Assassins Creed Brotherhood(PC) Game Review

The wait for Assassins creed brotherhood has been terribly long for PC gamers, almost 5 months, but once the game hit the shelves (or the net) it was a runaway success. Yes I have finished the game, including most of the side missions and I am going to give an honest review about it.

The game’s opening sequence sends chills across the backbone of players who had finished the previous game “Assassins Creed II” , for others who just joined the franchise, it basically fills them in on the crazy events happening in the world of Assassins and Templars. The gameplay is poetry in motion and every action is executed fluidly, and the visuals are simply breathtaking to say the least. Even on a moderate build you can be assured of a visual treat.

The game actually needs no introduction but here is a brief one : It is a action adventure set in the year 2012, where you, Desmond Miles , an assassin, team up with fellow assassins to foil the evil schemes of the templars and the evil corporation Abstergo. Sounds simple? No. You travel across time, not in a time-machine but in your DNA, through a machine called an animus to reveal ancient secrets of your ancestors (who btw are also assassins and fought against the templars).

The main criticism of the previous games was that you didn’t get to do much as Desmond Miles. In this game too, Desmond gets limited game time, but gets to do some pretty cool stuff in that period (To find out play the game )

(Hey I am Desmond and this is Lucy)

 

In this game, just like the previous one, you relive the memories of Ezio Auditore di Firenze, the charming ladies man turned vicious assassin. In the last game you were looking to seek revenge for your family’s unjust hanging, whereas in this game Ezio has become more wise and is looking to rebuild the Assassins Order as its new mentor(mentore in Italian ).

The protagonist is Cesare Borgia, the son of the pope and the villain of the previous game Rodrigo Borgia. He is assisted by his evil and slightly disturbed sister Lucrezia. Their relationship in the game is questionable to say the least..

(Dude you don’t do that to your sister)

The game begins as you arrive to a hero’s welcome to Monteriggioni, to your uncle’s villa, which is attacked before you can even settle in to a comfortable bath. With Mario (Ezio’s uncle) killed and Ezio wounded, he fights off the remaining attackers and leads his mother and sister to safety. From here on the story takes its usual course, with the main storyline pushing you towards building the Assassins order as well as trying to kill Cesare Borgia and rid Rome of the Borgia’s influence. Once the Ezio’s story is complete the game leads Desmond to an unexpected climax, with a twist that will probably knock your socks off.

The gameplay mechanics are pretty similar to the previous games, with a few changes mostly for the better. You will encounter a lot of characters you have met in the past, with the addition of a few interesting new ones. The AI of the crowd has also been sharpened a bit (in case of rogue NPCs a little too much- you might encounter too many distractions in beggars, thieves and so on).Try to listen in on the crowd chatter if possible, some of them are downright funny .There is also a Multiplayer Mode in the game but I couldn’t explore it due to certain economic reasons. Speaking of economy, the game’s economy system has also been spruced up with the inclusion of popular landmarks which you can buy. Just like the last game you need to earn florins and spend it in renovating parts of Rome which in turn will generate a regular income. Tailors, art merchants, doctors, blacksmiths,stables, tunnels and so on need to be renovated for you to access some cool collectibles. Tunnels provide a quick transport mechanism. So do horses; unlike the previous games, in Brotherhood you can use horses to travel across Rome and for the most part you would have to. You can also summon a horse by a tap of the Eagle Vision key.

Free running and platforming in Brotherhood are pretty much at the same excellent levels they were in the previous games. You can run across rooftops, swim across lakes jump from towers and many more.

In this game you also control 3 factions: courtesans, thieves and mercenaries. You can hire and use them just like the last game, but in addition you can also buy buildings and place factions there.

(The thieves, the mercenaries and the courtesans…at La Volpe’s Inn)

Ezio also gets to meet his old friend Leonardo Da Vinci.

(What’s with the beard dude…)

Leo now is forced to work for the Borgia against his will, and has designed some seriously destructive (but uber cool) medieval war machines for them. You can take up missions which involve finding out the location of such war machines and destroying them. There are 6 such missions and they are definitely the coolest in the game. They add the much needed BOOM factor to the game.

(KABOOM!!!!!!)

Another familiar mission category is the “Lairs of Romulus” , which is similar to the “Assassins Tombs” of the previous game. They provide a challenging platforming experience, and some of the timed missions are pretty fun. Of course , the platforming aspect of the game is pretty smooth and fluid. Some of the lairs include combat, where you need to fight with some foolishly clad people called the followers of Romulus. before you can gain access to the “secret within” (actually it is a scroll and a key…collect 6 of these and you get access to the Romulus Treasure).

