Review: Assassins Creed Revelations

Words by: Dave Moran | Posted on: Sunday 4th December, 2011 | Filed under: Game Reviews, Retail Games.

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood was a surprise hit last year, but would Revelations be more of the same or would there be a radical change in gameplay style? If you have played Brotherhood the answer is no, but there are some good new ideas that add to the vast amount of tasks you can take on.

Revelations picks up right at the end of Brotherhood, we find Desmond, the present day heir in an Animus induced coma, the memories of his ancestors and his own identity fractured and in danger of collapsing entirely. He is stuck on Animus island and as well as being able to jump back in to the memories of Ezio he can jump back into his own, which unlock as you collect Animus fragments when playing as Ezio. Desmond’s sections are a nice change of pace from the rest of the game, if a bit a bland. These side levels are first-person puzzles, which require you to activate door ways and lay down different shapes that create paths to help you navigate the level and Desmond’s back story.

The main story focuses on Ezio though; he has travelled to Masayf to attempt to unlock the secrets Altair had previously discovered and to find the true purpose to his order. When he arrives the stronghold has been overrun by the Templars, who mark him for death. In true Ezio style he escapes the fortress where he discovers the entrance to Altair’s library. He learns that five keys are required to unlock the door, that the Templars have the first, and that the rest lie in Constantinople. One of Ubisoft’s strength is their ability to create an amazing environment for you to explore and Constantinople is no exception. It’s a vibrant take on old Istanbuland, there are some amazing sites to be seen from the 22 different viewpoints in the game.

When Ezio arrives he teams up with Yusuf Tazim, the leader of the local Assassins. He introduces Ezio to his first enhancement to the familiar hidden blade. He now has a hook too which he can use to slide along ropes throughout the city and throw out in desperation when the jump is slightly longer than he is used to. There are some hook based moved that can be used to evade or throw enemies, though to be honest I didn’t use them after the tutorial.

He is also introduced to something completely new, bombs. They range from sticky bombs that blast shrapnel, or bombs that on impact spread poison. My favourite was the coin bomb, as people rushed to grab the coins you could initiate a fight with the templars and the locals would join in to help you. There are bomb stations everywhere and any time you loot something there are ingredients to help you craft your next distraction. They can be a really useful tool, especially when you need to distract the guards.

If you have played Brotherhood you will settle in quickly (if you haven’t played the previous titles, I strongly suggest you do otherwise the story will pass you by). You can crack straight on with the missions or just explore the city, there are viewpoints to synchronise, shops to buy, money to collect and of course Templars to assassinate. Much like in Brotherhood there are districts that are under control by the enemy, your job is to sneak in and kill the templar captain and regain control. The eagle sense has been enhanced as you can now see a ghostly trail of your target to help you hunt them down, it will also scan a group of people when you are not sure who you should be looking for. You can then continue to purchase businesses and help redevelop the area, but be warned, these actions nudge the Templar Awareness meter upward in small increments. To prevent this you can assassinate captains wandering around the city (or have your assassins do the dirty work), or you can bribe heralds. If the meter maxes out, your Assassin Dens may come under attack which introduces an interesting new mode, Revelations: Den Defence. To be honest I felt this mode was just thrown into the game to see how it worked out. It’s well implemented and some people may enjoy it but I felt I had enough to do in the game before this was introduced. You can still call upon your assassins for extra support and also send them off on missions across theMediterranean to increase their skills.

Like all of the Assassins Creed titles there are missions that are brilliant, but then there are some you wish the developers had just not bothered with. One of my favourite missions sees Ezio hosing boats down with liquid flame then leaping across their burning hulls to escape the harbour. Another mission sees Ezio disguising himself as one of Brotherhood’s Italian minstrels, plucking a lute and making up songs to make his old enemies and the Ottoman soldiers around him look a bit stupid. Then they go and annoy me by giving me a mission to hunt down some flowers, the less said on that the better.

As the adventure unfolds each key you collect gives Ezio the ability to return to Masayf to relive the memories of Altair at different stages of his life. These missions are quite short but you learn a lot more about our original Assassin. As you reach the end of the story it all ties in really nicely with each other and sets up the next game really well.

Of course we shouldn’t forget about the multiplayer offerings that were first introduced in Brotherhood. Deathmatch has been made much more difficult as the original compass you had for hunting down your foes has been removed leaving you with only small hints to help. It certainly makes the game a lot tenser as you really need to keep your wits about you to succeed. As well as Team Deathmatch there is a capture the flag style mode called Artefact assault. There are some excellent new maps to play with too. The UI has vastly improved and there are challenges that earn you XP as you are playing. As you level up secrets about the Templar order are revealed to you which I felt was a nice touch.

I really enjoyed Revalations, although I couldn’t shake off the feeling the game was a bit of a cash in beacuse of the surprise success of Brotherhood. The new stuff adds some new ways of playing although you would still get by without them. The multiplayer has been improved and hoepfully they can avoid the numerous connections problems that people had in Brotherhood. Altair and Ezio’s stories are finsihed off really well and I’ll miss playing as them but most improtantly I am excited about what’s coming next.

About Dave Moran

When Dave isn't changing nappies or learning the latest songs on Cbeebies you'll find him taking the world on at FIFA or avoiding the sawn-off shotgun in Gears of War 3

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