Review HANSOLOOOOOOOO 4/5 · Mar 9, 2025
RoadTo360 52, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood: Better Quests, But Lost Some of the Charm
I am on a journey to beat 360 random Xbox 360 games. Here's my next adventure
Game number 52 was Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. AC Brotherhood is the next game in the AC franchise and continues both Desmond and Ezio’s stories. The gameplay formula is the same as ever. You play as an Assassin as he parkours across a historical city …
I am on a journey to beat 360 random Xbox 360 games. Here's my next adventure
Game number 52 was Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. AC Brotherhood is the next game in the AC franchise and continues both Desmond and Ezio’s stories. The gameplay formula is the same as ever. You play as an Assassin as he parkours across a historical city and seeks to free the world from the Templars’ grasps. ACBH takes place in the city of Rome in the years 1500 to 1507.
The graphics of ACBH are very standard for the Xbox 360. There is very little to write home about here. I like how bright everything is I guess lol. The sound is pretty good though. I don’t remember any specific tracks, but the sound effects are instantly recognizable and the voice acting is nothing short of iconic.
The story of AC Brotherhood continues where AC2 left off. In the modern day, Desmond and his crew have escaped the Templars once again and are now setting up base in Monteriggioni (the same place Ezio lived in AC2). They are looking for the Apple of Eden to stop some unknown disaster and continuing to follow Ezio’s life to find it. This is all pretty basic and mostly filler for the real story: Ezio in Rome.
Throughout the events of AC2 we got to see Ezio grow up, mature, and enter into the ranks of the Assassins. Things start up immediately after the conclusion of AC2… like literally AC2 ends with Ezio sneaking into the Vatican to find something and ACBH starts with Ezio escaping from the Vatican. After getting back home to Monteriggioni and a couple moments of peace, the entire villa becomes under siege by Cesare Borgia. Cesare manages to destroy the town and kill Ezio’s uncle, Mario. The rest of the story is a big revenge plot where Ezio follows Cesare to Rome, revitalizes the Assassin’s order there, and plans to take down Cesare and the Borgias.
Honestly, the plot in ACBH is really good, despite what I said in the title. I think that the story has some really good points and there is a very interesting subplot where some members of the Assassins are suspected of being Templar spies. ACBH also has some of the series’ coolest moments (which I don’t want to spoil here), which really boost the game up. I just think that I enjoy a coming of age story (AC2) more than I like a revenge story (ACBH). I would say that the average person’s enjoyment of ACBH’s story largely comes down to taste.
The gameplay here is pretty much the same as AC2. The combat, assassinations, stealth, and parkour feel very similar to AC2 (which will change with later games in the series). Everything is still just as good as then. Parkouring is satisfying and the city of Rome has many buildings that feel fun and rewarding to scale. Most of the fun in any AC game comes from just running around and immersing yourself into the world and things feel just as great here as ever before.
The combat is fine. I have always thought that AC combat was a little easy… there isn’t a whole lot of reason to stealth unless the mission specifically tells you you have to. I don’t think anyone is playing these games specifically for their combat, but it is serviceable.
The side quests here are the best side content in any AC game up to Black Flag. First, the city of Rome is divided up between a series of boroughs all centered around Templar forts. Ezio has a harder time getting around these areas when they are controlled by Templars and needs to take over these forts. Capturing the forts is a really fun diversion and the dozen or so forts feels like the perfect amount. There are also some quests which focus on Ezio’s past relationship with a woman named Cristina. These are all really sad, yet great, and show the love that was never able to blossom between them. The final main side quests are helping out Da Vinci get back his war machines. These feature flying sections, boat sections, and even a tank.
Outside of the focused side quests there are many smaller side objectives like buying the city to increase Ezio’s income, completing mini objectives for factions, and a troop management mini game that feels like one of those early Facebook games (IYKYK). None of these are that engaging and I would advise you to stick to the main quest and focused side objectives unless you really want to spend more time in Rome.
I have a hard time pointing to any one thing about ACBH that is really negative. Honestly it is a great game and should probably be held higher than AC2… but it just doesn’t have the same charm or wow factor that AC2 has always given me. Maybe Ezio cracks a few less jokes here, maybe I enjoyed the multiple city aspect of AC2, or maybe it's just nostalgia, but I just don’t think ACBH is as memorable or replayable as AC2. It's still a great game though and I would recommend it to any fan of AC2 (You need to play that before this one… most AC games can be played in any order, but not this or ACRev.) (8/10)
I spent 15 hours, 28 min, and 4 sec playing Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. Interestingly this was only 7 minutes more than the time I spent on AC2… they must have very similar lengths.
I have spent a total of 547 hours and 15 minutes on the Road to 360 challenge so far.
Next game: Assassin’s Creed Revelations.
