Assassin's Creed: Revelations
Starting Up
Controls: Nothing much changed from the previous edition when it comes to utilizing the Xbox controller. You still have to manually change the settings from keyboard to gamepad and make sure your controller is on when it starts up. The game still auto-detects the controller if you have to reconnect it for some reason. You cannot reconfigure your buttons. This caused a major problem when they decided to remap the buttons. Your weapons are now exclusively tied to 'X' for primary weapons and 'Y' for secondary weapons. This can be confusing when you have ranged abilities from both categories. All interactions and dialogue options are now tied to the 'B' button. You have no idea how many times I accidentally threw a deadly grenade in a crowded city when all I wanted to do was talk to someone. Syncing is now tied to pressing the analog stick. You can still choose what 4 things to set to your directional pad, but the screen no longer displays them. Instead, it displays your two weapons and how many parachutes you have directly above it (which I found to be a bad change indeed).
Editions: If you are looking for a version that had a figurine, you are probably going to have a hard time. It seems only the "Templar Collector Edition" from OpenGames in Italy offered an 8.5" figurine of Ezio Auditore. There was an "Ultimate Bundle" with a cool replica of Leonardo da Vinci's flying machine but it was exclusive to the consoles. Besides, the flying machine doesn't even show up in this game. Good news is that PC users received a "Gold Edition" (aka Game of the Year Edition) which includes all previous content released for the game. Honestly, it isn't much. You have a character and map pack for multiplayer, a couple of unusual outfits, and weapon upgrades. I guess The Lost Archive DLC and Vlad the Impaler's Prison was interesting (I'll get to that later on).
Technical Issues: I definitely had to make a few tweaks in the settings. All the game sounds were way too low. I had to push the brightness up one point because the alleyways were way too dark. Subtitles were also off by default. Right off the bat, my screen was stuttering really badly. Thankfully Ubisoft came out with a very easy workaround. Then, within the first hour of gameplay, I somehow fell through the world into the endless ocean below. That is never a good sign. Thankfully I only encountered the occasional glitch from there on out - people not making contact, items clipping in the landscape, mission icons disappearing from the map, wrong grenade path predictions, declining missions resets the world, and the AI having a hard time finding the best route to my location. I even recall a certain Animus Data Fragment that rested one inch too high from the building. I might have become senile like Ezio, but I've gradually noticed a decline in Assassin Creed bug control.
Assassin's Creed: Embers I made mention in a previous entry about how Assassin's Creed: Lineage covers the beginning of Ezio's story. Well, this 20-minute CGI film is actually the ending. That being said, it should totally be watched at the end of the trilogy after Assassin's Creed: Revelations. The graphics aren't the best with its play-doh style models, but it does - I'm going to say - "extend" the saga into another potential direction (which you will see in Assassin's Creed: Chronicles). Despite how the plot slowly develops, it is definitely worth watching.
New Features
Tower Defense: I don't know what the developers were thinking when they included a little Tower Defense mini-game into the mix. Although I did find it enjoyable, I barely succeeded in 2 out of the 3 times I played it. There is just something unusual when you can't pause the round to perform upgrades or access the situation. The so-called "boss" round is also a bit overpowered. I never did figure out the trick to defeating them other than through brute force. I'm happy that this scenario is only situational. This rendition of Assassin's Creed decided to make unlocking buildings build notoriety, something I didn't notice initially. Build enough shops in succession without bribing a herald or killing an official (since they removed wanted posters) and suddenly your newly unlocked tower will come under attack. Eventually after you assign level 10 Assassin Masters to your little dens, the strikes will end entirely.
