Assassin?s Creed Revelations Review

[Discon]

I'm a huge fan of the whole series and am about halfway through Revelations. And...I'm disappointed.

Make no mistake, I love Ezio as a character. But I was worried it was a mistake to bring him back for a third game, and it looks like I was right. It's kind of cool that you get to play an older, established wise mentor-type when almost every other video game has you playing an angry young man. But it's harder to swallow a 50-year-old Ezio still jumping around rooftops like he was still 20. I don't really get his motivations for involving himself in the local situation in Constantinople. The Sultan is supposedly supportive of the Assassins but I still find myself killing his guards regularly. The local Assassins, who other than Yusuf have zero personality, immediately give Ezio authority over their whole organization without any hesitation or resentment. Why wouldn't he let the local guys continue to run things, maybe just helping out here and there, while concentrating on finding Altair's lore as was his stated intention?

I've only played one Altair memory so far. It was pretty good. Hopefully it makes up for the pointless feeling I get about Ezio's story in this game.

I think Steve's review was fair. The core gameplay I love is still there, but they can't seem to stop adding more and more busy work minigames. Because it's starting to feel like a chore.

The thing about Ezio being more fit than his age suggests CAN be explained by how

Spoiler

he has some genes from the old ones, the ones that enable him to use Eagle Vision.

I don't mind Desmond either, I haven't played Revelations, but I didn't think he was annoying or anything.

 

[Frost27]

3.5/5? 7/10?

I saw this as a fair score for a fair review. Let's see if Jim Sterling's commentary on the "hate out of 10" will come out here.

I'm only concerned with numerical review scores if the same person reviewed he three previous titles and based he numberd score off of a comparative viewpoint stacked against the rest. Judging a sequel on its own merits often leads to undeserved low scores.

Well, I wasn't reviewing games here when II came out, but I did do the review of Brotherhood, which I thought was a substantially better game. The problem is that Assassin's Creed didn't need another mini-game to distract you from what really sets the series apart from nearly everything else on the market. Despite that, Ubisoft keeps adding new features that don't enhance the core experience.

I'm not sure I agree entirely about reviewing sequels purely on their own merits. The industry puts a tremendous emphasis on sequels and gamers are asked to buy multiple versions of what is essentially the same game each year just to find out how the story ends or to keep up with the online fanbase. When you've already dropped $60 on each of two AC games, what should your expectations be for a third game at that same price? Ubi tried to make it feel new by loading it with new features, but my point is that all the new stuff gets in the way of what the game ought to be doing. For my point of view, it's entirely appropriate to criticize the game for that.

That is a good point. I suppose with a long running series (Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, etc.) the reviews would better represent the incarnation by comparing it to it's predecessors based on what it brings to the table in terms of augmenting the previous experience with new features and content. Sort of an "You already know the core without me laying it all out so here's what is new" approach.

I didn't mean to make it sound like I was trying to imply that the review was somehow invalid due to not being able to compare it to reviews of Assassin's Creed One and AC2 done by the same reviewer. I should have elaborated more. I just find that reviews are easier to relate to when you know where the reviewer stands, especially in regards to a series. So in that respect, being familiar with the reviewer in general is very important in regards to deciding whether or not to check out a title.

 

[DanielBrown]

Eh, it was a cool game and everything, but I felt a bit cheated. Not sure if it actually was shorter than Brotherhood, but it felt like it. The map was pretty small and there was not much difference in the envieroments... I know you can't expect much since they're dealing with actual locations, but I prefered the old times when we went to different cities.
Still, it was fun to play. The hook, poison darts and the bombs were great additions to the game.

 

[Steve Butts]

I didn't mean to make it sound like I was trying to imply that the review was somehow invalid due to not being able to compare it to reviews of Assassin's Creed One and AC2 done by the same reviewer. I should have elaborated more. I just find that reviews are easier to relate to when you know where the reviewer stands, especially in regards to a series. So in that respect, being familiar with the reviewer in general is very important in regards to deciding whether or not to check out a title.

You read the review but don't know where I stand on the series as a whole? I'm genuinely baffled by that. The entire first paragraph outlines my impressions of the series's general evolution and I go on at several points throughout the review to make direct comparisons to previous games. What is exactly that you think this review is missing?

 

[Frost27]

I didn't mean to make it sound like I was trying to imply that the review was somehow invalid due to not being able to compare it to reviews of Assassin's Creed One and AC2 done by the same reviewer. I should have elaborated more. I just find that reviews are easier to relate to when you know where the reviewer stands, especially in regards to a series. So in that respect, being familiar with the reviewer in general is very important in regards to deciding whether or not to check out a title.

You read the review but don't know where I stand on the series as a whole? I'm genuinely baffled by that. The entire first paragraph outlines my impressions of the series's general evolution and I go on at several points throughout the review to make direct comparisons to previous games. What is exactly that you think this review is missing?

I apologize for the confusion, it was a broad statement of reviews in general, not specifically this one. I should have been more specific. I'm not attacking the review at all, loved the review and it sold me on the game. My original post was in regards to numerical scores, not the content of your review in particular, I just did a poor job of putting thoughts into text.

 

[Steve Butts]

I apologize for the confusion, it was a broad statement of reviews in general, not specifically this one. I should have been more specific. I'm not attacking the review at all, loved the review and it sold me on the game. My original post was in regards to numerical scores, not the content of your review in particular, I just did a poor job of putting thoughts into text.

