seemed to expect we'd play the assignments along with the story, and that we wouldn't get bored after a small amount. Rebuilding Rome was addictive, all I ever wanted to do was spend my money buying all the shops and locations. Seeing my income increase the more I bought was so satisfying. The map was cluttered with icons, a bunch you'd not even think twice to bother with, thankfully you can edit which icons you want hidden though.
The fighting was great, being able to disarm and stun enemies by throwing sand was a great way to get an advantage in a big fight. Killstreaks were fantastic, hitting an enemy a few times lead to an instant kill and every strike on another enemy swiftly followed with one-hit kills. If you used any assassin recruits or the arrow storm you'd lose a red bar or all of it. Stupidly, if you died or reloaded a checkpoint, you'd still have to wait for it to refill. You can loot bodies to refill your equipment, you can buy and sell items at vendors, purchase new weapons and armor upgrades, plenty to spend your money on here. You can ride a horse to navigate quicker and even whistle your horse to come to you, there's even a fun on-the-rail section with a horse, and I usually dread them.
I had a few problems and glitches, one thing that really bugged me was when you'd be near something and you could press the back button to get more information, it always coincided with when I wanted to look at the map, but I'd be treated to walls of text instead. Subject 16 was back, I didn't really care, but at the end of the puzzle, it glitched me inside a staircase, I couldn't be bothered resetting it, so I watched the ending of it on YouTube. After getting at the end of a long mission, a cutscene played and prolonged by a never-ending cutscene leaving me to replay the whole part again. When forced to use the Apple of Eden and no other weapon, the game felt broke, I struggled to kill the last remaining enemy twice and there was nothing I could do because the weapon was so poor. If you don't target an enemy, Ezio would usually swing wildly at the air, despite being surrounded by guards. And probably my most frustrating, as it caused me to nearly die so often, Ezio took so long to switch weapons in conflict, sometimes he just flat out refused to do it. Nothing game breaking, just frustrating, can't forget to mention that the assassin you play as still refuses to jump to where you tell him to.
Yes, is the answer to my first question. Not a bad game, but certainly a poor follow up to a stellar game. It was more of a cash in, most people I've spoke about it with said that it felt more like an expansion and not a full release. Sold at full price, but much shorter, keep on screwing us Ubisoft, that's what you do best.
7.3/10
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