Assassin’s Creed Revelations Review

Here it is my friends – the review of the only mainline Assassin’s Creed game I never actually finished, Assassin’s Creed Revelations. Believe it or not this game is rather revealing. The story is well written and it ties up Chekhov’s gun nicely. Unlike previous entries, Assassins Creed Revelations deals with 3 protagonists, Altair, Ezio and Desmond. But they all have different dealings and stories that help build the world. So relax, grab some tissues and get ready for the end.

SPECS

Now here we go for the hundredth time, the specs!

Oh look, our old friend 512MB DirectX. Going off the previous information we got from Brotherhood, I’m gonna say GeForce 8800 GT or ATI Radeon HD 4700 are the graphics cards we’re looking for. That being said, consistency is key and they were consistent in system specs, as was I with my buid.

You know what wasn’t consistent when playing Assassin’s Creed Revelations? The performance.

PERFORMANCE

Now, we didn’t get Assassin’s Creed II performance, but it also wasn’t Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood performance. The performance was choppy between different streets in the game. I would go from 60fps, round the corner and have 25fps. It made no sense given that the streets were lost identical. The game did have an initial issue that I thought was part of the game until I found out it wasn’t, but it made sense to be there.

This really came to a head in 1 section near the end whilst parachuting. It made sense for the FPS to be dropping – on a lower-end system. Things were being destroyed and you are moving pretty fast through the streets. But you move faster through the streets in something like Burnout Paradise and there is way more environmental destruction, but that runs fine.

Another weird issue I had was missing textures. I had not noticed it initially until I saw a female NPC with a purple face. It was too purple. Then I noticed it everywhere. Textures just not loading in or outright missing. Now I do want to address the small issue I had at the beginning.

GLITCH ISSUE

Now, in the context of Assassin’s Creed Revelations, you are stuck in a coma in the animus and you have a high chance of death, Similar to Subject 16. The issue was the camera rapidly jerking left to right and the controls being wonky. This makes sense as you are told the animus will try kill you thinking you are a virus.

When I got into Ezio gameplay it persisted, from there I went to google and apparently this was a very common issue. How common? The lads over at Ubisoft told you how to fix it. If you want an idea as to what was going on, click on the heading. With that being said, here is a link to the solution. A rather simple solution but something that could have been fixed on the developers’ side rather than a page on a website.

STORY

So where does the story pick up? Seconds into the ending of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. Desmond has just killed Lucy whilst being overpowered by the Apple of Eden. He then immediately falls into a coma where Rebecca and Shaun just hook him right back into the animus. This does ultimately save his life but in the meantime, Altiar, Ezio and Desmond are all crashing together. It is up to Desmond to separate all 3 timelines and people. This game has a small B storyline that is only heard and not seen. We also get to meet and learn a bit more about Subject 16.

In the main storyline, Ezio has made his way to Altair’s old stomping ground – Masyaf Castle – in search of Altairs library. He finds that templars have already made their way there and are currently excavating the site. He learns of 5 missing keys and that they are in Istanbul and thus heads to Turkey. When he arrives he meets Prince Suliman and both become good friends. He also meets the leader of the brotherhood in the city, Yusef. Yusef brings Ezio up to speed in the new technology they have – bombs and hookblades, and tells him of their woes.

Ezio goes on the hunt for the Masyaf keys with the new brotherhood in toe. In doing so he meets another Italian woman who helps Ezio decipher the books in which the keys locations are noted. With each key found, you are given a glimpse into the aftermath of Assassin’s Creed

AFTERMATH

Initially we see Altair and in a matter of moments he is fighting a templar. Altair does his thing and offered a different POV from what the templar holds. After being shunned and Altair killing the man, his mentor asks him why he did what he did. Altair explains that even if the man does not agree with him or his opinion, it is best to give that information before hand and to show compassion at the end as they did not have to listen to him.

The next time we see Altair, he has just killed the leader of the Masyaf assassin’s at the end of the original game. This leads to a commotion in the group. Due to what Altair has seen he commits a forbidden act – He burns the body. In doing so his allegiance is once again called into question. When he tries to explain himself, a rival assassin grabs the Apple of Eden and starts accidentally charging it. Altiar stops him from accidentally killing everyone and then leaves Masyaf.

