Customer Reviews

Assassin's Creed Revelations

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(21)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Don't get me wrong - I'm enjoying playing this game, but where I was expecting slightly less than previous games (it is the third sequel after all), the team just doesn't seem to have been able to get anywhere near the same level of quality that AC2 or Brotherhood achieved.

This game is a big let-down for my favored playstyle in AC. The best aspects of AC2 and Brotherhood have been cut out - where are the faction missions? Where are the Animus puzzles? Where is 'The Truth'? Where is the city rebuilding (sure, stores open and faction buildings get new banners, but buildings no longer truly get 'rebuilt' due to your input)? Hay bales but no horses - what's that all about? And all the cuts seem to have been made in order to make room for a hideously clunky Den Defense mini-game and the over-hyped but useless bomb crafting (two bomb types are all you ever need). Plus they added in more Desmond storyline - just what we always wanted (sarcasm) - and that part of the game is by far the most annoying part of any AC game - worse even than the first game's Desmond segments. Leonardo is missing (and sorely missed) and has been replaced by the bombmaker, who is well played but his role is small. Ezio's touching love interest in Brotherhood has been replaced by what can only be described as a bland and singularly boring librarian (what he sees in her I do not know).

For fast travel, things are just slightly annoyingly worse than Brotherhood: Ziplines are cool, but never there when you need them, and the same is true of the other method of speeding around the city; the sewers, which are too few and far between.

The voice acting, while still good overall, suggests some time and money pressures - Altair sounds suspiciously like Ezio at some points and some of the voice acting in the lesser roles is patchy.

One thing I thought was a big mistake that happened with Brotherhood - the one big city concept that superceded the three cities of AC1 and 2 - I thought changing to one big city made Brotherhood too big and boring. This game confirms that belief. I've been to Istanbul - big it is, boring it ain't. Another thing is that Ezio's Istanbul is missing some of the historical depth that the previous games all had. Surely the machinations that took place in Istanbul after its fall must have been as interesting as what happened in Borgia Italy, but what we get is a timid and superficial look at the Ottoman Empire in the 1500s. The historical depth is just not there. AC1, AC2 and Brotherhood all felt like I'd been transported back in time, but with Revelations, it just feels like I've been handed a guidebook to Istanbul.

There are a couple of big improvements:
1, the dungeon segments are a bit more varied and a bit less creepy: I dreaded every dungeon mission in AC2 and Brotherhood.
2, you get to do more stuff with the assassin minions and they get to take over and run other cities for you. The only problem is, once they start running other cities, it takes up something like 50% of your playing time because you have to constantly send them on missions to prevent the Templars retaking the city. I wish there was some way to make your assassins do missions in their cities without needing your input.

Okay, it's still a good game - barely good, but in my opinion it's not in the same league as the previous AC games. There are just too many developer decisions that obviously were not thought through.

This game makes me glad that they're starting fresh with another character and another time setting for the next AC game. Ezio has overstayed his welcome just a tad (and I really never expected to say that). But the flaws in this game also make me fear that they'll completely mess up the next installment.

From the beginning, the Assassin's Creed series has been a love it or hate it affair. I've been hooked on this series since the first game, which had some trying controls, but the series only got better with each release. The story is over the top, and at times a bit hard to follow, but the game has always been fun.

Assassin's Creed Revelations builds on Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. It gives you more of what you're used to, and of course the parkour, which is the signature feature of the series. If you don't like the parkour element of this game, you're not going to like it. Period! I have read a lot of reviewers complaining about the lack of something new, but I'm curious what is the new that they want? Until last year, Assassin's Creed was single player and story driven. While they added multiplayer, I judge this game on it's single player story alone since that's what Assassin's Creed is all about to me. Assassin's Creed Revelations is a story driven game and it's more complex than ever before.

In this iteration of the series you will be interwoven into experiences with Desmond, Ezio, and Altair. This game ties up loose ends related to those three characters and opens the door to more characters in the future, some exciting news to Assassin's Creed fans.

If you're expecting a lot to be different, it's just not there. The story advances, the setting changes, and some gameplay elements change, such as a tower defense mode within the game. Now, instead of just taking over enemy strongholds, they can try to take them back. Ubisoft also remapped the controls so that accessing weapons is easier than it's every been.

If you're an Assassin's Creed fan you will not be disappointed. If you're just jumping into the series, you shouldn't start here, you should start with the first Assassin's Creed. You'll appreciate the progression over time and become engrossed in the story in a way that you just can't be if you start here.

