Ubisoft has looked at Assassins Creed II, an excellent game in its self, and decided it needs more. Looking at Brotherhood you be tempted to think that this is AC2 all over again, it's got the same stunning graphics, the same parkour mechanics and the same stalk and stab missions that are the core of the series. But like the man who didn't think his house was good enough they've extended it and given it a bit of a remodelling. It's not Assassins Creed 3 but Assassins Creed 2 part 2, it even continues directly after its predecessor left off. Ubisoft has listened to its fans and filled in the cracks that AC2 had.
After the first hour or so of the game, which serves as a recap of what's happened previously and a tutorial of the basic controls you'll be dropped off into Rome where the core game takes place. Take a look at the map and you won't find a useful reference tool but a massive mess that the Borgia has left behind. The basis of the game is you just run around the place looking for things to do. Destroying towers so you can expand your assassin army, finding treasure to get more out of the shops, reminiscing about you're lost love in Florence, collecting 101 little flags; there's so much to do it's mind boggling. With all this faffing around you'll feel this is an eclectic sandbox game. Fortunately if you can't be bothered with all these extra frills you can just get stuck into the main missions with no great loss but if you're willing to get a bit adventurous you can leave the expanse of Rome for some fun platform style dungeons or some sneak and destroy action quests. However you approach it is up to you.
For a game where you supposed to be a stealthy assassin there's a heavy emphasis on combat but with the new mechanics it's made much more fluid. If you're spotted by a guard you can hold of a full on assault by quickly taking them out with your crossbow or call on your recruited assassin brothers and sisters to jump out of the shadows and do the dirty work for you. If it descends in to full blow combat being surrounded turns into a one man massacre as you chain a counter blow into a series insta-kills. Of course you can run and hide but it seems redundant as Ezio is a one man army even without his assassin kin. If you're feeling particularly lazy and you have enough recruits you can even call on a hail of arrows to take out every guard in the area at the push of a button. It has a tendency to make the game too easy if you're a seasoned gamer, so getting the most fun out of combat oddly requires you to show some restraint in your arsenal.
As you free run around Rome through the streets, up the walls and over the roof tops it becomes apparent how much life has been breathed into the city. Its citizens who provide places to hide and obstacles to push through don't just feel like mindless zombies but emulate a bustling city. The streets are alive with performers, drunks, couples and crowds who complain when you brush up against them, stop and root when you start a fist fight and run in terror when you start spilling blood. It's got the same ambiance and beauty you might have seen in the previous games but now it blends seamlessly with the countryside peppered with hills and valleys and virtually impassable cliffs. Odd that a man who can climb any building can't find a foothold in a cliff face so you push someone off a horse and race about the place until you can find the slope to the town atop the hill you want to get up. The seamless nature of the map allows you to plough your horse through the city streets, no city gates with invisible walls to make you get off your steed this time. They've taken the gallop button out of the main map in Rome, annoying but as you speed down the city streets the reason becomes apparent. The game can't load the massive map fast enough as you race your horse down the complex avenues so it has a tendency to hang for a second or two and it becomes more frequent if you're making a mad dash from one side of the city to the other. For those equine enthusiasts your horse regains its old gallop skill in the smaller side mission maps, though these are more liner they do provide more interesting horse races. The side missions that take you out of the main Rome map usually show Brotherhood in a platformer style light with its more intricate climbing puzzles, epic chases and in depth stealth areas. The Leonardo War Machine missions provide some particularly off beat renascence jollies giving you access to prototype tanks, areal bombers and machine guns among other things.
New to the series is the multiplayer mode which joyfully rewards you for stealth and skill rather than number of kills. It brings back the assassin side of the game even though it's played through the eyes of the antagonist organisation Abstergo. Each player chooses a character at the beginning of a match and the game revolves around stalking one other player assigned at random and killing them as stealthily as possible whilst keeping an eye out for other players who are after you. The challenge comes from discerning your opponents from the crowds of NPCs which are all clones of the player models. Kill the wrong character and you lose your prey and you're assigned another target. Spot an enemy before they attack you and you can stun them or run and hide. If you're successful they lose you as a target and you earn some extra points for staying alive. It's refreshingly different from the standard murder fests that most multiplayer games are.
On the surfaces Assassins Creed Brotherhood does look a bit too much like its predecessor but all is forgiven as the game opens its self up to you. There's enough to keep you entertained for hours on end with its multitude of missions, it's management mini-game that has you sending your assassins throughout Europe to do their devious errands, the inquisitive 'truth' puzzles that outline Templar plots throughout history and even some VR training missions thrown in for good measure. It provides enough fresh material and replayability that makes this game £40 well spent.
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