Assassins Creed is a series which has been going on since
2007, and with the now yearly release of the series, one has to wonder if the
people at Ubisoft are looking at making this is alternative for video game fans
who don’t want to partake in the yearly Call of Duty fest that happens every
November. Thankfully this doesn’t seem to be the case.
Each new instalment since Assassins Creed 2 has focused
on Ezio Auditore, a young nobleman from Italy. Whilst this is going on, in the
background you have the continued story of Desmond Miles as well. This may
become confusing for most video games developers, but Ubisoft have handled the
two sections really well, keeping the 2 sections separated, but also
interlinked via certain in game objects. Unfortunately this has all gone out of
the window in Revelations, where the Desmond sections are entirely optional,
where you have to collect a certain number of animus fragments to actually
unlock his missions, and when you do get to these missions, there a mix of
Portal and Tron, absolutely nothing like the original sections from Assassins
Creed up to Brotherhood. It also throws
you into first person camera, which throws the player off-balance as well, and
makes jumping and platforming more awkward. If they were going to go first
person, one would at least hope for some Mirrors Edge style parkour
free-roaming, but no, it’s all linear. This is so disappointing as the story for
Desmond was left at such as cliff-hanger at the end of Brotherhood, to be given
this feels slightly insulting. It all feels like it’s just an add-on thrown in
at the last minute with minimal thought involved.
The Den Defence missions as well, seem to be a clunky
add-on rather than a well-thought out mini-game. Now these missions, apart from
the first one, are optional, you just have to keep your notoriety metre down,
which I managed to do throughout the entire game, so only had to play through
the defence once, which was more than enough. You position assassins on the
roof of buildings and shoot down attacking Templars, which on paper seems
rather fun. But in person, the camera moves badly, and you just feel like you
want to whip your sword out and start jumping down to face them one on one, but
you can’t actually move.
Now these are just minor complaints against a massive
backdrop of awesome, with the main point in question is that you get to play as
both Altair and Ezio. Both have fairly different playing styles as Ezio has all
the technology available to him during the 15th century, whereas
Altair is limited to what he had in the first game. Whilst these are amazingly
fun to play, they unfortunately are few and far between. However the pure joy
you get at playing as Altair again does make the wait worth it.
Another improvement is that you get bombs in this
version, as well as a different type of hidden blade. These add extra dynamics
to the game, with the hook-blade allowing you to travel on zip-wires throughout
the city, which is an exceedingly fun way to get around the massive city of
Constantinople.
It isn’t a vastly different game from its predecessors,
but it does conclude the Ezio trilogy quite nicely, especially if you got the
collector’s edition which came with Assassins Creed: Embers, which is a 20
minute short film on the conclusion of Ezio’s life.
This is a game that is definitely worth picking up if you
are a fan of the series, but if you are new I would recommend starting at the
first, and then working your way along as the story is so intriguing you will
want to know what is happening.
Overall I give this game a 8.5/10