Since the beginning, I have been nothing but an Assassin's creed fan. I have enjoyed the free-roaming sandbox, and while the combat wasn't always the best, it evolved through the series to be a fun, fast paced thrill ride. I do admit, I have always been a fan for Altair (even with his allergy to water), but I was still looking forward to finishing Ezio's story and finding out what happened to Desmond... and in total, I can say it is a let down.
The story is far from immersive and is quite lacking in numerous parts. Gone are the puzzles and truths to the animus, and in its place, is the story doing a "here you go, it's dumbed down" moment (I won't spoil it as it basically happens two minutes into the game). The game takes you through finishing all of Ezio's memories in an attempt to separate Desmond from the animus; although, as you play, it is quite forgettable. The story is very spread thin and barely recognizable from it predecessors.
The gameplay went from being quite fun to down right dread-worthy. The combo kills still exist; however, the game sees fit to 'slow down time' so you can watch your kill in slow motion. I enjoy fast pace games, and a few kills slowed down is fine, but it's more of a hindrance when there are numerous enemies and you just want to get through them. There are times when the camera will pan to someone you just kicked off a roof, so you can see them fall and die- all the while, you can't see yourself or what's going on (which seems to be quite important being an assassin and all). The other big issue with the whole 'I must show you this kill in insta-slow-replay' is that the graphics are not on par for such a thing. The game, while pretty, does not hold high standards compared to other game graphics, and when this slow-mo stuff occurs, all you see is the flaws in graphics in great detail. There is also the infamous hookblade which while is fun to some degree, it is again not really needed. Ziplines aren't where they are needed, and to use a zipline, you simply run at it and hope that the game recognizes what you are doing or you and the ground will become good friends quite quickly. The combat with said hook-blade isn't horrible, but it again on its own isn't all that amazing.
Bomb-making is lack-luster. There really isn't any need for bombs if you can counter relatively well. Then, there is the tower defense mini-game because in a sandbow, an RTS is exactly what I wanted. So much was taken out, and this minigame feels more like a phone app than part of a hyped $60 game. When these parts come up, you dread your life and just wish they would go away.
All-in-all, this game wasn't worth $60 I paid since in total I paid for: 1. Multiplayer (and games cannot be solely based on that, which on the side- your internet needs to be flawless or you will be waiting for matches for a bit) 2. Lackluster story (no character development, it was more they felt the need that they had to finish this arc right now) 3. Tower defense (a 99 cent app is now part of a 60 dollar game) 4. Graphics which while good for the series are not the most pristine compared to other games on the market at the moment.
This game- while some hardcore fans will cry their hearts out at it (I was one of those fans until this game)- is not worht the 60 to buy. Moreso, this game makes me question if getting the next in the series is even worth it.

Save your Christmas cash for something else - this installment is lacking. I really enjoy the free roam stuff in all the AC games and this one is no exception. Graphics are gorgeous. However, I do have a few beefs with the gameplay this time around. First - In Brotherhood, after trying a few, I avoided the TRON-like training sessions because "hey" they were ugly and zero fun. Now they have been dumbed down and integrated into the main storyline plus they take the place of the cool little Animus puzzles. Recovering Desmond's memories is enough to make me want to forget mine. Second - raised Templar Awareness triggers a Den Defense game. This little mini game is not something that I signed up for. Give me a sword and let me fight, I don't want to play some little tower defense game better suited as a mobile phone app. Next, the fighting is getting old - meaning, anyone who finished the first AC will have no problem kicking butt on any of the subsequent games. The only new things are bombs and a few ziplines (for getting around). The bombs are next to useless but apparently got all the developers pretty excited. 90% of the treasure is now some bomb ingredient that you don't need. Just as a further warning, there are quite a few glitches and it is more difficult to select targets and/or send hired groups against targets.

First, let me say that I am a very big fan of the AC series, and have every single game and DLC for them. Now to the review.

I bought this game (through Gamestop) the day after it was released and beat it the same day, and honestly, I'm sad I bought this game at $60 instead of waiting for the price to go down like I always do.

Graphics 8.5/10

Ever since AC2 the graphics have been great, despite some very minor glitches. Though it looks very similar to Brotherhood, and I wish it was improved more.

Story 2/10 *minor spoilers ahead*

This is where Revelations really messes up. The story is very short and disappointing. In the beginning Desmond meets subject 16, which should have been a very big moment in my opinion but was very quick and bland. In the parts you play as Altair were very short and it seems like the developers missed a lot of things that would have made it better, like Altair's wife and children. I would have liked to know how that came to be. Ezio's story is also disappointing. The best part of that is a woman he meets. The entire story itself is a big letdown. And the conclusions are most definitely not conclusive. I can't say anything else without adding more spoilers.

