Adds a few nice features, but still not much of a step on from its fantastic predecessor.
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Pros:
+ Feature-Full: Assassin's Creed II was already stuffed full of different things to do, but Brotherhood chucks a whole load more in for the hell of it. More vehicle sections, more property-management, more side-missions, and even a curious little assassin-training sub-game are all in there, and add some nice texture to proceedings.
+ Exciting Set-Pieces: There aren't as many as perhaps you'd hope for, but the set-piece battles and chases are more cinematic and thrilling than ever before - definitely the stuff of a good swashbuckler!
+ Improved Travel: As fun as it is running the rooftops, it's a blessing both to have so many sewer entrances to jump across the map with, and to be able to ride the horse through the city.
+ Improved Puzzles: Ok, so some of them are hard as nails (the final code wheel puzzle truly broke my spirit), and occasionally require a knowledge of chess that could at least have been eased by some kind of legend explaining how different pieces move; but otherwise, most of the glyph puzzles were refreshingly tough to crack in Brotherhood. I enjoyed being pushed!
+ Synchronization: The idea of being able to gun for 100% synchronization by doing sub-objectives in each mission is fantastic - this lets more casual players go through happily hacking anyone apart in any way they wish, while giving more dedicated gamers the chance to truly test themselves by working within certain time limits, avoiding detection, only killing primary targets, etc. Of course, it can sometimes lead to hideous frustration if you're forced to restart entire missions just because the bit you need to do perfectly is right at the end - in other words, I nearly burst blood vessels doing the Tank mission repeatedly for a few hours...
Cons:
- Story / Characters: While the previous two games had very interesting stories, Brotherhood is a bit of a letdown. It feels almost entirely superflous to the overarching narrative of the series, bearing little relation to previous plots and not being anything that critical to set another game up - in other words, it really feels like they've stretched an unnecessary excuse for another game out of Ezio and his environment. This wouldn't be so bad if the contained plot was strong on its own, but even that is a letdown; after a fantastic opening it quickly loses all sense of direction (not helped by the sheer amount of different stuff to do), trundling along without any noteworthy or interesting new characters, except possibly Cesare and Lucrezia, both of whom are underused and not taken in any real interesting directions.
- Another Confusing Ending: Seriously, we're 3 games in now and you still haven't given us at least one satisfying ending? I appreciate the developers are trying to lead us along and leaving us wanting more with all these cliffhangers, but it's gone much too far: it just means I finish each game feeling frustrated, not eager.
- Setting: The biggest disappointment about the game for me is that the setting hasn't really changed since Assassin's Creed II. It's a nice enough city with plenty of size and variety, but I thought the idea of the series was to hop around extremely varied settings and time periods: as much as I like Ezio and wanted some kind of proper resolution for him (which his first game didn't give him - and neither does this one!), I was still disappointed to find I was being taken the unimaginative route and sticking with him. You do at least get a bit more time with Desmond in the present day, which contains some of the more interesting parts of the game, but it looks like the sequel will be taking a similarly risk-free route too...
- Over-Powerful Assassins: It's cool to be able to train your own assassins and have them help you out in missions, but still, it does essentially mean they can bail you out of any tough situation whatsoever, especially with their 'Arrow Storm' that just kills every enemy on screen instantly! Getting rid of that move, along with making them fewer in number and more vulnerable, could have made this more balanced.
- Underused Town Development: Even though there's more stuff to buy across a larger area, I was still hoping for some improvements to the rennovations side of the game. You can still get so rich so early from just keeping up with the rennovations that money will almost never be a factor in the game, and besides the money, there's not much effect in buying stuff - I was hoping for more things like unlocking secret areas or new missions by rennovating landmarks, but sadly this was not the case for the most part.
- Undeveloped Platforming: There are a few nice new level layout ideas that weren't present in its predecessor, but I still thought Brotherhood could have added some new moves and features to the platforming side of the game, since this is really the heart and soul of the experience - in fact, they even took away the springboards added in the DLC for Assassin's Creed II! Plus, taking away the race sections was a blow considering how fun they were - and what about introducing some horse-racing or combat? More tricks missed if you ask me...
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All in all, I can't deny I enjoyed playing Brotherhood a great deal, and happily immersed myself in it as long as it went on; but I also can't deny I felt somewhat empty when it was all over. I felt more like I'd played what could have been the ending of Assassin's Creed II as opposed to a whole new game, and ended up more frustrated by the last-minute cliffhangers than ever before. Definitely worth a play, but nothing like the quantum-leap its predecessor was!