Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

After celebrating all of the great things the first Assassin’s Creed did back when it first came out, and then having my jaw hit the floor at how much better Assassin’s Creed II was, My thoughts coming into this game were, “No way can they top the second one in any meaningful way.” Well guess what my friends, they have done the impossible. The improvements may not make your jaw drop as they did in 2, but Brotherhood still delivers a better experience. There is a lot of juicy depth to this title and that doesn’t even include the multiplayer which I have no interest in.

We have here the same basic formula that was worked so successfully in the last two installments only this time they are laid out over an open world. That’s right no more transitioning from city to city, it all takes place in one extremely large city, Rome. This is the continued story of Ezio as he follows the Spaniard to Rome and further unravels what the Templar and Assassin orders are all about. Oh and the Desmond storyline is also advanced to make you scratch your head even more and yet still want to see where it all leads.

So the improvements are plentiful in this package. The combat system has been further refined as the most exciting part, aside from counters being easier to pull off, is the kill chain combo system. Now if you are surrounded by enemies and you manage to kill you, you can string that into another instant kill to an adjacent enemy and continue that cycle for as long as you can without being hit or running out of nearby enemies. This greatly reduces those tedious and frustrating combat situations that where abundant in AC1 and persisted though less painfully in AC2. The climbing is also improved getting you to the rooftops faster and keeping you up there longer. In addition, the in game economy system is also improved offering extra stuff to renovate getting you more money fast.

All of that is great but I have saved the best for last. On top of the guilds making their return (each has its own sidequest line by the way,) you get to found your very own Assassin’s Guild. You will never be alone again. Allow me to elaborate. Throughout the course of the game you will be able to recruit assassins in training. These valuable allies can be summoned to assassinate a pesky rooftop guard or aid you in an all-out fight. If you have enough recruits you can even summon a deadly arrow attack that will instantly kill all nearby guards. This is pretty awesome on its own but there’s more. Each trainee has a leveling system. They earn experience by assassinating enemies or by sending them on missions around Europe. As they level up they gain better armor and weapons giving you more powerful allies.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is by far the best and most complete package of Assassin’s Creed for anyone who wants to see what the deal is. However, the brief review of the past games does a poor job of relaying just why events in this game are significant. Therefore, I would only recommend this title to fans of the series and perhaps people who don’t really care about story continuity, if such people exist. I for one thought they are all fantastic games and this one is no different. Much like every other ending, Brotherhood is a cliffhanger and I look forward to seeing how it plays out into the next installment.