Gameplay 5/10

The developers also messed up here. The bomb making is a big disappointment as there is only ONE bomb you will actually need. The others are fine but there is only one you will actually use constantly. And most of the other bombs, the trip wire specifically, are not useful at all. The Tower defense mini game is alright, but should have been improved before implementing it into the game, as it is a bit clunky. The hook blade? Utterly pointless. The developers kept talking about how you can zipline across rooftops and such, but there are hardly any wires to zipline across. It's only use is to help you get up rooftops faster by adding extra reach and height, which by the way is something Ezio learned to do in AC2! Why are learning this again? To add a boring gimmick?

Recruiting Assassins has been improved a bit and added special missions, which are fine. You can also send them to other cities, like in ACB, but you can take over those cities and they bring in income, which now that I think about it, I never saw any of that money come into my pocket. Taking over cities is something that should not have been added to the game, as it is very tedious and time consuming. You will be spending a lot of time micromanaging cities and it will become very boring very quickly. There are also slow motion kills as well. These are honestly annoying as this is a fast paced game, not Skyrim or Fallout.

Last thing on gameplay. Remember the Papal Guard from ACB? The guys with pistols and swords who were quite challenging? The equivalent of them is the Ottoman Janissaries, which there are QUITE a lot of. I honestly think there are too many of them as they make combat extremely hard, as they may shoot you while you are fighting someone else. I think they should have toned down on the number of Janisssaries.

Sound 8.5/10

The sound is great. Not much to say here.

Multiplayer 9/10

It's a great improvement over the last game. Though you will need a good Internet connection or will be waiting to play.

Overall 6/10

I'm sorry I bought this game. It's not worth $60. I'd say it's worth about $30 instead. It's becoming like the FPS genre, great multiplayer but disappointing singleplayer. As much as I like AC's multiplayer, I now wish it was never added to the games. I can honestly say I will never buy another AC game again at it's initial price. I will always wait for the game to become cheaper.

One last thing. To the people saying that this is game of the year or that the story sucks you in, I'm glad your opinions are not taken seriously by anyone important. And of course, my opinion are not taken seriously either.

The day before release, I decided to take a peek at the reviews for Assassin's Creed: Revelations, just to get a better idea of what I was getting myself into. I was somewhat disappointed with that I had found. Reviewers made the game feel glitchy, incomplete, and rushed. At midnight that same day, I was eager to get my hands on the game to see just what everybody was complaining about.

What I found was a game with an interesting, engaging story coupled with the fun gameplay from past iterations. Needless to say I breathed a sigh of relief.

My completion time for the game was somewhere around 10 hours (which was roughly the same as Brotherhood) over the course of two day. One might think that completing the main story in a game would leave a player feeling cheated, but it was exactly the opposite. Everything having to do with the story was so interesting that I just couldn't wait to zipline over to the next exclamation point to see what happened next. I don't want to do into any spoilers, but know that the story is much richer than Brotherhood's, and more filling than the first two games as well.

It wasn't the story alone that kept me playing, it was the gameplay.

The hookblade is a fantastic addition to Ezio's arsenal. He can vault over guards, perform zipline assassinations, collapse scaffoldings with it, execute a wide variety of combat moves, as well as catch himself on a building while free running.

One point I saw reviewers bring up was their total and complete hatred for Den Defense. I'm not sure how you can develop such a serious dislike for it though, since if you keep your Templar Awareness in check, you hardly have to deal with it at all! In my entire time playing, I have only done it one time outside of the tutorial. Just bribe heralds and kill the witnesses and you'll be fine. It really isn't that bad though to be honest. It just takes some getting used to.

Altair's missions were a bit longer than the Christina missions from Brotherhood. I don't want to spoil the actual missions, but despite being short they were an absolute delight to experience.

Desmond's time in the game consists of five first person puzzles detailing his time before his capture by Abstergo. You simply walk forward, using simple block pieces to create a platform in front of you, and listen to Desmond remember his past. It really is quite interesting and while completely optional, provides insight into the character we know very little about.

Well, that's it! I hope you guys don't pass up on this incredible experience! It really was a fantastic game, from beginning to end.

To be frank, AC has been one of my favorite titles, and very rarely a time had I felt like setting it down; until now.

They have completely removed long distance travel with versitile environments from the game and compressed all the game play into a huge copy and paste environment called "istanbul".

