Assassin's Creed: Revelations review from an Assassin's Creed fanboy.

It's a tough ask of your fans to release a game just a week after the biggest (in terms of content) game of the year, especially since we have played basically very similiar games for the past two years. Since Assassin's Creed II is my favourite game of this generation, and Brotherhood was a worthy follow-up albeit not incredible, it saddens me that Revelations was a bit of a disappointment. Here's why:

Story
Revelations continues Desmond's story right after the events of Brotherhood.

Spoiler:

Meanwhile, Ezio Auditore discovers secret documents hidden by his father, Giovanni, which says that there is a secret room hidden under the walls of Masyaf created by Altair.
This sets up the basic premise of the entire game as Ezio must find the five keys of Altair in order to unlock the entrance. Using these keys, Ezio relives the memories of Altair following the events of AC1, all the way until his final days as a mentor of the Assassin's. There is also a seperate subplot that forms within Constantinople between two brothers fighting to be the successor of the Sultan. Overall, I found the Constantiople story not to be all that interesting however Altair's story had some incredible moments as we see his transformation from an arrogant prick in AC1 to a wiser man.
Personally, one theme that I thought was missing from Ezio's story was the element of family. Ezio's struggle to protect his family was such a central plot point of both AC2 and Brotherhood, but it was almost non-existant in Revelations apart from occassional letters to his sister. Nevertheless, Ezio's conclusion is still satisfying for fans who have been invested in his story. Despite being lacking for the majority of the game, the story really picks up in the last quarter and the ending will leave you more WTF than the previous games.

Story- 7

Graphics
There is no doubt that the Anvil engine is some pretty dated technology at this point. Given the one year development cycle, it is nice to see some great additions to the engine such as more realistic facial rendering which can really add to the emotion of some of the more intimate moments. Overall, the game doesn't look too different from Brotherhood.
The design of Constantinople is really interesting since it is a mix of the Italian Renaissance design of AC2 and Brotherhood, along with some of the Arabic design of AC1. Once again, the city is faithfully recreated by Ubisoft, however, I just can't help but feel there isn't that magic feeling about the city the way that Florence and Venice sticks in your mind from AC2.

Graphics- 7

Gameplay
Probably the most disappointing part of Revelations. The big selling point of this game was the hook-blade which was supposed to increase your movements speeds through the use of ziplines and extended reach when climbing. While Brotherhood additions to combat completely changed the way you approach combat, Revelations' additions don't really change the way you approach navigation. You are still doing the basic holding two button climbing although it is sometimes a litter faster. Zipline movement is also based on downward momentum so that renders them completely useless if you are trying to navigate the city from the other direction.
Every gameplay feature from Brotherhood returns with the exception of horses.
Bombcrafting was another feature that was heavily advertised, but I think I used it about twice throughout the game since it is not really a necessity when approaching your missions.
Revelations fails to make any major leaps in gameplay that Brotherhood made.

Gameplay- 6

Replay Value
The main story will clock you in about 10 hours. However most of the side missions and extra content is just a grind. Upgrade stores, tail this guy, assassinate this guy, chase down this guy. Basically the same shit you did in Brotherhood.

Replay Value- 6

Final Verdict
For a game titled Revelations this game is very short on actual Revelations. I find that I have to agree with everyone saying this game is a milk. The events that actually occurred in the Desmond storyline could have easily been added as an extra hour in Brotherhood or whatever the next game will be called. The game just has a very "been there, done that" sort of feel since the gameplay additions aren't very significant and the storyline fails to capture you the way AC2 does. If you are not invested in the Assassin's Creed storyline, I don't think theres any point in playing this as it will confuse you even more. If you are following the story, I would say the Altair missions and the ending are a worthy investment for you to play through the campaign once.

Overall- 6.5
Really disappointed with Revelations. Ubisoft could have given the team this year to work on AC3 as AC2 really benefited from the 2 year development cycle. I really hope Ubisoft brings it with AC3 in 2012.

So, is the game worth getting?

^^^

ghost23 wrote:

If you are not invested in the Assassin's Creed storyline, I don't think theres any point in playing this as it will confuse you even more. If you are following the story, I would say the Altair missions and the ending are a worthy investment for you to play through the campaign once.

Depends how interested in the story you are. Gameplay is basically the same as Brotherhood.

I enjoyed the game but I felt a little dissapointed with it. I would have like to see more of Altair.

This game is awesome.

And it's only downhill from here.

Sounds like assassins creed is suffering from the CoD curse.

chobo500 wrote:

And it's only downhill from here.

Well for all the people who say its only going to be worse, there's enough evidence to say that Assassin's Creed 3 has been in the some sort of development for over a year by this point.

Toxicmaniac wrote:

Sounds like assassins creed is suffering from the CoD curse.

Uggh, more CoD hate.

Probably gonna buy it for the story. I really enjoyed Brotherhood.

Sad to hear.

I just want them to release Assassin's Creed 3 already.

I can see AC becoming the next COD in terms of its yearly releases

The effects of milkage.

I just started and so far love it. I love the AC gameplay, so that is no complaint, but the graphics could be better... almost pathetic.