Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood || Game Review

         Game Info:

        Publisher: Ubisoft

Developer: Ubisoft Montreal

Genre: Historic Action Adventure

Release: Mar 22, 2011 

ESRB: Mature

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is the third game in the series; the setting is renaissance period Rome. Our Protagonist is basically a modern day man named Desmond who is able to access his ancestor Ezio’s memories through a machine called the animus. The storyline in the present is a little vague with a group of four (one of whom is Desmond) trying to evade Templar enemies, all the while trying to find out the location of a certain artifact called the ‘Apple’. Anyway, the game is mostly based in Renaissance Rome so it’s not much of a concern. The main arc follows Ezio’s enmity with the Borgia Family who are the most influential and powerful people in all of Rome.

The game looks very slick and sharp all around and the since the game is third person based so the camera is a very significant part of the game. Fortunately unlike many other games which suffer from bad camera issues, Brotherhood’s camera works very smoothly throughout. The city of Rome is shown in all its grandeur and the visuals provide a very immersive and satisfying experience.

Brotherhood is a very addictive and entertaining game and to enjoy it to its fullest one must enjoy the little things. You can decide to disregard everything other than the main story arc but this will deprive you of the truly immersive experience you’re likely to get from partaking in the side stuff. There’s a lot to do in the city of Roma. From collecting treasures, completing shop quests (to unlock prized items), robbing robbers, bribing heralds, renovating shops and other landmarks for income,  building faction buildings, destroying Leonardo di Vinci’s war machines (at his own request!), building a brotherhood of Assassins,  to following Ezio’s and his love interest Katarina’s relationship in the past. 

Hiring of Assassins is a new feature in Brotherhood. Brotherhood Assassin’s can then be called on for assistance in fights, to dispatch enemies you’re too lazy to kill yourself. They can be sent on foreign missions to increase skills and assassin levels or to gain rare treasure items which are useful for unlocking new kinds of weapons.  

The weapons menu is very user friendly, one can easily and quickly shift between weapons and take medicine (when health is low) with no tedious steps involved in the whole process. The Assassin does a number of wicked moves and performs executions with flamboyance and flair which are very pleasing to the eye. I found the ranged weapons to be the most useful for killing off enemies quickly and with great finesse. Among the crossbow, the pistol, throwing knives and the poison darts there’s a lot of variety to choose from. The poison darts were my favorites, just shoot an enemy with a dart and get away long before the poor guy dies and his dead body gives others a whiff of something going awry.

My only complaint was that the main story arc was too short and the ending was rather abrupt leaving the player’s hanging around in the middle with a desperate urge to know what happens next.

Overall the game was very enjoyable and will appeal to fans and newcomers alike. I recommend you get the game right away and spend some time kicking butt as a super cool, badass Asassin! As for me I can’t wait for the next instalment in the series i.e.Assassin’s Creed: Revelations….