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I wasn't incredibly bothered by how easy the game was (even compared to the other two), but I can at least see how that (and your other complaints) would annoy people. I also thought AC2 was better.
That said, it was still one of the better games I played last year, and I thought the combat (discounting the assassintants [I liked the concept but thought the execution made them a bit too much of a win button, not that those aren't nice, but...]) was incredibly improved.
Agree.
I am a big fan of the Assassin's Creed series, and I have to say, Brotherhood was the least impressive of th 3 so far. Having it set in the one city is the key downside - even though they made that city huge, had multiple different terrain sets, a feeling of towns, etc, it just feels too contained. I think if they made it Rome, Ostia and Naples, it would have been much better. And they wouldn't have needed anywhere near as much 'open field' terrain within the city walls...
Being able to leave at will would have retained the 'coming and going' feeling of the previous titles. This is my biggest complaint, and AC4 looks to be the same. It seems to be set in Constantinople, though it does look to be during multiple time periods, (Altair, Ezio, Desmnd) which should mix it up a little.
Secondly, the Borgia towers, upgrading shops, buying equipment and find treasure cycle was the game. There was WAY too much of that. The game got repetitive in the same way the First one got repetitive. It almost felt like a neverending facebook grinding game.
I didn't mind the Apprentices, however they were just a bit too overpowered. And again, leveling them up was just like another facebook minigame, and once levelled, they were unstoppable against the guards.
Again, the Leonardo and Romulus missions felt also like mingames, and I have never been a huge fan of the gimmick mechanics for the inventions. The missions themselves were decent, and gave an excuse for infiltrating a place, but they felt too much like a sideshow.
The combat was much better than number 2. Number 2 had way too much hitting before the kill, this one had the right balance, and was perfect to me.
And the percentage synchronisaton was a good and bad addition. 50% or 100%? Where is the variences inbetween?
I did like the training missios in the Animus - though perhaps would have been better placed in number 1 or 2. A bit too lte for this one.
Overall it was a few steps forward in mechanics, but a few steps back in narrative / level design, and whole bunch of steps back in busywork ad achievements. I spents much too long doing the same thing over and over again just to get the achievements to increase the percentage. I really don't want to do that, but I still want to feel like there was more of a game there - I had no such compunction to go back and find all the flags in AC1 or the feathers in AC2.
