Prince of Persia Review

Written 05/10/2011

Note: This review is for the PC version of the game. Screenshot and video taken from my machine.

On occasion, I like to try something different. I’ve never played any of the Prince of Persia games save for about an hour of a few intros. So when I saw the more cell-shaded Prince of Persia in GameStop for $10, I figured it would be worth giving it a go. To someone uninitiated to the franchise, was it worth the money? I’d say!

Visuals and Presentation

From what I can tell with my limited knowledge of the franchise, this Prince of Persia takes a much more stylized approach than the games before it. The colors are bright and vivid, with textures that make everything look just like a piece of concept art. I wouldn’t exactly call it cell-shading, but that’s probably the best way I can describe it. This “loud” art style also shows itself in the character models and textures, particularly in the Prince himself with his blue and orange scarf. The animations are also quite fluid and you can feel a certain rhythm when you begin chaining together different acrobatic feats successfully. The environments, both the corrupted and healed versions, are well designed and rarely leave you guessing where to go next. Enemy variation is pretty limited, but considering that you’re struggling against one enemy at a time for long stretches of time, it’s not that bad. The camera, while intuitive and manageable, will at times lock itself in a position that makes figuring out where to jump next difficult. It happens so infrequently though, that it really doesn’t distract from the beauty of the moving concept art piece that is Prince of Persia.

Visuals and Presentation Rating:

Sound

The sound of Prince of Persia is really quite solid. The music could easily fit in an Arabian Knights movie, and it’s a nice change of pace, at least for me. The running, jumping, sliding, swinging, flying, and all the other sounds, including those in combat, never disappoint either. The real star here though is the voice-acting. For those of you interested in such things, the voice-actor for the Prince is Nolan North. That’s the same fellow who voiced Nathan Drake from the Uncharted series and Desmond Miles from the Assassin’s Creed series. The Prince’s attitude and demeanor are very similar to Drake’s, and if you’ve read either of my Uncharted reviews, you know how much I like Drake. If you take the time to talk to Elika, you’ll be treated to a great deal of the game’s history, her personal feelings, a growing relationship between herself and the Prince, and some chuckle-worthy banter. While the whole package isn’t always stellar, it’s definitely never painful to listen to. Oh, and make sure your turn your sound up a bit if you hope to hear the voice-acting.

Sound Rating:

Gameplay

The gameplay in Prince of Persia is distinctly separated into platforming and combat. You’ll spend most of your time jumping, wall running, climbing, holding on to ledges and vines, using power plates, and flying through air. It’s a great deal of fun, as it’s almost like playing a rhythm based game without the music. I can’t really say I’ve played a game with platforming quite like this. The next closest thing to this I’ve played is both Uncharted games, and that’s still not exactly the same. Aside from his hands, feet, and agility, the Prince also has a gauntlet which he can use to slowly descend walls. It may not seem that great at first, but you’ll soon find that it can be an invaluable tool.

If the Prince can’t reach an area on his own, he can call on Elika to compliment his abilities with her magic. If a gap is just too far to jump, Elika can help the Prince jump a second time in mid-air and thus make such gaps insignificant. She can also use power-plates, which allow her to hurl both of them great distances, run up walls temporarily, and even fly. When you combine the Prince’s acrobatic abilities with Elika’s power plates, you have yourself a very fun and visually entertaining platforming system.

The game’s combat is also pretty unique. It revolves around two on one battles at all times, with the Prince and Elika facing off against one foe. You will never face more than one enemy at a time. To prevent the combat from quickly becoming stale, it focuses on chaining together as long of a combo as you can, and random quick-time events. You can jump, have Elika jump in for a magical attack, use the Prince’s sword and gauntlet, and block. To effectively chain together combos, you need to constantly be switching between Elika, the Prince, his gauntlet, and jumping. The Prince’s gauntlet throws enemies in the air and allows you to juggle it for a moment before spiking it to the ground. Chaining together combos is also slightly more difficult than you might think until you figure out the mechanics, and could almost be considered a meta-game.

As great as the gameplay is, there are also no real consequences for failure. You will not die in Prince of Persia, not even once. It’s not because the game is too easy, as it’s not, but because Elika will always save you just before your death, guaranteed. This gives no real consequence of failure, as it is absolutely, unequivocally, impossible to die. The only consequence for failure when platforming is being forced to restart your acrobatics where you began them, which is never too far away. In combat, failure only means that your enemy regains a portion of its health, which can easily be taken away again with a moderately executed combo.

