Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood Review (10/10)

High praise, is that score above: the original Assassin's Creed (5/10) did nothing much to impress, held back by tediously repetitive fighting mechanics and an overly-complex plot, while in contrast last year's Assassin's Creed II (9.5/10) came pretty near to perfecting the franchise formula, and given that it's been just a year since that spectacle of a title the score Brotherhood gets from me should be as a much a surprise to the reader as it was for this reviewer. Simply put, where the original failed in plot and the sequel was too easy to beat, Brotherhood rights both those wrongs but in turn adds a wealth of new possibilities for strategic players, none more so than the titular team of assassins we can recruit as Italian hero Ezio Auditore- now gamers can plan their assaults on key Borgia strongholds by placing their team in crucial positions around a building, ready to strike on Ezio's mark. As if that weren't enough, the combat has seen dramatic changes of its own, as enemies are able to counter your counters, forcing you to adapt and chain kills before you're the next corpse. This element of newfound tension also carries over to the multi-player, which despite all worries works superbly, adding huge longetivity to what might have been a one-play title. Or not...contrary to previous instalments, players can now return to every mission they complete in the hope of fulfilling more challenging objectives (you can traverse the Colosseum at your own pace, but what about in 8 minutes?) to unlock new costumes and awesome weapons. If it hasn't already come to your attention, there's a lot of value here for your hard-earned cash, and perhaps more so than Halo: Reach, Brotherhood injects new life into the AC franchise when it didn't even need it!