Assassins Creed Brotherhood it’s one of my favorite titles I played in 2010. The awesome graphics, the great story, the huge environment will bring you an unique 20+ hours of fun…this if you stick only with the quests…but if you are a hardcore gamer, chasing every unlockable costume, theme or multiplayer character this game will take some time…which is great …for some of us, because we love a challenge.
When I first see the short amount of time between the releases of the two games: Assassins Creed 2 and Brotherhood I figured that they just stretched Assassins Creed 2 with nothing unique just to make some quick bucks…this is just partially true…
The game starts and ends in Rome, you have no variety of locations like in the other two titles, wich is not an actually bad thing because the map is really huge. The down side of this game is that after a sex scene with a countess and some heavy gun shots fired upon Monteriggioni you lose everything…so no more shiny armor, no more dual blades, and as a consequence your life gauge is down to a quarter. So for some AC fans this can be quite annoying having to start over and enjoy the full Ezio experience.
Like in Assassins Creed 1 & Assassins Creed 2 I really dislike the “our days adventure “ that has as main character the thief who became a prisoner, who became an assassin “Desmond”… This part that take’s you out from the actual game into the real world (apparently) it ruins the story…it’s just a personal opinion… Yes this game is so great that i can stop complaining, play with Desmond the few missions and just get back to my boy Ezio, the really enjoyable part. Is the same feeling you have when you kept being waked up in the middle of an awesome dream, and you can wait to go back to sleep and keep dreaming.
Anyway, so the villain in this story is Caesare Borgia the son of Rodrigo Borgia, so guess who has to stop him?
AUXILIARY QUESTS
Guild Quests and guild challenges
Besides the main story, Ezio has to confront with some auxiliary quests brought by the guilds you eventually came to join at some point. So you have some courtesan’s quild quests, thief’s guild quest, and some assassination contracts given from the mercenary guild. These quests are triggered during the entire game based on your progress with the main story. Besides that, every guild comes with a set of challenges, challenges like “send 10 groups of courtesans to distract guards” or make 15 double assassinations, poison 10 guards etc. etc.. These challenges are makeable, not easy, but makeable and for every guild challenges completed you will get, of course, a unique reward.
Borgia Towers and other viewpoints
Besides the guild quests, the guild challenges you have am amount of Borgia towers that you have to burn. This Borgia towers are a little bit tricky at the beginning because the amount of troops patrolling this areas is more consistent than in other areas and, for some of the Borgia towers, the captain that you have to kill before setting the actual tower in flames, is fleeing like hell…and you will have to wait for him to regroup with his troops. Here you will have to go stealthy and kill the captain first. Once the captain is killed most of he’s troops abandon fight and you will have time to climb the tower and burn it. The Borgia towers are also viewpoints.
Cristina quests
Another interesting task is the Cristina memory fragment, Cristina being the one and only big love of Ezio. These quests are unlocked from time to time after you finish some main quests. There are 5 quests in total and they are marked with a broken heart icon on the map, last of them appeared for me on the map right after I completed the main story line. The difficulty is not the main point of this quests but the story line is. I actually enjoyed playing and seeing that Ezio had a loved one.
The Wolf quests.
The wolf quests are a most done in this game because completing them , all 6 of them, you will get the end game armor, which is called Armor of Brutus and it will give you the full life gauge that you deserve. The wolf quests (or followers of Romulus quests) can’t be done all at same time…you can’t get the Brutus armor at the beginning of course. There difficulty is not so high unless you’re trying to finish these quests in full synchronization which for some of these quests is almost impossible on the first try. The quests take you to Rome underground where the Romulus followers hide. At the end of each Wolf quest you will get a key, there is a total of six keys keys and six quests, collect them all and then you will have access to Brutus Armor.
Leonardo Quests
Leonardo quests are, in my opinion, the most difficult quests in the game because most of them you have to do without being detected, and that for a hack and slash fan will be quite a challenge…they require a lot of patience. As a quick tip here: always go with full ammo for the ranged weapons (guards can’t detect you if they lie face down in the dirt with poison dirt in their throat) These 4 quests are triggered by a scenario quest and will take some time to complete. At the end o each one of these quests you will have the opportunity (or the bad luck) to maneuver one of Leonardo inventions, like a boat that fires some kind of incendiary flares, an airplane that comes with a mounted gun on top, a tank that looks like an angry turtle and a carriage that has some kind of a semiautomatic gun mounted in the back.
Shopping quests
Most of the treasures, besides money, will give some objects. Object that you can sell at any merchant, or you can collect them for completing the shopping quests. These shopping quests once done will give you some unique weapons or armors that you can’t buy or get in any part.
Clusters, Borgia Flags and Feathers
The clusters, the Borgia Flags and the feathers are not something new here. There are 10 Clusters, 101 Borgia Flags and 10 Feathers. The clusters, the 10 feathers and most of the Borgia flags are easy to find because there are some maps for them, but there are some hidden flags that can be found doing the wolf quests. For the missing flags and for the clusters we will try to build an walkthrough, so keep an eye on us if you’re interested.
2012 Artifacts
Exiting the animus at some time during the game is required. If you are a trophy hunter and checked the tasks required to win Brotherhood trophies you will see that two of them must be done before you complete the game. These two trophies are “checking your email in 2012” and “finding one artifact in 2012”. So that means you will have to leave Ezio, return to Desmond and start exploring Monteriggioni , there are 5 artifacts and if you have one it will do the trick. Finding all 5 will not give any rewards.