There is also no real sense of character advancement in the game aside from unlocking the use of power plates. You keep the same weapons, armor, and skills throughout the entire game. There are no unlockables that I know of, and you never gain any new abilities in combat. While I can somewhat understand why these choices were made, I also feel like more could have been done to give the player a better sense of advancement and more incentive to not fail.

Gameplay Rating:

Story

WARNING! Spoiler Alert!

The basic premise of the story is that a dark deity is attempting to break free of its generations long imprisonment and has corrupted the world around its prison. Elika is the last person of the tribe tasked with maintaining the deity’s prison in the area. She liberally falls on the Prince, who is dragged into circumstances beyond his control. After that, you hunt down and eliminate four of the dark deity’s top servants and heal the lands of their corruption. I won’t say anymore for fear of ruining the ending, but I will say that things take a very unexpected turn toward the game’s conclusion. Overall though, the story isn’t actually as great as it might sound. It’s by no means bad, but I felt like it wasn’t very far beyond average, if that.

Story Rating:

Replay Value

Because of the lack of progression and unlockables, the replay value of Prince of Persia is highly dependent on how much you want to replay the same content in possibly a different order. There’s really not anything beyond that. Granted, the game is enjoyable, but you may want to wait a few years and forget the finer details of the game before replaying it. That way you can enjoy it more as a new experience again, instead of knowing exactly what to do throughout the entire game.

Replay Value Rating:

Final Thoughts and Overall Score

Having never played a Prince of Persia game to completion before this one, Ubisoft definitely has me interested in trying out the rest of the games now. Maybe I’ll pick up the HD remakes of the first three games on PS3. Overall though, this Prince of Persia seems like an excellent introduction to the series! The game is available for PC, PS3, and 360.

Prince of Persia Overall Score:

System Requirements:

• OS: Windows® XP/Windows Vista® (only)
• Processor: Dual core processor 2.6 GHz Intel® Pentium® D or AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 3800+ (Intel Core® 2 Duo 2.2 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ or better recommended)
• Memory: 1 GB Windows XP/2 GB Windows Vista
• Graphics: 256 MB DirectX® 10.0–compliant video card or DirectX 9.0–compliant card with Shader Model 3.0 or higher (see supported list)*
• DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0 or 10.0 libraries
• Hard Drive: 9 GB
• Sound Card: DirectX 9.0 or 10.0–compliant sound card (5.1 sound card recommended)
• Input: Windows-compliant keyboard, mouse, optional controller (Xbox 360® Controller for Windows recommended) 
*Supported Video Cards at Time of Release: ATI® RADEON® X1600*/1650*-1950/HD 2000–4000 series NVIDIA GeForce® 6800*/7/8/9/GTX 260–280 series *PCI Express only supported Laptop versions of these cards may work but are NOT supported. These chipsets are the only ones that will run this game. For the most up-to-date minimum requirement listings, please visit the FAQ for this game on our support website at: http://support.ubi.com. NVIDIA® nForce™ or other motherboards/soundcards containing the Dolby® Digital Interactive Content Encoder required for Dolby Digital audio.

Splinter Cell: Conviction Review

Written 05/03/2010

Note: This is for the PC version of the game. Screenshot and video taken on my machine.

I'm sure some of you have followed the ongoing development of Splinter Cell Conviction since its revealing 3 or 4 years ago. You may remember it used to look, feel, and probably play a lot differently than what has recently been shown. The game has gone through countless delays and even a complete overhaul from the ground up. After all of that, it's finally here. Has the wait been worth it?

