Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

PUBLISHER: Ubisoft
DEVELOPER: Ubisoft
Played on: PS3
Initial impression: Like the second one, but better.

Liked:
- Story (both parts)
- Environment (Past)
- Assassin's Guild
- Leonardo's Gadgets


Disliked:
- Some Quirky Controls
- Bugged Trophies
- Shop Quests
- Subject 16's puzzles


If you read the Assassin's Creed II review, this is going to sound really familiar. Desmond and crew are on the run from Abstergo. You're still assuming the role of Ezio in the Animus world, except he's a tad more mature. The Borgia attack the stronghold at Monteriggioni and force Ezio and his family to retreat back to Rome. Accepting his role as a Lead Assassin, he instructs others who are being oppressed by the Pope to become silent killers.

Oh and here's an update on ACII... I actually found all the feathers. ACII is currently the ONLY PS3 game where I have obtained a Platinum Trophy. I liked it that much.

Likes
The story is still awesome, though it gets surreal toward the end. Without giving away massive spoilers, I was totally left scratching my head. I helped find a final item and a cut scene took over. Someone gets stabbed. Credits roll. What?

The environment is rich and vibrant. Overall the playfield is smaller, confined to just Rome and the undeveloped areas just to the south. Being able to interact with landmarks like the Coliseum is a great bonus.

The Assassin's Guild, as a whole, sucks. Side missions that you never really see help give your recruits experience. You access the list of missions and send them off. Sometimes there's a reward of shop quest items. The part I love about the Assassin's Guild - BACKUP! In a huge fight with 20 guards and getting your ass kicked? NO PROBLEM. Call the Guild! With an eagle's screech they come leaping into the fray. As they level up they can use better weapons, smoke bombs, etc. When you get a lot of recruits you have access to an Arrow Storm, which is as awesome as it sounds. A volley of arrows kills all the enemies near you.

Leonardo Da Vinci makes another appearance. This time he remakes your second hidden blade (it gets lost during the Monteriggioni attack), gives you a pistol and invents a rather useful thing called a "parachute" - so clever. I found this last item to be INCREDIBLY useful.

Dislikes
The quirky controls from before are better but still have issues. I found Ezio trying to run up walls, fail, then immediately try to run up the exact same part of the wall. He would choose to climb a building via various window ledges and so on instead of using the ladder I directed him to. He would get on a ladder from the wrong side and refuse to let go until he reached the top and couldn't go further.

As much as I picked on the ubiquitous and sometimes laughable trophy awarding for doing things you couldn't avoid (watching the game opening cut scene, for instance), I became rather annoyed when some of those dumb "thanks for playing this far" trophies started to disappear from my list. I've completed the game, yet three trophies you get for essentially playing the beginning mission are now blank. I may have to start a new game just to pop three trophies... that I already had.

Shop Quests are an annoying piece of crap. They want you to obtain special items to trade for the ability to purchase some of the gear in the shop. By the time I got the items I needed, I no longer needed the gear. I STILL don't have two of these done and I beat the game a week ago. I've been collecting Flags and Treasure Chests as well as working on the Guild Challenges.

Subject 16 - the nutjob who decorated his cell in his own blood in Assassin's Creed I, left you some clues to The Truth in ACII - is back in ACB. He's just as vague as ever. I went through his trials but didn't really understand a whole hell of a lot of what I was seeing. I'm all for some mystery, but this reeked of "no idea; red herring" storytelling.

On The Fence/Ending
For once I'm not on the fence about anything. I either liked it or didn't. Thankfully, ACB I liked a lot. Slightly more than ACII for the story. For now I'm about 10 flags and some trick-assassinations away from having all Single Player trophies. Unfortunately there are Multi-Player trophies, and I don't think I'll ever get those to bring myself up to Platinum.