What is one of the
strongest signs that a game is really good? Longevity?
Cinematography? When it's to do with the story driven part of a game,
I always know that a game was really good if I couldn't put it down.
That's exactly what I got playing Assassin’s Creed Revelations, I
couldn't stop, and I enjoyed every minute. I completed the main plot
within a few days, and while in the past I've forced myself to slow
down near the end of the story, I really couldn't help myself this
time.
This is the third game
with Ezio as the main character, and in a way is a spin-off of sorts,
or rather, they had so much additional material after making the
second game, that they decided it would be a waste to not use it. I
couldn't agree more, Ezio is a really lovable character who is a joy
to play with, and through these additional games his character has
been extensively developed, showing exactly why Ubisoft are such a
good company when their audiences vote with their money to support a
franchise that is fairly unique, and could have gone either way.
So, at the start of
this instalment Ezio arrives in Constantinople, the former name of
Istanbul, and this city is a perfect setting for what the franchise
always aims at in locales; it's huge, has a variety of terrain types
and heights and there was an obvious divide between wealth and
poverty, which lends itself well to Ezio's desire to eradicate
corruption, and help those that need it. It's also a very historic
city, with a lot of blood being shed in it's name and to occupy such
a strategic military and commercially well placed city.
While I don't want to
spoil much about the intricacies of the plot, I'll mention some
parts that really stood out for me as a player. I loved the
flashbacks as Altaïr, they really pulled together some loose ends
and answered those questions that a lot of players will have had
about what happened to Altaïr
after the first game.
While we had some interaction with Altaïr before, it was just
following his eagle vision ghost, and again being able to walk in his
shoes, and for such prolonged and enjoyable chunks of game play, it
really concluded his story for the player, in a satisfying way that
weaves throughout Ezio's time in Constantinople, as he and Desmond
discover more and more about what it is to be an Assassin.
Speaking of Desmond,
Revelations really built upon what it had started in Brotherhood
within the building of Desmond as a fully three dimensional
character. Within the Animus interface, Desmond finds that there are
five doorways that are unlocked throughout the story, and these
really open up a lot of the current time storyline, as well as
developing Desmond himself. It's a very good thing that we get this
back story of Desmond's explained to us at this point, because it
seemed lacking in previous games, even though it feels completely
right to have been told to us at exactly this point in the series.
That's exactly what the writing team at Ubisoft that work on this
series are really good at, any small negatives that you might have
will be addressed in future games, because as well as their clever
directorial skills, they listen to their audience.
The new additions to
gameplay feel like they're there to help you along, and do a really
good job at it. First you are given the hookblade, which is a really
handy tool, it allows you to climb buildings quicker as well as grip
on to a lot of things you couldn’t as you are falling or jumping
across rooftops, as well as of course being able to use them with the
new zip lines that have cropped up around the map, a fun way to break
up the monotony of long journeys. Then we have the new bomb crafting
ability, which makes combat easier at times, as well as sneaking
about. I didn't much feel the need to use bombs during my
play-through, but I know that in order to get 100% in some memories,
and therefore the game as a whole, I will have to use bombs a lot
more than I had to. The last of the new additions was very surprising
and rather interesting; den defence, which is their take on a tower
defence mini-game. I found it fun a good few times, but then I found
it annoying that as I was buying shops around the city, my notoriety
was rising, which meant my assassin dens would come under attack with
this cool bit of gameplay. It was fun, because I like tower defence
games, but I don't think you should be so punished for buying shops
to increase your income, although I understand why it's there.
Then, leaping ahead a
lot, in order to avoid plot spoilers, we come ironically to the end
of this game. I feel that the end of Revelations brought everything
together nicely as a conclusion of the existing stories, and that it
leaves me very excited about the next instalment of the series, which
I hope will still be within this year in order to be in time for the
2012 in game plot piece. There isn’t much to say about the
multiplayer except that it builds nicely upon the existing
multiplayer, with the much needed improvements to the matchmaking
process, although there are still a lot to be done.
As I'm sure you can
tell, I thoroughly enjoyed playing Assassin’s Creed Revelations,
and I highly recommend it to existing fans of the series, as well as
imploring those unfamiliar with these games to give them a try,
they're exceedingly good.
8.5/10 Sack-Fulls
