Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

It's hard to put a finger on what exactly Assassin's Creed Brotherhood is meant to be, in terms of a continuation of the series. It's not a sequel as such, and for that I am glad; if Ubisoft could genuinely pump out a fully-fledged sequel to such a polished game as Assassin's Creed II in just a year I would be seriously concerned about its quality. It's not in a different time period, you're still playing as Ezio, and just about every character, weapon and move you saw in Assassin's Creed II is here too. However, it's not just a repeat either, being in a fully redesigned city and with the new emphasis on teamwork, in single player and multiplayer. It's an interesting move, a 'semi-sequel' if you will, and definitely something fans of the series and its storyline will want to test the water with, though it leaves me wondering whether Ubi should perhaps have saved their efforts for Assassin's Creed III.

Following directly on from the events of Assassin's Creed II, players are put straight back into the boots of the now-seasoned veteran that is Ezio Auditore da Firenze, and he has some business to clear up. Strangely, this really is the case - Brotherhood hardly sees the Assassin guilds pursuing the members of the secret society of Templars, but rather has Ezio hunting down his family rivals, the Borgia, who are more often a troublesome bunch of aristocrats than an organised, villainous faction bent on control of the Pieces of Eden. Cesare is a detestable enemy, sure, and certainly enough so to motivate the player to continue with Ezio's quest, but don't expect to be facing an evil mastermind like Al Mualim at the game's climax. Throughout the game you'll make your way up the 'ladder' until the Borgia are weak enough to be taken head-on, and this will require the usual grind: creeping into buildings undetected, trailing targets, and in some cases having to heroically fight your way out of some sticky situations. However this time, Brotherhood takes us to a place we got only a glimpse of in Assassin's Creed II - Rome.

Being the capital of Italy, Rome is considerably larger than Florence and Venice; even bigger than both put together, in fact. Its architecture is noticeably different, too, as instead of having the contemporary Renaissance-style brickwork and tiles the other cities had, it sports a much more classical style, with many remains of old Roman temples and landmarks scattered throughout. Most importantly, it incorporates in one big map just about all the elements of the formerly used cities and towns, and this can be good and bad. On one hand, it provides one location for the story to be set without need for fast travel and always makes the action feel like it's happening on home turf, but unfortunately it also struggles by having a heck of a lot of open ground, similar to that of the Tuscany map. An open field is no place for an assassin, and with the horse controls feeling as clunky as ever I felt often that it was a chore getting to the southern corners of Rome.

As the name 'Brotherhood' suggests, Ezio is not alone this time. Being the new 'Mentore' of the Assassin Guild, his job is now also to recruit and train new assassins, who will later be at your beck and call for when things get messy, or need a quick and quiet execution. Training assassins has been made a simple, yet satisfying task; once recruited, you use pigeon coops to send them on missions across the world for EXP points. The higher level they are, the more likely they will survive the more dangerous and rewarding missions, and there are few things in the game as awesome as calling in a trio of fully-trained and armed assassins at that crucial moment.

Oddly, however, this teamwork mechanic only enters the game after quite a few hours have passed, and it is only from this point onwards that the game really holds its own as something new and exciting. The game in general, I found, struggled badly with some pacing issues, and when I look back on it I often think of the first two or three hours of Brotherhood as 'the worst Assassin's Creed I have played' - the missions are dull, the storyline is uninspired and it seems that everything you worked hard to earn in Creed II has been mysteriously lost as you go back to using the Common Sword and little else. I wasn't exactly expecting to start with the Altair Sword, but at least give us some new abilities to make up for the sudden loss - these are the events directly following, after all.

That said, when Brotherhood picks up steam, Ubi's dab hand on the series once again begins to show. New weapons such as the utterly brilliant crossbow (easily my favourite weapon, from all the games), a refined and more stylish combat system, new moves such as horse-to-horse assassinations - these are just a few additions, and from here on out it's the Assassin's Creed you love and more, all the way to the finish.

Brotherhood's campaign is roughly 12 to 15 hours long, and this really depends on how long you care to spend finding collectibles and rebuilding Rome to its former glory. After that, Ubisoft have provided what was totally unexpected for the series - multiplayer. In this, you play as Templar agents, using the Animi to catch and kill Assassins. There are multiple game types, pitting different team sizes against each other and having different objectives, but the main goal is to act inconspicuously , sneak up on your target and go in for the kill before they know what's happening. On the whole, this is fairly well designed, with particularly impressive civilian AI which really keeps the prey on their toes when trying to spot their predators. It comes with a host of upgrades, perks, and custom class settings for the dedicated, but for me this was precisely the problem. The multiplayer was original and very well polished indeed, but it wasn't something I could play for hours, nor get competitive over. This is personal taste of course, and I've no doubt some will be hooked, but there's something about walking slowly and carefully after your target, before suddenly bursting into chase that can get tiring quickly. I hope this is something Ubi improve on in the future, as this was some serious potential that wasn't quite realised.

