50 Games in 2012 – #22 Assassins Creed: Revelations [PS3] (Completed June 6th)

The yearly franchise is now a mainstay in the gaming industry. With the likes of Call of Duty cashing in each year Ubisoft and the Assassins Creed franchise followed suit. Both Assassins Creed 1 and 2 were games I thoroughly enjoyed with the latter being one of my favourite games to date. I was disappointed though to see the series come out with Brotherhood and not Assassins Creed 3 but on my friends praise I picked up the game and enjoyed it last year. Following Brotherhood the ad campaign for Revelations had me excited to continue as Ezio and potentially was going to put my qualms with the yearly cycle to rest.

Revelations took me roughly 6 months to finish and a lot of that attests to never getting immersed into this Assassins Creed. Back when I started my 50 games in 2012 Assassins Creed was one of the first games I cracked open in the new year yet it took nearly 20 or so other games for me to finally get around to finishing Ezio's trilogy. The original idea of Revelations had me extremely excited but upon playing the actual title I grew bored with what felt like was much of the same. Thanks to the announcement of AC3 I had enough renewed interest in the franchise to push past the couple hour mark of Revelations and delve deep into the game.

Constantinople stands as the new locale for Revelations with bustling streets and colourful landscapes harkening back to AC 1. Being the largest city to date there is plenty to explore but not a lot to do. Your Templar Captain take downs are available a long with purchasing shops but not much else stands out. The game does offer a new Den defence (a take on tower defence) that you will only want to play once and never touch again. Story wise this is the final chapter in Ezio's time line giving closure to both his life and Altair's. The game does a great job of this and really becomes interesting in the later halfs. Unfortunately the earlier parts of the game because of this are a lot more menial and revolve around a loose story line of collecting the Masiaf keys. Rarely through the early parts of the game did I feel the need to continue which led to the strung out play time and disinterest in the story altogether.

As a whole Assassins Creed: Revelations offers a polished and improved formula from past games but as previous titles were so well done it feels largely the same minus a few tweaks. Combat still is great and you do get the odd on rails action scene to spice up the story but all this doesn't mask a stretched plot line. There is also interaction with Desmond throughout the game but these levels are more side missions then anything and feel a lot like a weird take on portal.

For the die hard Assassins Creed fan there is a lot to like in Revelations but for others Revelations may offer a bit too much of the same. When it came down to my experience I enjoyed the later parts of the game but felt that I wouldn't have missed much heading into AC 3 if I had just watched the end scene on you tube instead. Minus a polished AC experience and a touching conclusion to both Ezio and Altair's lives there is little to like in what Revelations offers.

Game Summary:

Date Finished: 6/6 | Assassins Creed: Revelations (PS3)

Pros: Improved gameplay, graphics and character animation.

Cons: Formula runs cold at points and den defence is shambolic.

Conclusion: Fitting end to Ezio and Altair story, most refined of the series but not the most compelling.

[8/10]