Walking around in the hazy orange mammoth environment was fun to explore for about 5 minutes, until you realized a lot of the environment was reocurring a lot. This really got rid of a lot of the "adventure" factor and the will to explore, which really sapped a considerable portion of the fun right from the start.

Second flaw; the soundtrack. In order to be properly immersed into a single player role playing game, the soundtrack has a large impact on providing atmosphere, solidifying the environment, and giving heart and character to the AC world. But this time, the heart just wasn't there. It felt as though they ran out of time and came together with a small and unfitting ditty that, to be honest, is downright annoying.

Bomb making is somewhat interesting, but usually unnecessary 99% of the time unless they actually force you to use one to progress. The "hook" blade was one feature that I thought actually improved the title series as a nice addition, and eases and quickens climbing up buildings, but finding hang lines in places that actually ease the travel is scarce.

The dialogue seems watered down and soulless, including Ezio, and very little gameplay for the first half of the game actually adds to the story. You have to do a lot of fetching and other nonsense, and none of it seems relative to progressing the storyline at all.

A few moments of excitement keeps you engaged enough to actually want to continue playing at times, but there have been several instances where i actually turned off my xbox out of getting completely bored, and not caring how the rest of the game progresses, which makes me sad, because ive never felt like setting down the other titles all the way to the end (and then when it ended, wished there was more)

AC2 was a masterpiece, AC brotherhood was a pleasent surprise but didnt quite hold the magic that AC2 did, but this title just feels bland, sort of like an AC brotherhood expansion pack, with a few querks and boring tasks that really dont add anything to the story.

This was going to be the best title of 2011 for me; but it saddens me to say it didn't let up at all.

My hope is that AC revelations was short cut because of how hard they are working on AC-4, and not because they have lost their ability to make an immersive and fun game that AC fans have now come to expect.

I love the Assassins Creed Series, and have been a fan from day one. One of things that's always been a pleasant surprise to me is how much I love playing these games even though they are essentially the exact same thing... over and over and over again.

1.) If you are a huge fan of the series and have loved the previous entries, and have gotten them as soon as they come out - then same deal here.
2.) If you've never played one of these before, but are interested in changing that - this is not the one to start with. You will have no idea what's going on, and there are better ones to play. Start with AC2
3.) If you generally like the AC series and have played some of them but aren't sure about this one, and maybe want to get a better idea of if this is worth your hard earned shekels - then the following is for you:

The thing with this one - that makes it the weakest entry in the series (in my opinion) is that for the first time, I really felt the repetition. Even though the gameplay and the general progression of the games has remained untouched throughout the previous 3 games - this is the first time I kind of felt like I was just going through the motions.

As always the graphics are beautiful, the story is good (although the constant "unraveling" is starting to get a bit old), and exploring the new environment is always a blast. The combat mechanic is the same (which is great - although it feels sluggish at times). That being said there are some things in this new sequel that I could have totally lived without, and I think really take away from the game as a whole.

- Bomb crafting:
This is now a huge part of the game - and one that I do not care for at all. It was great to find treasure in the previous games but the bomb materials now make up like 90% of the treasure boxes. So you end up with tons of crap you don't need and can't carry any more of. Also - the bombs are pretty much useless, and add nothing to gameplay...so there's that. If you think spending a large amount of your time making bombs that you don't need is awesome...then prepare to be amazed.

- Goodbye Horses?
Uh. They've got horses out the whazoo in Venice (a water locked city famous for having rivers that serve as streets) but none in Istanbul? Yeah....not having horses on tap is a bit of a let down and makes getting around annoying at times.

- Button Switches:
The controls have been modified slightly and I personally don't like the new layouts. Eagle vision is now moved to the left-stick-press and only seems to work when you are standing dead still and really press that sucker. And now you need to use it more than ever so I am not sure I get that one. Also the weapons wheel has been broken up with some inventory on the left stick and some on the right...which I find kinda annoying and more than a little confusing sometimes.

- Zip Lines:
I actually like this as a method of getting around - you can use zip lines and this new hookblade you get to quickly traverse the city from the rooftops...but I have no idea why they are placed the way they are, and they're never placed anywhere useful. Even if you do find one that's "going your way" it only takes you like a block and half so it's not really helping all that much any old way.

All that being said I still enjoy playing this game. I mean at the end of the day it's still a quality product and for a game in it's 4th iteration - that's pretty good :) I will say that if I hadn't gotten this and never played it - I wouldn't be missing a whole lot either.