Grenades: They really overdid themselves with the weapons, but the game goes out of its way to show off their new grenades. There are officially 10 types of bombs that are categorized in 3 different types - lethal, tactical, and diversion. You can customize them with 4 different shells that are used instantly on contact, with a few seconds delay (that allows bouncing), placed down like a mine, or stick on enemies for 5 seconds. You can choose the type of gunpowder that widens the effect. Most importantly, the primary ingredient decides on its effect. Personally, I can't see why you wouldn't just use Splinter bombs (damage), Cherry bombs (distraction), and Smoke Bombs (escape). Then again, there are some ingenious uses for each type of grenade. Using a poison bomb will make every "dance around" for a full 30 seconds. Just don't try to throw a cherry bomb to the side when you are standing 10 feet in front of the guards. They aren't dumb enough to fall for that.
I just wish they wouldn't have made everything reward you grenade ingredients. Nearly all the treasures chests, random "bomb" treasure chests, bomb crafting tables, black market salesmen, assassin missions, cities claimed by your assassins, and looting bodies all reward you with ingredients. There are so many non-coin chests that you start to wonder where all the real treasure chests are. Every time you unlock a new grenade type, the game wants you to immediately switch over to the new type and venture into a new tutorial. I don't use them that often!
Detective Eagle Vision: Before, Eagle Vision was primary used as a way to see hiding spots, guards, and primary targets. They expanded on this to include identifying potential targets and trails. There are several times where you have to scan civilians, spots, or merchandise to find what you are looking for. Other times you have to track down someone's trail. A "ghost" figure sometimes appear to show you which direction a person went. I personally love this. You can also see what pathways the guards travel and the spots they idly stand around. Moving the cursor in Eagle Vision on any collectible also permanently adds them to the map.
Gameplay Changes
Currency: I had huge issues making money within my first 5 hours of gameplay. That's because your two primary sources of income depend on waiting. Although pick pocketing and looting bodies give you less than 50, treasure chests reward you 150 - 400, and missions reward you around 1000, the main money maker is sending your assassins on missions to other cities. You can get roughly 500 to 2500 for each mission that takes 5 to 10 minutes of your time. Sadly, the developers also made it cost 2,500 per mission to keep those cities from falling into Templar hands again. Of course, you can always just wait around for your assets to accumulate wealth for you. The vault can hold onto much more of your wealth than in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. After clearing the whole city, I managed to gain 22,000 every 20 minutes.
But the items in the game are so expensive! Weapons, armor, and even books can cost up to 100,000. Buildings can cost up to 600,000. Treasure Maps seem to cost a lot more than ever before. Shops increase in value as you unlock them from around 1,500 to 7,500. The crossbow was added with a whopping 18,000 price tag. At least you don't have to pay for fast traveling or taking the ferry.
Small Details: You will notice a lot of little tweaks throughout your playthrough. Main mission locations blink on the fast travel map. They added a fast travel within your hideout. There are no horses (other than the ones in the carriage chases). The "burning of towers" is back and automatically syncs your view on top of the tower. Entering your weapon wheel now allows you to use both analog sticks to adjust your primary and secondary weapons. The developers were smart in adding a Hookblade to explain how an old man can catch himself after falling down several feet. This allows you to use zip-lines and "double jump" up tower walls. The parachute is properly explained in the introduction. Guild challenges tell you what you unlock. They removed "investments" from the shops. Instead of searching for glyphs, you now have to buy books from the shop and search for them from the top of un-sync towers. The dyes aren't as vibrant as before (which is kind of ironic seeing that the city is known for vibrant colors). Music is better than the opera singing in the previous game.
Story
Linear Progression: As much as I loved the first sequence in the snowy mountains, sequences 2 & 3 for introducing me to the various changes in the game, and Ezio singing in Sequence 4, the game sort of stalled after that. I think I played the game for around 8 hours clearing all the towers and buying all the shops when I realized that I didn't have any missions flashing. I didn't have any assassins to assign to the dens, not enough money to buy any books, and my next main mission I guess stopped appearing on the map. I was dumbfounded. I don't quite remember how I managed to continue on. Eventually sequences 5 & 6 made me rush into the new area in sequence 7. That in turn made me want to finish sequences 8 & 9. Then the game ended. My total game time? 15 hours! I also managed to collect 27/27 Viewpoints, 56/100 Animus Data Fragments, 10/10 Memoir Pages, and 48/121 Treasure Chests.
