Assassin's Creed: Revelations

Following events at the end of Brotherhood, Desmond's mind has imploded, trapping him deep inside the Animus with subject 16 for company. His only way out in to delve deeper into the memories of Ezio, in particular his later years where he travels to Constantinople, himself tracing the footsteps of someone who has gone before him, Altair, in order to find the powerful artefact hidden within Masyaf, the ancient assassin temple.

When Brotherhood came out the other year, I thought it was a bit rushed and that it wasn't necessary – or at least I felt that way till I played it and enjoyed it a great deal while also progressing the overall story. As a result I was a little less cynical with Revelations, although I did still wait a few months till it was selling for less than £20. I'm sort of glad I did because, although enjoyable for what it is, this game very much feels like it was done for the sake of it rather than providing anything new to the player. In terms of gameplay everything is as it was and, although the new cities provide some cosmetic differences, it really is the same as what you have done before although I liked the addition of the bombs. "More of the same" isn't really a bad thing because I do very much enjoy the games so having more missions to do in the same sort of game is fine by me. Revelations keeps the assassin training and city missions aspect, which I quite liked, but the addition of the semi-strategy "Den Defence" game is poor – it was painful to do and the best thing to say about it is that at least the game only forces you to play it once! The other addition of Desmond's puzzles is actually really good – I found it challenging while also at the same time I liked finding out a bit more about his character from inside his head. There are a couple of missions as an old Altair where you have to walk at a snail's pace – these were annoying to play, but they are the minority.

The story is probably the main weakness here. I like the idea of tying up the stories of Ezio and Altair like this, but at the same time it doesn't really take the overall story – and this is the story that I keep coming to these games for. The bigger picture feels like it is in a holding pattern and what little narrative progress there is doesn't really justify an entire game to make it. I still liked the story within the game, but it did feel like they were just filling time and getting the most out of the characters in terms of sales before they have to move on (as they will, to the American civil war in the next game). The graphics are good – of course not as good as the opening cinematic, but they look good and the console never struggle with them. The multiplayer is polished, with some nice new game modes – I've only played it a few times but it is fun and, unlike Brotherhood, I seem to be able to actually get into games instead of waiting for 20 minutes as was the norm between games last time. It is tough but it has a unique feel to it and is a nice contrast to the "constant action, constant rushing" games that normally make up online play.

Overall Revelations is a solid game that continues the high quality of Brotherhood. However, it is hard to shake the feeling of the game being unnecessary and, as much as I enjoyed it, the story doesn't really move forward as much as it could have done. That said, I look forward to AC3, but Revelations has made me feel like I am sort of hoping that the next game is the one to bring it all to a close.

As compared to brotherhood, there may not be many new things added to the game. There's the hook blade and bomb crafting which are both excellent. The Den Defense and Desmond platform missions are however, not so great. Apart from these there have been many tweaks, but they are all minor. It feels and plays just like Brotherhood. This is the ONLY flaw in the game. The game is terrific in all departments. The Story is the best I've ever heard. It's absolutely stellar. There are a lot of moments in the game that quite frankly WILL take your breath away and leave you with goosebumps. Storytelling has been improved by miles and the cinematic cut scenes are excellent. Ubisoft has done a great job in tying up all the main characters together and the story really comes together in the end. A perfect goodbye to Altair and Ezio Auditore. Their stories are legendary, they are an inspiration and they will never be forgotten. Ending could not be more perfect. It's explained perfectly and really stirs up a lot of excitement for what's to come ahead. Assassin's Creed Revelations : "Checkmate. Your Move Assassin's Creed III."

The problem with having a successful franchise is that it's hard to keep the innovation and the awesome stuff going. Where do you draw the line, though? How can you tell if the devs are legitimately trying to keep telling a story that is too long to fit in one game or if they're just making cash off a solid, established and loved franchise?

Sadly, Assassin's Creed: Revelations feels like one final squeeze to the saga before they actually have to, you know, come up with something new for the series.

The original game was a total breakthrough. The idea was innovative, the execution was great, the engine was fantastic, it looked and sounded great and it had all the elements of a grade-A title. The sequel was even better. The whole setting for the story was different, the plot itself was deeper and there was the addition of a bunch of gameplay features that really enhanced the first game while keeping the essence of what made Assassin's Creed so good intact.

AC: Revelations is not a bad game (let's face it, you just can't make a bad game when there's such a huge budget behind it), but it's more of the same. There are no significant changes since AC: Brotherhood. The game world feels very much the same (even though the locations are different), the objectives for missions and side-missions are the same and so on. To add insult to injury, the few features that were supposed to refresh the game, such as a new tower-defense type of minigame or the bomb crafting system end up being underwhelming at best and annoying at worst.

Similarly to when Brotherhood came out, Revelations just plays like a bunch of content and features that got cut out of the original AC:2 and instead of coming up with a few DLCs to wrap the story up, they released, supposedly, a whole new title. It really does feel like the same old game, with a few reskins and name changes. In addition, the main storyline is disappointingly short, probably around 5 or 6 hours and its only purpose is not to fill in the blanks in the story, but rather just get you to a cliffhanger by the end of the game so you buy Assassin's Creed 3.

Graphically, it looks a tad better than its predecessor but still somewhat disappointing when compared to other games currently on the market. On the plus side, most mid-range computers won't have much of an issue running with high settings, same as with the previous games in the franchise.

In the gameplay department, everything is pretty much left untouched. There are some new weapons and moves, like the 'hookblade' or the 'counter-steal' but they don't really add any substantial depth to the previous mechanics. Other than that, it still is a sandbox game with a ridonkulous amount of collectibles and side-missions, so if you're a completionist and like shooting for 100%, it will keep you busy for quite a few hours.

My last gripe is with the story. The ending in Assassin's Creed 2 was.. out there. The franchise started out as a very solid, entertaining and thrilling story about world conspiracies and whatnot, and suddenly it turned into something out of the mind of L. Ron Hubbard. Now, as sketchy as it might have been at the time, I thought: "Well, okay. Where are they taking this?" and decided to give them a chance. The story in Revelations just feels blatantly rushed, weak and nonsensical. It's just tidbits and glimpses of Altäir's life after the events in the original game and a cliffhanger at the end. It doesn't tie things together. It doesn't provide you with more knowledge about what happened or what's going to happen. I'm all for building up the suspense, but, yet again, it feels like Ubisoft just needed to stretch things before coming up with the next sequel and ended up with a bunch of filler instead of a solid narrative.

In closing, Assassin's Creed: Revelations just feels like a very safe bet on Ubisoft's side to keep capitalizing on a product they know it works while at the same time cramming a bunch of superficial new features to sell it as new and improved. It's nothing exciting, innovative or memorable, but if you liked the previous games, chances are you'll enjoy this one.

If you're a fan of the franchise and want to find out more about the story/lore behind it, by all means, go ahead and play this one, but don't expect a different game.

7 / 10 due to lack of originality.

The game that gives end to the Ezio story. It keeps you entertained and fully emerged on the story with amazing mechanics and beautiful art.

A fitting end to Ezio and Altair.

Negatives:

• although I enjoyed this game, it was the same formula as the last two
• had a cold and overused feeling to the story and the way it was animated
• not enough colour in the animation
• slightly anticlimactic

-not violent enough

Positives:

• the reason I rated it so highly was because they dedicated a whole game to a fitting ending for both our characters we have played for 3 previous games, who needed resolution.

• the location
• the characters
• the story
• the bleakness
• the consistency with the other games
• it's darkness compared to the other 3 games

Overall a good 9.0/10.