When a series releases four games in the space of five years, it takes something special for it to maintain interest without going stale or instead losing what made it great in the first place. Perhaps it helped that the first Assassins Creed felt like a collection of great ideas that just failed to make a cohesive whole. It wasn’t until the sequel, and the shift from Altair to Ezio Auditore, that the series was propelled to a new stratosphere of high quality, which the following game Brotherhood expanded very well. Now with a third Ezio dominated game in as many years, you may be tempted to accuse Ubisoft of milking that cash cow till it’s dry.
Well there is that to an extent, but that does not mean Ezio fails to deliver the same pulse racing assassinations, building scrambling and jaw dropping set pieces as before. They’re still very much present and correct, but are now even more cinematic and outlandish, with plenty derived from other action adventure titles such as Uncharted. Again the plot zips from historical intrigue, to all out action, then Parkour-esque scrambling with a dash of science fiction at a sometimes breathtaking pace.
Ezio is now entering the autumn of his years but still perfectly capable of taking on a band of pesky Templars, as he travels to Eastern Europe in the hope of finding the keys to a secret vault that will reveal the last secret of Altair. This gives us an opportunity to relive key moments of Altairs life that were previously unexplored. And of course reliving all these events is Desmond, now trapped in a comatose state with his mind collapsing, having to use the Animus to put the shattered pieces of ancestor’s lives back in their proper place, so he can then find out just what the Revelation in the games title actually is.
The result is a story that serves to wrap up the stories of both Ezio and Altair, and prepares the series to make a brave new step into unknown territory when it inevitably returns. Ezio is clearly a man tired with the constant struggle against the enemies of the Assassins, but who soldiers on because there is no-one else. Yet by the end of the game it is clear he has lived his last adventure and has no more stories to tell, and similarly Altair’s life is neatly packaged up. Their part in the overall Assassins Creed storyline has ended, paving the way for Desmond to explore a new personality next time. The way their final challenges unfold is both intriguing and exciting to witness, with some very solid scriptwriting. Though it is a shame the big revelation is something fans of the series already knew had happened. Likewise the big plot twist at the end of Brotherhood (I won’t spoil you) is simply glossed over, so you learn of the end result but not why it happened. Hopefully future games will address this, because it will be a real shame if it happened purely for the sake of being edgy.
But of course, the true fun comes from having a city from human history recreated for us to play about in. For Revelations it is the turn of Constantinople, a city wrenched from invading army to the next, filled with political intrigue and its walls bursting with clashing cultures from across the world. It’s an inspired choice. Bringing back Ezio one last time was a bit of a gamble, but it was worth it to frolick inside one of the most fascinating cities in human history at an equally fascinating period. It’s fantastically big place, more condensed then Rome of Brotherhood but still packed with extra missions and buildings to purchase. There is barely a break in the rooftops, allowing yourself to hop from building to building almost the length of the city, making it a much more vibrant place then Rome, where you often needed a horse to get from point A to point B.
Again it is a city in need of maintenance, so you spend your hard earned cash on rebuilding shops and landmarks, rewarding you with weapons and more cash. You can also recruit other Assassins to aid you once you’ve wrestled power from a templar seized area. So far so very much like Brotherhood. But now you can assign assassins to a den and unlock further missions, while rebuilding shops will make your enemies more aware of your presence. If they are put on high alert, you not only risk being spotted more easily, but this may also lead to an attack on your den, which if not repelled will mean the Templars retake control. This involves a strange tower defence style mini game, where you position your assassins and weapons to ensure the bad guys are repelled. It’s a strange and out of place addition, but only one is forced on you and you’ll only have to endure another if you are very careless.
Ezio’s abilities and combat moves do not differ all that much from previous games. All the weapons and moves from Brotherhood are present, and the upgrade system remains the same. There are only a few additions. A hookblade you can use to aid your climbing abilities and to zipline across the city, which is a nice but far from essential tool. Your eagle vision ability has now become eagle sense, so not only do you use it to identify useful items or potential enemies, but you can also track the ghostly outlines of your quarries and see the routes guards patrol. Again, a welcome addition but hardly groundbreaking.
The big addition is that of explosives. Used for damaging, diverting or inhibiting your enemies there is a wide range of bombs at your disposal. You create them yourself from ingredients nicked from chests or dead soldiers, and the result is create-your-own-explosive buffet. Do you opt for showering the baddies in shrapnel, distracting them with a cherry bomb, covering them in a poison gas cloud or even coating them in lambs blood, making them panic as they think they’ve been injured? There is a wealth of options and exploring them all is great fun.
Indeed this is the strength of the Assassins Creed series. So many games promise freedom and choice but fail to deliver, allowing you instead to choose between set paths. In this series how you go about your dirty business is entirely up to you. You can stick to the rooftops picking off enemies with you crossbow, take to the streets but using the cover of crowds and paid allies to distract your enemies while you sneak in for the kill, or just go in with your sword held high and force your enemy to uncover themselves. Set pieces are more rigid granted, but the way you wrestle control of Constantinople back to the Assassins offers a flexibility that few other games do.
Revelations does not really build on what went before, but enhances what was already there. There are no sweeping changes and everything that was in previous titles has been retained. It is essentially an expansion, but one so vast and content filled it is still very much its own game. Treated as a culmination in the stories of Ezio and Altair, it makes sense to use the solid framework of what has gone before and use it one last time.
Yet as each previous game came out Ubisoft Montreal listened to the criticisms and made sure that each game saw an improvement, whereas with this title they have transferred over what they had in Brotherhood. This means combat still remains a little clunky, and it is often just as effective standing your ground and using repeated counter kills as it is to run away. There are fewer side missions to carry out than in the previous title, affecting the games longevity. And the hidden dungeon areas, (a fantastic mix of clambering, action and puzzle solving) this time prefer to rely on Uncharted-esque wide camera angles of Ezio making impossible leaps with debris falling about him or explosions ripping the screen apart. In a strange way, by being so bombastic, the quiet intensity of these sections is diminished.
So it is just another Assassins Creed yes, but is very accomplished nonetheless and you don’t mind playing it through one more time. Revelations leaves the series in rude health, with Ubisoft Montreal now hitting their stride and confident in the direction they want the series taken. Assassins Creed Revelations is the culmination of four games in which each time they have not been afraid to change what was needed. In a strange way, the fact they have not needed to change much for this game is to their credit. With the next title we will certainly have a new time period and a new character to play about with, and presumably gameplay changes to go with it. What we have with this title is a chance to enjoy what the series has become. With Ezio retiring it is a chance for a fresh start, but it is great to see that he has finished on a high.
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