Assassins Creed: Brotherhood: This is a weird game... This may be due to the fact I don't often play games with Madden style production and release, by which I mean, this game is pretty much AC2 with a few new elements. The game picks up right where AC2 left off and everything seems like it's going to be okay except AC2 does kind of end with Ezio pissing off one of history's most infamous families, the Borgia. So all hell breaks loose shortly in and Ezio finds himself in Rome for revenge against the Borgia. The game also spends more time actually developing the non-historical figures of Desmond and his Assassin cronies. There isn't much to do in these scenes most of the time, but it's nice that Desmond is finally getting off his ass and actually doing something besides Quantum Leaping into his much cooler and more interesting ancestors.

Oddly enough, ACB actually lets Ezio start with all his cool gear from AC2, but in true Metroid tradition, you'll lose most of them at the beginning, though Ezio certainly has amusing ways to lose his gear. Also, as I said, he loses only most of them. You actually get to start off with the upgrades to your hidden blade so you can start poisoning and shooting guards at your delight. You get a few new toys in this game, the ability to fire poison darts, a parachute (think Sly Cooper, it's awesome), and a crossbow which is far more useful than I thought it would be. Many elements were modified or overhauled. Their are now items you collect from treasures, dead bodies, or from missions. Most of it can be sold for quick cash but some of them are connected to shop quests, that unlock new items. The guilds play a larger role in this game as they are the source of your assassination side missions. They also rank you by tasking you to do certain things a number of times, and it nets you some neat swag. The Romulus Cult are the source of this games version of the Assassin's Tombs from AC2, and like AC2, they ear easily my favorite side missions cause they are pure platforming goodness. They net you the best armor in the game (which isn't as cool as Altair's Armor from AC2) and the best dagger in the game. You still get to renovate and buy real estate but instead of fixing up your uncle's crappy villa, you get to buy Rome. The system is a little more in-depth than AC2 and allows you to even add shops in districts or open up small bases for support units you need, these bases themselves can also be changed at any time to suit your needs so if you have missions where you need courtesans instead of thieves, you can build them a base and fill the area with more thief units. One of the new additions is the Borgia Towers which are one of the more underappreciated new elements in the game. These towers are power bases for the enemies and they prevent you from opening shops or buying landmarks, as well as fill the area with soldiers. So you can enter these towers, kill their captains in a mission, and burn the tower. What the game doesn't mention is that these towers also double as Eagle Vision towers so they also fill in your map. No more just hoofing to every high spot and getting the map, now you have to earn it and its very nice cause it doesn't quite get as old as the old method.

Of course the big new game mechanic is the Brotherhood which is fun if a bit overly simple. You recruit people send them on missions or call them into battles and they get XP that can be used to upgrade their gear and their proficiency. Their missions are an easy source of revenue and actually tell you about the world of AC beyond Italy. As minions to summon into battle, they are a bit overpowered as they are all mini-Ezio's. From talking with other fans of the series, I've noticed the Brotherhood makes you fall into two camps: You either become lazy as you let the Brotherhood do all the heavy lifting fights or assassinations, or you completely ignore them outside of sending them on missions to collect more revenue and just do everything yourself. Its a nice addition and it does give Ezio a sense of more power that is rather unique but I kind of feel like the idea is half finished.

One of the other bigger additions is Leonardo's Mission, he built some doomsday devices and tasks Ezio with taking them out. AC can now proudly say they have vehicle missions because these missions involve taking out working versions of actual military devices that Da Vinci created. These missions are also pretty nasty, especially the Glider mission which is frustratingly difficult from beginning to end. Sadly, while you get to use these devices, the game often does a poor job explaining how to use them or fails to mention you get a game over sometimes if you do something it didn't tell you was a game over. The missions are interesting but I kind of feel like they were tacked on mostly due to how unorganized they are compared to the rest of the game. Speaking of frustration, the Subject 16 missions are back and while they are still bizarre and amusing, the puzzles are far more mind boggling and repetitive, they really liked re-using the same four puzzles for all ten sequences and some of them have such left field clues, I'm just going to tell you now, go to GameFaqs, especially for the last puzzle in the last sequence. That puzzles clue makes little sense and I can't fathom how you were suppose to get the solution without a guide. There is also an interesting platform section involved with all this and it's easily the buggiest section of the game. As you're platforming, the surroundings are being generated as you move forward, the problem is that Desmond can often move faster than the game can generate the scenery, so oftentimes, you'll miss a beam of holding point because it didn't generate fast enough and you'll have to start over, even worse, its really easy to get so far ahead that you can run into a generating structure and get stuck in it. I got stuck behind a wall a few times and sadly the only way to get out of this mess is to literally quit the game and go back to the start menu, and considering how loading heavy AC is, this gets tiresome really fast.

These two sections are not the only place where weird bugs pop up. Its not uncommon to watch npcs vanish as you approach them or suddenly appear out of thin air, or get stuck in walls or scenery. Ezio and Desmond have both apparently gained Altiar's annoying habit of sometimes forgetting what he can climb or not. Sometimes freezing in mid-climb as the game tries to figure out if the wooden beam a few inches away is something you can climb onto or not. It's especially noticeable in Desmond's sections, where as Ezio only does it occasionally. Yet, oddly, outside of the Subject 16/Leonardo sections, the rest of the bugs are not really deal breakers for enjoying the game.

Of course the real big addition to this game and its main selling point is multiplayer, which is quite fun and unique. It's really different from the typical 1st/3rd person shooters or RTS style shenanigans, as you basically target other players and try your best to blend into your surroundings better than the other players. You also get points for killing your own assassin though the mechanics are not as easy as I would care for. It's definetly a fun addition though I don't feel it eclipses the solo campaign as much as some people think. Overall, AC: Brotherhood is a great game, but its bogged down by some bugs and some unjustifiable difficulty spikes concerning certain elements. It's basically AC2 with some retooled mechanics a few new tools and elements but it lacks polish that it's successor had. Hopefully, Revelations will get past these hiccups.