Assassin's Creed Brotherhood

Blog Post: Great expansion on AC2

Kpb17 — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 01:40:00 GMT

AC Brotherhood allows Ezio to call in members of his Assassin's guild, which is very helpful and great for the gameplay. Definitely worth picking up.

Blog Post: The Brotherhood

Julehisanvhi — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 00:28:00 GMT

As a huge fan of Assassin's Creed, I couldn't wait to play this one. AC:B is a great game. The ability to rebuild Rome totally outdoes rebuilding the Villa from AC II. Combat feels better as well. And the major thing that makes this game so much more awesome is the addition of the ability to recruit and call on assassins to aid you. Now...AC:B would be the best in the series for me if 100% sync did not exist. I like feeling that I am Ezio on his mission to fight the Templars or the Borgias (depending on if you are playing AC II or AC:B). The addition of the 100% sync for missions totally takes me out of the immersion of the game. The syncs are easier than in AC III, but I still hate them. This is why my rating is probably lower than the rest of the users. It would have been either a 9.5 or possibly a 10 if it wasn't for that part of the game.

Blog Post: Assassin's Creed Brotherhood- A Game to be Remembered Forever

Ucantfindme — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 23:57:00 GMT

As Assassin's Creed 3 comes out, I would like to remind all of you of the game that introduced the Assassin's Creed series to multiplayer. As its name indicates, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood also introduced the Brotherhood of Assassins that help you in game missions and killing guards, though that plays a very minimal role in the campaign in my opinion. This is the best game I have ever played (either this or Call of Duty: Black Ops) but that might change when I receive Assassin’s Creed III tomorrow. Since I haven’t replayed the Story Mode yet, I’ll stick to the open world free play and some other features such as Guild challenges and the Virtual Training program.

Needless to say, the graphics are amazing, making Rome come to life with happy, annoying peasants who walk around saying the same things to you over and over. The game offers some splendid sights inside and outside of Rome, and each historical location is brought to life in its full glory. Information about everything is easily accessible in the Database, and whenever an historical place, group of people or person is seen in the game, a little text box pops up saying “Press back to access Database” making it easy to access. Other features like these make the depth of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood easily accessible.

Is I’ve said, I have yet to replay the Story Mode and its side mission. I have finished it once and I have to say that the mysterious, dramatic and challenging Story Mode will suck you in and won’t let go no matter what- unless you’ve had a taste of the addictive multiplayer, that is. In my opinion one of the best multiplayer experiences ever made, the innovate game modes and unlockable characters & special abilities will keep you playing for hours until your eyes bleed. Each different game mode requires strategic thinking and every new ability adds a whole new level of depth to the exciting multiplayer experience.

We’ll go into Story Mode missions and actual story and into the Multiplayer on my future reviews (keep an eye out for a Game Comparison- ACB vs. ACIII), but for now, forget about that. I’m going to focus solely on the open world free play, Story Mode gameplay and more and I’ll explain the minimal flaws in these categories that kept me from giving Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood a 10.00 on my review.

The game doesn’t start out open world style, first it tells Desmond’s story, and when he tries to access Sequence 9 to find the location of the Apple of Eden through the Animus, access is denied. Desmond realizes he must live through all the sequences of Ezio’s journey to keep the Apple safe and get it back after he loses it. Reliving those memories is where most of the story happens as Ezio Auditore da Firenze.

After a couple introductory missions, you are set free to explore Rome if you do not wish to continue with the story missions at the moment. At first, there is very little you can purchase in fact, you must purchase a shop before buying anything from it, and you have to free a shop from Borgia influence before purchasing it. And to free a shop from under Borgia influence, you must ignite the nearest Borgia tower. And to ignite a Borgia tower, you must first kill its Borgia captain, which in many cases is difficult because most of them flee when they see you and have tons of guards to cover their escape. And sometimes a Borgia tower is in a restricted area but the shop it influences is not, so there’s nothing you can do in those situations. This may sound tedious but it really isn’t because taking down a Borgia captain is always fun and each Borgia captain has a different fighting or fleeing style.

There is another reason that you can purchase very little in the beginning of the game, and that is because money is very poorly distributed along the story. If it sounds confusing, I’ll explain what I mean. In the start, you have to limit yourself to crappy armor that breaks in every fight or fall and a weak sword. This is completely normal, but what bothers me is that by the time you’re winning lots of money it’s basically useless. You might have 20,000 florins coming in every 20 minutes, but of what use is that if you’ve already bought the best weapons, you’ve fully renovated Rome and you’ve won the Armor of Brutus? Sure, you can buy ammo and medicine but you don’t need a million (literally) florins to buy that. Some solutions to that are selling items (which I never did) or disarming a guard and replacing your weapon with his.

