The end of an era has arrived in “Assassin’s Creed: Revelations.” Since 2007, Ubisoft Montreal has created an amazing story of religious conspiracy mixed with historical references. Their newest title ends the tale of two assassins and opens up a big adventure in Constantinople.
After learning the truth of the Apple of Eden from an ancient holographic projection, Ezio Auditore sets off to follow in the footsteps of Altaïr, the original protagonist from “Assassin’s Creed.” Upon arrival, Ezio finds himself rebuilding the Assassin Brotherhood in the middle of the feud between the Byzantine and Ottoman empires for control of the Holy Land.
As this is happening, the Templars, the sworn enemy of Ezio and the assassins, push the feud between the Ottomans and Byzantines. This distracts the empires long enough for the Templars to go after a set of keys that Altaïr left behind to hide the Apple. It is Ezio’s job to fi nd these keys before the Templars in order to keep history from being altered by corruption.
Meanwhile Desmond Miles, the modern day assassin descendant, is in a coma after the Apple was activated at the end of “Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood.” Desmond’s consciousness is now forced to stay inside the computer system that allowed him to access Ezio’s memories while uncovering his own through later parts of the game.
The story is very well told. The connection between Desmond, Ezio, and Altaïr become clear from beginning to end, with a great emphasis on the main objectives.
The first issue that may confuse some of the longtime players is the controls. Instead of using the top face to use Ezio’s tracking ability, Ubisoft decided to move it to the left analog stick. Meanwhile, the secondary weapons are placed in the top face button. It does take getting used and may confuse players further if they wish to go back to older “Assassin’s Creed” titles.
Combat looks very fluid, as expected. A new combat system has been added to bring a better sense of strategy. Ubisoft has also added the ability to use bombs allow an extra tactical advantage for stealth maneuvering.
When it comes down to general navigation in the game, there are some pretty big glitches. Allies have a tendency to stay in one spot and refuse to do anything else, which causes you to have to restart the mission.
“Assassin’s Creed: Revelations” has certainly evolved on a smooth timeline and players will have something else to be thankful for this year. This game gets five well deserved hidden blades out of five. You can pick this game up for $49.99 at your local retailer.
