Good Impressions

• Great catch-up opening for those who haven't played the other AC games in a while
• Desmond sequence makes me giddy with goddamn joy, despite its platformy puzzleness
• Story is just as batshit as ever
• Opening cinematic that explains what the multiplayer's purpose in the grand scheme of things...is pretty fucking excellent; reminiscent of Bioshock 2 in a great way
• Combat feels even better than Assassin's Creed II, which already felt pretty good
• Ezio had the black Altair armor as well as all my money, meaning it read my AC2 file...which is awesome

• Multiplayer servers were not up when I tried to play
• Beginning of the game is a pretty slow burn start, reminding me of how long it takes to get past all the bullshit in the beginning of the first Assassin's Creed to get to the actual gameplay
• Controls for climbing stuff feel clunky in comparison to something like Enslaved
• While the combat feels good, getting used to the way the kill-streak stuff works takes some time
• Ezio lost the black Altair armor, which made me subsequently feel like I got all that armor for no goddamn reason!...AND I lost all my money!  SHITTY!
• A single piece of paper folded together for the fucking manual?  What was even the goddamn point of putting it in there?!  I know that we're moving away from manuals in games, and I'm fine with that...but you seriously felt the need to put that in there?!

I'm just worried about the multiplayer. I spent ages (unsuccessfully) trying to find multiplayer matches at my friends house the other day, still, could have something to do with me living in Australia >.<

" It didn't read your profile. They game developers said from the beginning that they assumed you had 100 percent the game by now and just put that in there. "

The multiplayer servers are capricious. Half the time I haven't been able to get into a game, the other half I found a game within a minute. To address some of your other points, the manual within the game is pretty good and you can unlock Altair's armour for a small number of points via Uplay (assuming the servers are up).
Anyway, the multiplayer seems to have a fair number of players when I've managed to get in, it's fun although I don't know how much lasting value it will have. They need to tweak some of the modes so that people play something besides Wanted and remove the bugginess. It makes me rage when someone teleports to my position when they're not even in touching distance and kill me. It's more like a prototype than a fully-fledged multiplayer game, but with some tweaking it could be amazing. The single-player is great as well. I wouldn't say it's better than ACII as I find that a more polished game in terms of writing, setting, and focus, but Brotherhood is no slouch.

I found the multiplayer kinda clunky when I played it at the Eurogamer Expo. I found the targeting slow and unresponsive, making it difficult to switch from one target to the next, especially when looking at large crowds. However everybody seems so full of praise for the game that i'm assuming it becomes more natural the more you play. 
 
I was wondering how AC would stack up against Enslaved, the climbing in that game was really fun - very linear but disguised in a way that implied you had a lot more freedom. I certainly enjoyed it more than the "Hold these two buttons and push forward" approach of the AC games.

Don't worry, once you get all the wolf lair keys, you will get a new set of armor that's as strong as altair's armor.  
 
Multiplayer worked fine for me and i'm enjoying it.

I never enjoyed the first AC and didn't bother with it. I got bored of ACII after a few hours, until my friend picked it up; then for some reason I fell in love with ACII and platinumed it.

I haven't been able to put Brotherhood down so far. Enjoying all of it.

I haven't played the multiplayer because in general, I don't play any multiplayer. A few dozen rounds in Black Ops, but nothing more. So I can't vouch for the quality, and wouldn't be a good judge if I had played it. Beyond that, I haven't disliked much at all about the game. I haven't done any kill streaks because ... well, I haven't really needed to. I keep seeing the instructions pop up for how to do it and just never do it. And I don't find the climbing controls at all clunky. As for the slow start: I have to completely disagree. I didn't feel it to be slow at all, at least compared to the other games. They don't hold back much: just the double hidden blade and the jump-grab maneuver when climbing. You start with smoke bombs, throwing knives and everything else.
 
It was announced a while back that Ubi was ditching paper manuals to save money, and there was a lot of debate about it. I didn't really care, since I don't bother reading manuals. And the game has a full manual built into the game itself. 
 
One thing that did bother me was the continued use of the desync walls to keep the player out of certain areas. Very irritating. But other good things made up for it. The shop quests, guild tasks and upgrades, the new assassin training and mission section (which really felt cool once I'd gotten a decent complement of assassins), and all sorts of other things.
 
So far, it's tying with Mass Effect 2 for my game of the year.

the manual is in the actual game.

Having just beat it, I can say I liked it, but a couple things bothered me. I felt like I came out of the ending knowing pretty much the same amount of stuff as the end of AC2, kinda trivialized the whole game's story to me.  Also really didn't like all the platforming puzzles, as I don't feel like the controls hold up in tight spaces. Combat's been made really awesome though, so I like that. I just think overall it wasn't as engaging as AC2, because it was basically some more of the same. Fun for what it was, but I found myself just rushing through the last few sequences. 

" Having just beat it, I can say I liked it, but a couple things bothered me. I felt like I came out of the ending knowing pretty much the same amount of stuff as the end of AC2, kinda trivialized the whole game's story to me.  Also really didn't like all the platforming puzzles, as I don't feel like the controls hold up in tight spaces. Combat's been made really awesome though, so I like that. I just think overall it wasn't as engaging as AC2, because it was basically some more of the same. Fun for what it was, but I found myself just rushing through the last few sequences.  "

" the manual is in the actual game. "

I really am enjoying the game right now.  I am about 8 to 10 hours into the single player and I am loving it.  I played the MP for the first time last night and I am really enjoying it as well.  It has a great level of tension built into it since you don't know who is chasing after you.  Also, going to kill people but waiting for the meter to fill for more points is always great.  I got to level 7 last night in about an hour and a half to two hours so it's not super hard to level at first.  It will probably take longer the further you get but it's a really great game.  Will be playing more of it later tonight if not later today.  Definitely an excellent game.  It's not my game of the year, but it is definitely one of the best games I have played this year.

"Totally agree. The controls felt extra slippery this time around, like they tried to tweak them or something and just made them worse. "

I remember the announcement that they would be dropping paper manuals, but it was kind of a crazy shock to see just a slip of paper.  At that point, why would you have a complete box?  Why not slim that fucker down or something, make more space on my shelf or in my game drawer at work? 
 
Played some multiplayer.  I'm up to level 12.  I have issues with it, but overall, I enjoy it.  It definitely helped that I played Bloody Good Time before the game came out so I could get used to some of the concepts.  I'll give opinions on that in the next Uninteresting $#!%.  I like it quite a bit, though...and if they work out some bugs and server issues, it'd be incredible in the same way that Pandora Tomorrow was. 

With regards to the manual situation, if any of you fellows feel that you have really been that hard done by a little slip of paper: I can send you a Canadian copy (you get double the manual size). 
 
I cannot fathom why people are complaining about manuals, they are superannuated and have been all but entirely replaced by in-game tutorials and common sense.