Assassin’s Creed Revelations PS3 Review

Assassin’s Creed was originally conceived as a replacement for the Prince of Persia franchise as it had seen so many sequels and reboots that fans grew tired of it and sales plummeted. Ironically, Assassin’s Creed is following suit with Ubisoft’s announcement that they would be releasing a new Assassin’s Creed game every twelve months. The series seems doomed to be milked worse than a dairy cow and now with the fourth game in the series, Assassin’s Creed Revelations, the proof is apparent.

Assassin’s Creed Revelations takes place directly after the events of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood after Desmond inadvertently killed Lucy. Desmond’s mind is fragmenting due to his immersion in all of the different memories and as a result, his mind is put into a safe mode within the Animus to separate and conclude all of the memories of Ezio and Altair that are left.

Assassin’s Creed Revelations continues the same tried and true gameplay mechanics of previous entries in the series, while adding a few new side quest game types and a new weapon, the hook blade. There are still shop renovations as in Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, but now notoriety goes up every time a shop is renovated and the only way to bring it down is to bribe heralds or kill officials. Now players will need to take over a Templar Den to open up shops for renovation. Once the player kills the Templar Captain and controls an area, the area may be attacked by Templars, which will open up a Tower Defense mini-game, which is optional. If the player does not engage in the mini-game, the Templars will conquer the area and establish a new Templar Den for the player to take over again. The Tower Defense game seems out of place in an action adventure game where Ezio is known for discreet assassinations and then put into a situation of directing frontline combat with assassins. It just does not make sense. The second addition to Assassin’s Creed Revelations is a handful of optional Desmond specific missions. The missions take on a first-person perspective and mirror Portal’s puzzle traversing gameplay. The missions leave much to be desired in terms of backstory and the odd transition to the first-person perspective makes controls a bit odd.

In the single player campaign for Assassin’s Creed Revelations, Ezio has a few new tools in his arsenal. Bombs have been added that obscure, confuse, and distract enemies, which helps when attempting to obtain 100% synchronization, but not necessary for completing the game. The other tool in Ezio’s arsenal is the hook blade, which allows for a greater reach in jumps and for traversing zip lines between rooftops. It seems Ubisoft saw the trailer for Bioshock Infinite and decided to rip-off the idea.

Multiplayer remains relatively the same, with a few new game modes, and the ability to customize the user profile with a portrait and guild emblem, but differs very little in gameplay from the previous game.  Considering the horrible changes to the single player campaign, it is good that the multiplayer remains relatively unchanged.

Assassin’s Creed Revelations is a rushed game meant to fill in the gap between Brotherhood and the upcoming Assassin’s Creed III. The game features ripped-off gameplay mechanics from games such as Tower Defense, Portal, and Bioshock Infinite, with a relatively boring storyline except for the ending sequence. The game could have been released as a $20-$30 DLC added onto Brotherhood removing the out of place Tower Defense and Desmond side missions and just adding new maps for the multiplayer. Instead, a $60 turd has been created that threatens to destroy a great series and disenfranchise players to new entries in the Assassin’s Creed world. Go watch a YouTube video of the cinematics in the game and avoid buying this game. If the need arises to play the game, then rent it, do not buy it.