Constantinople is an awesome city. It is the largest city ever in an Assassins Creed game. While Rome had a large area, there was a lot of open space. Constantinople is more vibrant and has very rich color hues compared to Rome in Brotherhood which was a bit bland. The landmarks in Revelations are based on actual buildings in Constantinople, however they are the most expensive thing to buy in the game.
In present day story, Desmond was in a coma at the end of Brotherhood. In Revelations his memories of Altair and Ezio has been tangled with his memories, and he needs to categorize them for him to get out of the Animus. Since the Animus is in safe mode, the HUD Interface is almost the exact same interface as the first Assassins Creed. In safe mode, Desmond is on Animus Island where he sees Subject 16. The most unfortunate thing of Subject 16 is not explaining more of the 30 glyphs he left behind in Assassins Creed II and Brotherhood. Another thing underutilized of Subject 16 was his experiences he lived through in the Animus. Like if he relived through Altair and Ezio or only partially. Subject 16 left behind many clues and questions and it was disappointing that Desmond didn't ask questions. Especially at the end of Brotherhood of finding all the glyphs when he says a lot of cryptic things and when Desmond wants to know more, Subject 16 says goodbye.
The story takes place right after Brotherhood. Ezio travels to Masyaf to discover what was hidden the library. Ezio learns that the Templars are trying to open the door, but they only have one of five keys. The majority of the game is trying to find the keys in Constantinople before the Templars do, which the Templars never do. This makes the campaign the weakest part of the game. While the game makes it feel there is a rush against time, it never feels that way. When Ezio collects the keys, you get to relive Altair's memories. The Altair parts of the game are very good, however they are short. However the ending of the game is one of the best endings of any videogame I have ever played. It is a great emotional ending, that ties up the stories of Altair and Ezio. From a fan that has beaten all the main installments of Assassins Creed, it does a great job of closing their stories. If Ubisoft Montreal tried to make any more games of Altair and Ezio it would just be spinoffs and prequels.
The controls has been changed up. Instead of the 1 circle in Assassins Creed 2 and Brotherhood that pulls out your inventory, Revelations has 2 circles of inventory. One for primary weapons and health, and the other for secondary weapons and bombs. The left circle of inventory is controlled by the left analog stick and the right circle of inventory is controlled by the right analog stick.
Somethings that have remained unchanged in the Assassins Creed series are, beggars asking for money, and trespassing on rooftops is punishable by death by guards that randomly patrol on top of buildings. In order to un fog the map, Ezio has to climb viewpoints and synchronize. However you only need to climb up 22 unlike 24 in Brotherhood, and 60+ in Assassins Creed 2.
The soundtrack for the Assassins Creed series has always been solid, and Assassins Creed Revelations is one of the finest scores for any Assassins Creed game. Jesper Kyd and Lorne Balfe co-composed 80 tracks for Revelations. During my time progressing through the single player campaign, each new chapter I'd played had different background music.
For the new gameplay additions, the hookblade allows Ezio to scale up buildings 30% faster, which is a huge plus. Anything that speeds of transportation time in an open world game is a huge plus. The bombcrafting while a bit confusing at first, is another empowering feature of the game. In one mission where you must be undetected and there is 30 guards patrolling the path, a wide radius explosive bomb can easily kill 5 Janissaries. Which the Janissaries have to be countered attacked three times before they die. When I discovered I can kill 5 of them at one time with explosive bombs, it made the remainder stealth missions tolerable. The questionable additions to Revelations was the tower defense game and the Desmond first person platforming. The Tower defense game was tolerable but it wasn't necessary. The Desmond first person platforming could be related to Portal only with no portal gun. In the first person platforming levels, Desmond recalls his past, but all of it is reiterated material from Assassins Creed 1. Which information revealed that he lived on a farm that trained assassins, he escaped and became a bartender, and he got kidnapped by Abstergo. What makes the first person platforming levels not so bad, is if you fail it is an instant respawn at last checkpoint. It is not a 10 to 15 second wait after failing a mission. If you had to wait 10 to 15 seconds for failing at any part of the first person platforming in would have been the worse addition ever to Assassins Creed.
One of the problems of Revelations was the conquering Templar Dens. In order to conquer a Templar Den, you had to kill the captain before he runs away and hide. When the Captain hides, you have to wait 20 minutes in order to reconquer the den again. When you do conquer the Templar Den, it becomes an Assassin Den. However if Ezio's notoriety goes up to 100% it can get invaded by Templars, and that is when you must do Tower Defense mode. If you don't do Tower Defense Mode it becomes a Templar Den again, and you must kill the Templar captain before he runs away and hide. That was the most annoying part of the game for me.
For multiplayer it has multiplayer.
As a fan that has played the previous installments of Assassins Creed, Revelations is a game not to be missed. For new timers new to the series, I suggest starting with Assassins Creed 2. Overall, Assassins Creed Revelations is an amazing game. I give it a 9 out of 10.
Review Considerations
-Paid $34.99 at Best Buy on Black Friday
-Played on X360
-Doesn't care at all for multiplayer in the series
