I'm confronted by an unusual moment in my history of reviewing video shooting games...
On November 28th, 2009, I commented that Assassin's Creed II would have fared much better had it been a bit more like Batman: Arkham Asylum. I felt that the strategies regarding stealth as well as fluid combat which B:AA deployed so well would have fit excellently in the AC Universe.
I swear it's like they freakin' heard me.
Enter the Killstreak! A new flick-the-stick-and-hit-the-button tactic in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood that lets you wipe out a field-full of baddies in a few seconds flat. I'll admit getting the hang of it took me considerably longer than I had hoped, but never-the-less, I got it. Now I can drop on an unsuspecting group of guards and be surrounded by dead bodies in just 10 gloriously satisfying seconds. It REALLY IS fun - and for that change ALONE I give this game a higher score than it's predecessor.
Assassin's Creed also resuses some ideas of it's earlier games - even the first title - with the inclusion of the Borgio towers. It's very similar to the "Templars" which had to be killed in the first title, but this time there's actually a reason to do so, and you're able to apply more tactics in the process. No more running up to a guy and trying to kill him before you get your butt kicked - now you can slink across a roof top, watch his motion patterns, weed out his guards, and make the kill.
It's hard to comment much else on AC:B because it's still a lot of what we've seen before. Do missions, unlock weapons, upgrade your character, upgrade the town - there isn't a TON of new content here. But slowly they're making Assassin's Creed a better game to play, and as long as no major glitches show up, I'll actually finally find myself looking FORWARD to the next title release.
And don't listen to your neighborhood Gamestop employee as I did: the guy who told me that AC:B is mostly a multiplayer playgames and that there isn't much content to the single-player campaign. I've been playing the main story now for probably close to 20 hours and still have a looooooooong ways to go.
I've heard that the multiplayer aspect is complex and rather thrilling, but I haven't gotten there yet, so I won't comment. I bought the title however with the intent of trying it out with my brother in Nevada, so we'll see how that goes.
