Assassin's Creed Brotherhood: The Da Vinci Edition - Xbox 360

Ezio is back, and he's brought some of his mates! Well, he'll be finding some mates as you make your way through Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, anyway. Many assassins are better than one, right? And getting the original game along with DLC thrown in for free is a good idea, right?

Ubisoft is taking a slightly different tack with Brotherhood than it did with Assassin's Creed 2. Rather than jumping forward another few hundred years, the company is continuing the story of the last game's protagonist. Things pick up exactly where the last game left off, though it's an older, more experienced Ezio than we saw in the last game.

Many of the core stealth and free running mechanics that marked AC2 remain in place – a fact that won't be upsetting many series fans – but a couple of crucial new elements have been brought in. Firstly, as suggested, you can recruit new assassins. This brings a new element of strategy to the game, as well as a new layer of characterisation. As you recruit new allies, you'll be able to send them off on missions around the city to further your cause against the Templars and line your pockets, as well as get them to offer support on your own missions by providing distractions or even fending off attackers!

Also new to the series is an online multiplayer element. It revolves, as you might expect, around assassination. In the Wanted mode, players are assigned someone to kill and have to do it in the manner they would in the game – using stealth and agility. While they're out trying to kill another player, however, someone else is trying to kill them. Alliance takes this mechanic and throws in team-based cooperation, while Hunter sees one player trying to take out a target while all the others try to stop them.

Add in the brand new setting of Rome and you've got plenty to keep players happy! Add in the downloadable content released since launch of the original Brotherhood and you're onto a winner! more