A few years pass and Altair shows back up demanding to know why his son was executed. The new leader of the Assassins wishes for the Apple as Altair has kept it on him since his departure. Whilst being taunted about his dead son his wife ends up being killed in the fray and Altair is once again made to leave the castle.

After many years, Altair sneaks into Masyaf for a final confrontation. He reveals that the new leader has held a shame throughout his life for the actions of his father. In telling this, he also learns that the brotherhood is a mere shadow of its former self. In a final assault, Altair kills the new leader and restores the brotherhood.

ENDINGS TO BEGINNINGS

In his final acts as leader of the Masyaf brotherhood, Altair gives books and keys to Marco Polos father and tells him to hide them, when the time is right, someone will find them and know what to do. Shortly after this, Altair locks himself in the library with the Apple of Eden whilst Mongols attack the city.

Fast forward to Ezio, he believes (as do the Templars) that the library holds ancient assassin knowledge. As such the race is on to find all the keys to the vault in order to get this information. Apart from the Apple of Eden the only other thing in the vault are the bones and robes of Altair. Believing he had seen enough for one lifetime, Ezio refuses to take the Apple but leaves his gauntlet and leaves the vault.

This actually leads nicely into a standalone animates short film called Assassin’s Creed Embers and that rounds out the Ezio saga all the way from birth until death.

GAMEPLAY

The gameplay of Assassin’s Creed Revelations comes in a few flavours: Ezio the librarian, Ezio the street liberator, Ezio the politician and Ezio the traveller. So where should you begin? Well, travelling is part of the story, liberating streets is the best place to start. You have all your usual fanfare in Assassin’s Creed Revelations, kill such a person, gain info on many things but ultimately, it’s bookkeeping and free running.

Yes more often that not you will do some small task and then boom, find a book, do some free running, maybe kill a guy and get a key. This is a very driven story. Liberating the city is totally optional, as is liberating other countries with the return of the brotherhood mechanics. Liberating Istanbul will simply just allow you to buy up shops to make more money. We do have the new hookblade and bombs to use in combat now, but I tried to avoid combat.

Ezio is an old man and he’s lost more than a step. The hookblade makes up for this in climbing and traversal, but combat is slower. Counters are slower due to the effort Ezio has to put in and this leaves a great window for attackers. Even certain enemy types cant be countered at all until you whittle their health down. Stealth is favoured for me this time and the game makes that clear with all your distraction and concealment bombs,

You can now situate a master assassin in the towers you liberate and they all have a quest. When it comes to being political you are usually just helping the prince or liberating whole cities via the brotherhood. The gameplay was good but it does try to pigeon hole you into stealth more than open combat. Even with the optional extras.

OVERALL

It’s hard to rate this one. As a standalone game it feels like an update to Assassin’s Creed, but as part of a trilogy, it also feels like the end of an era. On both ends this is true, but each rates differently. I will rate this as a standlone game then give thoughts on the overall saga that unfolded.

I cannot express how good it felt to finish this game, why? Because I never got to on console. I, like Ezio, was enthralled with a female at the time, and then my brother overwrote my save and completed the game. I thought I had like a mission or 2 to go and ended up not finishing the game. Too late now to restart. But now that I have: it’s a beautiful end to both Altair and Ezio.

Top round off that statement: Both men were betrayed, lost family members and had to redeem and prove themselves to many others in their quests. Altair wanted to restore the brotherhood and Ezio knew he had to beat the templars to the next big breakthrough in order to secure freedom for humanity. Both men make major sacrifices for the greater good and this is a lesson that Desmond will learn.

Both men lived their lives as it came to them, up the ranks of the brotherhood to mentor status and beyond. I get now what people say when they say Ezio is the best assassin, but for me? Ezio is just a more fleshed out Altair. The only difference being, Ezio gets to die with his loved ones.

WHERE TO NEXT?

Next time we visit the Assassins Creed series we shall be filling the boots of Conner and Haytham Kenway in Assassin’s Creed III. We did not beat the challenge but I will still hold true to completing the initial Tick Tock cycle of games. After that though, might be hard, but ill spend the extra 50 hours on every other game to get you a comprehensive review. Until then – Catch ye later guys!