Even years later, the game holds up in "retrospective" write-ups for:

Unlike its predecessor, which spanned multiple cities, Brotherhood took a risk by confining the entire game to . This "open-world compression" allowed for a level of density and historical detail previously unseen. The write-up on this era often focuses on:

: It featured a unique "hide-and-seek" social stealth multiplayer mode that many fans argue has never been successfully replicated or improved upon since it was discontinued.