Good game, tired game play.
I have tried to write this review several times over, and each and every time something has not felt right about it. I came to realize that I was trying to hold Assassin's Creed: Revelations up to the light in a way that would allow me to analyze the title as a stand alone effort, and this proved an impossible feat. There is absolutely no way that I can objectively review this game without looking at the series as a whole. The fact is that Ubisoft has dedicated itself to producing and releasing the Assassin's Creed games as an annual event, and the series is suffering for it. The original AC game was an experimental foray into the world of sandbox action/platforming and puzzle solving , and AC2 polished and reinvented the series so that it was less repetitive and tedious than its predecessor. Then, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood came along and brought a new level of polish and replay value to the series that made up for the fact that it was basically an expansion to AC2 with relatively identical mechanics and a few innovative game play features.
The trouble with ACR is that feels anti-climactic in many ways in comparison with the innovations that made the previous games feel special. ACR borrows many elements from its forbears and makes its own changes to established mechanics, but the new additions seem contradictory to the vision that the series has been following up to this point. For instance, ACR brings back the assassin towers/territories sequences from Brotherhood that challenged players to liberate sections of the city from Templar rule before they were safe for exploration or economic development. ACR's spin on this system allows the rival army to contest your hold on established territories if the assassin's notoriety level gets too high. As if this weren't enough, returning to the assassin's den to reclaim the territory triggers a tower defense mini-game that has players spending morale points to fortify your ranks as waves of enemies attack.
Don't get me wrong, I like tower defense strategy games as much as anybody, but the inclusion of an almost RPG like mini-game in the middle of a dynamic sandbox game takes away a lot of the freedom that the rest of the game promotes. To top it all off, if the tower defense segment is failed, the territory can be reclaimed simply by killing the enemy captain and lighting the territory beacon. Hence, the aforementioned mini-game (which is skip-proof) is rendered completely unnecessary. The process isn't game breaking, and I only bothered to initiate the mini-game a handful of times, but it feels like a departure from the series staple free flowing combat system.
There are a number of things that ACR does well, and after playing through the story mode it still feels like a well balanced Assassin's Creed game. Nonetheless, Revelations doesn't really rock my world the way that AC2 or Brotherhood did. Navigation controls and combat mechanics received some tweaks that help to smooth out game play a bit, but overall there is little to no innovation in this game that sets it apart from the others in a positive way. In many ways, it feels like successful elements of the previous two titles have been incorporated but reigned back to a level that dilutes their appeal. The tomb challenges are present once more, but the challenge level has been scaled back somewhat in favor of a more cinematic feel in some instances. ACR definitely has more of a scripted feel than its predecessors, and freedom of choice has been toned down in favor of a more director driven vision of how sequences can be played out.
Assassin's Creed: Revelations is not a bad game, but it does a poor job of setting up future additions to the series in regard to single player mechanics. The franchise is still relevant and has the potential to offer a great deal in the way of innovation, but the last few installments have stretched the formula a bit thin. Perhaps now that the focus has moved away from its focus on Ezio's back story, the story can move into a more modern setting. It would be interesting to see a world where the Templars have forced the assassins into hiding and stealth techniques play a more important role. Desmond's story may hold more importance in coming games, but will most likely serve as a backdrop for a different assassin's introduction. With that said, Assassin's Creed seems to have hit a wall of sorts for now, but perhaps that can be chalked up to the fact that Ezio's story is played out. The franchise still has plenty of potential, and it would be a shame to see it reduced to something of a conforming nature.