Horrifying Credits: So then after the quick conclusion to an interesting game, you naturally want to skip the credits and get back to collecting. Only... you can't. You can't fast forward. You can't leave and come back - that only resets the credits. You have to sit and wait. This time I had my timer ready. This time I wanted to see how long it took. After 2 minutes, the Animus Island reappears on the screen and pans the camera around the monuments. The credits take 25 minutes to end. I'm not kidding here! Only then can you continue your adventure. Oh, and they added another boat to take you back to Cappadocia if you want to.
Experience of a Lifetime
Altair's Life: If there was ever a time you wanted to know more about Altair's life from the first Assassin's Creed, this is it. Just watch the opening cinematic! For the first few hours, our master assassin Ezio visits a graphically updated and masterfully done headquarters at Masyaf. We also see, through the retrieved discs, five pivotal moments in Altair's time period. Not only do these reflect what happened after the first game but also what happened to Maria Thorpe from the PSP game Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines. I was actually surprised when they revealed his face under the hood. As depressing as it was to see his life waste away decades at a time from 1165 – 1257, it still brought proper closure to an assassin with a serious attitude towards the creed.
Ezio's Life: Sometimes I worry about Ezio's age. He did live from 1459 – 1524. We have explored three games with the man and you can tell the years are catching up with him. By my calculations, that makes him roughly 52 years old in Assassin's Creed: Revelations. I was kind of surprised to see him still putting on the charm towards the women, but then again he does have to bore a child in order for Desmond to see his lineage. And we all know how things didn't work out with Cristina Vespucci. You might not realize this, but Sofia Sartor is actually 35 years old (17 years younger than Ezio) when they meet. Anyways, Ezio Auditore da Firenze finally figures out the mystery behind the Assassins and helps further The Order in different lands. It's hard to say farewell to a guy we spent so much time getting to know.
Desmond's Life: It's weird living on an island when you hear your father, voiced by 'Q' John de Lancie, talk to you in your sleep. There are 100 Animus Data Fragments scattered all over the game. Similar to the glyphs and clusters in the previous games, gathering these will gradually unlock 5 chapters to Desmond's memories within Animus Island. Collecting 25 will provide you the means of seeing where the 10 Memoir Pages are. Collecting 30 will open up the doors on the island. Although collecting 50 will unlock where all of the fragments are located on the map, your only reward for collecting all of them is an achievement. You learn about everything before the events of the first game and how he regarded living with his family. It isn't hard to finish. You are given the ability to create two kinds of blocks and run through an area like some sort of platforming idiot for less than an hour. Eventually he becomes some sort of "chosen one" and the game just... ends. I have a feeling we will learn more about him in the future.
Clay's Life: We get to meet Subject 16 very briefly in the Animus, or at least the AI that was left behind (its complicated). That's why The Lost Archive DLC is so important. Throughout the series, we get tiny breadcrumbs about what happened to the character that entered the machine before us. Then we get hit with the full history of this man and the reason why Lucy Stillman had to die. I had this daunting issue with the developers for this little addition. It took me no more than 2 hours to beat, for very little gameplay, and it still costs $10. I'd be even more mad if I had to pay that much on release.
Review
Though Assassin's Creed: Revelations gives a proper conclusion to all the characters we fell in love with throughout the series and provided reasonable answers to a bunch of our questions, the game ultimately fails to deliver a satisfactory gaming experience. Running much shorter in content and more linear than all of its predecessors, the end to Ezio's trilogy will make you wonder if the developers will ever make a proper sandbox without reskinning old content and buffering the campaign with a series of collectables. Locking a large chunk of the story behind a minimalist first-person exploration and charge extra for the other half of the story is rather cruel. The only reason I would recommend this game for others to try is because of the lovable campaign. Otherwise, I would give this one a pass.
5-18-2020