Thanks. That makes a lot more sense now. I totally agree that reviews need a larger context if they're to be useful to a general audience.

Now, to the refrigerator!

 

[Cody Holden]

It's weird: everything you disliked, I enjoyed.

(Only watched the video review, so bear with me)

The active part of reaching out to grab ledges is something I like and expect in Assassin's Creed (it adds to the "yeah, I did that" feeling for me).
The hook-and-run and hook-and-throw not being automatic was helpful because often times I was running but did not want to do one of those things. Also, see the reason directly above.
The "Tower Defense" bit, to me, was an interesting diversion, albeit one I only played through 3 times for the achievement. You're not really forced into it, as long as you actually pay attention to your Templar Awareness.
The bombs and gadgets appeared more useful than they were in Brotherhood by far, especially with the ability to equip a primary and secondary weapon. The bombs themselves added options I enjoyed.
The Desmond bits, as seems to be the case with every optional piece of the last 3 AC games, are artsy, heavily atmospheric sequences for story nerds. And hey, at least Desmond got an actual back-story at last.

But that's just my two cents.

 

[wammnebu]

thats depressing that the setting is not as vivid.

if anything Constantinople/Istanbul should be the piece d'resistance (forgive spelling there) of the assassin's creed locations. I wished they had taken a year extra then and given the city as much love and care then at least venice was in ac2. Its a city that not only carries a shard of every nation and era its been a part of, but would be like a 16th century chicago with its cultural enclaves.

Did the game at least feature the greek, venetian, and genoan quarters with any sense of architectural diversity?

 

[Cody Holden]

what was that song used at the end of the review??

Iron, by Woodkid. It's the song in the E3 Trailer for ACR as well.

 

[awdrifter]

Den defense is just bad, and the more is more attitude definitely hurts the game. But having the manual grab with the hookblade is awesome. Sometimes you do want to fall and manually grab a low ledge, to either avoid detection or jump on a lower building, making it auto would be very annoying when you try to do that. Desmond's part is a good idea (to give him a back story), but it wasn't handled right. It feels like I'm listening to an emo dude reading his diary in the background while I play Portal. It would've been much better if he had a hookblade (it's his reality so he should be able to just give himself hookblades) and have an option to play in third person.

Personally I didn't mind the leveling up assassin recruits in Brotherhood, but the assassin masters missions that they added in this game really made the leveling up seem worthwhile. The only thing they should improve on that is making the assassin masters missions feel more important. Rather than being obvious side stories like in Revelations, they should make the assassin master missions to kill the templar general in anther city or something, or let you participate in the city takeover missions with your assassin recruit. But overall this game is great.

 

[Something Amyss]

Still, as long as I can jump from roof to roof and stab people in the neck, I'm generally happy.

And as long as that's still at the heart of the gameplay, I'll eventually buy this.

 

[Et3rnalLegend64]

I actually found the Desmond sequences kinda cool. It's a nice change of pace to hear him talk about everything and learn everything he's been through. Now that someone mentioned actually reliving his memories, I want to put a vote in for that would have been cool as well, but we actually are walking through it to some extent already.

I found the Altair sequences to be kinda lacking in action, especially because the full synch requirement in couple was not to kill anyone, but the storytelling was really amazing. It's a shame they were so short and so few.

I don't want "auto-grab ledge" or "auto Hook-and-Run" to be a function of the Hookblade. I want to be able to measure my falls and go down as quickly or as slowly as I'd like. He and Altair could already do ledge grabs before. It's just that this gives you a little extra reach. I already know to hold the tackle button until I get out of the crowd and it doesn't distract me.

The Den Defense sequences were fun enough, but too simple for my tastes. If Agiles are in, place Bruisers behind the barricades. If Seekers are in, place Bruisers with every unit of shooters. That's the only real crucial thing in the mode.

There are also little things in the game that I doubt anyone would notice. If you hang around the guards, you can listen to little conversations they have with each other. I walked into a Janissary camp and you can find two of them cooking in a corner while the others hang around chatting. You just don't see that in other games. It's not terribly important, but it's a nice touch.
They've had little things like this since at least Brotherhood as well. If you hang around the civilians in Rome and listen to them talk near the beginning and end of the game, you notice that their conversations are of happier subjects and there are fewer wives crying into their husbands' arms. I actually have to get back to Brotherhood and listen to them all. I have to listen to the ACR civilians too (I think I powered through the game too quickly).

Back to the subject of Janissaries, I want to say how amazingly fun it is to fight them. They can block counters and kill moves, but still struggle with Ezio and take damage when they finally get grazed by his blade. When I fight multiples of them at once, it makes for a really cool and cinematic fight.
I can stab one guy in the face, swipe at a Janissary, get a small cut on him, start a kill-streak attack towards another who was about to shoot at me, get blocked, kill-streak a normal enemy, counter another Janissary who attacked me before I was done with the last guy, then we break away from each other with a couple more dead bodies lying around and get ready to go at it again.

 

[Et3rnalLegend64]

It seems I accidentally hit "Quote" when I wanted "Edit"

 

[Foxpack1]

And the ending. Oh sweet Lord the ending!

Please tell me the Ending wraps everything up? Without spoiling anything if you will.

Imo, the ending was brilliantly done and redeems a rather mediocre storyline, especially if you watch Embers on youtube afterwards during the incredibly long credits.