Assassin’s Creed® Brotherhood

After the amazing success of "Assassins' Creed II", there was no more doubt that a franchise was born. In less than a year, Brotherhood was announced and released. It looked cool, was cool, and made you cool by liking it and playing it (well, at least in the nerd circles anyway). Out of all of the old Assassin's Creed games, Brotherhood is the one I spent the most time playing as a kid, mostly because I bought a pirated copy of it, so it was always just a quick install away. However, I never finished it. I would always play the game for a few sequences and then stop for some reason. What I remember the most is being fascinated with how chock-full of content this game was. Now, in 2026, after 100% completing the previous two games, I finally completed Assassin's Creed Brotherhood 100%. So, how does it hold up in 2026? Weeell.... For starters, Ubisoft did it again. Since the game relied on UPlay servers (which now don't exist) for some of its gameplay functionality and DLC accessibility, you literally cannot access the investments portion of the gameplay at all, and to access the DLCs, you need to download a save that has access to the DLCs in order to play them yourself. This save also comes with a lot of the achievements already unlocked, which is a bummer for completionists (although the achievements tied to investments are completed, so that's nice). Multiplayer is also obviously not available. But hey, at least you don't need a hex editor this time! The game runs very poorly on my laptop, and no amount of following guides and tips from the community helped me achieve 60 FPS... With that unpleasant stuff out of the way, we can finally talk about the game. After playing Brotherhood for a while, you will come to the conclusion that IGN even openly said it in their video review published at the time. This game is basically Assassin's Creed 2.5, and that cannot be more true than it is. Everything that was in the second game is here, whether it makes sense or not. What I think happened is that the studio was finishing AC II, and they made this little piece of Rome for the finale, and then somebody decided:"Hey! Let's make this into a full-blown game and release it before Christmas this same year!" Only through the veterancy of the developers, who are by now probably long gone from the torture rooms masquerading as Ubisoft's offices, and with the help of multiple studios was this achieved, and I must say, the result is, for the most part, impressive! The game is an improvement over the second game, not in a huge way like the second one was to the first one, but you can still notice the small stuff. The combat was streamlined and improved, horses can be ridden inside the city (although it's very weird since they couldn't figure out the pathing for both the horse riders and walking citizens, so you'll constantly be pushing them around), the economy system was improved so you don't get filthy rich too quickly, and other minor improvements make this feel nice after the unrefined greatness of the second game. The story has moved from TV series territory to something more akin to a B-movie, and I'm OK with it. It's pleasant and not insulting and quite refreshing in its simplicity. Music is great. Presentation is even better than that of the second game, and in some instances, the spectacle feels movie-like. All in all, the game is enjoyable even nowadays, so if you're wondering whether or not to give it a go, I say do it. There's a lot to do in this game! But here we come to the game's main problem. With a development time of less than a year, there was undoubtedly the drive to make the game seem worth it content-wise. This, in the end, made the game feel very bloated. It has almost every type of content from AC 2 and then adds more on top of it. To put it into perspective, I completed AC 2 100% in less than 50 hours. In Brotherhood, I'm just short of a 60. If you are a completionist, have no doubts, this game will overstay its welcome, and the more you dive into its side content, the more you'll start to see the cracks, both technical and in design. By the end, I just wanted to be done with it. Looking at the game as an adult, I can see why the legendary TotalBiscuit deemed the series to be boring... Despite all of its flaws, and bear in mind that this could just be nostalgia speaking, I think this is a blast from the past. It's something that reminds me of my childhood and the time when Ubisoft's name tied to a game still meant a quality experience awaited you. This is why I will recommend this game, and if you are a fan of the series, there's no reason to skip this one. Kowa, another one bites the dust! :)