Assassin's Creed Brotherhood - Review [single player]

Assassin's Creed 1 started the series off with a great premise. A third person action-adventure game that focused on assassinations. It had its flaws but it was a great game overall. Then came the sequel two years later. It told the story of Ezio Auditore de Firenze and his road to being an assassin after witnessing the hanging of his father. Revenge driven adventure with a very intriguing ending. Brotherhood continues right after the second game, where we left off Ezio. Perplexed from the encounter with the foretold future he tells his guild what happens. Brotherhood starts off with a bang.

I couldn't review the multiplayer because the servers aren't up yet. I will review that once it's ready to be used.

The story of Brotherhood isn't convoluted in any way. Ezio's luxurious villa is invaded by the Borgia family with the aim of regaining the Apple of Eden. They succeed in doing this so Ezio travels to Rome to help Machiavelli to take out the whole family. It's simple and not as interesting as you'd expect. Brotherhood seems to carry the same flaws its predecessor had with awkward pacing and this time worsens because of the lack of my interest for the storyline.

It's a decent story with some twists but the emotional revenge in the second game made Ezio more likable. In this game, the legendary assassin as achieved master status and cutscenes aren't interesting anymore and he doesn't evolve throughout the game anymore. They could've ended the Ezio arc with 2 but they seem to drag it on a bit too much with Brotherhood. You will dislike the enemy family but the rivalry doesn't seem to captivate much so there's no real hatred between the two teams. It seems Ubisoft didn't focus too much on the story and it's a shame since Assassin's Creed 2 showcased a great one. I got to admit there are some epic battles in the game.

Desmond's side is a bit more fleshed out now with even a whole memory to play as him. You can even exit Ezio's world to return to the modern world so you can explore as Desmond and talk to your annoying companions. Especially his male friend.

Left off being chased, they find another sanctuary to find shelter in. This allows them to resume their standard procedure of acquiring assassin abilities for Desmond through Ezio's storyline. The mystery the first Assassin's Creed displayed with who Desmond was and what he was doing is no longer there. I'm just afraid the storyline will get a bit too over the top beyond Ubisoft's control. Other than that, the story is decent and while it's not extremely dull it's not as good as AC 2's story either.

Voice acting in the game is standard quality. Ezio's voice emits the Italian accent it's supposed to and it's all similar to the second game. Probably the only department where it's similar with its predecessor that I don't have a problem with. I am annoyed though with his British friend. Don't get me wrong, I adore the accents but his annoying tone with his equally annoying lines aggravated me. Lucy is voice acted by Kristin Bell still and does a splendid job. It's a good job overall by the whole cast.

The soundtrack is there but you won't write home about it. It's included in the intense moments of the game and slowly permeates in calm scenes. I like the subtle sounds in the game mostly. People talking in the town, horse hoofs cluttering, preachers exclaiming their own concerns and the zooming sound when Ezio drops off a high building is always gratifying. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood doesn't really improve on its audio but it doesn't ruin it either. I liked it but it's not the strongest point of the game either. It's competent though and I appreciate that.

The visuals of Brotherhood are great. Rome is huge and Ubisoft put a great amount of detail into the game. There's a countyside, towns and just dark occupied fortresses infused with superb weather effects like the grey, depressing clouds or the starry, beautiful sky or even the upbeat sun beaming on Ezio's polished character model. Secondary models aren't as great but not terrible by any means. Rome is pretty. Buildings look solid and no texture popping occurred to me and it's essentially a slightly improved version of AC 2 in terms of graphics. Faces might look bland in some instances but there is alot of polish in the game. If Ubisoft succeeded in something it's building the atmosphere and capture the perfect feeling of 1500s Italy aesthetic. Guards roaming everywhere with Ezio's heavy panting while getting chased never gets old.

Infrastructure look the same but there's alot of different stores like banks and bridges that you can repair if you talk to architects. You can amend the town as you progress through the game which will bring you in more revenue. The menu layout is the same as Assassin's Creed 2. I think accessing the map by the pause menu is an outdated option by today but it's not as annoying as you'd think. I still don't understand how Assassin's Creed 1 has better visuals than 2 and Brotherhood. There's some hiccups in Brotherhood like in 2 where detection won't be displayed perfectly in combat and I remember number one never had these glitches. Great visuals nonetheless.

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood is the same exact thing in gameplay with a few tweaks and an added recruit your assassin addition. It looks they borrowed elements from Godfather II and Fable with the new revenue system. They're both positive supplements. The first few hours of the game though is basically Assassin's Creed 2 DLC. After an action packed confrontation with your villa exploding Ezio has to build himself up again with his team and eliminate the Borgia family.

He has his same weapons; his hidden blade, long weapon, short weapon, your hidden ranged pistol and throwing knives. These are the basics. Brotherhood improves on combat even though not to the extent I expected. It's easier to take out opponents now. You no longer have to counter so you can one-hit one-kill someone. This sounds disastrous on paper but it works great in-game. It enhances the fluidity and Ezio can chain attack rapidly while he slices and dices in combat. You can now kick in the game, so you can break guard of the opponents. This with grabbing enemies, dodging and counter attacking all compose the combat system of Brotherhood. Functions properly but it's nothing you'll find great depth in. I'd compare it to Arkham Asylum just a bit easier.

