Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – review

Assassin's Creed 2 marked a massive improvement on the original game, but with this sequel appearing only a year later I was half expecting something of a rush job. Fortunately, Brotherhood manages to combine old and new elements with skill and imagination while adding, for the first time, a potentially fascinating multiplayer component.

Fans of Ezio's time-straddling storyline may initially worry that all the action is now set in Rome, rather than the three distinctive city architectures of the previous game. And indeed, things do start slowly, with the Siege of Monteriggioni lulling you into a false sense of security as you get used to new abilities – from being able to ride horses, to two-handed combat against enemies that will happily gang up on you rather than waiting politely for their turn. Finally, when all hell breaks loose (courtesy of a cannonball crashing through your wall), the real story begins and you'll find that things move at a speedier pace.

When in combat, you can now use more powerful kicks, a new disarm move and even a crossbow that allows your to shoot enemies off nearby roofs – but this is just the start. Ezio is now an assassin leader rather than just a lone operative, and is able to summon teams of assassins to perform "brotherhood assisted moves". You can train these cohorts as much or little as you like, even to the point where they can take care of mundane skirmishes while you're up to something more interesting.

However, as before, this is primarily a stealth-based game, with enemies likely to bolt or summon reinforcements at the first sign of trouble – which makes early recon essential to pick exactly the right position and time to strike. And it's not all about fighting – there are missions that involve sabotage, retrieving objects or escorting other players and, as in AC2, hidden levels that rely on purely platforming skills, with pixel-perfect jumps made all the trickier by needing to examine the scenery with your eagle vision to discover the upward path.

As for the multiplayer side, players can choose from eight assassin types and a pair of weapons before being cut loose in disguise somewhere around Rome, tasked with locating and taking down a player-character who is also hunting you. It will be interesting to see how the dynamics of this play out once the servers fill up, but it's something that could easily evolve into its own MMO, given time and a few more playing modes.

For now, it's the single player campaign – filled with stunning cut-scenes, music and voice acting – that prove the most compelling reasons to play this excellent sequel. On this evidence, I can't wait for the next one.