Assassin's Creed Brotherhood: Roman Resistance

When Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood launched in November of 2010, it instantly captivated audiences who were anticipating a story follow up to the mysterious ending that the previous game, Assassin’s Creed II, offered. The game, quite literally, takes place mere moments after the conclusion of its predecessor. Fans were eager for clarity and to see where the story would head next. Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood was an excellent follow-up to a masterful game. It properly continued the story of fan-favorite main protagonist, Ezio Auditore, as it explored his journey following the major changes his life underwent in the previous game. 

Brotherhood dived deeper into the lore of the infamous Borgia family. The game took place during the middle of their regime in the Roman Papacy. The previous game featured Rodrigo Borgia as a main villain and mastermind of the famed Templar Order. Who were the main antagonists of the series. Brotherhood introduced further members of the Borgia family, including Rodrigo’s son, Cesare Borgia, as the psychotic and power-hungry villain who seeked to turn Italy at the time into his personal kingdom. Rodrigo’s daughter, Lucrezia, also played an important part of the story. However, Cesare also was portrayed as a vital member of the Templar Order, following the footsteps of his father. The Borgia family in the game were depicted as evil and villainous people and served a crucial part of the story. Cesare, voiced by Andreas Apergis, is still to this day considered to be the best and most dangerous antagonist in the entire series. 

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood introduced an Assassin recruitment feature, where Ezio could call on his apprentices to help aid him in combat or sneakily take out enemies in his way. This feature was welcomed by fans and brought a unique aspect of the gameplay that previous games did not have. It was extremely helpful to have some support in combat against formidable enemies. A way of recruitment was helping out Italian citizens of Rome who are fighting against the Borgia guards, and after successfully saving the citizen, he is asked to join the Brotherhood and resist against the Borgia oppression in Rome.

Brotherhood also allowed players to explore and take in the full experience of late 14th century Rome. This location was very briefly shown in the past game towards the very end as Assassin’s Creed II mostly featured other cities in Italy such as Florence and Venice. It was great for players to dive into Rome at its fullest. Brotherhood was helped by not attempting to be vastly different from its predecessor, and instead chose the route of a familiar style that the past game was used to. This was wise from the developers at Ubisoft as they stuck with what players loved. There was little need for drastic changes especially in a continuation of the same story being told. Ubisoft nailed the approach. They knew fans were satisfied with the gameplay mechanics of the past game and proved players would be glad to continue Ezio’s story with familiarity and not something entirely different. Ubisoft knew in the following years the series would require significant changes to gameplay in order to be original and evolve as fast as modern technology does. Ubisoft took a smart route by understanding the time would come for major differences, but bided their time long enough to satisfy fans.

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood improved upon the flaws its predecessor had. It stuck to a familiar format, but took necessary action to fix the changes fans disapproved of from the past game. A good example of this is the minor changes the game underwent such as different combat skills, new types of weapons, and new user interface for things such as the health bar displayed on-screen and improved graphics. Brotherhood was well ahead of its time in its ability to not be afraid to make changes, but stick to what players all loved. To some fans, Brotherhood is up there with the best games in the entire series. The story properly explained the continuation of Ezio’s story and made fans love the direction the game chose to take.

Brotherhood also explored further the story of the modern day segments of the game. The side main character, Desmond Miles, leads his team and friends on a journey that took place simultaneously with the historical part of the game. Some fans had displeasure with the amount of content the modern day story followed, as most players preferred to stick with the historical setting, but the game did a good job showing Desmond follow in the footsteps of his ancestor, Ezio, and properly continued the dual-story aspect. It showed fans that even while deep into the historical time periods, the modern day setting played a huge part in the main story.

Brotherhood also showed the importance and power of the fabled piece of Eden artifacts that were commonly mentioned and seen in the games. Ubisoft introduced a mission towards the end of the game where Ezio could fend off hoards of enemy Borgia guards with just one click for the Apple of Eden, a circular object that when interacted with could cause mental insanity or death in a heartbeat. Brotherhood explored three main aspects of the story. Not only did it tell the continued story of Ezio Auditore, but also explored modern day and even further showed the hidden secrets of these Pieces of Eden and their significant importance in the game's lore. 

In the end, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood was a beyond worthy sequel that satisfyingly showed the events of the past games that fans were dying to see continued after a mystery of an ending we witnessed before. Fans to this day look back on Brotherhood as perhaps the best sequel in gaming at the time. It took all that was loved and adored from Assassin’s Creed II and made it all much better all while keeping the fan-favorite style the game held. Brotherhood was a great sequel and story continuation that showed the oppression that the Borgia family held over all of Italy, and the resistance that Ezio and his fellow Assassin’s took to liberate and free Rome from their tyrannical grasp on the entire society at the time. The Assassin’s Creed series took a serious step forward with Brotherhood and in the end captivated fans who were heavily anticipating the mysterious ending the past game endured. There is so doubt any Assassin’s Creed fan can see and understand the vastly important impact it left on gaming as a whole.