Over the winter break I took the time to replay assassin’s creed brotherhood on my xbox 360. The game came out in 2010 and is the 3rd main installment in the assassin’s creed series as a whole and the 2nd in the Ezio trilogy.  

     The story picks up immediately after the events of AC2 in 14th century Italy with Ezio´s home being attacked by a general. In order to track down the general he must travel to Rome and help rebuild the city as it has been devastated by the current ruler. Ezio is also the leader of an undercover group called the assassins and he needs to restore their allyships and presence in Rome to fight off their opposing group the Templars. The game is also a story for Desmond Miles as he relives Ezio’s memories in hopes to find a way to solve a problem in the modern world. Since the story is coming off the heels of the previous game you won’t understand everything that is mentioned but the story makes it easy to understand the characters motives and makes the player want to defeat the villains. The Assassin´s Creed series is also well known for placing historical figures and events as the centerpieces of the games and this is no different with AC:Brotherhood as you get to work with the likes of Leonardo da Vinci and Machiavelli. 

On the gameplay side of things AC:Brotherhood is one of the shorter games in the series and uses many of the same mechanics as the previous installment. With that said the graphics have been given a major improvement and the lighting in the game looks amazing. Many of the animations used are from the previous game but the added mechanics and new weapons were enough to balance this out. The inclusion of horseback combat made for a great change of pace at times and I enjoyed the new weapons. The additional weapons to the game allow many more options for defeating enemies stealthily or directly.The Borgia towers that need to be dismantled in order to be allowed to rebuild the city. The inclusion of Borgia towers adds to the game’s difficulty as you need to plan out attacks in order to succeed.  Another new game mechanic is to recruit assassins. You can send them on missions to level them up and use them to help you take out targets. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this game. It was a fun setting, interesting plot, and well rounded gameplay. There was much replay value to perfect your play style and obtain better scores.