The most important aspects of the Story Mode outside missions (and probably inside missions too) is what you will be doing most of the time- free running, climbing, and engaging in combat, whether it be hand to hand, armed, long range or horseback. I liked the fact that I could run or sprint and they were two different things and I’m not happy they got rid of it in Assassin’s Creed 3. Free running is fluid on screen but not always in your controller, forcing you to make difficult maneuvers that don’t always work just because you moved your left analog stick slightly to the left or you didn’t press “A” in time for a jump. You will notice that with almost anything in the game, one slight mistake will have disastrous effects. While this creates more than necessary pressure for the player not to mess up, checkpoints are useless in this matter because once you mess up you have to restart if you want to get full synch or a gold medal or whatever(Assassin’s Creed 3 has fixed this, you’ll see how in my AC3 review).

The same thing applies for climbing and jumping. I wish the climbing system was more flexible to the direction you try to move. Sometimes I assume that the ledge to my right is not climbable because I’m moving the left analog stick to the right and Ezio doesn’t move. Turns out I had to move the left stick in a very specific diagonal angle in which I didn’t. Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood’s gameplay should’ve been more flexible definitively (Missions too for that instance. Come to think about it, this applies to most aspects of the game).

Combat can be fluid and deep, but that depends on how varied the player’s combat style is. For example, I never use my gun, smoke bomb, poison, throwing knives, or some other things. Correct me if I’m wrong, but most people will rely on the kick-attack-attack-until-he-dies, or the counter-one-guy-and-start-a-kill streak methods. These two are the easiest combat methods to take down large groups of guards in my opinion (aside from arrow storm, obviously). While making 26 kill streaks is possible, many times how long you get depends on luck, what I mean is that sometimes you’re lucky because a guard attacks in time for you to easily counter kill him and then kill the next guy, but sometimes a guard attacks in a moment right when you’re hitting someone else and your kill streak is over.

The enemy system is decent and varied, but that variety is not well implemented in the open world. Brutes and gunmen are very scarce if not completely extinct when you finish story mode. Papal Guards can only be found in Castel Sant’Angelo, which I guess makes sense. There are many different types of guards seen throughout the story, but by the end of the game you see only four types of enemies. Guards are supposed to keep a lookout for you, especially if your notoriety is high, but I think the enemy recognition system was not very well done. For example, you are never supposed to be on the rooftops (I mean by the Borgia’s laws), so whenever a crossbowman sees you, he is supposed to attack. But whenever your notoriousness is not at 100%, you have time to walk close to a crossbowman, pull out your own crossbow (or pistol or even throwing knife) and kill him with it before he attacks. All that time he’s just staring at you. This makes several missions’ full synch requirements considerably easier, so I can forgive them for that. But I’m sure there was another way to make that happen that wasn’t making all your guards have an attention deficit.

The assassin’s brotherhood system is good enough, but recruiting new assassins gets repetitive and there is very little depth in the missions you send your assassins to and your assassin’s progression system as well, aside from the fact that as they level up, you can choose to upgrade their weapons or their armor. The way the mission system works is that missions have five levels of difficulty, a reward in cash and XP and even special items, and a certain time the mission takes to complete. The difficulty of the mission determines the skill and number of assassins required. When you choose what assassins to send in the mission, it gives you a percentage. This is the probability that the mission will be a success and your assassins don’t die. I think this was supposed to give an element of chance or risk and reward, but there is no point in risking an assassin that is more than level one when there is no hurry and you can just wait a little more until you have the appropriate forces to complete a mission. The assassins and arrow storm are extremely helpful, with the ability to get you out of tight situations, make awesome stealth kills and quickly turn the tide of a battle. Sometimes, however, an arrow storm will not kill all the enemies in a fight like it should.

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood is not a game for completionists. Examples are found anywhere- from the seemingly impossible full synch requirements in some of Leonardo’s machines to the way-too-many Borgia flags and the Guild Challenges. We’ll go into the full synch on another review, and for the Borgia flags there isn’t much to be said except that there are too many, which makes it so that you have to dedicate entire gaming sessions to capturing Borgia flags (which is tedious) instead of capturing them naturally as you go different places. Same thing can be said for the Guild Challenges. They were probably meant for you to complete on missions or while free running or in combat, however, for most of them, you have to go out of your way and spend some time just to complete them.

