Review: Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

The Assassin’s Creed franchise has always had a special place in my heart, I mean, who doesn’t like leaping from building to building, pouncing on unsuspecting Templars and wielding the coolest weapon ever conceived, dual hidden-blades (Duke’s armoury excluded). Evidence of my love affair however, is that I actually replayed the original Assassin’s Creed (oh the folly of youth), but for all its repetition the bones of a great game were there. Naturally, by the time I got my clammy hands on the second entry to the series, two years later, I fell in love with it. Vastly improving the original concept in every way. Yet when Brotherhood was announced just one year later AND with multiplayer attached to it I couldn’t help but shake the feeling that Ubisoft was up to something. The words ‘quick’, ‘cash’ and ‘in’ all jumped to mind, my faith in the franchise I loved so much took a little tumble.

However, you will all be pleased to know that this is not the case! (Hurrah) Yes the game did come out only a year after its predecessor, yes it is only a spin-off not Assassin’s Creed 3 but it’s also still bloody breathtaking with a jump in quality from the second almost equal to the gap between the first two instalments. The game picks up exactly where the previous title left off, right down to the last second inside the Vatican. Players once again take on the role of Ezio Auditore de Firenze, master assassin during the Italian renaissance and ancestor of the other player character Desmond Miles. Who, through advanced technology, is reliving his ancestor’s memories in order to become an assassin himself.

After a few combat tutorials, which reveal just how streamlined, if a little easy, the combat has become. The player finds themselves back on familiar ground, or familiar rooftops at least, when, not to give anything away, the game suddenly explodes in the greatest action sequence of the series so far, an excellent introduction showing just what this series is capable of, even after three games.

The game uses the same Anvil engine as the previous iteration, albeit a slightly tweaked version, which explains the relatively short development time, but still looks, sounds and feels incredible. There are better looking games of course but Brotherhood remains well ahead of the curve. For instance Lucy no longer looks like The Joker and the lighting effects in the renaissance era cities and in the modern day sanctuary are phenomenal. The draw distance too is particularly good and from the top of 15^th century Rome’s many towers the view is utterly breathtaking the attention to historical detail by Ubisoft and its researchers is unparalleled in video games and outshines even most period dramas. The sound of the engine is quite frankly the greatest I’ve heard in any game (excluding Bad Company 2 of course) every detail sounds so real, from every piece of chainmail jingling to every horse’s hoof on the cobbles of Rome. Couple this with surround sound and it makes for one of the most immersive experiences to date.

Although, seeing as the engine is over a year old it is not without a few hiccoughs, not enough to hinder the game mind, but hiccoughs nonetheless. For instance one particularly bad experience I had was during a cutscene early on in the game, Machiavelli walked straight through a passing horse. Now I’m no expert but I don’t think it was a regular occurrence to see great philosophers passing through farmyard animals in 15^th century Rome.

The core mechanics of Brotherhood are much the same as they ever were with a few new additions; one of these new additions is that the aim is to boost the people’s morale in Borgia-occupied Rome by destroying Borgia towers dotted across the ancient city. Much in the same way as players would in The Saboteur, except this time it’s not boring and there are only a handful of towers instead of ten million.

Another new and important mechanic, important enough to be in the title anyway, is the idea of the Assassins Brotherhood. The brotherhood is the rebuilding of the Assassin order where after helping civilians fight back, they can be recruited into the Brotherhood. Allowing the player being able to send them on missions over a (poorly marked) map of Europe, call upon them to assist you in battle, or even just quietly take a couple of guards out for dear old Ezio, the possibilities are immense. If they successfully carry out missions for the Brotherhood, and don’t die, they will rank up and players will be given the option of upgrading their skills to make them more effective and take on more challenging contracts to bring in more of that Brotherhood bling!

              
However, one serious pitfall of the game has to be, and it saddens me to say this, its story. Whilst the overarching story of the 2012 battle of Assassins and Templars is expanded quite a bit with some excellent revelations. Ezio’s in Animus story seems to lack drive and the whole thing is a bit rag-tag as though it’s just a big plot device for the small present day story. But that isn’t to say it it’s not interesting. Though the story may be lacking direction the dialogue is fantastic with voice acting to boot. Cesare Borgia in particular delivers some unbelievably passionate speeches that really develop the character and shows just how single minded he is in his quest for power over Italy.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, the crux of the matter... Is multiplayer tacked on to turn a quick profit like so many other games before it? Answer: not in the least. Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood delivers a full in depth multiplayer option and while it may not draw the crowds like Call of Duty or Halo it’s certainly deserving enough that everyone should at least try it for being so brilliantly unique and original in a world of first-person shooters and rehash. The game modes centre around hunting a selected target knowing only what they look like and a vague idea of where they are, whilst watching out for those that are hunting you with no knowledge of them other than how many they number. This idea is transferred into three iterations; Wanted (free for all), Manhunt (team) and Alliance (multi-team).

Technologically it’s pretty impressive as while matches did take awhile to start the servers seem to be running flawlessly even at peak times, not once was I disconnected throughout my extensive playing. The levelling system allows for perks and weapon unlocks in a manner very similar to Call of Duty, especially with the inclusion of kill streaks and custom classes. But while veteran players are at a significant advantage, lower level characters should still be safe as the matchmaking and gameplay remains fairly balanced as the main concept of the game comes down to the skill of how well you can make yourself look like an NPC to fool your hunters whilst hunting for others yourself. A truly fresh idea executed extremely well, I just pray it’s given the lasting support such an idea deserves.

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood is a brilliant continuation of an already stellar series, that with it’s multitude of collectables, side missions and activities, will have you coming back for more and more, after all who doesn’t like feeling like a badass? With an incredible overarching story and the option of leaving the animus at any time or not at all (thank god!) the singleplayer falls short only with a few graphical errors and story issues. These however, are quickly overshadowed by the merits of the cast and dialogue supporting it. Top this off with the deadly parkour, open ended gameplay we all know and love and it makes for one of this year’s best singleplayer experiences alone. Include one of the best and most original multiplayer components for years in that mix and you’ve got yourself one hell of a title.

9.0 – Brilliant.