POSTED 5/12/10


ASSASSIN'S CREED BROTHERHOOD

Ubisoft

Ezio’s back, and he’s really bloody cranky... oh, actually he’s fairly chilled. But trust us, he’ll have cause to fire up pretty quickly…

Don’t call this a sequel, because it’s not. Essentially it’s Assassin’s Creed II continued, but with enough tweaks and twiddles to even improve on that epic feat of gamingness.

So what’s this ‘Brotherhood’ bizzo? No, Ezio’s not discovered New Order’s second best album (because it’s still about 486 years away), rather it refers to assassins recruited in your travels that can be called upon to assist in battle. It’s a deft touch that accompanies improvements in combat technique – including kill chaining - and a smidgeon of Sim City influence. You see, much of Rome, where our protagonist does much of his protagonising, has fallen to those low-life Borgias and the creepy Templar movement, so you have the chance to reseize power in areas and rebuild them; booting corruption and ameliorating banks, stables etc.

Speaking of stables, there’s quite the Red Dead Rigatoni thing going on, as you lollop through Roman streets on trusty steeds. Well, we’re assuming they’re of unquestionable reliability.

Meanwhile, the sci-fi Animus plot thingy continues, with Desmond putting his barrow in the marketplace on hold again to get strapped to a chair and have his DNA poked. He’s also tuning into some of his ancestors’ more acrobatic traits…

The music’s ace, the graphics are ace – Rome makes a wonderful backdrop, try standing atop the Colosseum and not going “Damn!” - and added multiplayer is an amusing diversion. We reckon the single player campaign’s still where it’s at though, and this'll keep you busy quite literally for days, especially if you go all anally retentive on the collecty stuff.

Not as good as ACII? Lies!

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