A very well crafted stop-gap worthy of your time and money.

Ezio´s trek through renaissance italy and his struggle to overthrow the Borgia is a journey that once again casts a shadow over Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. Because unlike the entry that preceeded it (Assassin's Creed II) Brotherhood is more of a diversion too keep fans busy prior to a possible fullbodied third game, thankfully, its a really good diversion. Not only does Brotherhood add meaningful improvements and additions to the table but also introduces a multiplayer component too boot, on top of an already long, engaging adventure.

Like Assassin's Creed II, we once again don the skills and the looks of the full fledged assassin Ezio, and Brotherhood takes him aswell as his modern day counterpart Desmond to some harrowed places. For one thing, the entirety of the "Ezio experience" takes place strictly within the looming walls of Rome and the ongoing conflict between the assassins and the mighty templars haven´t died one bit. The same goes for Desmond and his band of fugitives who setup a shop in -- (a place so clever that i wont spoil it for you) as Desmond must still utilize the Animus as a training device aswell as uncovering exactly what the gods message was all about. The story still plays many mindtricks on you as the story within the Animus is a fairly basic one but the one outside of it is not. On the whole the story is good but lacks that immediate charm that permuated the second game. Leonardo Da Vinci has hardly any screen time and the villain Ceasare Borgia is about as boring and one dimensional as villains come and go, despite the stakes being higher. Because now Ezio must gather assassin trainees to complement his own abilites because the Borgia is now a force to be reckoned with, seeing how they have complete control over Rome, its up to Ezio and his band of cunning killers to rip them a new one but aside from a rather intriguing ending, the story still feels abit underhwhelming compared to the second one.

When it comes to gameplay, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is what you´d expect. The traversing and combat mechanics remains largely the same as last years game but do benefit from some improvements, both major and subtle. On the combat side you can now chain executions into a gradifying streak and the controls remain intuitive. However, enemies now actively attack you instead of just waiting around to recieve the cold-metal treatment and they are more than capable of interrupting any execution streak. You will still deliver plenty of counter attacks, though and the new animations are brutal and exhilarating. Plattforming still works very well, and you no longer need to nudge your stick in akward ways to do a backwards jump for example and the new plattforming lairs provide great incentive to try out your parkour skills.

The biggest addition however comes in the form of a new meta game where you´ll rescue and recruit citizens into your posse of

assassins. These can then be called into action at any time with the press of a button to clear out a guarded area or to do your shady buisness for you. However, these seem to come more in handy during some of the stealth based missions where remaining hidden is a necessesity and if you want you can spend time to send them out on missions and upgrade their repetouar of weapons and armor through a very sleak interface. However, its still possible to play through the game and not use your assassins without feeling particularly challenged or feeling like your missing something since thieves, mercenaries and prostitutes can still be used as means of distraction.

Also new is the addition of the boriga towers and the renovation of city districts. Each area on the map is often being conquered by a single borgia tower and the officers and guards that patrol around it. If you eliminate the captain prior to burning down the tower in question, you can rejuvenate that district by opening up shops and services that will then earn you income which you can still spend on purchasing weapons, armor pieces and other little tinkers and gadgets and overall the monetary system is still a sharp component that adds to the depth.

Like Assassin's Creed II, there is still a great deal of freedom to your quest. You can pursue all of the main missions and plow through the game in roughly ten hours but should you tackle the many side missions, plattform based lairs, take the time off to restore Rome to its former glory or manage your guild of Assassins, you can expect many more hours of playtime and there are still hidden treasures and flags waiting to be gobled up. There are many varied activities to experience here as there are many missions that involves infiltrating landmarks and assassinating key figures but stealth, escort and operating war machines courtesy of Leonardo Da Vinci runs the gambit and it will likely take you another playthrough to find and see everyhting.

As if 15-20 hours wasn't enough to warrant the price tag there is also a multiplayer component here, complete with a leveling system that will grant you more customisation options in the long run. No matter the mode, you will almost always be assigned to a target that you must assassinate using means of subtelty as doing so will grant you more points and cause you to climb the leaderboard. The twist is that every match is populated by patroling, artificial characters that you may want to skulk among to lure your pursuer. The location of your target is indicated by a round compass that fills up as you near him/her but it never points out exactly where your target is so you need to look out for movements resembling a real player. Matches mostly bogs down into tense chase sequences, but playing sneaky and doing well can be incredibly rewarding and using your abilites such as disguise and smoke bombs at the right time can make all the difference. I did experience a couple of crippling issues though. For starters, the matchmaking is absolutetly ridicilous, even as i jumped from mode to mode. By average, it took me ten minutes just to find a match and there where numerous ocassions where players would leave right in the middle of a game, thus causing it to end. Also, many of the team based modes are real yawners, such as one where your team will alternate between playing as hunters and escape artists, removing the tension of stalking other players while simultaneously being hunted.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood does look stunning. The city of Rome is enourmous, populated by all sorts of incredible details and the sharp character models, graceful animations and the organic feel and look of the environments are still top notch. Not everything is super polished though as the frame rate was madly inconsistent at certain spots and i did run into serveral glitches, such as one where i fell through the ground and was forced to revert back to an earlier checkpoint. The voice acting is still great, as is the beautiful soundtrack that bolsters the game´s atmosphere by a great deal

So yes, the camera isnt always the perfect, the game abit glitchy and as a whole Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood lacks that awesome leap between the first and the second game, but added variety, a wide plethora of gameplay improvements and an interesting multiplayer component does make this another shining entry in a series that keeps growing at a steady pace.