Assassin Creed 2 Brotherhood – X Box 360 and PS3
This week Game’s Corner is taking a look at Ubisoft’s Assassin Creed 2: Brotherhood. The game takes up where the second Assassins Creed finishes, Ezio returning from Rome sees his hometown burnt to cinders. Ceasare, the Pope’s son (the Church was a bit more of a laugh back then) kills Ezio’s uncle and steals the prized Apple of Eden. Now Ezio must return to Rome and retrieve the apple and avenge his uncle.
Alright you are up to speed with the story now onward towards the thing people really want to know about….the game play. Brotherhood does not deviate much from AC2, apart a few nice additions like a crossbow but otherwise its more or less the same, the character moves the same and the controls feel the same, what has changed is the city, the missions and the use of other assassins, oh and of course the multiplayer.
The city is beautifully rendered much like Florentine and Venice before it. Rome is larger than both however, and considering you’ll spend the game within just its walls this is no bad thing. Rome is littered with the stand out famous places that you would associate with the Eternal City, such as the Coliseum and the Pantheon, but cleverly, attractions like St Peter’s Square are absent (the game is set in 1499, the square wasn’t built till 1657). But there are countless plazas, castles and ruins to keep people from ever feeling claustrophobic. The towns are also populated with hundreds of people making it quite fun to ride through the side streets on horses sending people flying every direction.
The missions are, in a word, fantastic! There are no build up missions and the tone is set from the awesome first mission where you have to defend your hometown from the advancing armies. Gratefully, there is a reduced amount of the climby Tomb Raidery missions, this game is about the sword fights mixed with stalking your victim before bang! Two blades in the chest! These missions are made all the more fun by the use of other assassins. Essentially, you save regular townsfolk from Borgia’s men then they are recruited to your cause. You send your recruits across Europe to up-skill them, once they return you can summon them to fight with you or hail your enemies with arrows it is a lot of fun.
People have been harping on about the multiplayer but I must admit I’m not gone on it. The game play in multiplayer mode is similar to the core game play of the series, as players are required to use their assassination and stealth skills. The players must hunt down targets while being hunted themselves. Players earn points by completing each assassination without being detected and escaping after each kill. Breaking cover makes the player visible to other players and makes them easier to assassinate. But truthfully I found it boring and confusing.
Assassins’ Creed: Brotherhood probably shouldn’t be thought of as a new game, rather as an extension to Assassin’s Creed 2, don’t get me wrong, it’s incredibly long with lots of replay value and you are in a whole new area with lots to explore. It’s just that from any other point of view, the game play is the exact same! There are no real changes to how the character moves, no real new assassination techniques and the use of assassins (while fun) isn’t really utilised to its full potential (you really only use them for a laugh).
That is not to say this game isn’t worth its price, it’s well worth it and comes with this reviewers recommendation, but don’t be expecting a brand new experience.
By the way does anyone else think that Desmond’s descendents would think he’s a feckin pansy!
This article was originally published in:
Fountain News Digital – March 2011 (Issue 3)
We are re-publishing all articles from our past newsletter, Fountain News Digital, and you can view all completed newsletters here. There were nine issues published in total between 2010 and 2012.
Timeline of our local news services (1994-2013)
Hashtags: #GamesReviews 
