Assassin's Creed Brotherhood PS3
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood continues the Assassin's Creed saga with the usual twist, modern and past meet but with the same adventuring and easy scampering that makes the series so enjoyable.
Ratings:
Graphics & Audio: 21/25,
Gameplay: 21/25,
Creativity 20/25,
Fun 21/25
Total: 83/100
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood takes off right from the end of the previous game with Ezio attempting to kill Borgia but this story line does not really matter all that much. You do find out more with the story later on as you work toward your ultimate goal the game has in store for you.
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood takes third person platforming to an inevitable great gaming end with easy to perform maneuvers across the entire city of Rome. Brotherhood goes from simple city escape to country living and then back to the city for most of the game while you hone your continuing skills.
If you have never played Assassin's Creed before do not worry about learning the story from the previous games, I have not played either before and had no problems picking things up. Being new to the game series I was concerned about knowing what was going on but after a few cut scenes in the beginning of the game along with some adventure sequences I got the idea.
Brotherhood uses short cut scenes to give its story but not all at once so you get some of the story in small bites between longer gaming sequences. This gives you a good mix of story and gaming for fun that makes sense while you're playing for an understandable and fun game.
The story continues from the first two games but you get what is going on quickly, your an assassin who is trying to stop the Templar's from degrading society of 15th Century Italy. You also play as a modern Desmond trying to learn about Ezio and more from being able to see into Ezio's memories using a machine.
Ezio and Desmond are working together from opposite times to defeat the Templar's through the use of assassination and destroying the havens of the Templar's in each section of Rome. You have this middle ground of the Animus which is this white field created by a computer where you can move through the memories of Ezio.
The main objective of the game that the player has to work at is destroying some towers that the Templar's use for safe havens and storage of weapons. These towers are easy to find but you need to make your way through guards and get better weapons and higher levels in order to destroy them.
You can actually make it to the end of the game without destroying all of them but it helps to work toward that end as the game was designed with their collapse in mind. Mainly your objective is to destroy the infrastructure of the Templar's by destroying their outposts in the towers along with gaining the trust of various organizations and guilds throughout Rome.
You start out getting your feet wet and continue on with the story of fighting Templar's and avoiding guards when the odds are against you. Mostly you take on small jobs like one of your first of carrying crates of flowers to help out the numerous inhabitants of Rome.
The smaller missions give you a lot of leveling up if you just keep plugging away at them and every once in awhile you will get more snippets of the story line. The game is designed to not be able to finish it quickly, a general run through the game should last you at least 20 hours to get the story finished.
You have a wide variety of missions from assassination contracts to those lower helping general Roman citizen doing odd jobs so there are fun things to do along with some of the more tedious ones. One of the better parts of the game is that you can pretty much pick and choose what you want to do except for some of the storyline missions so helping out any particular individual is not really required.
Mostly the smaller missions give you the experience and some extra money for your more important tasks as well as gather your forces in allies and even fellow assassin's that you can train. One of the new aspects of Brotherhood is the recruitment and training of fellow assassin's after you destroy one of those towers.
Each time you destroy a tower a slot opens up and you can recruit a Roman citizen and train them as an assassin which works pretty well but takes plenty of time. You can simply target an opponent and one of your trained killers will suddenly come to your aid and take out the target.
While this works well and is worth the effort it does make the game a bit more simplified and works a little too well at getting your final objectives accomplished. It just seems a bit like cheating to give a subordinate all the fun of taking out an enemy but it works to give the game more substance overall.
For an open box style adventure game you do get the feel of been there done that like many other games that have the small missions to level. Like many of these leveling up games, role playing games mostly, there is going to be some missions that are just tedious and the same can be said for at least half of the single player campaign.
Looting, stealing and leveling up takes effort but in the end it will all be worthwhile to take on the cause and make Rome a better place to live. The use of the two time periods is odd and does take some getting used to but it also works out well for the story to make things a little different from other more conventional role playing games.
Graphics are fantastic and audio is pretty good with a significant nod to graphics and the general look and feel of city life in 15th century Rome. I am sure, at least somewhat, that Rome in that time period was worse than they portray in the game but it looks great.
Buildings are well textured and varied which makes the city look and feel like a real world environment as you scamper around rooftops and wandering the canyons streets of the city. Audio and especially voice is alright but you get to hear a lot of the same phrases as you progress through the game for an audio that works but is not anything above average.
One area of Brotherhood that works extremely well is the multiplayer gaming section that pits you against a group or two groups against each other as characters of Assassin's Creed. You can play as one of several characters that blend in with the usual crowds of Rome well except for the non AI action of wandering the streets.
The multiplayer gaming has three game types, mainly Wanted, Alliance and Manhunt with a tweaked Wanted game mode called Advanced Wanted. Wanted is a individual assassination game where you stalk and kill your opponent who is pictured in the corner of your screen, Advanced Wanted removes the height indicator of your compass.
Alliance has three teams hunting each other at various times but the hunted team is not allowed to kill off the team hunting them but only being able to stun their hunters. Manhunt points two teams against each other in a game much like the Wanted one only with teams instead of individuals.
Multiplayer gives a unique and different online component that is definitely new to gamers with a game type that is not the usual first person run and gun. All four game modes feature you stalking and using hand to hand combat to kill an opponent using both stealth and skilled climbing to attack your victim.
Unlike those shooter games Assassin's Creed multiplayer has each individual trying to kill without being killed in a city environment where blending in works to hide who you really are. The multiplayer is like no other game I have played and thoroughly enjoyable, you sneak around trying to either blend in or not be seen by others but you can only tell who is who by their movements.
The general crowd does not run, or even walk fast most of the time and will never pounce so if you just wander aimlessly you may be safe. But with your picture out there for someone else to try and take you out stealth and having eyes in the back of your head is not always possible.
Your target has a figurative target painted on him using your compass and a highlighted spotting system when they are in visual range. You compass shows you the general direction your opponent is and how close they are as well as flashes when your character could possibly see them.
This still does not spot the individual as several people are also in view so you have to pick pout your target by their actions. This is usually possible because they are not going to be just wandering around the city, pouncing on their own target or general odd behavior like running or climbing usual will give them away.
The multiplayer is one of those genre defining types that I am sure now that it is out there will spawn a whole slew of games trying to capture the same flavor of online gaming. I highly recommend you check out at least the multiplayer portion of Assassin's Creed Brotherhood for a fantastic new online game type.
While neither the multiplayer nor the single player game was outstanding both add up to enough to make this a great game and well worth a purchase for whichever console edition you prefer. I can't wait to try out the multiplayer on the PC as I much prefer the controls on my computer but until then I will content myself with some stalking online from time to time with Assassin's Creed Brotherhood.