Assassin’s Creed: Revelations - New Review

Ever since the first Assassin’s Creed (AC) video game was released in 2007, the series has become one of the most recognizable franchises in the world of video games. Over the years, UbiSoft has released 4 Assassin’s Creed games. You have to wonder how can a publisher release one sequel every year and maintain AC’s glamor and sparkle? DoesAC:Revelations bring anything new to the table? Let’s find out.

Photo courtesy of Ubisoft

Story:

The entire idea of Assassin’s Creed is that our ancestors’ memories are encoded into our DNA, and with a certain scientific method memories can be unlocked. This led to a conflict between the ancient Assassins Order and the Templars. This is why Desmond Miles was kidnapped in attempted to unlock his DNA memory to determine the hidden location of the fabled artifacts “pieces of Eden“. Desmond rescued by the members of the Assassins Order agrees to help the assassins to re-live his ancestors’ memories to determine the locations of the “pieces of Eden“, which can help to prevent a global catastrophe in 2012. He re-lives two of his ancestors’ memories: Ezio Auditore, a master assassin who lived in the renaissance era, and Altair, a master assassin from the Crusader Era.

In the previous game AC:Brotherhood, Desmond was left in a coma status. At the beginning of AC:Revelations, Desmond found himself on a fictitious island “Animus” where his mind is trapped. He realizes that he needs to recollect more of Ezio and Altair’s memories in an effort to leave his coma status, and go back into the reality.

Most of the action takes place in Constantinople 1511 AD as Ezio searches for decryption keys left behind by Altair, which will allow him to learn the whereabouts of an item that could end the war between the Assassins and the Templars.

Assassin’s Creed Revelations is the last game to feature the Renaissance Era, so essentially, this is the last game where Ezio Auditore will make an appearance. And I have to say, the character of Ezio is one of the best characters in video game stories next to Drake (Uncharted).

Photo courtesy of Ubisoft

Gameplay:

There are a few new features added to AC: Revelations. Some are good and some are not so good. The most critical alteration is simply a button layout change. Players will now directly access a secondary weapon (throwing knives, a concealed gun, bombs) in addition to a primary one (hidden blade, sword, axe). This gives players more options, allowing for quick reactions for stealth missions as well as challenging combat scenarios. Another worthwhile addition is that Ezio is now equipped with a hook blades to enhance his climbing abilities, and it does. I really liked this new feature. There are also the bombs. The only problem is that the bombs are simply too tiresome to build. I used no more then a hand full during the entire game.