Assassin’s Creed: Revelations is the third title in the action/adventure series to be released in as many years, and the fourth overall on home consoles. You’d think gamers would have had enough of the franchise by now, but Ubisoft has managed to beat the odds once with Brotherhood, which was released last year to universal acclaim, so can they do it again with Revelations?

Story

The opening of Assassin’s Creed: Revelations takes place in the Syrian city of Masyaf, with Ezio searching for secrets left behind by Altaïr. Ezio discovers the door to Altaïr’s library, which requires five keys to unlock. Suspecting that something important lies behind it, he learns that the Masyaf keys were hidden in Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), where most of the game is set.

This relocation from Renaissance Italy to Constantinople allows Ubisoft Montreal to explore a different culture, and also introduce several great new characters; Yusuf Tazim, the leader of the local Assassin Order; Prince Suleiman, the heir to the sultanate of the mighty Ottoman Empire; and Sofia Sartor, the owner of a local bookshop and a love interest for Ezio.

With a name like Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, you’re no doubt expecting Ubisoft to deliver some answers. This is true to a certain extent, because the stories of Altaïr and Ezio are both wrapped up nicely, but the ending  itself is still incredibly ambiguous, and in true Assassin’s Creed fashion, actually invites more questions than it answers.

Gameplay

As always with an Assassin’s Creed title, the two main aspects of the gameplay in Revelations are climbing and combat. However, if you’re reading this review, then we assume you have at least a passing interest in Assassin’s Creed, so rather than dwelling on these staples of the series, we’ll be focusing on the new additions to the game.

The hook blade is the first of these to be introduced to the player; a modification of Ezio’s hidden blade which allows him to climb higher and jump further. It can also be used to slide down the many zip lines that are spread around Constantinople, and you can even initiate a kill from a zip line, presenting the player with new possibilities for assassinations.

Do you remember those random items you could find around Rome in Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood? Ubisoft has included an equivalent for Revelations, but this time they’re actually useful. Bomb crafting is a big part of the game, but you must first find the necessary ingredients, which can be found in chests or looted from guards’ corpses.

Each bomb requires an Impact Shell, a type of Gunpowder, and an Effect; there are several types of each ingredient, so a huge amount of different bombs can be created. For example, you could make a traditional explosive with shrapnel to kill a guard on contact, or something more inventive such as a bomb made from lamb’s blood to scare guards into thinking the blood is their own.

Another new feature is Den Defense, a tower defence minigame that allows Ezio to free parts of the city that are under Templar rule. Waves of enemies attempt to break through your defences, and Ezio can call in Assassins and construct barriers to prevent them from doing so.  It’s a decent distraction and works fairly well, but it doesn’t quite match the rest of the game’s quality.

Thankfully, there’s a huge amount of other singleplayer content to occupy your time, including the usual slew of collectibles, and more interestingly, possibly the largest amount of side missions the series has ever seen. Many of these secondary missions must be completed for the game’s platinum, so trophy hunters will certainly have their work cut out.

Although you play as Ezio for the majority of the game, you’ll also take on the role of Altaïr and Desmond at certain points in the story. Whenever Ezio finds one of the aforementioned Masyaf keys, he experiences one of Altaïr’s memories, and the player briefly assumes the role of Altaïr, the legendary Assassin from the original Assassin’s Creed game.

These memories span the course of Altaïr’s life, so it’s very interesting to see what he got up to after the events of the first game. Amongst all of the stabbing and general bloodshed, it’s easy to forget that the Assassins are only human. Revelations has several moments of unexpectedly high emotion, many of which take place in these Altaïr sections.

READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW AT PS3 ATTITUDE