Visuals and Presentation

Considering that Conviction is made in what I would be willing to bet is Unreal Engine 3, Ubisoft had a lot to work with in the visuals department. Character models, environments, texturing, and lighting are mostly pretty good, with a low resolution texture popping up on very rare occasion. The bullet trail effects, lighting, and general blur effects are particularly nice. The most original concept is by far how the lighting effects tie in to the stealth mechanics of the game. In past Splinter Cell titles, when you entered a dark area, you knew that the enemy could not see you if you could not see Sam Fisher on screen without night-vision being enabled. While this makes for a more authentic stealth experience, it can at times make visibility, and thus gameplay, a serious issue. To resolve this, Ubisoft added a feature that makes the screen black and white when you are appropriately hidden in darkness. As you move into more lit areas the screen begins to fill with more and more color until everything is in full-color. Obviously you are most visible in this state, so it would be advisable to quickly find cover. This makes some areas of the game quite nerve-wracking because nearly every enemy has a flashlight attached to their weapons. You'll be slightly startled at least once when you're hiding in complete darkness and your screen suddenly flashes with color as an enemy's flashlight moves over your general area.

My biggest complaint with the visuals has to be the facial animations. The lip syncing is terrible to the point of there being little mouth movement actually forming the spoken words. Facial expressions are also very limited beyond Sam's serious and cautious glare. Except for those things though, Conviction's visual package is pretty solid.

Visuals and Presentation Rating:

Sound

The sound in Conviction is not what you would expect simply for the contents of the voice acting. The dialog is mostly well written and performed with every applicable voice actor from previous Splinter Cell titles reprising their roles excellently. Weapon and ambient sounds are also done well. The music is a great mix of quiet, suspenseful, and intense tracks that do their jobs very well and can at times be a bit catchy. What drags down Conviction's sound though is the extreme vulgarity throughout the entire game. To put it simply, the language in Conviction makes Grand Theft Auto IV look tame. When engaging enemies, you'll hear something along the lines of “die you mother #^%@ing son of a #%^*)! piece of %*#( mother $!%#er!” every 5-10 seconds. It is so pervasive and unnecessary throughout the entire game that it becomes highly offensive. Seriously Ubisoft...why?

Sound Rating:

Gameplay

This is a Splinter Cell game, and you probably already know what the gameplay mostly entails if you've played any of the previous entries. This is a stealth game at its core, but Conviction adds a great deal of action to the mix typically unseen in the franchise. In previous Splinter Cell entries, the pace of the game was very slow, methodical, and required a great deal of awareness and planning. In Conviction, Sam Fisher's speed and agility have dramatically increased without taking away the necessity of being aware and properly planning how to clear out a room. Sam will need this extra speed to avoid the many bullets flying at him. Like it or not, Sam Fisher is nothing like Solid Snake and can never hope to be. If Sam gets shot three or four times, he dies, plain and simple. Your best options are to sneak and use the environment to get the jump on the enemy.

To help you do just that, Ubisoft has added two new features to the mix. First is the Last Known Position. When Sam is seen, a white, ghost-like silhouette appears at his position. When he ducks behind cover again, the silhouette remains in that same place indicating your last known position to the enemy. They will then quickly move in on that position, but if you're quick enough you can maneuver yourself around them without being seen and ambush them from behind. You could also employ the second new feature, the Mark & Execute, to quickly take care of many enemies at once. To do this, Sam finds a suitable enemy and “marks” him. After marking as many target as your current weapon will allow, position Sam where all of the mark icons you've placed are red and tap the execute button. Sam will then take out every one of your marks in a stylish yet efficient manner within two seconds. You may be thinking right about now “if I can just Mark & Execute everyone that makes the game too easy”, and you would be right. Fortunately though, you can only use Mark & Execute after successfully taking out an enemy with a melee attack; which is not always the easiest thing to do and live to tell about it.

Outside of the single-player campaign there are Deniable Ops missions and online co-op. Deniable Ops missions are separated between a search-and-destroy gametype and a gametype similar to a tower defense mini-game. Each are fun, but are a little limited when it comes to map selection. Then there's the online offerings, and part of the biggest issue this game faces. If you want to try out the multiplayer just as much as I do, you can't. You heard me right...you can't! The game will have been out a week tomorrow and the Ubisoft servers are STILL not allowing ANY connectivity to the online portion of the game. Not only is this completely unacceptable, it makes the game a complete rip-off! I paid $60 expecting multiplayer, and I want my multiplayer dangit! Then there's the abominable DRM (Digital Rights Management) measures Ubisoft has put in place to prevent the game from being pirated. Basically, Ubisoft is requiring that you be connected to the internet at all times to play the game; even in single-player. This wouldn't be so bad if the Ubisoft servers wouldn't randomly crash and make your game completely stop until the connection is reestablished. Come on people, I PAID for the game! You don't need a constant connection to verify that I do indeed own what I'm playing! Think of the needless bandwidth you're using to do this too! If anything, this will likely encourage piracy just to avoid your out of hand watchdog tactics! I haven't even touched the technical issues of the game yet! On at least 5 occasions the game crashed to the desktop and completely froze my whole machine twice, forcing me restart it via the power button on my tower. A patch needs to be released to fix all of this very soon, or I may actually consider seeking a partial refund for all of this! I should really make a Hitler rant parody on the topic.