The last flaw worth mentioning is the camera. While normally it is easy to control, whenever you use the lock mechanism on someone, or you are engaged in combat, the camera is hard to control- which can make for disastrous effects since whenever you are in combat or locked to someone, that can be a crucial moment that you can’t afford having the camera mess up.

OVERALL, STORY MODE IS FUN BUT HAS ITS FLAWS. REPETIVENESS AND BAD APLICATION OF ITS FEATURES AFTER STORY MODE IS OVER MAKE IT HAVE LOW REPLAY VALUE. THAT’S WHERE MULTIPLAYER COMES IN AND SAVES THE DAY. HOWEVER, MULTIPLAYER WAS BUSY AND COULDN’T COME TO THIS GAME REVIEW.

Blog Post: Review - Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (PS3)

BLiNDFATES — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 23:47:00 GMT

After the ending of Assassin's Creed II (don't worry, i wont give it away here)(and especially the Subject 16 Glyph challenges!) we couldn't wait for Assassin's Creed III! however, the next game isn't called Assassin's Creed III, it's called Brotherhood, and we're set back into the shoes of Desmond and Ezio once again. Thought this is not Assassin's Creed III, it's the next full edition in the installment, and i'm itching for answers. So does Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood satisfy our craving, all while including a new multiplayer mode, or will this become a highly anticipated disappointment?

PRESENTATION

The game looks quite fantastic. it takes place in Rome sometime after the Fall of Rome. Not only does Rome look great, but it portrays the history of it quite precisely as well. it's a huge city, and almost every building is climbable. it's quite awesome. the graphics in general look pretty sweet.

The voice acting is as successful as ever, and the soundtrack is nearly perfect. it just fits the game real well.

what's reallly impressive is seeing all the vast amount of people roaming around Rome (aha), and the games presentation isn't effected by it.

STORY

After a short intro/recap, Brotherhood picks up right where it's predecessor left off. both within Desmond's and Ezio's story. Desmond and the group of present day Assassins had to leave their hideout in search of a new one, and this time they've moved to the old villa featured in ACII. from here they continue Desmond's memories back into Ezio's

Likewise, Ezio's story begins with an dead where it left off. unfortunatey due to the actions of the last game, an attack on the villa from pope, and previous antagonist from ACII, Rodrigro Borgia, which is lead by his son Caesare. Out for Redemption and Revenge, Ezio set's out to Rome to confront Rodrigo and Caesare and finish the events from ACII.

here in Rome, Ezio must rebuild the Assassin's Brotherhood from scratch, and work to eliminate Caesare and win back the mysterious Apple of Eden.

The story is build quite well, and though the main story quest is rather short, there is an abundance of side quest to add to the story and each chain of side quest adds on in its own way. we'll get more on that later. but because of the shortness of the main quest, i highly suggest taking the time to do the sidequest and get the story built larger through them. also, it's unfortunate that after you beat the main quest, some of the side quest missions won't make too much sense story wise.

GAMEPLAY

This game plays identical to ACII with some slight improvements. you'll scale building, engage in large sword fights, be stealthy and assassinate, all sorts of stuff.

some areas have significant improvement. for instance the combat. instead of only being able to counter attack enemies as in the previous games, now you can counter 1 attack, and then chain it into attack on other surrounding enemies and wreak havoc. it's hard to explain, but it's awesome.

There are some new stuff as well. a good example are the "Leonardo's Invention" missions where you have to find an invention made by Leonardo, where you then make use of it before destroying it to keep it out of Borgia hands. All while recruiting Assassin's for your new brotherhood. These missions are quite fun indeed.

Ezio also has a large disposal of newer improved weaponry such as the poison darts, now allowing you to poison enemies from a distance.

One of the big things from ACII was renovating the Villa. now with ACB, you actually renovate the entirety of Rome. as you renovate, you take back land from Borgia control. you also do this by eliminating Borgia towers, making Rome almost into a territory war. it's quite a ton of fun. even better is you can call on your new Assassin recruits to come to your aid!

However Rome is all there is. as before where there were several cities to visit, now you're confined to Rome. at first this seems bad, but Rome is HUGE. so no worries there.

There is a huge abundance of side missions to do and as i explained before, take the time to do these. the main quest are far to short on their own and all these side quest are a ton of fun. i put a ton of hours into getting near 100 percent. there's seriously so much to do, my map was a blur of different markers and i didn't even know where to start! there's a ton of content here, and all reap their own rewards.

the glyph puzzles return and there's a new virtual training section which is also fun located in the menu. this game will take up a ton of time. all of it well spent.

