Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood – When in Rome

I honestly don’t know why I took so long to finally play “Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood.” Despite putting the first Assassin’s Creed down a few hours into the game, I thoroughly enjoyed AC2 and sunk tons of hours into the story. And from everything I’ve seen and played in AC:B, if you enjoyed the series’ second offering, you’ll absolutely love the third.

AC:B begins very quickly, throwing both Desmond and Ezio into the fire almost immediately. Desmond and crew set up shop in Ezio’s villa (Monteriggioni) while Ezio and his crew are being forced out of said villa in the 16^th century by the remaining Borgia family members including new antagonist, Cesare Borgia, a ruthless commander who has plans of his own for Rome and Italy.

The first main difference between AC2 and AC:B is the move to one, large world map rather than a collection of different towns/regions. This was a great design choice and one that makes AC:B feel more like a sandbox game akin to “Grand Theft Auto” more than either of the last two entries in the series. Rome offers an incredibly large, varied area to explore and is packed to the gills with secret items (such as flags, treasure, feathers, etc.) and side-quests that it’s very easy to completely lose track of the main storyline missions as you make your way across Rome, disposing of the Borgia and revitalizing the city.

In AC:B, the Borgia return as the penultimate villain and this time, their control over the city of Rome is much more encompassing and obvious than before. As in previous games, Ezio must synchronize areas by ascending to different points on the map so that you can view the details of that area on the world map. In AC:B, a majority of those viewpoints are now part of “Borgia Towers” which must be ignited to remove the Borgia’s influence over an area. When approaching a Borgia Tower, you’ll notice the area is restricted, meaning that any guards who catch sight of you will attack immediately. Each tower has a captain which must eliminated before it can be ignited and scaling these towers is often a very puzzling affair.

I don't know why the Borgia keep messing with Ezio. It never ends well.

But removing Borgia Towers also has another effect on the game. Not only does removing them allow easier movement around Rome, but they also free up recruitment slots for assassins. At a certain point in the game, Ezio will be able to save certain Roman citizens from being terrorized or killed by the Borgia. After being saved, these people will pledge their allegiance to Ezio and join the Assassin’s Guild. Ezio can call on these assassins to assist him in the field or he can send them on assassination contracts to earn XP, money and items.

Even without the use of your assassins, who can also initiate a powerful attack called the Arrow Storm which will kill all guards near you, the combat in AC:B is a little disappointing. Where AC2 rewarded the player for being patient in fights, looking for openings to counter-attack, AC:B basically turns Ezio into a one-man-army who has little trouble dispatching large crowds of Borgia guards. Where Ezio used to rely on well-timed countering or running rather than fighting, there’s really no reason you can’t just slaughter every guard who bothers you. And even though it’s fun to play as an unstoppable killing machine, it slightly misses the point.

Luckily, there is a whole lot more to do in AC:B than fight. Side-quests, guild missions, buying stores and landmarks – there is much more to do in AC:B than any game in the series before it. Lairs of Romulus take the place of Assassin Tombs and still provide plenty of great platforming puzzles. There’s so much to do in AC:B that the story narrative suffers a little because of it – so often I found myself running around the various areas of Rome, collecting money/flags/treasure, buying shops and sending my assassins on contracts that by the time I did decide to start another memory (mission) I had mostly forgotten what was happening or why it was happening. On top of that, the narrative in AC:B just doesn’t have the same direction that AC2 seemed to have. Whereas in AC2 you started out as a young Ezio who learns the ways of the assassins to challenge the greatest power in all of the known world; AC:B’s story arc of Ezio continuing his fight against the Borgia just doesn’t have the same impact.

Outside of the things mentioned above, the biggest addition to AC:B is multiplayer. I’ll be honest, I haven’t put a whole lot of time into the online mode of AC:B. Then again, being honest, I didn’t really enjoy the mode very much. Though most of my dislike came from being a low level, inexperienced player thrown in with people tens of levels above myself who was continually being destroyed by higher level players, I just didn’t dig the overall format of the mode.

Each session of multiplayer is basically a deadly game of hide-and-seek. You start each game on a map full of the same 10-12 character models and are given a target to locate and terminate. A radar at the bottom of the screens shows how far you are from your target as well as if they are in your sight or not. What should be a slow, psychological game of cat-and-mouse too often seemed to devolve into a veritable train of assassinations – your target is killing someone so you move in behind them and earn a kill only to be killed by your pursuer. It was way too often that I got killed in AC:B without even knowing someone was right behind me and the “stun” attack the game suggests I try using never seems to do, well, anything really. Whether I’m being chased or otherwise see my killer coming, the stun move never seems to work. I may go back and give the multiplayer in AC:B another shot later on but what I’ve already experienced was so frustrating and opposite of fun that I probably won’t (especially with the glut of AAA titles coming out this fall/winter). I appreciate the idea, Ubisoft, and the concept sounds like a lot of fun, unfortunately that’s just not what I got when I played.

Overall, though, AC:B is a fairly tremendous game. AC:B is perfect if you’re the kind of gamer who gets completely absorbed in collecting/completing all a game has to offer. Heck, it’s great no matter what kind of gamer you are. If you enjoyed AC2 (or even the first AC, which I wasn’t a fan of) you owe it to yourself to check out AC:B.