Gameplay Rating:

Story

WARNING: Spoiler Alert!

This is the first Splinter Cell title that I know of in which the story is a direct sequel of the game right before it. If you want the back story of Conviction, read the Story section of my Double Agent review. Conviction picks up with Sam Fisher following a lead on finding his daughter's killer. Without giving too much away, the story quickly moves from a revenge tale to a national conspiracy involving a presidential assassination. While the story is decently written, I did feel like it jumped from point to point with little cohesion at times. This was fairly rare though. I also felt that Sam was very cooperative with whoever was ordering him around at the time given that he constantly asserted that he is an unwilling participant in the events around him. Overall though, this is one of the best stories of the series and worth at least a peek into it.

Story Rating:

Replay Value

Considering that single-player campaign is only 9 hours long, Deniable Ops are limited in their maps and gametypes, multiplayer does not work at all, and the outrageous DRM makes the game unlaunchable at times, and Conviction's replay value is hardly nothing. Deniable Ops are fun, but only prove to be a temporary distraction. The single-player was also good, but not really worth a second replay unless you really enjoyed it. Multiplayer is completely unavailable, but if it was available, it would probably increase Conviction's replay value dramatically. So until a major patch is released...

Replay Value Rating:

Final Thoughts and Overall Score

It's not that Conviction is a bad game by any stretch. It has mostly solid gameplay, but suffers from too many technical issues than I care to think about. The fact that you can't even connect to the multiplayer is a huge turn off for me; especially if a patch that fixes this is not released soon. If you want to be able to play the multiplayer right now, I would suggest purchasing the 360 version of the game. If you want the PC version though, well, you have been warned.

Splinter Cell: Conviction Overall Score:

Minimum system requirements:

OS: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7

Processor: 1.8 GHz Intel Core2 Duo or 2.4 GHz AMD Athlon X2 64

Memory: 1.5 GB Windows XP / 2 GB Windows Vista, Windows 7

Graphics: 256 MB DirectX 9.0c–compliant video card (512 MB recommended) (see supported list*) DirectX®: DirectX 9.0c

Hard Drive: 10 GB

Sound: DirectX 9.0c–compliant sound card

Peripherals Supported: Mouse, keyboard, headset, 12-button gamepads with analog sticks

Internet Connection: Broadband Internet connection

*Supported Video Cards at Time of Release:

NVIDIA GeForce 7800 / 7900 / 8 / 9 / GTX series

ATI RADEON X1800 / X1900 / HD 2000 / HD 4000 / HD 5000 series

ATI HD 3000 NOT supported at time of release.

Laptop versions of these cards may work but are NOT supported. These chipsets are the only ones that will run this game.

Splinter Cell: Double Agent Review

Written 01/08/2010

Note: This review is written for the PC version of the game. Screenshot and video taken from my machine.

With the release of Splinter Cell: Conviction just a month away, I've decided to pick up its predecessor, Double Agent, to get caught up on the series' story before launch day. Luckily for me, I caught it on sale on Steam for just $5. Was it worth it though? Well, yes and no. This review is mainly intended for those who plan on picking up Conviction without any intention of playing Double Agent first. So there may be some spoilers in the Story section. You have been warned.

Visuals and Presentation

For a game that was released in late 2006, Double Agent looks quite pretty. In the display menu I discovered you could set the game to run in either Standard or Next Generation mode. During the credits, I learned that the Standard mode ran the game in the Unreal Engine 2; which is in the same technological time-frame as the PS2, original Xbox, and PCs over at least three or four years old. The Next Generation mode ran the game in the Unreal Engine 3, which is in the same technological time-frame as the PS3, 360, and any mid-range PC found on the market today. Basically, if you can run Unreal Tournament 3 with decent settings, then you can run Double Agent in Next Generation mode.