MULTIPLAYER

new to the Assassin's Creed series is the online multiplayer. there's really nothing else like it. it's quite hard to explain. the major modes consist of killing other player all while remaining anonymous. you'll have a target to kill and at the same time you're someone elses target. it's a really cool concept and you just got to play it to see for yourself.

there is a leveling system unlocking you new character skins and abilities, but i didn't find the multiplayer appealing enough for me to go to deep into it. some people really enjoyed this section, but i prefer to stick to the campaign.

RECAP

There's a ton of stuff within Brotherhood. you just have to go out and get it. sticking to the main quest alone won't prove to last, so take advantage of all the extra content! i had an incredible urge to get 100%, and i'm damn near close! it's a ton of fun and enough content for you to play for months. for those wanting to get into the story i do suggest to play ACII first where Ezio's story begins. This game is vast.

Blog Post: The Amazing Series Continues

Steven De La Cruz — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 07:28:00 GMT

Amazing game for an amazing series. It looks amazing, as if you were actually in Rome. The story is long & very deep. Will keep you playing even after the story concludes, with awesome side missions. Desmond even ets some great moments in the game, which only adds to the value. The platforming is spot on as always. The Multiplayer was a pleasant surprise. Those of you wanting to try something new, in terms of online, should really try this out. Fun to play & an awesome continuation to the Assassin's Creed Series.

Blog Post: Brotherhood Refines On Its Predecessors

pokecharm — Fri, 25 May 2012 13:08:00 GMT

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood picks up where Assassin's Creed 2 ends. The player follows the duel storylines of Ezio and Desmond as the two make their way through Ezio's memories. The story is fairly linear, more so than the previous games seemed. Ezio watches as the empire he built in the previous game is destroyed and goes about establishing himself in Rome.

There is little new in the combat, but the controls were more fluid than I remember them to be. Speed races were especially challenging given the delicacy of the controls; the thief missions were particularly frustrating. I continue to struggle with climbing and found it realistic, but also annoying that the AI would throw things at Ezio as you tried to escape. Despite my own deficiencies, I felt the controls continue to improve on this annual release.

The graphics are outstanding, when they stay in focus. I had major frame rate issues and when missions were completed, the burn back into the game threw everything off. There were countless instances where Ezio disappeared into a white silhouette. I also noticed backgrounds flowing in and out of focus that had nothing to do with the environment or story. While I loved what I saw, the inconsistencies were apparent throughout.

The music was light and subtle at times, but as I listened to it again during the credits (I feel you have to watch the credits after completing a game), I did feel like I heard it for the first time. The way the story, music and graphics blended throughout the game made the entire experience seamless.

Story in the Assassin's Creed series is often a mixed bag. In the first game, the story was fairly straightforward. In many ways, I really miss Altaïr. The first Assassin's Creed game had its shortcomings, but the elegance with which the game was played has yet to truly be duplicated. In Assassin's Creed 2, the player is introduced to Ezio, who I found unsympathetic at times given his blood lust for vengeance. In Brotherhood, Ezio becomes something more than a child, but a man who has a greater purpose. It is that nuance that makes the story for this game that much more compelling, despite it being utterly unoriginal.

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood is the closest thing to a great game I've played in some time. I have to give it demerits for poor graphics, an unoriginal story and repetitiveness, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it. Since Red Dead Redemption, I have yet to play a game I got completely consumed by. I happily completed many of the challenges the game offered, solely because I was having a good time. But as the hours wore on, and the missions became basically the same, the novelty wore off. I now see why so many of my friends raved about this game. It is a great addition to the series, probably the best so far for me, but it still had issues that I hope to see resolved in Revelations and AC3.

Forum Post: Re: Reasons for Minerva making Desmond stab Lucy in ACB

juto — Fri, 04 May 2012 23:01:00 GMT

Can your recruited assassin get any stronger after they get the rank assassin? I still have some mission that they cant handle.

Wiki: Assassin's Creed Brotherhood Guides

Anonymous — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 23:06:00 GMT

Guides for Assassin's Creed Brotherhood

Blog Post: Each time, we keep on getting a better assassin's creed

Juanolo — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 21:03:00 GMT

I couldn't wait until Brotherhood. 1st was good, 2nd was really good, and 3rd was just outstanding. It just gets better an better every time.