 

(This guy is a fashion disaster)

There are also 10 glyphs hidden across Rome in special landmarks, left behind by the mysterious subject 16 . Decoding these with Eagle Vision will give you access to a part of the TRUTH video. Decoding all 10 will let you watch the entire truth video. Decoding the puzzles is not quite easy however.If you want to watch the entire TRUTH video I recommend you either refer to some online Walkthrough, or have loads of patience to solve the riddles.

(One of the easier puzzle)

Combat has also undergone some nice fine tuning. Most of the new tweaks help you polish off your enemies in style. Some such changes are:

1. Horse to horse assassination- pretty cool and looks good when pulled off successfully.
2. Killstreak: This makes Ezio a deadly assassin (if you didn’t think he was one earlier). Kill one soldier, and before he falls to the ground point to another one nearby and tap the attack button-in one fell swoop the guy who you pointed to is dead. You can chain up huge kill streaks in a similar manner. The best thing about them is the cinematic killing of each of the Borgia soldiers.(gave me some cruel satisfaction seeing their heads taken off in a number of ways).
3. Couple of new weapons are also added to Ezio’s armory. One is the long awaited Crossbow, which is essentially a gun, but doesn’t make noise. Another is the poison darts which can be thrown at nearby enemies. You need to buy them however with your well-earned florins.
4. Borgia Towers: This is a nice bit of addition to AC. Like towers which you climb to synchronize and perform leaps of faith, there are some Borgia controlled sections of Rome which are watched over by Borgia towers. Basically each tower has a captain or a chief guard, who is to be assassinated by Ezio, and then that Borgia tower needs to be burnt up to free that section of the city of their influence. This offers a small change in pace to the monotonous climbing of viewpoints, which I found was a pretty nice addition.

Calling your fellow assassins to do your dirty work

Now this aspect is truly one of the most undercooked aspect of the game. Ezio can recruit assassins to the Assassins guild by rescuing citizens who are being harassed by the guards (much like in AC1). Once you rescue them they’ll join your crew of merry assassins. You can then assign these apprentices to go work on some assassination missions or even call them to help you in a fight(I just did that a couple of time ‘coz the way they jump from the sky is pretty cool to see). These recruits gain experience points and you can assign them skill points to improve their armor,weapons and so on. These recruits can die in a fight so be sure of sending them to a fight lest you be one man(or woman) down.

 

There are both pros and cons to this mechanic : the good thing is that Ezio is being established as a leader, as a guiding spirit of the Assassins Clan. However these recruits don’t seem to be part of any bigger plan of the game…at least in Brotherhood they don’t.

I did feel that with these additions combat became a little easier.Nevertheless it was a lot more enjoyable, some large-scale battles particularly were quite memorable.

Overall this game is another amazing release in an epic series of the Assassin Creed franchise. Even if you have beaten the main storyline (takes around 7-8 hours) you will still have another 12-15 hours of solid and enjoyable gameplay time. The game can be played merely for its art direction and the intricate portrayal of the beauty of Rome. Or maybe if you like to kill hoards of virtual bad guys for no good reason, you’ll simply fall in love with this game. Couple of grouses I have with this game are certain contrived additions like the Assassins Guild (maybe there is some more role for them in the next game?) and recycled music(seriously why did Ubisoft use the same music as AC2). Yes there were game glitches here and there, like floating bodies, disappearing weapons, but they don’t deter the player from the game.

So overall I would give the following scores

GAMEPLAY: 9/10

(SOLID)

DIFFICULTY: 7/10

(A BIT TOO EASY FOR SEASONED AC PLAYERS)

VISUAL APPEAL: 9.5/10

(0.5 TAKEN OFF FOR THOSE GLITCHES,OTHERWISE A SPECTACLE)

MUSIC AND AMBIENCE: 8.5/10

(MUSIC IS SO AC2)

AI: 9/10

(THE ROMAN CROWD IS PRETTY REALISTIC)

FUN: 10/10

(WHO DOESN’T LIKE PLAYING AC?)

OVERALL: 9/10

(A PRETTY GREAT GAME…GO PLAY IT NOW!)

 

P.S: I’ll try to come up with a video of my gameplay if possible…