Assassins Creed: Revelations Review

Guuuuuuuuuuuuys I am really tired of playing the same game!

From the first time I beheld the concept of AC, I fell in love with it's syfy/fantasy/history hybrid. It's absolutely brilliant. Free running like that had never been done so fluid, and open worlds where the player can choose how he proceeds is (typically) much more engaging. The story was thrilling and mysterious, and it made the yearly release an exciting prospect. However, I believe the annual releases have been a slight detriment. This writer feels like in the long run, the players are actually losing from this.

Pros:
Still Assassins Creed. Nothing has been dramatically changed, and the main components remain nearly untouched from Brotherhood. A few new gadgets and features, some UI/controlling tweaks here and there, etc.

Cons:
Still Assassins Creed. Nothing has been dramatically changed, and the main components remain nearly untouched from Brotherhood. A few new gadgets and features, some UI/controlling tweaks here and there, etc.

I might be getting ahead of myself. I did enjoy AC:R, I did! I really just hadn't intended playing Assassins Creed II: Constantinople Edition. I understand that the game cannot be fundamentally changed, that doesn't make sense. The reason it has been a success is because of it's innovative free-running and unique combat. That can stay. What I had expected change was.. well everything else. This game feels exactly like Brotherhood. Allow me to digress...

The game starts out.. and I'm already confused. Desmond has been "locked" in the Animus, his brain is scrambled, and his mind is losing the distinction between Altair, Ezio, and Desmond. The Animus is barely holding his fractured mind together. Desmond winds up in blank a environment created by the Animus, and discovers his fate from a stranger. This guy.

dur?

Don't know who this is? I didn't either. Don't worry though, Desmond, who has literally only heard of him (unless you finished all of the puzzles in Brotherhood, at which point, he makes a digitized appearance, confuses the balls off of Desmond, and tells you stuff, about Eve.) knows exactly who that is. You still don't know? Come on! It's Clay Kaczmarek! Who is Clay Kaczmarek?! Seriously? It's Subject 16?!?! WHO IS SUBJECT 16?! YOU ACT LIKE HE HAS LITERALLY ONLY MADE OPTIONAL APPEARANCES?! Oh.. he literally has only made optional appearances since the first AC? Huh... well this is the guy that was driven insane by the Animus, and spread his blood all over the walls in the first Assassins Creed. Yeah, that guy. Cheery fellow.

So that's confusing. Anywho! He gives Desmond his goal for this game, namely, fix your damn brain, it's all broken. To do this, he has to finish Altair/Ezio's memorys. Well duh.

"I am so lost.."

SOOO You are Ezio. He is looking for secrets Altair hid, stuff he doesn't want the Templars to find. He winds up in Masyaf. You know. Masyaf, that place they announce like it hasn't been 2 years since we played the first game (Masyaf was the starting location in AC1) I think we see the pattern here...

Shit goes down, and Ezio's hunt leads him to Constantinople. This is the city in which the game resides. Ezio meets the leader of the Assassins that have risen in Constantinople as a result of Ezio's effort to bring the Assassins into power. As Ezio peruses Altair's knowledge, he finds himself helping the Assassins in Constantinople, blah blah blah PLOT!

So now you are in your big city, lets go do stuff! What kinda stuff did you do in Brotherhood? Find viewpoints, buy banks/tailors/blacksmiths/landmarks/faction buildings (Same goddamn factions, except the courtesans are Romanies.), recruit assassins, do some random memories focused on a girl, hunt treasure, occasionally kill officials or bribe Heralds, do faction quests, clear out "some bad guy" and light his tower on fire, kill lots of Templars.... Brotherhood? Oh nonono, that's all the stuff you do in Revelations! It's different now!

Ubisoft:

Same game. Problem?

There are some differences, and I can't really say I like them. For starters, your "presence" meter (that little bar that gets more red.. and then when it's full people kill you. You know the one.) represents how aware the Templars are of your actions. The Templars are reeeaally active in Constantinople, referred to as Byzantines by the Ottomans. So, when that fills up, they attack you on site. You gain Templar awareness by doing literally anything. Killing Templars (ok..), killing really anything (right, ok), doing quests (um, alright?), buying property (wait.. what?), ya know. The usual. Typically, awareness wouldn't be that big a deal, it just means I have to kill more stupid Templars. Weelll, that's not entirely true. That is, unless you really love Tower Defense games.

DOOO WHHAAAA?!



I really wish I was kidding. It was cool like.. onc-- no never mind. I hated it the first time I did this stupid mini game. Every time you do this bullshit, every time some tank, artillery thingy shows up at the end and ROFLfucks you. Every time. Vulgar imagery here.

You can prevent this (thank God), but it requires ensuring your Templar Awareness never fills up. You can also prevent this innevitably (I think) by leveling up your Assassin recruits, and then doing their quests and promoting them to Master Assassin, at which point, once they reach level 15 (they have to be level 10 to start Master Assassin training. ) they can protect Assassin Dens on their own. It takes several hours to level your assassins to 10, and then takes several more hours to get each one to master and I literally have no idea how long it takes them to hit 15, but I think by this point I have 3 level 15 masters? You probably have a dozen Assassin Dens. I'll let you do the math.

So that's cool. There are a ton of characters, and they all have Turkish names. During one mission, you are immediately innudated with all the names and titles of the royalty and military members important to the story. My Turkish is rusty... so I was unable to differentiate who was who and whose name matched whose face.. and who was betraying who, and whose uncle was whose.. favorite and brother-father, something.. sultan... general Talik.. some person.. Asssassins... yusif... *head explode*

The faces looks bad sometimes.

WHO IS THAT ON THE LEFT OMGOSH!?

OKAY! Now that you are fully convinced I hate this game: I don't. I'm not impressed with it, and I am certainly glad I didn't have to buy it, but I did have fun. It's still AC, it still has it's charm. There was just not enough newness to the gameplay for me to consider it worth another 65 bucks. It literally could have been a $20 expansion, albeit a long expansion. There are some very cool plot elements though, but that's about all I will say, plot-wise :3
If you have been a big fan from the beginning, and you are still dedicated to the story, you will enjoy it. Rent it on a weekend you have free, or over the winter break, and give it a good run through. I didn't buy it, so I can't speak for the multiplayer, but I imagine it's just as good as Brotherhood's was. Because of DRM bull, you do have to purchase the game, or buy an online pass to play on Xbox Live. Bogus. I didn't wish to slap down that cash, and I have never been one to care much for the mutiplayer. It's a good game. Stand alone, with out comparison to what it mirrors, it is quality. A lot of care went into this game, of that I am sure. I don't believe Ubisoft, or any of the guys at Montreal want to screw their fans, I believe they really do care for this game and for the players. I think they are just really crushed by this annual release business. It limits the scope of innovation, and dampers how much the game can evolve. It's a whole they have dug for themselves and I really hope it doesn't turn into a grave for the franchise. Despite my scathing words, I have hopes for the franchise. I am excited to see what will happen after Ezio, and to watch the plot develop. Next time, Ubisoft... I need to be impressed.




7/10