Whether it's the non-numerical title, the proximity to the last entry in the series or the nearly identical box art, there seems to be a lot of confusion about whether Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood should be called a fully-fledged sequel to last year's bilingual stealth-action masterpiece. Is it a standalone installment in the franchise, or a collection of new gameplay ideas that weren't realized in time to make it into Assassin's Creed 2?

After completing the game's single-player campaign and digging into its multiplayer offerings, I can confidently say that I still have no idea. It could accurately be categorized as either, or even both, but ultimately that distinction's not all that important. Any way you slice it, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is an absolutely exceptional game.