Assassin's Creed: Revelations

Over the relatively short amount of time that I have been back in the video game world (roughly a year and a half) I have played (to varying levels of completion) roughly 60 games. Two of my absolute favorites to play through out of those 60 were Assassin's Creed 2 and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. I only completed Brotherhood in October of 2011, and found myself in the somewhat rare spot of being very fresh in the Assassin's Creed world when the 4th game of the series - Assassin's Creed: Revelations - was released in mid-November. I was excited by this prospect, as I felt that i'd be in an ideal place to jump right in with memories of Brotherhood and its plot lines fresh in my mind. As it turns out, that was less of an advantage than I anticipated, as the game jumped over to Constantinople from Italy and decided to largely forget most of the continuing story lines that felt so important during the last two games.

As in every installment of this series, Revelations adds a number of new gameplay mechanics which are a mixed bag at best. The most enjoyable - and most useful - of these is one that I have rarely seen mentioned in a professional review of the game: the addition of a secondary weapon slot. Unlike previous games, the player in Revelations can assign the 'Y' (on Xbox 360) button to a pistol or bomb or other such ranged weapon. I found this especially useful against the tough new Janissary enemies, who are nearly on par with Ezio as far as strength, speed and blocking abilities. By taking a few swipes at them with a sword and then firing off a pistol round it was much easier for me to fend them off than it would have been without that second weapon option.

Another addition is something called the 'hookblade'. This blade - which takes the place of the hidden blade - allows Ezio to make larger vertical leaps up walls and also to slide down zip lines that are (rather oddly) scattered all over the city. I find this addition to be pretty positive for the most part. It takes some getting used to at first, as places that would have been inaccessible in the past are now easily reached, but by the end of the game I felt as though it was something that had always been there and I had just briefly forgotten about it.

One other aspect that I find enjoyable was the expansion of the Assassin Recruit system. The actual recruitment and leveling up process of new Assassin compatriots is largely the same as it was in Brotherhood, but has been expanded to include higher levels, a Master Assassin achievement and a plethora of new missions that reward plenty of cash, experience points and items. While I found the recruiting and leveling up to be pretty satisfying, the fact that each of the cities you send recruits to in order to complete tasks has an Assassin Control percentage that goes steadily down after taking the city itself can be a bit of a problem. As far as I could tell after playing through the game, the highest Assassin Control percentage that can be attained is 50%. That seems odd and leaves a very unfinished feel to the whole aspect. I ended up liking the new depth overall, but it never seemed to make the impact that I thought it might

Well, that's about it for the positive additions, I'm afraid. Up next, I will outline the myriad (okay, that word's usage is probably some hyperbole here) gameplay elements that are either bad, really bad, or something that one should avoid at all costs.

First and foremost amongst these elements are the new 'Den Defense' challenges. A little background first. Like in Brotherhood, the player is given the task of taking over enemy towers in order to unlock areas and make property purchases (viewpoints, shops, etc.). What is changed with Revelations is the fact that these towers are now taken over by the Assassins after defeating them and then have to be defended from the Templars. This can be done in one of two ways: either defend the towers by leveling up a recruit to the point of being assigned to defend the area himself/herself, or have Ezio defend it through a tower defense sequence every time your notoriety maxes out. The game becomes highly irritating when the latter option is chosen (or forced upon you, depending how far along you are in recruit training).

Especially during the early stages of the game, it is unlikely that you will have enough Assassin recruits to defend the dens you take over. So, on the occasion that you hit maximum notoriety (which, by the way, can no longer be decreased by pulling down wanted posters, but only by bribing heralds and killing witnesses) you may be required to fight off a Templar invasion. This invasion takes the form of a tower defense sequence that is just excruciating. I won't go into great detail here, because having played through two of these scenes I found myself able to completely avoid them for the rest of the game. I will just say that this addition is rather unwelcome, and poorly executed, but the fact that they are largely avoidable (except for the relatively easy introductory tutorial) is a plus.

While the Den Defense sequences are the most annoying additions, especially because you will have to play at least one of them, the new 'Desmond Sequences' are a close second in that category. After collecting a certain number of Animus Data Fragments (see below for an explanation of these), you are able to exit the game world and enter the depths of the animus as Desmond. There are six areas to unlock and venture into in this way, and I must admit I tired of it after playing two of them and doubt I will ever return to finish them up. These sequences take the form of first-person puzzle/platforming missions in which you as Desmond must place two different shapes of platform in spots in order to travel around a Tron-like retro-future environment. The reward for completing these? As far as I can tell, it is merely an achievement for each one and a little bit of background on Desmond. That is certainly not worth the frustration that the sloppily implemented puzzles and somewhat infuriating camera placements cause. The look and sound of the areas are nice and soothing, but the gameplay is not worth the effort.