First things first -

If you haven't played the first Assassin's Creed and subsequent releases (or at LEAST starting with II, and going forward) - go no further. Do yourself a service and start with II as a bare minimum and work yourself forward to this, the 3rd in the Ezio Auditore trilogy. Otherwise, you'll be completely lost.

For those of you familiar with the story, you're going to find Ezio Auditore in his twilight years on a quest to find Altair's legendary, yet quite well-protected, library. The Templars have caught wind of it and Ezio is also trying to find his way in to thwart their attempts at worldwide control. This is hardly a spoiler as you're quickly brought into this within minutes of beginning to play Ezio - no further spoilers here.

From the standpoint of playing all of the previous Assassin's Creed entries, how does this one fare? Well, I finally played it tonight and I must say that it is really quite remarkable. There's a major change in the way that combat is handled - you select a primary and then a secondary weapon so that you can enter a sword fight and then throw knives at will, for example (no longer do you have to constantly "weapon wheel" between sword and throwing knives constantly). Graphic engine has been updated and it's quite smooth; I don't find it stuttering nearly as often as it used to. Even the story itself has been given a facelift - now there's more of a cohesive, unified story rather than a series of seemingly disjointed events culminating in your goal in the first place of killing "x" person because he did "y". "Eagle vision" also has some significant improvements, some subtle and some not. For example, in addition to identifying enemies, you'll actually see faint red lines indicating a guard's patrol route. This enhances the formulation of tactics. In other cases, where smoke bombs are even more effective at obscuring your enemies' ability to attack you, "eagle vision" will actually allow you to pierce the cloud and attack your enemies at will. In addition, you will be collecting materials to craft a variety of different bombs (lethal and non-lethal). The animations of Ezio kill moves are superb and some of his abilities show that Ezio, in his twilight years, is deadlier than ever. The music, as always, is very well-done and the voice acting is even better than usual. The beginning of the game reminds me of Matrix Revolutions, but I do mean this in a good way.

The environments are breathtakingly beautiful. The game has departed from Italy and finds itself in Constantinople, once the true crossroads of the world between Europe and Asia when the United States was still a mere 264 years away from declaring its own independence. Ezio finds himself with new equipment (the hook blade is fun opening a variety of attacks as well as an ability to zip line around your environment - fantastic!), friends (including a romantic interest), and actually enters into the conflict politically - it's no longer a mere Templar/Assassin conflict. There are layers to appreciate here as Ezio makes an ally and as I am starting to delve into it, I truly appreciate what Ubisoft has created here.

If there is one thing that I have to complain about, it's the mode where you have to defend your own Assassin's Keeps in addition to creating them for those of you familiar with Brotherhood. It becomes a "tower defense" game at this point...and I don't mean that in a flattering way. It's one thing that Ubisoft could have omitted (or seriously improved upon) without impacting the story whatsoever. It comes off as a silly gimmick that didn't appear to have been given a significant amount of thought in terms of how it flows with the rest of the interlocking parts. This is an oprhan 301st piece in a 300-piece puzzle; it doesn't fit and, quite honestly, you don't really need it to complete the experience.

I haven't had a chance to explore multiplayer too much, but what I've seen so far seems to indicate that Ubisoft has taken the best parts of Brotherhood and have added both modes and additional customization not seen before. I'm more into the story then the multiplayer, but Revelations has shown me enough to convince me to give it a try...later. Assassin's Creed is still, first and foremost, about a continuing and quite fascinating story. And the final chapter to the overall story arc (with Ezio's presumably ending here, if rumors are believed) is to come in yet a single year, although how Ubisoft plans to bring this epic to a conclusion in the absence of such a strong character like Ezio has my curiosity piqued.

Despite the fault of "tower defense", everything else is so vastly improved that I still have to give it a solid 4.75 stars (5 stars on the Amazon scale - don't think it deserves a 4). Enough said - get it and enjoy!

This is a really good game in comparison to all other games, but if you compare it to the previous games in the series, it isn't as fun or as good.

First, I really can't stand Ezio. I didn't like him in the other games either, but the other games also had more redeeming qualities. Ezio just reminds me of a Jersey Shore reject. He is also way too old in Revelations, makes groany, old men noises, and says things like, "If I was young..." Not exactly the bad-ass assassin you want and expect to play.

The character-control seems to "stick" and isn't as fluid or as natural-feeling. It just seems a lot more clumsy. The time period hasn't changed, so that was disappointing. You don't travel in this game, which makes it seem less epic and less interesting.

Revelations is too much of the same thing and doesn't feel like a new game, just a continuation of the other games.