Review: Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

Hey, guys.

So it's come to my attention that I totally spaced and forgot to post something the past two update days. I feel like... well, I don't know what I feel like, but I'll get back to you on that. Meanwhile, I wanted to talk about something besides NaNo today, for once. I know, I know, such a shock and a travesty, and all sorts of other things, right?

Anyway, I've been playing a lot of games recently. Mostly just Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, though. That seems like a good enough topic to begin on, eh?

If you pay any attention at all to the world of video games and the like, you've probably heard mention of the AC franchise before. When the original was released it was a breath of fresh air, a new concept, and most importantly, FUN. The story was amazing, the action was absolutely awesome, and the fact that you could climb walls at your leisure was simply friggen' stunning. Flash forward a few years and now we have three console games, two hand-held games, a Facebook app, and one or two cellphone adaptations. Brotherhood happens to be the former of the three.

It picks up where you left off after the events of AC2, understandably, and immediately you're thrust into the world of Desmond Miles and Ezio Auditore de Firenze, his ancestor. If you haven't played and/or heard about Assassin's Creed, then you may want to shut your eyes, place your hands over your ears and yell "la la la, I can't hear you," at the top of your lungs, unless you're privy to spoilers and important plot points.

So basically, if you haven't a clue as to why Desmond is able to see, hear, act and think as his ancestor did, it's all due to a fun little device called the Animus. The Animus allows the user to essentially use their DNA to relive the memories of those that came before him or her. Now Desmond's ancestors happen to belong to an ancient order of assassins who fight against the Templar order, trying to keep them from assuming control of mystical and mysterious devices known as 'Pieces of Eden', and therefore taking control of the world at large.

Long story short, Desmond is taken in by the Templars, due to his illustrious ancestry, to track down these Pieces of Eden in their modern day holdings. He is soon rescued by an undercover agent of the assassins and spirited away to learn more about who he is and what he can do, and in the process, find the missing Pieces for the assassins. Anyway, at the start of Brotherhood, Ezio has defeated the big bad and had one such object in his possession, after which he was alerted of a doomsday prophecy and all of that fun stuff.

So Ezio is now in possession of the particular PoE the assassins of the modern world are looking for and it's only a matter of finding where he put it, right? Wrong. Something big happens, protagonist loses all of his armor, weapons, and some of his abilities (sad face, Metroid, sad face.) and we the player are forced to do it all again.

But, in order to stave away further spoilers, I'll leave it at that.

If I were to review Brotherhood properly, I'd say something like, "A good game, true to its predecessors, very stylish and polished. Story is up to par, and indeed, a fairly unexpected plot twist occurs at the end, causing a cliffhanger and a hook for the next installment (because there's almost a 100% chance of it happening - the series is much too successful for Ubisoft to call it quits here. Being milked like the cash cow it just so happens to be...)."

My judgment on AC: Brotherhood? Buy it, at the least for its replayability, but more than that, because it stands up to those that came before it and adds to the experience without bogging it all down.

Next update should be something more novel-ish. Or maybe turkeyish. I don't know, but I swear!