Your repertoire expands throughout the game with crossbows and new armor for Ezio to extend your synchronization meter. It's the fundamentals that you've seen in Assassin's Creed 1 and later improved on in 2. Stores consist of the painting store, which I found to be useless, tailor which allows you to customize Ezio's robe color, a blacksmith that sells weapons and ammunition and a newly added bank that collects your revenue every 20 minutes. You will have to renovate all these stores and this will automatically set the amount of money you'll be receiving per 20 minutes. It's an easy way to gain money and sooner or later you'll be rich. I can't complain though since you start out slow and progress builds up to this rich status.

The recruiting system of Brotherhood works great. You will have to recruit random civilians but soon become assassins. This will lead to you assigning them contracts to complete in different countries with various difficulties. This will give them XP and progress through the ranks until they become an assassin. Since Brotherhood is testing out this concept I think the next game should have different kinds of assassins with unique abilities rather than a generic recruitment of arbitrary people. Other than that, the most badass moments in the game is when your Assassin team assists you in pivotal moments.

There is alot of content in Brotherhood. I just wish the pacing was better. Rome is controlled by Borgia obviously and you can eliminate the forces of the Borgia by assassinating each Borgia leader in a specific area and normally leading Ezio burning down the Borgia tower. Each area has its own difficulty but I found every area to be fun even when too easy or too difficult. Killing Borgia leaders will usually consist of different ways you can think of like silently stabbing them or just shooting them in the head. Eradicating the tower will allow you to access viewpoints in the area and stores so it's useful. You can also follow guild missions by the three sub-teams in the game that eventually follow you: Mercenaries, thieves and Courtesans. They have their own array of side-missions that consist of different objectives and even their own set of challenges to complete for 100% completion. There's also races in the game also my favorite Leonardo war machine missions. These are the epic, explosive missions in the game and by far my favorite. Without spoiling much it's the most adrenaline-pumping and exciting missions of the game.
There's also the virtual training missions for those who want to practice on the combat and what not.

Story-driven missions are the last missions that detract from the overall experience. They still have the dull, redundant tailing missions and chases. Assassinations are still here but they're too spread apart and the game includes new challenges called 'Full Synchronization' challenges. They're usually extra challenges implemented in each memory you have to complete and if you fail them you can replay them via the Pause menu later on. In main story missions these are broken though, since the stealth doesn't ever work in the game and a slight mistake will have to make you restart the memory if you want that full synchronization. There's some unique ones too though but are rare.

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood's singleplayer is barely Assassin's Creed 2.5. It looks like this game's main storyline was just there so something can accompany the newly added multiplayer. The story is alright, the new additions are good but there's nothing innovative in this sequel to guarantee a buy. The weird pacing might even bore you out but if you're a fan of the series you should buy this game. Until I play the multiplayer, all I have to say is: just don't expect alot.

7/10

Super Meat Boy - Review

Super Meat Boy has been released for the XBLA recently and there's been almost no hype surrounding it. I mean, I wasn't surprised. It's an indie game made by two people. That's right. Two people. Team Meat. Yet they managed to develop the most well-rounded, addictive packages of all time. Super Meat Boy is the new platforming legend.

The story mimics Super Mario but the weird characters give it its own charm. Super Meat Boy is a cute block of meat that loves his girlfriend Bandage Girl. Dr. Fetus hates them though so he kidnaps Bandage Girl. I'm not even going to count the story for the overall score since it doesn't really develop throughout the game but it's there and serves its purpose.

Super Meat Boy replicates a NES game visually. What I loved most about it though is the design. The design is so smartly composed that whenever you die. Trust me you'll die alot. You will only blame yourself and never the game. Unless you're an ignorant, obnoxious fool that believes he or she is always perfect and won't admit their own flaws. That's another story though. The game provides colorful backgrounds and are never dull or uninspired. A small detail I loved was the trail of meaty splatter Meat Boy leaves behind when sprinting.

The sound of Super Meat Boy is seamless as well. Listen to the catchy main theme.

Once again it employs that retro feel and doesn't forget that it's supposed to be a splendid homage to all those hard games that frustrated us in the past on our NESs. Anything more would ruin it but anything less wouldn't achieve its state of perfection.

Super Meat Boy is a very simple game. Hold RT to sprint and press A to jump. Team Meat pulled off something alot of devs can't do. They made the game so accessible but so hard as well without it being detrimental to the enjoyability of the game. The design is smartly structured with later levels being a bitch but still; you will never blame the game. I don't know how they did it. I usually rage at games alot and snap them sometimes. And even though I raged at this game I knew it was my fault. The instant respawn of your character also doesn't interrupt the flow and that gratifying feel when you beat the level and look at all of your Meat Boys in the replay failing and seeing that only victorious one reaching to Bandage Girl is simply great.

You can also play as other characters from other games. For example: Commander Video from Bit.Trip. Each of them contain different playstyles so some levels are easier to complete with some of them. There's also boss fights in the game and are more platforming and memory tests than actual boss fights but still perpetuates awesomeness throughout the game.

Super Meat Boy is better than Sonic 4 and all Sonic games. I still prefer Sonic as a character but for me, a Sonic fanboy, to admit something is better than my beloved hedgehog is as rare as balanced COD games.

Everyone should get this. No excuses. Get it before the end of November as well since it's 800 points and enjoy the fuck out of it.