I didn't test the game in Standard mode, but I played through it entirely in Next Generation mode. If you can run it like that, Double Agent can be a real treat to look at. The lighting effects and shadows, which have always been at the heart of the Splinter Cell series, look great and really add to the atmosphere of the game as a whole while still acting as an excellent gameplay mechanic. Another thing that really helps Double Agent presentation-wise over the other Splinter Cell titles that I've played is the variety of places Sam Fisher finds himself in. Over the course of the storyline missions, you travel to China, Africa, and America just to name a few locales. Each area feels distinct and well crafted, which keeps things fresh. The only real complaint I have with the presentation is when you don't have your night-vision goggles handy. On one level, not having them is not a problem because it takes place during the day. On another level though, which you revisit four times throughout the game, not having night-vision makes life nearly impossible in certain critical areas of the map. Overall, the game looks quite good considering its age.

Visuals and Presentation Rating:

Sound

First and foremost, if you want to hear this game...at all...turn your volume up to double what it usually is. The audio in Double Agent is output at such a low volume you can't even hope to hear it if you set your speakers to their normal levels. That aside, the voice acting in Double Agent is what you would hope for. Cheese is non-existent in the dialog, and one small conversation in particular between two terrorists should not be missed for humor's sake. Sam Fisher's voice is reprized by Michael Ironside, like in every other Splinter Cell title, and it just wouldn't be the same without him. It's really quite surprising you don't hear his voice in more games outside of the Splinter Cell series, but I suppose to each their own. General sounds are also what you would expect. Weapons with silencers on them are adequately, well, silent; and unsuppressed weapons draw enough attention with the noise they make.

The music is nothing to write home about, but it definitely serves its purpose in creating the mood for certain situations and excellent at heightening tension. For the most part, the music remains so subtle that you hardly even notice it. When an unaware enemy approaches Sam's position though, the music becomes louder and much more serious the closer the enemy comes to Sam. If an enemy does discover Sam, the music almost reaches the intensity of a James Bond action scene as he loudly calls out for backup. Combine the music with the nice voice acting, and you've got yourself a pretty decent audio package. Just be sure to turn your sound up!

Sound Rating: 

Gameplay

This, like every other Splinter Cell title, is a stealth game. It's not a stealth-action game or any other hybrid variation you wish to come up with. Sure, you have a gun and can choose to go out shooting, but you're going to end up frustrated from constantly reloading because you're frequently going to be dead. Your best friends in Double Agent are your bare hands, gadgets, distractions, and your brain. Patience is also a must, because without it you're going to end up eating dirt...again. The game will also put you in countless situations to remind you of that very fact. Quite often, you'll enter an area that can be completely wiped of enemies if you plan everything right, but if you're seen, you don't even have time to pull out your weapon before you're getting a bullet surprise.

At other times, there's no possible way of eliminating even one enemy without being seen. On those occasions, you have to employ everything at your disposal to reach your goal without drawing the least bit of attention to yourself. That's not to say you can't safely draw attention elsewhere. Throw a can or bottle near some enemies and the noise will attract their attention away from their posts, giving you precious seconds to slip by unnoticed. You can also use your pistol's EMP function to temporarily plunge the room into darkness and simply walk past the opposition as they flounder around in the dark trying to get the lights back on.

Stability-wise, Double Agent is very hit or miss. During my play time, the game crashed at least 10 times, but actually closer to the 15-20 range. I'm unsure if I should credit those crashes to faulty programing by Ubisoft, or the fact that I'm running the game on Windows 7 and through Steam. Either way, definitely something to look out for.

Gameplay Rating:

Story

Unlike the other Splinter Cell titles in the series, Double Agent is not simply a random assortment of missions Sam undertakes with little to no connection between them. At the beginning of the game, Sam is heading to (if I remember right) Russia to ascertain if a certain terrorist group has acquired a nuclear weapon and disable it if that is indeed the case. After disarming the weapon and extracting, Sam is informed that his daughter, Sarah, was killed in what seemed to be a hit-and-run incident. Without anything left to lose, Sam takes on the most dangerous mission of his life; to infiltrate one of the world's most dangerous terrorist organizations. After purposely landing himself in prison and breaking out a member of the terrorist organization, the JBA, Sam finds himself at their headquarters in New York and joining their ranks.

