AC: Brotherhood is great, but is a short game and graphics have been tunned down.The multiplayer is very fun.
and is fun.Right now I am at 82% and I am on my way to get 100% and
also getting all trophies. The road to 100% and getting all trophies in
this game is just plain fun. This sequel from AC2 is a nice addition to
Assassins Creed series and it shows many improvement that it makes you believe that the serie is really going to something big, and all I can say is that they are pushing this game in to the right path.
-Economy now plays a more important role. There are plenty of
stores, shops, guild buildings and landmarks to buy and rebuild Rome. The more you own, more money you get per 20 minutes, and the more money you have, the better equipment you can get. Also there are shop quests, materials you need to get in order to unlock a specific weapon or armor, you cannot get them if you didn't find the right materials to unlock them. Materials can be found in dungeons chests, also in chests around Rome, you can even get sometimes from looting enemies such as Guards, the postman and the thief. There is also a Thief around, and if you are not paying attention, he can steal from your pocket and you will need to chase him to get your money back.
-You can also recruit assassins, train them, level them up, send them to missions (some missions you get an important material as reward, do not forget you need those materials to unlock the weapons/items/armor at the shop quests). Assassins recruited can level up and get better equipment as they level up. You can also call them to aid you fighting guards when you are overwhelm or you don't want to be detected. There is also a special ability when you have the enough number or Assassins recruited, and the special ability that you can use your Assassins to snipe a large amount of guards in that area, it is very useful when you have a huge army in front of you and you cannot find a decent tactic to defeat them without getting noticed. This is one of the point that I don't agree with GameSpot , because assassins are very important , not only because they are deadly and good fighters but also because they can deliver important materials to unlock weapons/items/armor at shop quests.
-Extra missions/quests or items to find are plenty again, but this time
you can buy the treasure/flags/feather maps, not like in AC2 were you
didn't have a map for feathers or flags.
-The story line is not that bad as mentioned in many reviews, but it is
very very short. The ending will surprise you and leave you with many
questions ;) , but I am not going to spoil anything, I leave it for you
to find it out yourself.
-Rome is huge , but AC Brotherhood is only in Rome, that can be
something disappointing because we are used to travel to other cities,
it is true that Rome is huge and there are ton of stuff to do , like
Borgia towers, Romulus secret lairs etc. But still , it give you the
feeling that the game is short, and you keep waiting to when will you travel
to another city, but that is hopeless at the end. The idea of leaving
the animus (to take a break) to visit the village of Monteriggioni in
the present with Desmond is cool but is too limited, not much to do
there...
-One of the best points I have to mention is Multiplayer. Finally
multiplayer is part of AC series and well integrated, it is very
interesting and fun. Is a new way of multiplayer and I must say .. I
love it. First it was a bit difficult but after a decent amount of trial
and error, I got used to it and the fun started. Multiplayer is what
will keep alive this game after you beat the single player mode, and in
the multiplayer you can spent hours , there many different multiplayers
modes and also you can invite friends and play a team vs team match. I
don't want to spoil anything here , so again , I can say that the
multiplayer of AC Brotherhood is worth the try :)
A few points that for me , are not good in this game, and therefore
gives this game a 8.0 are:
-Graphics; I have the PS3 version of AC2 and AC Brotherhood and I can
EASILY tell the graphics difference, AC2 graphics are way better than AC
Brotherhood, at least on my 54" HDTV , maybe you wont notice this on
smaller resolutions , but AC2 with my 54" HDTV is incredible good, best
graphics for PS3 so far I have seen in a PS3 game. And I was so happy
that AC2 looks that good on the PS3 but they ruined it with AC
Brotherhood, and I can understand that because there are more details
(and horses) around the city they needed to tune down the graphics.
-Horses inside the city; Well , because of this , there are so many bugs
in the first place, horses are difficult to ride in most parts of the
city of Rome, and at some point , having a horse in the middle of the so
crowd city is useless and pointless, just making your way more
difficult to reach. It is ok in open areas, but the horse thing in this
version of AC is kinda buggy anyway.
-Short game (main story line wise); At least for my taste, the game is
very short, at the very end it just feel like a big expansion for AC2 ,
only one city & short main story line gives you this feeling.
Other than that the game is fun and the multiplayer part is great ,
still , to reach 100% synchronization and to unlock all trophies it will
take hours or maybe days.
I rate this game at 8.0 , fair enough I must say.