Another not-particularly-welcome addition is the use and crafting of bombs. After a certain point early in the game in which you learn the bomb-crafting skill, Ezio will be able to stop at various spots around the game world and patch together three different types of materials into a variety of either useful, comical or irrelevant explosive devices. The bombs themselves work fine, and sometimes they are genuinely effective, but I never found Ezio in a spot where I thought to myself that 'I could really use a bomb right now'... except, of course, for the several missions in which the game actually forces you to use a bomb in order to advance. So, while the bombs themselves do a fine job, the fact that they are made mandatory to use is what put me off about them.

Along with the additions and subtractions that have been well documented, there are a number of things in AC: Rev that have been altered or substituted. The tombs and lairs from the prior games have been replaced by several Altair Memories, in which Ezio actually experiences key moments in his predecessor's life. The Courtesans have been replaced by the 'Romanies' who serve pretty much the same purpose, but were probably tossed in as an attempt to make Constantinople feel more authentic. Again, there is nothing really good or bad about this modification, but it does show that Ubisoft is at least putting some effort into these yearly iterations. Eagle Vision has become Eagle Sense, and while its function remains largely the same, its use button has been shifted from the Y button (where the secondary weapon is now) to a click of the left analog stick.

In addition, the Borgia Flags (100 to find) and Feathers (10 to find) from Brotherhood have now become Animus Data Fragments (100 to find) and pages from the dairy of Ishak Pasha (10 to find). One thing that bothered me about Brotherhood was the fact that Borgia Flags were contained within Lairs of Romulus, so missing some during those fast-paced sequences (which was not hard to do) meant that in order to get all 100 of them, one would have to go back and play the entire Lair again. Luckily with Revelations, the Animus Data Fragments (which allow the Desmond Sequences that I mentioned above to be accessed) are all within the main game, 85 of them in Constantinople and 15 in Cappadocia. A word to the wise, make sure you go after the Cappadocia fragments early in that sequence, as if you miss any before going on with the main plot line, you will have to re-access the memory to get all of them. Still, I'd rather go back over one memory than six.

For the first time in the run of the Assassin's Creed series, I have decided to get involved in some multiplayer malarkey. I did this with some trepidation, as I tend to have no interest in interacting with others in any way. However, having seen some rave reviews I read up about the features that are in AC: Rev's multiplayer, and decided to give it a shot. Having played a fair amount (I have gotten up to level 15 after playing an hour or two a day for about a week) I must say that I am pleasantly surprised. I was expecting a bunch of 15 year-olds running around immaturely and being dicks to enemies and teammates alike while making the experience completely unfun. I was right about that, too, but there are also a fair number of normal people such as myself who are just looking to play against some live competition. There are quite a few different games to play, and while you don't always have control of what you play if you aren't playing in a custom session with friends (of which I have none), all the options are entertaining enough to be worth sloughing through.

Say what you will about Assassin's Creed: Revelations - and I have said much here, myself - there is still plenty to be enjoyed with this latest entry. The main gameplay is better than it has ever been and the addition of the hookblade and the secondary weapon slot are very nice touches. There is plenty that has been added and changed for the worse, and there is definitely a sense of deja vu throughout most of this, so extreme praise for the game is going to be rare with good reason. I ended up enjoying my first play through quite a bit, and will likely keep coming back for multiplayer sessions and will give single-player another go after the inevitable DLC packs are released.

There is one thing that needs to be said, though, before the end of this review. The subtitle 'Revelations' is very misleading. I am spoiling here, to a certain extent, but I think it is important to mention that almost nothing happens with the broad, overarching storyline of the prior two games. Yeah, there is a sort of cliffhanger ending that (one would think) will lead into some actual revelations, but this game doesn't provide any itself. Maybe something happens if a sick individual decides to complete all the Desmond Sequences, but since I refuse to do so because I hate them, I guess I will never know.

The Good: The main gameplay mechanics of the this series (which I find to be the some of the best around) are better than ever; Added depth to the Assassin Recruit system is welcome and mostly enjoyable; Multi-Player is surprisingly fun; Despite its flaws, the the story's flow up to and including the end of the game really made me anticipate the next entry in the series.

The Bad: The first couple hours of this game are pretty tough to get through; Den Defense is the worst addition to the AC series; Desmond Sequences are the 2nd worst addition to the AC series; Heavy bomb-pushing is pretty irritating; Still with the stinking races?; The credits are way too long.