Graphics are really good. They're better then ever. Controls easy. Score good. Story really good. Cliffhanger. Gameplay as fun as always. About 12-16 hours plus once again, all the stuff you can collect. They even added multiplayer this time, and it's fun.

Overall, it's a better assassin creed. Some how ubisoft can make a better game every single time. It's totally recommended by not just for fans, but anyone with Ps3 or xbox360. That's why I would give Assassin's creed: Brotherhood a:

9.5 out of 10

Blog Post: completing the game offline

btate1987 — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 20:01:00 GMT

ive completed the 100% offline i am a fan of assassins creed 1 2and brotherhood i have not played the new game please tell me if its worth my time and money?

Blog Post: assassins creed brother hood

ps3master13 — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:09:00 GMT

Brother hood took everthing cool from the originals and made it better then ever. the only where they droped the ball was multplayer so buy this for the main game.

Blog Post: Ubisoft ups the Ante

Adventure Seeker 1 — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:18:00 GMT

So we all agree that the last AC game as better than the first right? Than could we say that this one is better than AC II? Yes we can. The fact is, that Ubisoft put its heart and soul into trying to make Brotherhood better than the first, and in that regard they have succeeded. The story itself is better than the last with even more twists and turns than the last, maybe it is rushed but that is minimal. Cesare makes the perfect baddie to face Ezio this time around, which makes it all the more fun. The post game distractions and in-game distractions will make your head do a 180 as you traverse through Rome. The look of the game has become 10x as better than the last game, making you sit and stare in awe of the majesty of Rome. Multiplayer also makes a worthy addition to the AC Universe and is the final nail in the Awesomeness Coffin. I will say again for any who read this, if there are things in this game that are bad they are things that can be worked around or are minimal.

Blog Post: Assassin's Creed: "Join the" Brotherhood

LetMeGetToACheckpoint — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 14:12:00 GMT

I am on a bit of a learning curve with the website and finally found the "introduction" pages to sort through my questions with site navigation. Therefore, my first review is in the wrong section on my own little blogging island, due to my low member level, but I will try this again. I entered my GI magazine subscription in my profile to bump my blog attempts but that had no effect so I will go the old fashioned route of leveling up.

While Assassin's Creed: Revelations was just released, I am reviewing AC: Brotherhood because I just completed the game in order to play AC: Revelations. As I repeatedly reference, I only reentered gaming last spring with an Xbox 360 and since that time I played through all of the AC games to prepare for the release of Revelations this fall. I am relishing the exercise of writing about gaming thus I am reviewing AC: Brotherhood while the game is fresh in my mind and will review AC: Revelations after my play through.

The AC franchise is heavily story based, perhaps only rivaled currently by Mass Effect, and both franchises explore how to meld a complex narrative into engaging gameplay. From the first game in AC the constantly twisting story is its own impetus for the gamer to see the game through. In a rare beginning, AC: Brotherhood begins exactly where AC:2 ended because of the imperative link to the narrative. The ensuing introductory sequences skillfully combine story and gameplay to interweave the dual stories of Desmond Miles and Ezio de Firenze.

Once again, the hunt is on amongst the Assassins and the Templars for a piece of Eden while we, the masses, remain woefully unaware of the battle for our minds and quality of life. In this single minded pursuit to save the world Ezio can only woe women while wearing a mask and Desmond never takes off his messenger bag. The price heroes pay.

Ezio travels to Renassiance Rome and he is now able to establish a Brotherhood of recruited assassins who assassinate targets on his signal. While these new allies are essentially another tool in Ezio's utility belt for meting out death to those deserving, much like the previous addition of the crossbow, signaling for a young assassin to strike down my enemy from afar only increased my sensation of being a master assassin. Combat as a whole is enriched with a one hit, one kill execution style series of deaths amongst a crowd of guards but requires patience to master. The leveling up system for the assassins in which your recruits are sent on missions across Europe for experience, money, and items initially requires strategic thinking but is easy to grasp and complete. In tandem with recruitment Ezio is tasked with freeing Rome from the Borgia family's influence by taking over towers in each district. After a district is freed Ezio is able to invest in the local shops in order in efforts to eventually restore Rome from the decay of Borgia greed. The economic system is much improved. While the economy will eventually break, you will have more money than you can possibly spend, it will be intact for the majority of the game.

