Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood review roundup

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is the next installment in the franchise, the details of which MyGaming has covered in both single player and multiplayer previews. Whilst we’re expecting a familiar single player experience that is at least on par with Assassin’s Creed II, the multiplayer component is breaking new ground for the series, and is therefore an unknown quantity.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood will be hitting SA retail shelves for both PS3 and Xbox 360 on 19 November. Meanwhile international reviews have started to come in and thus eager buyers can decide whether it is worth an immediate purchase on launch day.

Below we have rounded up the average review scores for Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, using the stalwart score aggregation websites Metacritic and GameRankings. Scores accurate as of the time of publication.

From these scores it’s evident that Brotherhood has hit the mark. Below are some abridged opinions giving a bit more insight into the game.

Destructoid – 9.5

“Let’s deal with the elephant in the room right now: Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood isn’t a quick cash-in on last year’s massively successful and (mostly) critically-acclaimed sequel. It’s not a full-blown sequel, either; this isn’t Assassin’s Creed 3. Instead, it acts more as an epilogue to the story told in Assassin’s Creed II. What Brotherhood is, however, is a deep and rich game experience that builds on the strengths of its predecessor. And here’s the kicker, and allow me to completely blow your mind: Brotherhood is, in almost all ways, a better game.”

“For those folks who didn’t enjoy Ubisoft’s previous sequel, Brotherhood has nothing to offer — outside of its incomparable multiplayer, perhaps — that will change their minds. This isn’t a game that repairs “problems” or departs radically from a formula. It is, however, a game that improves on just about every facet, and dumps a ton of content on the player to boot. Brotherhood is a game that Assassin’s Creed fans simply cannot afford to miss, and one of best games this year.”

Gamespot – 8.5

“Swordplay has been tweaked for the better, but a move that lets you string together one-slash kills keeps it from ever being so challenging that you need to call on your fellow assassins to gain a strategic advantage. More importantly, there’s never any payoff for spending time improving your subordinates. The very existence of an ever-growing group of murder machines hints at an overall purpose–a grand final battle or some sort of reward for putting together the most powerful brotherhood possible. But no such reward exists, which makes the entire process feel like busywork.”

“The measured tempo [of multiplayer] won’t be appealing to those who thrive on ceaseless thrills, but Brotherhood’s tense tug-of-war pacing makes it an appealing alternative that rewards you for careful and clever assassinations.”

IGN – 80

“Brotherhood really looks the part, with a step up in the graphics department – particularly on PS3, and a massive and varied city to explore. The gameplay on offer here is solid, but by and large the bulk of the missions are pretty similar in nature to those we’ve already experienced in depth in Assassin’s Creed II. It really feels like treading the same old ground, without great improvements. One element that is new, however, is the fact that Ezio now has an additional objective or challenge in order to achieve full synchronisation in a mission. These range from time-based challenges, to combat-related challenges. They’re a good inclusion for the hardcore fans as they’ll be the ones replaying missions in order to get 100% sync.”

“Perhaps the biggest surprise of the Brotherhood package is the multiplayer, which is refreshing and inventive. Overall, this is excellent stuff, and turns the usual adversarial frag-fest on its head. In this multiplayer contest it’s the gamers who learn to be patient that will ultimately prevail. Plus, the ranking system means that the contests continue to evolve as you play, with tactical depth increasing the more abilities are unlocked.”

CVG – 9.2

“Brotherhood’s biggest bullet point, however, is the erm, Brotherhood. Recruiting and training up your own Assassin army and dispatching them on missions around Europe to enhance their skills is a genuinely immersive and enjoyable gameplay addition. Basically, it’s like a miniature strategy game within Brotherhood.”

“Overall, Brotherhood is an awesome package with enough new content to kill the competition this Christmas. Story limitations and a few failed mission experiments cement our statement that it’s not Assassin’s Creed 3 – but with a lick of paint it would’ve come dangerously close. There’s enough quality and scope here to put Brotherhood in the running not just as a top festive purchase, but one of the best action games of the year.”

Joystiq – 4.5/5

“If you didn’t play the last game, you’ll have absolutely no idea what’s going on during the single-player campaign. At the same time, there’s so much new content here — the multiplayer component in particular absolutely needs to be played by anyone with a current-gen console and a high-speed internet connection. Not only does it constitute something entirely new for the franchise, it represents a cerebral antipode to almost every other current-gen game’s multiplayer offerings.”

“On the surface, the game’s four online modes are fairly single-faceted, though that one facet is simply brilliant. You’re basically just playing hide-and-go-seek. Players are represented by one of a handful of characters, then dropped into a small area populated by hundreds of doppelgangers. Players have contracts to assassinate other players, whom they must pick out of the crowd of duplicates, while avoiding conspicuous actions which may alert their prey (or their own predators).”

“The game isn’t about how good you are at fighting — assassinations are carried out with the press of a single button once you’re in range of your target — or even how good you are at free-running. It’s far smarter than that. It’s about how good you are at passing (or, hell, even cheating) the Turing test. It’s thrilling, it’s satisfying, it’s occasionally terrifying, and it’s a completely unique take on multiplayer. Throw in 50 levels of unlockable characters, perks and items, and … well, we might just be talking about the next big thing.”

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Related Articles:

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood singleplayer preview

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood multiplayer preview