It is at this point that the story progression is in your hands. In each mission, you're given objectives from both the JBA and NSA. At times you can complete the objectives of both organizations without drawing suspicion from either, but there are also times when you must choose who's cause to support because objectives from each organization are completely opposite from each other. Do you choose to kill innocent civilians in order to prove your loyalty to the terrorists and put your motives in question with the NSA, or do you spare the civilians and risk blowing your cover with the terrorists? Choices like this and others change how people feel about you and how much they trust you. They can also effect how the game ends entirely and if a certain mission is available to you at all. It all leads up to an ending that sets up the story for Splinter Cell: Conviction excellently.

Story Rating:

Replay Value

Replayability in Double Agent is definitely its weakest point. While the story is better-than-average by a bit, there are some pretty cool moments in the missions, and the gameplay is mostly solid, the game just doesn't have enough impact to make me want to play it over again. The frequent crashes are also a big factor in why I won't be giving Double Agent another go; though I don't know if it was simply an issue with Windows 7, Steam, or just bad programing. It was a good ride the first time through, but not so much afterwards.

Replay Value Rating: 

Final Thoughts and Overall Score

Splinter Cell: Double Agent is not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination, but it's also not a completely world-shatteringly awesome one either. It provides a good story with solid gameplay if you can survive the crashes. It's available for nearly every system known to man, even GameCube; but you'll have the most luck finding it for PC (system requirements below) with online retailers such as Steam and Direct2Drive, considering its age. The only time I've recently seen a console version of the game was a few months ago at my local Blockbuster. If you see the game for $5 to $10, consider giving it a try; it's worth the nominal cost.

Splinter Cell: Double Agent Overall Score:

PC Minimum System Requirements:

Supported OS: Microsoft Windows® XP

Processor: 3 Ghz Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon 3000 (3.5 Ghz Pentium 4 or Athlon 3500 recommended) - Game optimized for dual-processor-enabled computers.

System Memory: 1 GB or above (1.5 GB recommended)

Video Card: DirectX 9.0c-compliant, Shader 3.0-enabled 128 MB video card (256 MB recommended) (see supported list*)

Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c-compatible (EAX recommended) - PC audio solution containing Dolby Digital Live required for Dolby Digital audio.

DirectX Version: DirectX® version 9.0c or higher

Hard Disk: 8 GB available hard disk space

Multiplay: Broadband connection with 128 kbps upstream or faster

*Supported video cards at time of retail release: Single Player: ATI X1300 / X1600 / X1800 / X1900, NVIDIA 6200 / 6600 / 6800 / 7300 / 7600 / 7800 / 7900 | Multiplayer: ATI X1600 / X1800 / X1900, NVIDIA 6600 / 6800 /7300 / 7600 / 7800 / 7900  

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood Review

Written 1/13/2011

Note: This is for the PS3 version of the game. Screenshot and video courtesy of Google Images and Youtbue respectively, and credit goes to the original capturers.

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood is the direct sequel to 2009's Assassin's Creed II. While Brotherhood does improve upon its predecessor in some areas, it also introduces some rather irritating technical issues that really shouldn't have seen the light of day. Even with those issues though, this is a very worthwhile game that any Assassin's Creed fan must experience. Be warned though, if you haven't played Assassin's Creed II, you will be completely and utterly lost in Brotherhood. So make sure to finish that first!

Visuals and Presentation

Visually, Brotherhood is a carbon copy of Assassin's Creed II with slightly less variety in the campaign. It uses the same engine as the two previous console games called Anvil, but at first I seriously thought the game was using a highly modified version of Unreal Engine 3. Character models and textures are all top-notch, but the real stars of Brotherhood are the environments and animations. The city of Rome is designed as a sandbox, obstacle course, and racetrack all at once, and it's all very beautiful. It's as though the city has a life of its own and tries to impose its will on you as to how it will and will not let you progresses. The animations in Brotherhood are easily the best in the series; especially in combat! Ezio now mixes and matches his weapons in combat to deliver some of the most brutally efficient executions you will likely see in any game. For example, one execution has Ezio parrying a strike with the sword in his right hand, kicking his attacker in the gut, then he grabs his attacker on the back of the head while he's leaning forward in agony and uses the gun attachment in his hidden blade to blast his attacker into nothingness. It's all done so quickly and smoothly that you'll be shouting “DUUUUDE! Did you SEE that?!” to anyone nearby like I did. It's something that really must be seen to be appreciated.