As a sandbox game, there are a multitude of available side quests that range from great to good. Relative to the side quests the main story arc is short but each sequence is strong. Due to spending most of your time in side quests the gameplay overall plays like a series of short stories that are based on a central theme. The tie-ins make sense until you describe the game to a friend and try to explain that the assassin recruitment is triggered when you free a district from their Borgia tower then the recruits can earn items on their mission that you take to shops to unlock items. Meanwhile different factions have their own series of side quests. Plus you can now strive towards "100% synch" in all missions in which the mission is completed according to certain parameters such as to complete the assassination with the hidden blade or without being detected. Honestly, I attempted the "100% synch" until the requirements became so difficult that I preferred to progress the story rather than languish over completing the sequence in 8 minutes. I attained "100% synch" when I could and finished the game with 70% at "100% synch." I am excited to jump back in to reattempt my failed tries.

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By now the friend that you were describing the game to is confused, or at least my friends are, and I didn't even mention Ezio's ongoing bromance with Leonardo Divinci or the renaissance Rome iteration of a fight club. While the central story arc is the main attraction the fatigue with Ezio is linked to the reiteration of his storyline. He continues his revengeful pursuit with vigilante justice that Desmond experiences by proxy through the Animus looking for clues to the pieces of Eden. The side quests flesh out the game from Ezio's background to tidbits revealing the present day perpetrators of the Templar conspiracy through my personal favorite quest, the Truth.

Meanwhile, upon reentering the Animus as Ezio the parkour-like city exploration remains an exquisite thrill by traversing renaissance era Rome from the street level or at bird's eye view. While the only travel outside of Rome is for specific sequences, as even more side quests, the city is immense. The ability to climb throughout the Pantheon as it was repurposed as well as the Coliseum which is in ruins, because its original construction was well over a thousand earlier, is sheer joy. The swelling score enlivens the renaissance Italy ambiance.

Originally only an in-depth single player experience, the AC franchise has branched into a surprisingly fun multiplayer. I only played Wanted and in a match of about 8 people you are in pursuit of a target while another is in pursuit of you. You choose a character skin and the map is littered with NPC's of each character who act as red herrings while you search for your target. More than once I lost my contract for impulsively killing a lookalike clone rather than ensuring my target's identity. In a change-up from most multiplayer, a particularly skilled kill or evasion is rewarded on a point scale and the leader board is based on the highest score not the number of kills which results in a sense of satisfaction with each skilled maneuver and acknowledgement of others' skills.

The explosive finale left me shocked and with questions but luckily my door prize for being late to the party is that I have AC: Revelations sitting on my shelf ready to pick up where AC: Brotherhood left off.

As we have learned with Call of Duty, a yearly release requires an extensive team effort in which multiple studios craft individual pieces that are later welded together. I recognize that this review is not in a space-time vacuum and that AC: Revelations was released to mixed reviews due to further missteps rather than corrections. AC is very much an instance of" I like this but not that" and in AC: Brotherhood there is much to like as an immersion into renaissance Italy while keeping an eye on the clock for the Templar's modern day domination. If you haven't played AC I strongly recommend the franchise as a series of games with strong installments that can now be cheaply purchased that showcases successful innovative gameplay even while UBIsoft remains unable to push beyond the status quo that they created. Explore the story arc for yourself and understand the addiction to climbing to the highest point simply to jump off.

Blog Post: Best game

Anonymous — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 23:23:00 GMT

Assassins Creed Brotherhood was one of the very best game I have played in my life. Only one to two games barely surpass my rating for it. The action, advendture, and suspense was fantastic. Truely an award winning game.

Blog Post: My review on ACB

evil94 — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 20:07:00 GMT

This game is awesome. Why?
- It has excellent story, the most important thing for a game.
- It has great gameplay. Such beauty in an open world game and the freedom to do anything you want.
- It has amazing OST. Jesper Kyd just connects you with this time period as soon you hear his tracks.
- Ubisoft have added multyplayer. Here is the only thing that I do not like so much. Yes it is unique but they have to work on many things.

What can they do in future?
I think that co-op will be something really amazing in this game. Two player runing on rooftops and helping each other to get to the target.

Blog Post: i love this game

mullins177 — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 12:33:00 GMT

omg i love this game i have beat all of the assassin's creed but brotherhood hast to be the best one i have ever played it beats all of the games that i have played it's just breath taken it's freaking awsome i love it and i hope all of u all will love it to.

Blog Post: MHN Games, Assassins's Creed: Brotherhood Singleplayer Review

NexusLordNova — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 00:12:00 GMT

So Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood has be out for almost a year now, but i thought that i should do a review so here it goes.

