Video Game Review: Assassins Creed Revelations
Video Game Review: Assassins Creed Revelations (2011)
Platform: PS3, Xbox 360, PC
Developer: Ubisoft
Official Website
Plot: After the events of the previous game, Assassins Creed Brotherhood, Desmond is trapped inside of the Animus and forced to relive the final days of Ezio in order to escape.
Unfortunately, that’s about all you get from Desmond’s end, which tends to have the more rich mythology behind the over-arcing story of all the AC games to date. Instead, this game changes things up a bit and tries to focus the story on the previous Animus characters – Ezio and Altair. Unfortunately, these characters were not interesting in the previous games, and their stories barely tie into the over-arcing mythology of the series. But more on that, later.
Ezio has headed to Rome to discover a hidden library under the Assassins old castle from the first game, which supposedly contains more secrets about the order. However, Ezio finds himself running around a single city throughout the game (minus a quick trip later in the game), and has to collect more Ancient artifacts in order to uncover the secret of the Assassins.
From a gameplay perspective, this game is more of the same as the previous games – which isn’t a bad thing, because I find the games to be fun to play. However, no real innovations have been made – except for a tower-defense mode called “Den Defense.” However, Den Defense only kicks in when your Templar Awareness is high for too long, and they attack your dens. Honestly, I never had this happen to me because I kept my awareness low.
There’s also a first-person mode for Desmond where he has to navigate inside the Animus. These sections gave me a headache (not because they’re difficult, but because of all the spinning colors and shapes floating about), and thankfully are totally skippable.
Overall, the game is more of the same – so if you enjoyed the last several AC games, it’s definitely worth picking up. It felt shorter than the last few games, with more emphasis on ancillary modes (Desmond’s FP navigation, multiplayer, more assassin missions for your pupils, etc). Definitely worth a rent, or buy it used for cheap.
[SPOILERS BELOW]I did have a few beefs with the game, wanting to get answers after the events of the final game. At the end of AC: Brotherhood, Desmond stabs Kristin Bell’s character after being taken over by an Ancient – and I wanted to know why this was. I had hoped the game would expand on that, but instead it ignores it completely.
Additionally, the “revelation” at the end of the game was not what the hype had lead me to believe. They do reveal a bit more about the Ancients and you do get to see their planet get destroyed. However, the sequence was so akin to a certain popular comic book superhero that I was just waiting for someone to stick a baby in a rocket ship and send it to Earth while their planet was destroyed.
Seriously, felt like Superman. And felt like the Assassins were going to be Superman off-spring. I guess maybe I was just hoping for 1) more answers, and 2) something more original.
However, AC3 is coming out this year and promises to end the Desmond storyline, so hopefully we’ll get some answers there. Or at least some closure.
And maybe, just maybe, Desmond will finally get his chance to shine that we’ve been craving since the first AC game came out. Seriously, let us do something with this guy – he’s the tie that binds among all of these games so far, and the most we’ve done with him is run around a warehouse and do some silly FP platforming).