Rebuilding Rome
Rebuilding the beautiful Rome can be considered also an auxiliary quest. There are a lot of properties that Ezio needed to upgrade and purchase before you will see Rome rebuild 100%. Some properties can’t be upgraded if they are under Borgia influence and they appear on the map as a locket icon. To unlock them you will have to destroy the nearby Borgia Tower. Once the all Rome is rebuild you will get as reward a unique cape that will keep your notoriety to 0% always.
Your own Assassins
At a certain point, after completing a certain scenario quest you will get the option to gather your own group of assassins. First of all you will need to save some people from Borgia troops. Once saved, each individual will become your own personal assassin ready to jump in to battle at the touch of one button. You can get a maximum of 12 assassins under your command; each burned Borgia Tower providing you with a free slot for a new assassin to recruit. This is the greatest new feature in this game and probably the coolest. When you will have six assassins under your command you can call 3 groups of 2 to assist you in your fights with Borgia troops, or just call them to do the fighting for you. They gather experience to every and each fight and if that is not enough you can always send them to do assassination contracts across the Rome borders. Each assassin can be upgraded 10 levels, the tenth level being the level where they actually become real assassins, with their armors and weapons upgraded to the max. The point of the assassin recruits is that Ezio is now a leader of men. The scale of the fight has changed – it’s no longer just one man against his enemies; it’s now one man trying to rally the support of a city against a tyrant. The assassins work in that sense, but when it comes to gameplay they actually just serve to make the game less challenging. Assassin’s Creed II was far from hard, but at least in that game players had to work for their kills.
Another interesting future is “Rain of Arrows” future. When you will have a minimum of six Assassins under your command you will see in the top left corner a crossbow sign, this is when the Rain of Arrows is activated and can be used. This awesome future is most recommended when you encounter hard fights, with lots of pikemens and brutes, and you don’t want to risk losing any assassins in combat. You just hold one button, and arrows will start pouring.
NEW ITEMS
Amongst the new items that you get in this game, the coolest by far is the crossbow. Silent undetected kills are the joy of any cold blood virtual killer. The crossbow is fast, it starts with an amount of 15 arrows, and once you will get your hands on it you will never let go of it.
Second favorite new item are the poison darts. The poison darts are an upgrade that Leonardo will get for you, for some small amount of money, to your poison blade. The darts can be fired from a decent distance and the cool thing about it is that you will have some time to retreat and hide till the poison starts working and kills the target in the end.
The parachutes it’s a non impressive item. Yes they can save your live jumping from huge heights where you can’t do a leap of faith but that’s about it, not so much fun.
Gameplay
The gameplay is excellent in Assassins Creed Brotherhood. There is nothing to complain here. You can ride horses in the city , fly with parachutes, kill guards and enemies in a beautiful variety of combos, climb on every building and so on. I mean it, the gameplay is next to perfect. The only thing sad is the lack of challenges for players who already played AC2; for new ones it’s going to be a blast.
Storyline
The storyline it’s not spectacular and it’s not bad also. Actually the main storyline it’s kind of the same like in Ac2…there is a bad guy and your goal is to get to him and teach him a lesson, even if is the last one. It’s not boring, it’s just predictable. The thing I liked here was the Cristina memories; a short storyline on some side quests that was quite interesting and new to the game, even if the actually quests where more then easy. Romance it’s never a bad thing in to a game and in Assassins Creed this thing was missing till the launch of Brotherhood.
Multiplayer
The multiplayer is something that Assassin Creed Brotherhood brings to the table. You’re actually playing as the bad guys: as Abstergo agents, the modern day Templars. Turns out this is how they’re training to hunt the assassins.
The basic idea is that you’re given a target to locate and kill, while also being hunted by another player. The radar helps you track your foe, but the games take place in bustling locations full of NPCs, so it’s entirely possible for your target to blend in with the crowd.
There are few maps where you can play a variety of matches against each others, matches like ranking match, death match, team deathmatch and so on. The maps are quite little which is a good thing since you can only play against 7 other players.
The multiplayer feature is an interesting and quite unique. You have two options depending on the type of session you chose, Alliance mode or wanted mode. In wanted mode your all against all, which means you will always have at least one player who’s trying to kill and in the same time you have a target of your own that you have to terminate. In alliance mode, you’re either the pray or the hunter, 5 minutes each of a 10 minutes session. So you have to stay hidden half of the session, with no ways to kill, which will get you some good points, and the other half, you will have to hunt as many targets as possible.
The multiplayer feature is an excellent feature that Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood came’s with, and most gamers appreciate some online frags, the sad thing is that you need quite a lot of patience , because after few hour of multiplayer hunting it’s possible to become quite bored of easily blending with the crowds and try to stay hidden in a bush .
Conclusion
I played this game on Ps3, and here of all platforms we can see the better graphics then in Ac2. Once I started the game I couldn’t get my hands off it. The beautiful environment, the great gameplay, the huge map, Ezio’s personality, your own assassins and so on, makes you play this game till you finish everything over and over again, trying to reach full synch on every little quest, gather every stupid flag and unlock everything that is unlockable.
In conclusion this game is a piece of art, every gamer that respect himself should own a copy of Assassins Creed Brotherhood.
As an overall rating, after huge debates amongst the mmogamesvs.com team we decided to give it a 9. Why? For me the Desmond story is not an appealing one. Desmond and Ezio/Altair are like characters from two completely different games. The 2012 story also not appealing, and in my opinion, if this game was simply the adventures of Ezio , it will had more success than it does ( and it has huge success among gamers), but that’s just an opinion. I know that the Desmond story makes the connection between the games, and probably Desmond will become a great assassin sometime soon, but for now, referring just to this game, it’s an annoying little men, that has nothing to do with the main attraction of this game, that being Ezio and his adventures.
