It is a curious test of any game series if you decide to play them one after the other. I'm not sure many would stand up to it. Each game's nuances highlighted by the other games in the series and the overall play style and theme tested to extreme without feeling stale or repetitive. But, when I got Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, I decided it was high time I finished the first two before getting stuck in.

The first Assassin's Creed is, by comparison, quite a simple affair. Go here, find the view points, complete the side quests and then stab someone. Rinse and repeat. While sounding rather repetitive the game manages to avoid getting too bad by giving you the freedom to do the side quests in any order you choose as well as skipping some of them if you're only interested in the main story line. The scenery is, like all three games, pretty impressive at times and the cities feel busy. If I could change one thing, and one thing only, I'd remove the harassers... those annoying stumbling idiots that push you if you get too close. I'm sure someone thought it was a good idea and I can appreciate the need to have 'obstacles' for the would-be assassin but personally I just found them an irritant that drew me away from the game, especially as they only ever went for you... maybe if they'd attacked guards and passing civilians they could have been partly useful as a distraction or, at the very least, the source of some amusement!  Probably the weakest game in the series for the story, you do still get the impression that there is a larger plot to uncover.

The change of scenery and colour palette for the second game was quite significant. Certainly more stunning and varied than the first game, although it feels smaller.  You character, Ezio, is quite different from Altair. Where Altair was a top assassin, stripped of rank and equipment and forced to earn (and learn) his place, Ezio is quite cheerful and just a little... sleazy, at least to begin with.  The side missions are more varied and the number of ways to dispatch people has most certainly increased.  You certainly feel that the developers had learned a lot from the first game and had tried to improve almost every aspect... and succeeded.  The introduction of money and the ability to buy new armour and swords certainly appeals to the collector in me while the improved combat options and 'blending' means that you sometimes find yourself pulling off some quite amazing feats that almost have you believing that you are that good. Sadly, there are still times when the camera angles leave you struggling to see what is actually going on... but it's definitely better than the first game.

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood continues the story of Ezio.  Gone is the slightly arrogant ladies man, replaced with a more bitter and determined assassin.  Sadly, the start of this story involves the loss of all your weapons and skills you'd just earnt from the second game... which, having just played it, felt slightly odd.  Why couldn't Ezio just go and buy or steal new weapons? Why do I have to wait before I can use a particular sword again? Such is the nature of the game.  Not exactly game-breaking, especially if it's been a while since you played the second title (or you've never played it at all).

The scenery is just as colourful and feels slightly more natural as you're running about the streets of Rome... not so repetitive in design.  The ability to buy shops and earn money has been extended to cover the entire game now, rather than just your villa, and the number of weapons and toys has increased yet again... although this isn't necessarily a good thing.  I found that I rarely used the throwing knives, for example, once I'd unlocked one of the other weapons.

The horse riding, while functional in the first two games but not really serving much of a purpose, now includes the ability to ride throughout the city... but I'll be honest and say I still found it easier to move around on rooftops and only really used my horse when I had to.  Especially as the quickest way to travel long distances was to use the sewer system that covered the map!

In some ways, the game tries too hard to improve over the second game.  In some ways it succeeds, but in others you feel that they should have either given it more thought or not bothered at all.  Take, for example, combat with multiple, mounted, crossbow-wielding guards: it's the sort of fight you're probably going to want to run from to give you a chance to turn the odds in your favour... only Ezio auto-targets a guard each time they hit him with a bolt.  So, you un-target, try to turn and run (which is rather slow) and another bolt hits you... so Ezio immediately whips round to face them again.  Deeply frustrating.  Strange how he can turn so quickly to face them but not to get away!  In the end, I resorted to bunny-hopping away so I didn't get shot again *hangs head in shame*

That isn't the only place things get a bit tricky.  Whenever you are attempting one of the more acrobatic puzzles, walking along high beams and leaping between walls, the camera sometimes shifts to a fixed position, obviously chosen by the designer to give you the best view of Ezio and his target.  The problem is, having played through everything else in the game using the normal camera you now find yourself working at an unnatural angle and one you can't change... so you sometimes end up jumping in the wrong direction trying to compensate.  This is made worse if you are working against the clock, move along a beam to jump and just as you hit the button... the camera moves to the fixed angle and you jump in the wrong direction.  Immersion breaking and, again, down right frustrating.  I found myself literally screaming at the TV at times, explaining to Ezio's limp, broken corpse that that quite obviously wasn't the direction I wanted him to jump, how could he possibly be THAT stupid?!  There were other, more specific, frustrations with the game, such as the rooftop race with a REALLY badly positioned dive point on the roof of the penultimate building that has you diving four stories into a hay cart instead of leaping across to the building opposite... but I don't really want to dwell any longer on the negative... well, other than to say the last few missions were annoying as hell but only because of the control they took away from me (without giving too much away).

Don't get me wrong, Brotherhood is an awesome game.  By the time you're training up your own team of assassins and sending them off on their own missions, you'll feel like a true master assassin. The link Ubisoft created between Brotherhood and Assassin's Creed Legacy on Facebook was also a nice touch that gave you bonuses for playing both games.

While Assassin's Creed II was definitely the smoothest of the three, I'd still pick Brotherhood as my favorite... if only for my team of assassins.

So I've finally done it... it's took a month and a half but it's all over, just in time for Ubisoft to announce that they will be announcing the next game in the series this May... the stabbing isn't over!

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~ Naiboss