Assassin's Creed: Revelations (Sony PlayStation 3, 2011)
Assassin's Creed: Revelations is pretty much identical to Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood with a few
tweaks. That game was thrilling from beginning to end and really made for the best game in the series. This game is the identical formula. The game adds a new weapon type, bombs, a few cool travel additions (Ziplines, a claw to grab ledges and a parachute) but it doesn't feel as intense as the last game in the series.
This game again follows the same character, Ezio, as he is now an old man in Constantinople. The last three games went from Italy, to Rome, to Constantinople respectively while capturing the beautiful architecture of each world. I liked that in the last game there was a heightened level of justified violence and bloodshed that made the whole experience more intense as the combat was made into something really defined and even addicting like the platforming was. In the last game, the main character in the real world ended the game by stabbing one of the major characters in the stomach to death because a golden apple from templar history possessed him. This apple is pretty much the focal point of this game's story as well as the ancient artifact. You use it once in the game and it kills all enemies on the battlefield instantly.
This is an action stealth game with an emphasis on blending in and killing from a distance. In some ways, it's amazing how fluid and well executed these games are. Ezio is a trained assassin. If you played all three games, you've basically watched the character from birth to middle age, which is pretty cool. Not that he moves that much less fluidly in this game. Climbing is pretty much automated when you run toward something and point the d-pad toward the thing you want to scale. It's not challenging, usually, but it's very fun. The game adds a claw you can retract with "O". This allows the player to grab ledges that are slightly out of reach, but it doesn't always work because the extra reach is so minor you have to be exact in knowing what you're trying to grab that's out of reach. More importantly, this claw can be used at certain swinging lamps to throw yourself forward instead of swing around. Very cool addition, and adds challenge. Also the parachute is great, though it's not used much since you have to really climb a structure high to get usage out of it. Constantinople has some tall buildings, but it's still pretty level ground.
There are also ziplines, which are a feature that ultimately end up in every game given enough time. Jump on zipline, slide to the end. You can assassinate at the end of ziplines, but the enemy has to be standing directly near one. And why exactly are there just a bunch of poles with lines attached to them throughout constantinople? Was it the earliest tin can on a string telephone service? It really makes no sense.
The game took the horses out, or at the very least I didn't see them. That was disappointing because while the horses weren't great, they added a dimension to the gameplay that was lacking. The combat is still very awesome, though now there are so many ways to kill enemies it's obviously too easy. You can pick up parts from looting dead enemies to get pieces to assemble bombs at a table. The bombs come in three varieties that are both tactical like smoke and allow the player to blow groups of enemies up. You can select different ingredients to make them sticky bombs, proximity bombs or explode on impact. The enemies don't react at all when you throw a tiny ball at their chest that later blows them up. The player is impervious to the impact of these bombs as well.
You also have the assassin's blade. The real way to play this games is to kill enemies in strategic groups, stalk them and blend into crowds. Blending into crowds is barely used in this game. The game forgoes most of the stealth aspects since the combat is so easy. You have the bombs, you can also call in groups of assassin's to run in and kill targets for you. This aspect of the game is way too easy. There's no risk when you call in assassin's. I suppose they can die in battle, but you can always get more. You can recruit them and send them on missions to level up like in the last game. This aspect, again is not really a minigame even though it should be.
You can fight bare fisted, or steal enemy's weapons. You can also buy weapons and armor at the shop. Not necessary to complete the game because it's easy. When enemies attack, you can counter, grab their weapon and kill them. A simple three hit combo kills 90% of the enemies in this game. In the event that you kill an enemy, you can chain together one hit kills indefinitely. Again, way too easy. Usually you're just doing what the game tells you on missions. Follow a certain guy or find a way to a waypoint. It's a lot easier than the last game overall. I think the only point that I had any trouble was when a waypoint was above my character so I had to take the long way around. The game attempts to add challenges for more "sync" like "Kill five enemies from a haystack". While most of these add challenge and integrate into playing the game well, aka stealing a key off an enemy instead of killing him for it, many aren't. Specifically the haystack one because the easy mission is now bogged down into a mission of leading enemies all over the map to a single haystack. If that itself was the mission, the game would suck, so why make it an optional mission nobody wants to do? The sync just adds to the completion percentage. I beat the game with about fifty percent sync just finishing the ones that weren't out of the way.
There are a ton of optional sidequests as well. One is a weird "tower defense" game that seems to be added in only because tower defense games are popular. These are games where you build barricades and troops to wear an enemy down before they reach a destination. These games usually only require skill near the later stages, and that's the case here. One cool thing is that you as Ezio can attack the troops after you've laid down your defense. Only one of these missions is necessary to beat the game.
You also backtrack to the first game during certain segments to play as the original Assassin's Creed's Altaier. The game is already short, so fluffing it with missions that aren't a part of the character you're supposed to be playing as is kind of silly. I actually wish the whole of the objectives in this game were meatier. There are a couple exploratory areas, but there's nothing really resembling a dungeon as they're very linear. It seems like the exploration was scaled back from the last game along with everything else. Overall, Assassin's Creed: Revelations is a very fun game that's worth playing through, but with six of these games out as of now I don't really see what sets it that much apart from the third game, though the combat is better than the first two.
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