Review: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

The Assassin's Creed franchise has built up quite a name for itself, and rightfully so. The series has always taken gamers to places they've never been before, and introduced them to characters quite unlike any others. But while the story and multiplayer in the latest addition shine, the innovation and creativity that typified the first two games seem to be gradually vanishing into darkness.

The story of Assassin's Creed: Revelations may be my favourite yet. The historical sci-fi series has always been based around a present-day character named Desmond Miles, who was born into an organisation called the Assassins. The Assassins protect the world from the evil Templars. In order to save the planet, Desmond has to find an ancient artifact that his ancestors hid from the Templars hundreds of years earlier. Finding the artifact requires Desmond to use future-tech called the Animus to replay the memories of assassins who are long dead.

Revelations focuses primarily on the life of the heroic Italian assassin and ladies' man, Ezio Auditore, who's now in his 50s and showing his age. He has also matured in terms of his relationships, and become a real mentor for other assassins. But Ezio isn't the only star of Revelations, as it weaves in the hero of the first Assassin's Creed game, Altair. Altair's missions are optional, but I found myself rushing to them every time they were available. The missions themselves are far from challenging - they're some of the easiest in the game - but the story told through Altair's eyes as he protects the assassins from themselves kept me coming back every time.

When playing as Desmond, however, you'll be doing something completely different to the usual Assassin's Creed stealth missions - his levels are unlocked by finding collectibles called Animus data fragments, and each of his levels is a first-person puzzler. If I had to compare those levels to any game I've played, it would be Portal. The art style is very similar - white and grey walls, blocks, and platforms. In these puzzle segments, Desmond has to strategically place blocks in order to make his way through an environment that is constantly moving. These levels increase in difficulty as time goes on, provide very little in the way of instruction, and provide a nice break from the usual mix of missions.

Every year for the past four years, gamers who prefer sci-fi to shooting, and stealth to run-and-gun, have opened their wallets for Assassin's Creed games. The problem with the yearly release cycle is that it's hard to make an old concept new. Assassin's Creed: Revelations is a solid enough game, but this lack of innovation is abundantly clear. Aside from the puzzler levels - of which there are few - almost nothing has changed. The environment is flatter, allowing Ezio to run across rooftops with ease, and there's a terrible tower defense mini-game you're required to play, but otherwise Revelations is not revolutionary in any way.

That said, you can spend a massive amount of time doing the same old things you've done in previous games, like renovating buildings to make more money (so you can renovate more buildings), recruiting assassins to help you out in battles, and taking over the Templar's dens so you can gain control of the city. On one Saturday I spent six hours playing Assassin's Creed, roaming around an open world, and only completed one compulsory mission. I wasn't sure that I was having fun, exactly, but I was determined to do it all because I knew it would make the rest of the game easier.

The parts of the game that I appreciated the most were not the open world segments, but the linear action sequences. Trying to ram a carriage off the road with one of my own, parachuting to the ground to kill someone (or save someone), and sprinting through a battlefield to save a life - those were the fun moments. Unfortunately those fun moments were primarily in the beginning and end of the game, leaving long runs of slow-moving missions in the middle.

The multiplayer in Assassin's Creed: Revelations hasn't changed much in terms of game mechanics: the premise of all game types is that you try to take out targets, and avoid being killed by other players. As you level up, you unlock abilities that help you to deceive or destroy other players, but it's definitely possible to win points in the earlier levels.

What has changed about the multiplayer is the sheer number and breadth of game types using this mechanic. There's a capture-the-flag mode called Steal the Artifact, and a mode called Assassinate where you have to figure out who your rival players are and then lock onto them before you're allowed to make the kill. My personal favourite was Corruption, which is akin to the Infection game type in the Halo series. Two people start out as 'corrupted' while the rest are 'uncorrupted'. Killing uncorrupted players causes them to respawn as a corrupted character. Eventually everyone in the game is corrupted and a new round begins, but the person who is the best at evading death earns the most points. There are three rounds, so everyone gets a chance to spawn as a corrupted character in the beginning.

But Assassin's Creed has always been famous for its campaign, not its multiplayer. While the story is great, the actual gameplay is a bit same-old, same-old. If you really got into the Brotherhood multiplayer, or you love story above all else, you'll like Revelations. If you're looking for a new and fresh take on the franchise, however, disappointment looms. We can only hope that next year's edition, Assassin's Creed III, reminds us all why we loved the series in the first place.

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