When Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood was first announced more than a few eyebrows were raised, lips pursed and ribs knowingly elbowed. It was accepted that Brotherhood was really a glorified expansion pack, with a multiplayer mode tacked on to justify a full retail price. It’s not like we haven’t seen Ubisoft keep squeezing long after the juice is gone with their franchises. But a few hours with the game will have most series fans writing a tearful apology letter to Ubisoft.

Brotherhood is a full and complete sequel in everything but name, with more content than Assassin’s Creed 2 in its single player and a multiplayer that is easily the best new experience of the year.

Is there a greater shame than having your neck broken by a clown? I don't think so

The plot picks up following immediately from the end of Assassins Creed 2. Some spoilers here but nothing you don’t learn in the opening first minute of the game. Ezio Auditore has just witnessed the vision in the vault below the Vatican and this has put the present day assassins and Desmond into a spin. They rush to Ezio’s home of Monteriggioni to obtain the Piece of Eden that will prevent the end of the world in 2012. Unfortunately the piece is not there and attempting to locate it using the Animus reveals Ezio losing the Piece of Eden during an attack on Monteriggioni by the pope’s son Cesare Borgia. Injured and near death Ezio flees to Rome. His new goals are to recreate the Assassin order, free Rome from the Borgia stranglehold and recover the Piece of Eden.

From there it's following the trail and picking up the pieces of the puzzle with plenty of free running and swash buckling adventure.

The 'foodchain' scenarios are common in multiplayer, often leading to a carpet of corpses

Brotherhood succeeds over Assassin’s Creed 2 by tightening up the plot and dropping the boring optional quests. Whereas the previous game was plodding and slow to start, putting of many players who never made it to the fantastic later game missions, Brotherhood gets right into the thick of things. A daring escape from the Vatican is followed by a spectacular battle at Monteriggioni complete with cannon fire and siege towers. Your first missions in Rome throw you in the deep end as well, assassinating an executioner, and then burning down a Borgia tower. There’s no running messages or pointless races; they’ve stripped out the boring stuff and left in all the cool elements.

I tried doing this with a bedsheet once off my parents roof and broke my arm, it was just last week in fact, I'm typing one handed

The city of Rome is imagined in spectacular detail, at least twice the size of the largest map in the last game. To get around quickly horses can now be ridden in the city and there are a number of underground tunnel entrances that can be used to fast travel to key locations. Of course it’s still plenty of fun taking to the rooftops and free running across town, using your new crossbow to skewer any obstructing guards.

Many elements of Brotherhood have been overhauled but the combat system is perhaps the most subtle and welcome change to the game. Rather than waiting patiently for an attack to parry enemies you can string a single parry into a series of lethal blows and take out five enemies in one fluid motion. The action speeds up with this simple addition and Ezio feels a hell of a lot more lethal for it. The new pre emptive attack gives the action a cinematic feel reminiscent of classic films like the Count of Monte Cristo or The Three Musketeers (or yes the Princess Bride).

Nothing says 'freedom from oppression' like massive property destruction and extreme sports

The major change, hinted at by the title, is the addition of a manageable Brotherhood (with sisters, assassin’s are equal opportunity employers). About halfway into the game Ezio recruits the citizens of Rome being menaced by papal guards into the brotherhood. The assassins can then be sent on various missions around Europe to fulfill contracts and earn money. The recruits level up until they’re a full fledged assassin with access to the same basic weapons and skills as Ezio. When not away on contract the assassins can be called on to assist in combat and assassinations. You merely need to point at a target and press a button and your assassins will drop from nearby rooftops or leap from horses to take out targets or run to your aid if you’re under attack. Holding down the button releases a flourish of arrows that drop any nearby guards. These attacks need to charge up again between uses and pitting low level recruits against too many guards can lead to a dead recruit; but it’s not impossible to finish the rest of the game without drawing your sword once you have a small force of assassin’s at your beck and call.

Late in the game all you need to do is raise your hand, then hang out with the hookers while you're posse kill every guard in site

Micro management is a big part of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. In addition to gathering and training up your team it’s up to you to fix the mess the Borgia family have turned Rome into. Whenever you destroy a Borgia tower you’re able to purchase and reopen the local businesses. This naturally gives you the bonus of having more places to shop for swords and poison and all the businesses earn money that gets deposited at the local bank for you to withdraw. Improving Rome also improves your standing with the locals; the result of this good will causing citizens to run to your aid against guards. Many shops also have their own challenges, requiring you to gather certain items to unlock some of their better gear. If this all sounds too tedious you're free to skip these sections and focus on the core quests. But personally I think you'd be robbing yourself of some of Brotherhood's enjoyable elements. Not to mention missing some optional quests.