Brotherhood seems to be a sign of a yearly Assassin's Creed, and this could be good or bad. The game is great, adding many new features to an already enthralling experience, but it still seems to feel like Assassin's Creed II with new tricks, instead of wholly coming into its own like the transition between the first two games did. Come for the story, stay for the 100% completion and multiplayer, and Creed fans will most likely love it, but I feel with a little more time put into Brotherhood it could have been something a whole lot more. 8/10

Call of Duty: Black Ops

The Call of Duty series and I have had a rocky relationship. While I greatly enjoyed Call of Duty 3, and to a lesser extent World at War's brutal yet believable portrayal of the Second World War in the Pacific and Berlin, the series' modern offerings have both greatly disappointed me, finding little excitement with either campaigns and nothing but extreme frustration in Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer. Black Ops however, Treyarch's latest entry to the series, fits in between these two starkly different eras. Taking place during the Cold War, it shows warfare as secretive and rapidly evolving, and Treyarch's work to rebalance the experience is noticeable and impressive.

Black Ops' campaign is not what one would expect from a Call of Duty game. For a start, it's not simply following orders from a radio involving clearing out trenches or assaulting an 'anonymous Middle Eastern terrorist faction', nor is a hideous mess like Modern Warfare 2's single player. Instead it tells an edgy and perhaps controversial story of a US Special Forces agent who, having escaped torture and testing at a Russian labour camp, must root out and destroy the Soviet Nova 6 Project, a deadly gas weapon that is planned to be used against the USA. It has its fair share of clichés, such as the stereotypical 'big bad Russians' and the age old 'going rogue' plan, but it also delivers plenty of twists and turns amongst the action, and is in my eyes the best Call of Duty campaign yet. Gary Oldman reprises his role as Viktor Reznov from World at War, now a weathered veteran and a central role, and plenty of new and diverse environments (from Cuba to Vietnam) keep the experience new at every corner, as does the franchise's trademark character switching, which helps to see the tale unfold from both sides. My main issue with the campaign was some pacing problems - the game begins with a bang in an attempt on Fidel Castro's life, and this extremity does not let up throughout. Sure, the story is well told and you are always aware of what you are fighting for, but with little to no down-time, many climactic moments lack punch. What couldn't have hit harder, however, is the ending which was an utterly stunning twist that defied expectation, and was one of the finest conclusions to a plot I have seen lately.

Albeit my favourite campaign of any Call of Duty released, as always it is not a lengthy experience, spanning 7 hours tops, and naturally multiplayer is the focus of the title. Modern Warfare 2 was the most popular multiplayer game of all time, meaning Black Ops has the expectations of several million players to live up to, but it also has some major balancing issues to deal with that Infinity Ward left behind. These issues are what turned me away from Modern Warfare in the first place, and I approached Black Ops' online mode with apprehension. Fortunately, my fears were dashed away, and multiplayer on Call of Duty is finally, for me, the addictive and rewarding experience that I could not find since Call of Duty 3. A host of fourteen maps are evidently sculpted around certain gametypes, and it positively shows during matches. Killstreaks, while technically harder to get due to the new 'no stacking' policy, are satisfying and original, in particular the 11-kill Gunship which allows the player to have full control over a Russian Hind - gone are the days of a boring circling aircraft aiming at enemies through a infrared scope a mile away, as killstreaks feel more as if they're part of the battle rather than observing it. The most of Treyarch's work, however, is in the class customisation. Everything now costs 'COD points' to buy, meaning you don't just have to unlock new guns and perks, you have to earn them too. These COD points are made by playing and winning matches and can be made in any playlist, but most proficiently in the new Wager Match game types. As the name suggests, you pay COD points to enter, and if you win, you profit. You lose... well I'm sure you can work out the rest. What's different about these game types is that there is no death match, or capture the flag, or demolition, but instead totally different match types such as Gun Game from Counter-Strike, or One in the Chamber - an incredibly tense tactical mode in which you have one bullet in your M1911 and will only get more ammo by killing enemies. Don't miss. The changes made in the overall multiplayer experience go on, and Black Ops is several steps ahead of any other Call of Duty as far as customisation and diversity are concerned. Admittedly, there are a couple of things I would like to see patched, such as the overpowered RC-XD killstreak and most of the SMGs being underpowered, but even with these in mind this is still the most balanced of the lot, and frustrations are at an all-time low.

After World at War, there is one thing Treyarch couldn't leave out for Black Ops - zombies. The Nazi Zombie mode started off as a simple post-campaign level made as little more than a joke, but it quickly grew to be the most popular component of the game. Needless to say, the experience is repeated here, giving the player two maps to start with. One of them is a hilarious bout in the White House that sees JFK, Nixon, McNamara and Castro fighting together against the undead hordes, while the other acts somewhat as a continuation of Der Reise of World at War. The voices of Nikolai and Tank Dempsey return, as do teleporters and a Bioshock-esque environment. Personally, while I couldn't put any particular faults on the zombie mode, I didn't enjoy it quite as much as I did on World at War, perhaps because of the map structure, or because slow and heavy WWII guns seem to fit the survival theme, but on the whole it's still a great time holding off the endless flesh-eating freaks and those who enjoyed the mode enough to buy the maps in Treyarch's last title won't be disappointed.

I'll always have reservations about a Call of Duty title; I still think its mechanics are bested by plenty of other FPSs and to me its smaller map sizes will never beat the large-scale intensity of a Battlefield game, but after what I have seen since Call of Duty 4, Black Ops has been a very pleasant surprise for me. My enjoyment of the game was consistent across campaign, multiplayer and zombies, and personally it seems a sign that it's at least going in the right direction. It's the title that will once again trounce the Christmas gaming market, and people all over the world are going to be having a very cosy winter indoors this year playing a solid and refreshed shooter. 9/10