The visuals in multiplayer are mostly the same as in the campaign, with much of the fidelity of the animations removed for the sake of gameplay. Where the animations are lacking in multiplayer though, it's more than made up for in the environmental variety. In the campaign you'll be in the city of Rome and the surrounding farmlands mostly. In multiplayer, you'll visit at least four cities and one carnival ground. Each map is strikingly different and allows for slightly different strategies in each. Overall, Brotherhood is quite a pretty package in both the campaign and multiplayer.

Visuals and Presentation Rating:

Sound

Just as in the visuals, the sound in Brotherhood is a carbon copy of Assassin's Creed II. Each voice actor from Assassin's Creed II reprises their roles in Brotherhood and the performances are still as great as ever. The new additions also mesh very well with the current cast. The writing is very well done for each character and seems to play into each voice actor's strength. The music is also well done, but tends to be limited to either high-action or exploration tracks without any real transition between the two. That's fine in the case of Brotherhood, but the sudden changes in music can at times be a little jarring. It shouldn't prove to be a massive distraction to the typical gamer though.

Sound Rating:

Gameplay

Everything in Assassin's Creed II is present in Brotherhood, and then some. You can still climb everything that looks climbable, fight purely defensively, offensively, or a mix of the two, and use the courtesans, thieves, and mercenaries as distractions. What's new are the additions of execution streaks, trainable assassins that you can call on in battle, and multiplayer. Execution streaks allow you to quickly dispatch of entire groups of enemies in mere seconds with the right amount of timing and coordination. You begin by killing an enemy with a counter, then moving the left joystick in the direction of your next desired kill and continuing the attack. Ezio will then sidestep or slightly dash to the target and one-hit him. You can continue doing this, with any weapon I might add, until you are hit, your enemies get out of range, or you wait too long to attempt the next kill. It's a very efficient and satisfying way to annihilate the opposition.

Next is the new Assassin's Guild. As the name implies, Ezio decides it is now time to bolster the waning number of assassins left in the world by recruiting the people under direct Borgia oppression and giving them the power to combat that oppression. Once an assassin is recruited, Ezio can visit a pigeon coop or assassin's tower to give that recruit a contract that will reward him/her with XP and money. Once a recruit reaches level 10, he/she is ready to become a full assassin, and even gets the same fancy duds Ezio wears. Aside from being another source of income for Ezio, the assassin recruits can be summoned to his side temporarily at any time. The only times assassin recruits cannot be summoned is when they are away on a contract or if the mission you're on expressly prohibits them from appearing. It feels particularly good in large battles to summon six trained and highly lethal assassins when you are being overwhelmed.

The last and by far biggest addition to Brotherhood is its multiplayer. Story-wise, Abstergo has amassed a large number of Animus machines with an equal number of Templars to use them. In a nutshell, Abstergo plans to train the Templars how to fight the Assassins by teaching them how to fight like Assassins themselves. There are four gametypes in Brotherhood's multiplayer: Wanted, Advanced Wanted, Manhunt, and Alliance. In Wanted, each player is given a proximity radar and a contract to kill a specific player. You must then stealthily move around the map using crowds, hiding spots, and your wits until you find the player and assassinate him while drawing as little attention to yourself as possible. As fun as that sounds, be warned, you also have a contract on your head, and another player is actively hunting you. Also, the higher you are on the scoreboard, the more contracts you have on you. So it is entirely possible to have four players hunting for only you if you're currently in first place. Talk about stressful! Advanced Wanted is the exact same thing as Wanted, with the only exception being that your proximity radar much less accurately leads you to your target, thus forcing you to make much better observations to correctly find and assassinate your target.

Manhunt is basically a very violent and bloody version of hide-and-seek. Two teams of four spawn on opposite sides of the map, with Team 1 as the hunters and Team 2 as the prey. Team 1's sole objective is to hunt down and assassinate the members of Team 2. Team 2's sole objective is to stay hidden from Team 1, and cannot kill their hunters, but only stun them temporarily and escape. Team 1 gains points by killing Team 2, and Team 2 gains points by effectively hiding. After the first round finishes, the roles of each team is reversed and Team 2 is now hunting Team 1. After both rounds conclude, the team with more points wins the game.