It's pretty awesome to be the boss, even more so when your staff are all Renaissance faire ninjas

The factions return as well, courtesans, mercenaries and thieves, and you can rebuild structures around Rome for specific factions if you want a group on hand. Both the normal three groups and the assassin’s have a series of challenges for you to complete which add bonuses to Ezio and open unlockables.

But wait, there’s more. Subject 16 has hidden more puzzle glyphs around the place to have you pulling your hair out trying to solve and the temple challenges return, this time a series of keys guarded by the wolf skin wearing Followers of Romulus, which unlock a special suit of armour. Leonardo Da Vinci returns as well, but things aren’t going so well for the inventor. To help Da Vinci you need to complete several difficult missions away from Rome, each of which is, to say the least, brilliant. In case you get bored there’s also a training mode (reminiscent of MGS, especially as you can unlock Raiden) that lets you practise your killing and free running skills in a number of different situations.

Spending half the multiplayer experience running for your life is a perversely enjoyable experience

So the single player is even more robust, with a plethora of sandbox options, more than enough to keep most gamers happy. But again there’s more, and this brings me to the storyline related multiplayer. After a cinematic intro you play as an Abstergo agent, using a stolen memory of an assassin to learn their skills and fight other agents. How storyline related is it? Well AI controlled characters from the multiplayer will actually appear as quests and attack or flee Ezio in the single player game. Yes, I know, that’s extremely cool. The multiplayer has several modes, the most common of which is Hunted that drops six to ten players into a map, everyone has a target and is a target. If you manage to complete multiple assassinations without being caught you end up with as many as four assassins hunting you. The game world is populated with npc’s who look like each of the characters and a vague compass is all you have to detect and kill your target.

You be cannoning, they be hating

Ultimately the game comes down to brains and strategy. There are plenty of tricks and traps to execute your kills while evading your pursuers but it mostly rewards patience and deceit. Abilities unlock as you level up including disguises, smoke bombs and pistols. While it’s easy to chase down and shoot a target, you’ll net a paltry 100 points, whereas stalking a target, then ensuring they walk right into your attack can earn you several hundred points. In addition to Hunted, there’s a Manhunter mode with one team as an assassin and the other team trying to evade them, and Alliance which boils down to three way Manhunter, three teams of players each trying to kill as many on the target team while avoiding the team stalking them. Multiplayer has some technical issues, mainly just finding a game which can be a long and annoying wait, the matchmaking servers occasional stick for no apparent reason forcing you to restart the search. There have been reports of lag issues and glitches but in the dozens of hours I put into multiplayer I didn’t experience any during an actual game. In a year of champagne grade multiplayer games Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood is easily my favourite, it’s unique, fun, thrilling and rewards intelligence and devious behaviour over twitch reactions.

In the next game you might be able to form up, Power Ranger style to create a Super Assassin Bot! At least I hope you do...

In case I didn’t make it clear beforehand, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood is briliant. In terms of quality, entertainment and value I don’t think any other title this year can touch it. I do have issues though, not being able to play as a new assassin is disappointing and while we get some expanded details on Desmond and the modern assassins, they still feel like bit players waiting to be fleshed out. There were some pretty high concept elements in the last game (especially for those of us who dug deep enough into subject 16’s hints) that didn’t quite get the exposure I was hoping for as well. The last few missions of the plot run together a little too quickly and the addition of a late game ability isn't as enjoyable as you think it would be. The plot also ends on another killer cliffhanger that might have some people gnashing their teeth, but take comfort in the knowledge that you will not see the end coming. In terms of the single player structure, elements of the management system felt disjointed, for example I have a team of ten assassins and I fund operations for courtesans, thieves and mercenaries, but I don’t have someone who can go to the bank for me? Although I have to admit, some of these issues may be down to my personal taste.

Zoro got to rescue hot, busty Spanish maidens, Ezio gets to rescue pudgy Cardinals, it can't all be roses I guess

Far too many games undersell their audience, they telegraph plot twists a mile away, they rely on clichés and tired overused genre techniques. Arguments in defence of stupid games suggest that games aren’t capable of more complicated plots or that gamers don’t want them. Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood proves that neither is true. You can have a technically great game, with fantastic gameplay elements and controls, a compelling multiplayer and a high concept science fiction story set mostly in Renaissance Italy. It’s a story line that would be a hard sell to a Hollywood exec. But Ubisoft does a professional job presenting it. For a game that started life as a suspiciously quick addition to a popular release Brotherhood easily surpasses Assassin’s Creed 2 across the board. One of the best games of 2010.