GAMEPLAY:

Just like AC2, Brotherhood's gameplay was also drastically improved from its predecessor. Which includes the new Kill-Chain system, which allows you to kill an enemy then instantly kill another one. the improved economy system, which you could now purchase buildings and gain discount's on items in the shop.

Horse riding in the city is a nice feature, but it could be seriously improved. The Assassin recruits are a great feature but, the lack of customization is a serious disappointment.

The size of Rome is great, but i did like the multiple city structure of the first 2 games. Vehicles return even bigger and more *** than they were in AC2. The 4 vehicles in Brotherhood are a Tank, a Flying bomber wingsuit, a Rowboat with a explosive cannon, and a carriage with a gatling gun. They are only usable in the war machine missions though.

Parachutes, This feature is AMAZING! it basically removes the chance of an accidental fall death! The Crossbow, this feature is brilliant!!! It is a silent ranged weapon which is perfect for stealth killing, and can hold 25 bolts when fully upgraded.

STORY:

The story for Brotherhood was pretty good, so basically Cesare invades monteriggioni to get to Ezio and the apple, and sh*t happens. So Ezio basically goes to rome to end the borgia rule in Italy, so Ezio builds an army of assassins to destroy the borgia. and alot of other crazy stuff happens but i'm not gonna spoil the game...all i can say is the ending is a shocker.

It was a really well thought out story, and it was full of lies and deception. but i felt it was to short. so my ending verdict is a

9.25/10.0

PROS:

Great Combat System

An Interesting Story

Improved Economy

Customization

A Vibrant And Colorful Open World

Parachutes

A Feeling Of Being Boss Of Everything

CONS:

The Assassins Lack Customization

The Story Was To Short

The Horses Could Have Been Better

Blog Post: A Highly Polished Sequel

Ian Farris — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 07:34:00 GMT

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, at first glance, looks just like Assassin's Creed 2 in Rome, and in many ways it is just that. But play on, and enough improvements will manifest themselves to make it a worthy standalone experience - indeed, rivaling it's two predecessors.

The gameplay mechanics are more refined, though largely the same as the last game's - weapons have Damage, Speed, and Deflect stats, though the first two only really matter in enemies who can't be killed with a single counterattack. A notable improvement is the 'execution streak' system, which allows for any enemy (except bosses) to be one-hit-killed after killing an enemy. This can be continued until either a false counter is performed or Ezio is hit. It definitely puts more emphasis on offensive play and makes the player feel like a graceful master of death when he or she kills 10 guards in 5 seconds or so. Nonetheless, I found some things - particularly the crossbow and poison darts - to be unnecessary. The crossbow serves the same purpose as the hidden gun, except it is superior to it in every way and therefore makes it obsolete (it is totally silent, holds about four times the ammunition, and doesn't have any drawbacks to pay for this). Poison darts accomplish what poison did, except (obviously) at long range.

Read a review, any review, of the original Assassin's Creed and you'll find repetition to be amongst the foremost complaints. Assassin's Creed 2 largely remedied this, but even it suffered from some stale missions. Brotherhood, however, has a diverse set of missions that I see only rarely in video games. Hardly any main plot missions are simply "Go and kill this guy" types anymore - even ones that appear to be the simplest assassination missions usually have some unforeseen variable. I found myself disguised as a guard, listening to my fellow guards' reactions to ascertain the location of my assassination target, climbing rocky outcrops of the massive Castel Sant'Angelo hundreds of feet above the ground, and infiltrating a play disguised to prevent the murder of an innocent man who held a key Ezio needed to gain entrance to the aforementioned Castel. There are four missions in particular which Leonardo gives which are immensely fun and unique - I shan't spoil the experience though. Even optional missions, which usually are notoriously repetitive, often felt fresh - they were usually basic assassinations, but the varied AI of my targets and geography of Rome made each kill a unique one.

Another interesting improvement is the addition of Full Sync challenges on most missions. Completing the mission will yield 50% sync, but completing an optional constraint will boost this to 100%. These constraints are usually varied and creative, from simple "Kill using the hidden blade" ones to "Do not swim" or "Do not touch the ground". These make the game feel even fresher. Nonetheless, there were a few full sync requirements that I felt were unfairly challenging, such as those during a few of Leonardo's missions.

I haven't mentioned the story yet because I felt it lacked a good one, at least for an Assassin's Creed game. The plotline in Renaissance Italy was a foreseeable one where the Assassins simply weaken the Templar's economy and military and then send the whole thing crumbling down. No big plot twists or anything. However, the main storyline in 2012 was surprising, to say the very least. Suffice to say you'll want to get your hands Revelations ASAP.

