Personally, I thought nothing of the original game when it comes to the now popular series, Assassin’s Creed.  It had bland combat, horribly repetitive gameplay, but a cool storytelling style and was a fun game to watch rather than play.  Fast forward a few years, and here we are on this year’s iteration, Revelations. 

The previous game, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood,did a great job of fleshing out the experience, but does Revelations expand on it?

Cautions

…You’re an assassin. If I have to spell it out for you, you kill people in both brutal and silent ways. Not for the faint of heart, or the little ones.

Gameplay - 80 / 100

This segment of the story tells the final chapter of Ezio, and your adventures take place in Istanbul this time around.  I say your adventures, but let’s get two things straight before we delve any further into  the title.

This game is a port.

This game is a safe sequel.

With those two lines, I’ve probably struck fear into the hearts of the readership instantly!  You don’t have a lot to fear here though.  The scripted scenes are amazingly well done and combat is a slightly tuned version of Brotherhood’s brawling.   That said, the gameplay still has you climbing walls, diving into bales of hay, and the game has the best punishing parries since Dark Souls.

I only wish the series kept a running soldier kill count at this point.

Nothing truly changed for this game.  The setting changed.  A few main characters got makeovers.   But has either really ever mattered in the series besides to the story fans?   Not one bit.  So the stale gameplay, while fun to a newcomer, mirrors every other title in the series.    Actually, there’s even a little tower defense gameplay that will distract you for a few minutes, but it’s not nearly well done enough to look like little more than a crummy side quest—which this series has enough of already!

“But Stow!  Every Sonic game has you running right and mashing jump, and those games are classics that people cherish!”

That would hold true, but the fact of the matter is we’ve got a rehash of Brotherhood (right down to recruiting an army of assassins again!) on our hands with a few slick new combat venues.  Is this your thing?  Go for it.  Are you new to the series?  It’ll be amazingly epic and you won’t understand a single quip of the story. 

Perhaps you could say… you’re out of sync.

Graphics - 90 / 100

Simply beautiful renders of architecture and combat abound, and are the highlight of the show. Just don’t put too much weight in the game when it’s in motion—it’s rare, but you’ll sometimes see animations look completely out of place and people will clip through each other. It happens from time to time, but it doesn’t detract from the eye candy otherwise.

Sound - 87 / 100

The voice work of the series has always been top notch, and this game is no different. Cutscenes are punctual and perfectly delivered in tone and emotion for most characters. The music is a mixed bag with some combat themes being riveting and others a bit slow for the work of an assassin. The combat effects however, are beautiful and ring true through the room on a good sound setup.

Multiplayer - 87 / 100

Brotherhood really tried to set the world ablaze with its assassination combat multiplayer, and it’s nice to see that that experiment was not abandoned in Revelations.    You’ll experience a lot of rage and instant deaths, and a lot of the aforementioned animation woes, but it’s a cool element that you’ll be hard pressed to find in multiplayer games elsewhere on PC these days.  If you haven’t played it, you really should give it a try even if the main game isn’t your cup of tea.  Some people enjoy recruiting assassins, and some people enjoy killing them.

Also of note, given my previous review rage, the Ubisoft DRM monster is not really present here.  Somewhat like Steam, it wants to connect when you start the game, but can then operate offline.

Raw brutality will never get old.

Value - 65 / 100

The quest is a good bit shorter than we’ve come to expect in the series, and you’ll be done in a day or two of good play sessions. Is the refined multiplayer what you’re looking forward to? Get in on this while the PC servers are hot. If you’re in it for the story, I would love to say ‘rent it’ but that’s not an option here. So wait for a sale and get your finale.

Lasting Appeal - 60 / 100

Some of the plot twists are well executed and there’s treats abound for fans of the series throughout. That said though, the core gameplay just hasn’t changed enough. It’s possible this is the last game in the Ezio/Altair plotline, but frankly you should just play Brotherhood anyway if you’re looking to have a good time killing people without the complicated syncing and cutscenes. Who knows, they might see sales and pull a rabbit out of their hat with another game in the saga... I wouldn't put it beyond Ubisoft.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Nails the setting perfectly with beautiful environments, inside and out.
  • The Multiplayer is back and improved
  • Voice talent delivers in spades

Cons

  •  Well, it’s more like a club with how long the game is compared to II and Brotherhood.
  • If you’ve played the prior game, you pretty much played this.
  • Multiplayer is the strongest component of the game, and the servers are starting to empty already.

Conclusion

Asssassin’s Creed: Revelations  is the first time I’ve felt Ubisoft is cashing in on the franchise.  Borrowing on the many strengths of Brotherhood, it still delivers a fun and memorable experience, but it fails to stand out very well compared to the other games.  Despite the feeling of it being a port and a cash in, the overall feel of the game is positive and you don’t have to drink heavily to forget about it, ala Devil May Cry 2 for instance.

Now that’s a memory I don’t want to undergo Synchronization for.

Overall 73/100 - Pretty Good

Metacritic
Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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