I had heard of the Assassin's Creed series of games before but never really tried one of them, and never knew what made it so popular. I ended up getting Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood as a bundle to my PS3, and I've finally finished the story (still got some side quests left, but not much to go now). In the beginning, it was really hard to use the controls, and it was tough learning and getting used to it. Having never played the previous two games, I didn't know what to expect, and more often than not, I was frustrated at the complicated controls. Fighting head on wasn't fun or as smooth as I expected (since I've been playing primarily hack n slash games, I foolishly just charged in attacking the guards), until I ended up learning how to counter efficiently. Free running and climbing the buildings and structures were really fun, I spent many a minute just running around all over the place, and trying out the different assassination techniques.
I did not get the story though, not sure if it is coz I wasn't interested or (more likely) I didn't understand it coz i haven't played the second one. I got some of the plot points, but to me, it felt like one thing chained after another, and I didn't get how everything fitted together. All I know was that Ezio was out to get Cesare. The ending of the game (in the modern day) was surprising.
I've mentioned the game play was fun and it is, there are so many other things you could do other than the main story missions. Compared to all the 'side quests', the main story felt short and quickly finished. A lot of the puzzle elements, particularly in the 'Lair of Romulus' series of missions, were very well thought out. You have to stop and think about where you're going to leap to next before you do it. Once you've sorted out your path, you feel a sense of exhilaration racing through that path, jumping and leaping. That said, a LOT of the missions were annoying and not much fun to play. I particularly hated the Leonardo's Machines set of missions, and the controls for those machines weren't exactly the best (to be fair, only the bomber plane controls were hard to master).
The music was great, and suited the game play very well. The game has some of the best in game music. The purchase of shops and landmarks to rebuild Rome was addictive, as was destroying towers in order to free that area of the influence of guards. The city of Rome is huge and it takes a while to explore it all. In the end, it was great fun playing this game, and now I understand what had made this franchise so popular.
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