The entire single-player experience is a great package (I finished it in about 24 hours of gameplay time, but I probably went quickly), but that's only half the game. Multiplayer is a blast, and unlike anything I have played. This is no fast-paced Call of Duty game. It's a game of intrigue, of stealth. In the basic Wanted mode, you get a contract to kill someone. The trouble is, there are lookalikes everywhere. Kill a civilian, and you lose the contract and must wait for a new one. You have the aid of a compass which points to your target, but it grows imprecise as you close in, forcing you to rely on observational skills. Walking around alone guarantees a quick death. Speaking of death, while you're hunting your target, you have a hunter on you, doing the exact same thing. Your target's only defense, besides hiding, is attempting to stun you, but this takes a long time to execute and will almost never work if your pursuer tries to kill you first. Needless to say, complex games are the norm. Just like in Call of Duty, you level up here, too. In this case you gain abilities (Smoke Bomb, Charge and Poison are my favorites), perks (only the later ones are really of any value), kill streaks (only in the form of extra points), and loss streaks (my favorite is one which doubles the value of your next kill).There are deviations from Wanted mode - Manhunt, a four-vs-four match in which teams take turns between being hunted and hunters, Alliance, a two-vs-two-vs-two in which teams hunt each other for two rounds, and Chest Capture, which is a modified Manhunt mode where the hunted players attempt to capture chests. There are also advanced versions of Wanted and Alliance which make target identification more difficult. The chief complaint I have is that locking on to targets is difficult (if the target is in a group, more than likely hitting L1 will target the wrong person). You can hold L1 to focus and zoom, which makes locking on more precise, but this takes a long time and is difficult to do in a moving blend group.

All in all, Brotherhood is a spiced up and polished Assassin's Creed 2 with multiplayer. All things considered, that's not a bad thing.

Blog Post: Assassins Creed

adrockz01 — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 19:30:00 GMT

I think ac brotherhood was a great game because it had great gameplay nice assassination contracts a great multiplayer experience a good soundtrack to listen to while your playing the game and a really great choice of assassins or assassinos.Really great and fun levels I really think that Ubisoft did a good job of thinking about putting assassin recruits in the game and I loved KILLING the Borgia Captains who guarded the towers so then I could Ignite the towers and then the guards would run away like little girls that they are.But I felt like they just did a remix on assassins creed 2 thank you for reading BYE!! write something back

Blog Post: My Review of Assassin's Creed Brotherhood

Spartan316DX — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 22:06:00 GMT

Campaign : The campaign in brotherhood is good but the fact is that its not much of an improvement. It adds new things like having Assassin's that you can send on mission's or call in to help you in combat and you can now throw your swords (which you can get back by visiting the Assassin's Guild), and combat is much faster, when you kill one enemy you can chain kills until you get hit. The story is very good but you really have to pay attention and listen to what the characters say to really understand and get into it. The ending has a major twist that many won't expect. But to be truthful the campaign just isn't much different from number two. But if you enjoyed the other games you will definetly enjoy this game.

My rating for the campaign is 8.75

Multiplayer : Brotherhood has and extremely innovative multiplayer built on it. It starts out extremely simple. Find the target, kill the target, and don't get killed yourself. The more stealthy you are when you kill your target the more points you will get. As you progress through the multiplayer and rank up, you will unlock abilities that regenerate such as throwing knives (which stun the target), or firecrackers (which scare civilians and blind the target). Later on you will get perks which have constant use such as running up walls faster. When you play the team game mode (4 v 4) the attackers are slightly faster than the targets, so the targets job is to hide. Hiding really shows the innovation of this game. You can blend into crowds, hide in hay or cedar stacks, hide on a bench, and stun the attackers. If the attacker kills a civilian they lose they're contract and cannot attack for a short time giving the target a perfect chance to stun the attacker. While the team mode really shows the great innovation it also shows many flaws. The target can literally stop you during a chase so he can kill you from six feet away. And two abilities don't always work. The mute ability which is supposed to make the attacker unable to kill anyone or use abilities does'nt always work, and templar vision is a cheap move that highlights a target but lights up the attacker (literally) is extremely cheap in team modes, mute is supposed to balance this out but I stated the problem with that. Also the matchmaking system is sometimes extremely slow especially if you don't have a full team in a team mode. Hopefully Revelations will fix problems that Brotherhood's multiplayer had. But for Ubisoft's first Assassin's Creed Multiplayer game this is extremely innovative and fun (most of the time)

My Rating for multiplayer 9.25