In Alliance, three teams of two spawn at opposite corners of the map. Team 1 may only kill Team 2, with Team 2 only able to kill Team 3, and Team 3 only able to kill Team 1. It almost sounds like a love triangle of death doesn't it? The game basically proceeds in the same way as Manhunt with the restrictions I've just mentioned. You're basically the hunter and prey at the same time in Alliance because you cannot kill your hunters but you can kill your pray. Once two rounds end, the team with the most points wins the game. In all, multiplayer in Brotherhood is incredibly unique and fun, and could almost be worth the cost of the game on its own!

Unfortunately though, not everything is sunshine and rainbows in Brotherhood technically, primarily in the campaign. At one point in the game, you're given a batch of parachutes with the ability to buy more at any time. At any random time though, the game decides that you no longer need or want them and disables them entirely and sets your amount of parachutes to zero; forcing you to buy more. Even after buying more though, it's no guarantee that they won't be disabled or set to zero again when you need them. Not only is this terribly annoying, it can really limit what you can do in certain situations. For a sandbox game like this, that can be a real tragedy. Also, there are certain places in the city that will have Ezio acting as though he is looking over a cliff when in reality he's looking down over a single step at the cobblestone. Once that happens it can be pretty difficult to make Ezio move normally until you can find a way over this imaginary “cliff” and can be especially infuriating when you're trying to tail someone.

Another annoying bug occurs when you have an invisible target that the only way you can kill it is to randomly swing your weapon until you get lucky enough to hit it and make it appear. It's not as detrimental as the previous two bugs, but it definitely breaks the immersion of the game. Finally, this could just be me, but directing Ezio in free-running seems a bit less accurate than in Assassin's Creed II. When trying to jump diagonally to one side or another, Ezio seems to either overcompensate or just miss the mark. Again, that could just be me, but it definitely affected my gameplay. Overall though, the technical issues can't hold Brotherhood back from being an excellent gameplay experience!

Gameplay Rating:

Story

WARNING: Massive spoiler alert!

First and foremost, if you haven't played Assassin's Creed II to completion, stop reading this section right now and go finish Assassin's Creed II. Brotherhood begins at the very moment Assassin's Creed II ends. Ezio has just finished defeating Rodrigo Borgia and meeting the mysterious Minerva; who tells him of a great calamity that will befall mankind unless Desmond can change things. Sounds confusing? Like I said, go finish Assassin's Creed II. After leaving the Vatican with the Apple of Eden, Ezio and his uncle, Mario, return to the Auditore villa to discuss their next course of action and have some well earned R&R. Unfortunately, there's never any real rest for the weary in these sorts of stories, and the villa is attacked and destroyed by Cesare Borgia. He destroys the villa, kills Mario, mortally wounds Ezio, and steals the Apple of Eden.

And that's probably the most exciting thing to happen story-wise in Brotherhood until the last hour or so of the game. I'm not saying the rest of the story is bad, which involves Ezio undermining Borgia influence in Rome while searching for the Apple of Eden, but it definitely does not hold as much of an impact as Assassin's Creed II's story does overall. I don't really want to say much more for fear of ruining the truly spectacular ending, but trust me when I say that the end is definitely worth enduring some of the more mundane portions of the story. It also leads in excellently to the inevitable Assassin's Creed III.

Story Rating:

Replay Value

Depending on how much you enjoy the multiplayer in Brotherhood, its replay value can range anywhere from a solid 50-75 hours to next to nothing. The campaign by itself will last you between 25-30 hours if you do absolutely everything available (which is really quite good for a game like this), but after that the only thing left to do is restart it on a new save file. So most of the replay value in Brotherhood is in its multiplayer. Considering how original that multiplayer is though, you can get quite a bit of time out of the game if you're craving something different.

Replay Value Rating:

Final Thoughts and Overall Score

Even though the game's technical issues hold it back from being a truly perfect game, Brotherhood is still an excellent package and a great entry in the Assassin's Creed franchise. The inclusion of the incredibly unique and fun multiplayer is sure to help keep your mind off of waiting for Assassin's Creed III. The game is available for PS3 and 360.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood Overall Score: