Played as part of the Ezio Collection

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations is arguably the most anomalous entry in the esteemed franchise. It does a lot that has not been replicated in any title since, and contains some of the series greatest story beats; yet it’s also got cons, most of them arising from the game being a filler entry.

Talk to any fan nowadays and Revelations will be held in high regard, placed among the best of the best. But don’t let this retroactive discourse mislead you- upon its release, there was criticism. From the comparatively low amount of content to the gimmicky gameplay additions, it was the first time the series was derided for wallowing in the yearly-release format (something that would only be abandoned with Origins in 2017). As with Unity, Revelations’s reputation has grown considerably due to backlash towards the Ancient Trilogy; however, let me make it clear that all those expostulations of yonder hold-up and are arguably even more potent when lined up against its predecessors.

That Revelations manages to stand the test of time amidst the constraints brought about by its rushed production is a testament to the dedication of the many studios that contributed to its conception whilst ACIII was being hammered at, and by no means do I wish to diminish their work with this review. But there is no denying it has many cracks on its shell, and so an honest look is warranted, no matter what it reveals.

The intro is ironically a great example of that aforementioned duality of good and bad that I spoke of in my opening paragraph. We begin with Subject 16 recapping what occurred in the last three games before Desmond awakes on a beach in the Animus. He immediately meets 16, who gives an info dump of how his mind is fragmented and how the only way to fix it is through fully synchronizing with Altair and Ezio.

When I was a kid, I bought the techno mumbo jumbo that 16 relayed; however, replaying it as an adult, I can’t help but question this whole premise. Desmond falling into a coma had nothing to do with the Bleeding Effect (or cognitive incursion of his ancestors’ lives)- it was because Juno made him stab Lucy. So why are Ezio and Altair’s memories now a problem? If Clay had claimed that Desmond’s shattered mind is intermingling with the remembrances of the two Assassins, then I could see the connection, but he doesn’t do that: he just states you have to figure out what they have left to teach you. A unique premise enclosed by filler nonsense.

On top of that, it’s never explained why William thought putting Desmond in the Animus would be better for his mental state than a hospital bed. As Rebecca flat out tells him, the machine wasn’t built for medical purposes, so how is it preserving his id?

Those gripes aside, there is a lot to love. Much like Dear Esther’s setting, Animus Island is quite beautiful from a simple nature point-of-view, and Desmond’s initial conversation with 16 manages to be summarical without sounding exposition-y: in the span of less than two minutes, you know what transpired and what Desmond has to do now, before being granted access to the historical story- far quicker than ACII and Brotherhood.

Ezio’s narrative inceptualizes with what remains one of the best movie cutscenes in not just Assassin’s Creed, but video game history. The old Mentore is traveling from Italy to Masyaf in search of Altair’s secret library when he is surprise-attacked by the Templars, who almost get the better of him before he manages to escape. Fans who were keeping up with Revelations during its production may remember this as the E3 trailer, though Lorne Balfe’s “Road to Masyaf” track amplifies its epicness in a way Woodkid’s “Iron” could only dream of.

Interestingly, while the writers were clearly eager to get Desmond’s intro out of the way, they take their sweet time with Ezio’s. You spend the entirety of Sequence 1 attempting to track down and assassinate the head of this Templar squad, a captain named Leandros, and the pacing is an off-putting intermixture of sluggish and fast beats: scaling giant castles and tailing guards doesn’t feel quite right next to horse cart chases and small-scale predator rooms. The best way I can describe is, it’d be like if a Call of Duty mission contained parts of All Ghillied Up and Shock & Awe- Now, I’m sure there are plenty of people who enjoy the polymorphization, but for me, it was weaker in comparison to the beginnings of its two predecessors.

The one thing Revelations does at least improve upon from Brotherhood is its disguisement of tutorial missions. Whether it’s learning to utilize Eagle Sense, the hookblade, or standard parkour, there’s always an organic story transition that doesn’t interrupt the flow of the game the way it did in Brotherhood (though the sheer amount of them is a problem we’ll talk about later).

During his pursuit of Leandros, Ezio learns from a local demolitionist that the Templars have not only found the door to the library, but also acquired one of its keys. Thankfully, Leandros’s corpse holds a book that contains information on the other keys.

Arriving in Costantinopoli, Ezio briefly encounters two individuals who will play a larger part in events down the line, Sofia Sartor and Prince Suleiman, before making the acquaintance of one of the best supporting characters in the series: Yusuf Tazim. De facto leader of the Turkish Brotherhood, Yusuf is one of the finest creations from main writer Darby McDevitt because he’s a balance of so many traits that, left unchecked, would’ve rendered him tiresome, but combined together, succeed in bringing out his best: he talks to Ezio like a casual friend, but is as skilled an assassin; he jokes frequently, yet drops the act when serious events transpire; and though cocky, he cares deeply about his comrades and methodically plans things out- every suggestion he provides to the Mentore ends up being extremely useful. Best of all, he actually does sh*t. One of the recurring issues Assassin’s Creed games tend to have is, in centering around a singular protagonist, they make most of the supporting members useless. Sure they’re depicted as gathering vital intel, but in terms of actually executing gameplans, they conveniently leave that to the central character. It’s not a huge dock because, let’s face-it, this is how single-player games function: have the gamer do all the grunt work so that they have a sufficient campaign at their fingertips. But AC games suffer a bit for it because, outside of select entries, you’re generally part of a larger organization of killers theoretically as nearly effective as you…so, why aren’t they doing any of the yakka?

Well, Revelations resolves that by portraying Yusuf as active. He orients tasks, strategizes plans, and actively participates in the bloody going-ons of Istanbul. There’s even a part where he tells Ezio that he doesn’t need to involve himself in the local affairs due to him handling it. Tl;dr- Yusuf has more than earned his reputation in the AC community.

Anyway, in addition to successfully concealing tutorials, Revelations also manages to hide erroneous plot developments under good narratorialism. What I mean is conventional video games don’t attempt to provide logical reasons as to why its protagonist isn’t doing something that would make sense (i.e., in Brotherhood, Ezio going to a random location with the Romulus letter instead of promptly returning to Machiavelli). In Revelations, Ezio abstaining from immediately telling Yusuf about the Masyaf Keys is justified by the pair getting ambushed by Byzantine Templars, which then leads into the Assassins needing to make preparations against further incursions -> Ezio needing to rearm himself -> receiving the hookblade -> Templars launching the expected assault on two fronts -> den defense on the first front -> Ezio getting back the lost hideout on the second front -> the Assassins being depleted of soldiers after the battle -> Ezio recruiting new hires to replenish their ranks -> working with the recruits -> returning to Yusuf who teaches him bomb crafting (after demonstrating it earlier) -> Ezio finally informing him about Niccolò Polo’s journal. If it wasn’t for the blatantness of the tutorials, I wouldn’t have even noticed the stagnation due to how smooth the story transitions are.

But those tutorials are present, and consequently need to be critiqued because the fact of the matter is Revelations has too many of them, and what it comes down to is the game relying on gimmicks. Now, I know that word gets thrown around a lot and is often unwarranted, so let me explain my own definition: a gimmick is a gameplay element that is flaunted as novel but ultimately redundant. They tend to be presented as optional, but in truth are subtly mandatory- either the game makes them necessary to the resolution of a qualm or refraining from utilizing them drags out some aspect of the experience. Contrary to public opinion, by no means are they inherently bad: some of my favorite things from past video games would technically qualify as gimmicks (VATS from Fallout 3), and Revelations certainly needed to coast-by on a few to hold over gamers till the real innovations came with ACIII. However, the more gimmicks you incorporate the more time is needed to expound them, and considering the short nature of Revelations’s story already, it doesn’t bode well from a content POV.

First up is Eagle Sense, an upgraded version of the standard Eagle Vision in other ACs. Though there was potential here for something cool, it feels like they just downgraded the standard sensory perception to make this iteration stand out- certain targets need to be held onto with a circular cursor in order to out their identity. And while seeing trails and ghosts is cool, it’s never implemented well outside of forced story incursions. Then there’s the hookblade, which basically takes the place of the climb leap abilities from ACII and ACB whilst also providing additional functions like zipline traversal from certain rooftops, flipovers during enemy evasion, and leg sweeps in combat. The animation work is superb, however I don’t see many people using the latter capacities simply because it’s often easier to do the double jump exploit and counterkill respectively. Regarding its primary purpose, the hookblade does make climbing faster, but what you’ll find is a fair amount of the taller towers were specifically redesigned to accommodate this: and, to be honest with you guys, while it is fun even with the shorter constructions, I am generally against any gadget that diminishes the parkour of AC (something that would be horribly exemplified by Syndicate’s rope launcher).

Next is the much-beloved Den Defense. For those who don’t know, back in the late-2000s/early-2010s, there was a surge in a game genre called “tower defense” that involved strategically placing armaments on a field for the sake of impeding/destroying a hostile force before it got to your treasure trove. While there were many variants that existed before, the publishing of Ninja Kiwi’s Bloons Tower Defense in 2007 led to a massive uptick in its popularity. Of course, the genre has since turned into generic mobile shovelware that no one pays a second glance to, but as Revelations was developed at the height of this wave, Ubisoft decided to do its own take.

There’s a lot of dislike towards Den Defense from AC fans, but I don’t count myself among them as it’s a perfectly competent variant that narratively holds water. After all, why should the Templars give up their efforts to reestablish control over a district after a simple setback? See, once conquered, Templar Towers get converted into Assassin hideouts, and because knowledge of them was known beforehand, it's logical that they are privy to being re-assaulted by the Byzantines. Now, my biggest gripe is the idea that the Brotherhood would engage in open warfare with the Templars when such tactics were discouraged following Altair’s reforms; however, I do not find the concept to be as completely nonsensical as some members of the AC crowd would suggest.

Those who genuinely don’t like the minigame need not worry as you can avoid getting into such scraps as long as you keep your notoriety low. And if you want a permanent solution, fully upgrade a recruit to Master Assassin and assign them to a Den, locking it off from further sallies for good.

Last but not least is bomb crafting. This marks the first time of the franchise incorporating a crafting system of sorts, and its rudimentariness definitely shows. While it’s nice to finally have more than just smokescreens, the reality is the vast majority of the explosives are rather pointless against the three main archetypes of smoke, shrapnel, and cherry - I don’t see many players experimenting with the blood, datura, thunder, stink, caltrop, signal, or gold bombs. Unfortunately, the game goes out of its way to goad you into employing the latter ones by making their resources more prevalent in the world than the former’s (and only a few materials can be bought from shops). But those wanting a more in-depth guide need only read the following post from Reddit user ruhuratas breaking down the different versions:

“One of the big selling points of Revelations was the bomb-crafting system where you can make over a hundred different bomb combinations. And 95% are completely pointless.

Out of the lethal ones, Daturas are clearly the best as they are silent. You could argue that Shrapnel ones can also double as a distraction but you have other methods and an entire category of bombs dedicated just for this one specific purpose. Coal Dust bombs are complete trash as they fail at killing/incapacitating even the most basic Byzantine militia unit. They are also the rarest lethal bomb type for whatever reason.

Tactical bombs are all essentially the same: making the enemies vulnerable to one-shot kills, as if the already easy combat necessitates that. The only ones that have an alternate use are the smoke bombs which can be used to conceal movement or blind guards. They are also the most common ones and last the longest, making the Caltrops, Lamb's Blood or Skunk Oil effects pointless.

I do think that the smoke decoy and cherry bombs are well designed as they have distinct effects and uses, but the Pyrite Coin ones are inconsistent. They can create blend zones in their area of effect but they seem to occur at random and unlike the two other distraction bombs, are reliant on civilian crowds being nearby.

Out of the casings, Impact ones are the most common and (surprise-surprise) the only ones worth using. Trip Wires, Stickies and Bouncing ones just make the delivery method needlessly convoluted when the Impact ones only need direct line of sight, which is very easy to achieve given how Istanbul has rooftops practically everywhere.

In theory, the different types of gunpowder could be used to limit civilian casualties but in practice, you are never going to find civilians near anyone you'd use the bombs on. Civilians don't walk on rooftops or in restricted areas, you have no reason not to use the British gunpowder unless you've just gotten unlucky with retrieving it.
So, we have ten different effects, only four of them really worth using. Four different casings, except one of them is clearly better than the others. Three types of gunpowder, but unless you are careless, you are only ever going to use one. It's pretty telling how out of the 120 possible combinations, only two made a return in AC3.”


Overall, all of Revelations’s gimmicks contribute positively to the experience, but there’s no denying they were thrown in for the sake of artificially-spicing up the gameplay over strongly innovating it.

Back to the story. Yusuf advises Ezio to seek out a sailor named Piri Reis for more information on the location of the former Polo Hideout. Lo and behold, the area has had a bookshop built over it owned by none other than Ms. Sartor from earlier. Using his Eagle Sense, Ezio finds the entrance to the reliquary containing the first Masyaf Key, and it is here that one comes to the quick realization that, in order to pad out the campaign, the tombs from prior Ezio games were made mandatory parts of the main story. It’s a disappointing revelation (no pun intended), and the quality of the first one isn’t particularly good, being more like an exaggerated assembly hall than an underground vestige of epic proportions. But know that further ones are a lot better, primarily because they involve more cinematic flair (more on that later).

Inside, not only does Ezio find the Masyaf token, but also an encoded map disclosing the position of books that hold the sites of the remaining keys. And wouldn’t you know it, Sofia is more than capable of unraveling its cipher given her knack for bibliophilia. While it is a contrived situation, I can’t deny the flirtation between her and Ezio is salaciously handled (and honestly, with the sheer amount of cleavage she sports, I also can’t blame any man for falling for her).

After reliving Altair’s memory (more on that later), the sequence ends on a strange note by wrapping-up the exploits of a rogue assassin named Vali whom Ezio encountered during the training of one of his acolytes. Part of me wonders if there was meant to be more to this side-plot as its conclusion feels as sudden as it does random.

While Ezio is on track to gather the rest of the Pieces of Eden, one of them is still held by the Byzantine Templars. To deduce its location, Ezio reasons he’ll have to make an acquaintance with someone in the inner Ottoman Court. Well, surprise surprise, such an opportunity arises in the next sequence with Yusuf’s sources telling him that the Templars plan on assassinating Suleiman at a gathering he’s hosted. Taking on the guise of Italian minstrels, Ezio and the Brotherhood infiltrate the palace, and it is here that I gotta take a moment to praise both Roger Craig Smith and Darby McDevitt for what is one of the most laughably memorable scenes in all of AC. The lyrics to Ezio’s songs are recaps of events in ACII and ACB, and the fact that they were condensed into rhyming, bite-size stanzas makes them a joy to listen to.

Ezio saves the Prince, earning his trust and causing him to inform Ezio about the political machinations going on behind-the-scenes. I have to admit, the first couple of times I played Revelations, the inner workings of this plot went over my head and I consequently found it unmemorable. Redoing the experience with an older set of eyes, however, I definitely consider it much more invigorating. Suleiman’s grandfather, the Sultan, is dying, and has subsequently named Suleiman’s Uncle, Prince Ahmet, his successor. The problem is, the Sultan’s private guard, the Janissaries, favor Suleiman’s father, Selim I, and publicly express hostility towards Ahmet through their leader Tarik. Suleiman requests Ezio to keep a watch on the Janissary commander.


Unfortunately, the immersiveness of Revelations’s story strains under its binary plotting. That is, it’s not quite able to balance the two threads it’s trying to weave: Ezio’s search for the remaining Masyaf Keys and the one held by the Templars. Yes, they both deal with the same end goal, but the stories don’t intertwine well, being separately accessible and (until the last sequence) focusing on their own objectives. What this means is moments that would’ve made sense to happen sequentially often don’t because you’re too busy running errands to service the other plot. For example, here, it would’ve been narratively concise to have Ezio proceed with eavesdropping on Tarik, but he alternatively opts to catch-up with Sofia, and it comes off as odd.

Oh well, one of her packages is stuck behind bureaucratic red tape, and after retrieving it, Ezio is provided clues for the second Masyaf Key, which he retrieves. The next sequence picks up where the second one should’ve with Ezio shadowing Tarik and finding him apparently selling weapons to a Byzantine figurehead named Manuel Palaiologos. Unfortunately, the guns have been taken inside the city’s arsenal, and rather than design a cool infiltration mission the way Brotherhood did with the Castel Sant’Angelo, the writers instead thought it best to have Ezio manipulate the local citizenry into endangering themselves. I’ll tell you guys upfront that one of the reasons I’ve always disliked Revelations is because it depicts a veteran Ezio violate all three tenets, let me repeat, ALL THREE TENETS of the Creed, and this is just the first of several instances. Yes, I suppose if you were to interpret the line “stay your blade from the flesh of an innocent” literally, Ezio is in the clear, but most reasonable people don’t, and it’s disgusting that they have him break it here. Through bribing heralds, tens of innocent merchants lose their lives as part of a mob rush that destroys the door to the Arsenal compound, where Ezio finds proof of Tarik’s dealings.

Rather than go straight to Suleiman with this information, we, again, have Ezio dilly away to Sofia, who has another arbitrary task for him- reclaim a stolen painting! After this, Ezio recovers the next key, before finally speaking to Suleiman about his findings, who orders him to infiltrate the Janissary Compound and assassinate Tarik. Upon completing the deed, though, Tarik discloses in the Confession that he was actually planning on ambushing the Byzantines in their secluded city.

Now, I understand there were a lot of fans who weren’t happy about the decision to have Ezio kill an innocent man, but I actually think the script did a good enough job justifying the event: the eavesdrops and secrecy surrounding Tarik’s dealings with the Byzantines combined with his animosity towards Ahmet heavily suggested the conclusion drawn about him (plus the Janissaries weren’t exactly shown to be honorable soldiers). What I don’t like, however, is Ezio being sent off like some errand boy by Suleiman. It makes him (and the Brotherhood by extension) seem subservient and careless, haplessly killing political rivals without a second thought.

Ezio reports the truth to Suleiman, and what occurs next remains one of the most awkward cutscenes I’ve ever seen in an Assassin’s Creed game: Suleiman promises to secure Ezio passage out of the city to the Byzantine stronghold, only for Ezio to retreat to the shadows when Ahmet arrives bearing the same news about Tarik, only to then IMMEDIATELY return into the limelight and pointlessly interrupt Suleiman’s conversation with his Uncle to get the message about safe travel retold (whilst the Prince now spins a lie about him being a European advisor). Remember when I said all three tenets were spat on by the Mentor in Revelations? Well, there goes “Hide in Plain Sight”.

Before Ezio can leave Istanbul, he has to finish his tasks with Sofia, and yes, like the times before, it’s not fun, revolving around plucking flowers for a picnic. Look, props to the coders for actually programming an animation of Ezio cutting white tulips, but did we really need this? I get wanting to develop the relationship between the two and have quiet moments in the narrative; however, the solution wasn’t to create a separate storyline almost entirely unrelated to its brethren- in fact, I have a genuinely good idea as to how Sofia’s sections could’ve been implemented better: have her delve deep into the Ottoman history. I mean it when I say that a lot of the interesting historical events of this period aren’t depicted or even explained properly, from the cause of the Civil War to the grudge held by the descendants of Constantine, to the ending where Selim claims he has now been made the Sultan out of nowhere. Having someone explicate to Ezio (and the player) what is transpiring behind the scenes would’ve gone a long way towards giving her some consistent weight throughout the story. As it stands, the route they went makes the enterprise feel like an arbitrary version of the Cristina Missions. But hey, those of you who’ve always wanted to see Ezio pose like one of Jack’s French girls at least get your wish.

With help from Yusuf and a big detonator, Ezio destroys the chain blockading the port and sets sail with Piri Reis for the Byzantine stronghold of Cappadocia, a sequence that’ll live on as not only one of the worst in franchise history, but also one of the biggest wastes. What do I mean by the latter? Well, there is literally NOTHING to do in Cappadocia but the 3-4 story missions: no sidequests, no strongholds to conquer, not even storefronts to renovate. So much effort was put into crafting this stony-looking town, yet you barely spend time there. If that was going to be the case, why not just rewrite things so that the Byzantines were hiding in some underused sector of Costantinopoli? The worst part is you can’t use your assassins (which strictly makes sense) or send them away on missions.

Regarding the former, the story takes a nosedive into psychopathy when Ezio, aiding the Ottoman Spies already in place, decrees the best method of driving out the Templars to be setting off a gigantic gunpowder reserve, thereby murdering hundreds of civilians through: the ensuing hysteria, crowd crush, and/or black lung-causing toxic air. Whether it was Darby or someone else on the writing team, I don’t know who thought it was a good idea to turn a veteran Assassin into a sociopathic murderer who does more damage to innocents than any Templar in the vicinity. Part of me wonders if this was an attempt at reformulating a greyness to the overarching Isu War after ACII and Brotherhood moved in a more black/white direction (though I would argue ACII gets an unfair rep here for reasons discussed in its review: https://www.backloggd.com/u/RedBackLoggd/review/519626/). I theorize this because the Sequence ends with Ezio confronting the two leaders of the Order, Manuel and Ahmet, and both (especially Ahmet) speak about needing to unify the people for the sake of achieving a firm peace. Their arguments were honestly affecting enough that I didn’t buy Ezio labeling the Constantinian a monster.

However, while I am all for moral ambiguity, portraying Ezio as malicious (or, if I’m being generous, incompetent) enough to kill innocuous citizens is bad writing and does not legitimately support those traits.

Ahmet’s reveal as the true leader of the Templars also comes with its fair share of problems, beginning with his motivation- why? Why throw-in with a group of people who are trying to overrun your city when you were selected as the heir apparent to the Sultanate? He even claims he was going to thwart their kidnapping attempt of Suleiman earlier in the game to increase his favor with the local Turks. I know he says he was just using them, but that doesn’t make sense since he was appointed the Grand Master: you can’t be the leader of an organization if all your followers want to usurp your homeland from you. Secondly, how does he know so much about everyone? He knows Ezio is an Assassin, knows he is looking for the Masyaf Keys, and knows about his relationship with Sofia. I get that Ezio wasn’t exactly subtle with most of his actions, but at least give some context like Ahmet remarking about him possessing a sprawling spy network throughout the city. Taking both of these into account, it honestly seems like the writers just wanted to have a cool plot twist and randomly threw in Ahmet because he was the only other Ottoman you encountered frequently besides Suleiman.

Ahmet’s reasons for wanting the Masyaf Keys are at least sound, and, as I said before, line up well with a greyer Templar philosophy of achieving world serenity via control. Ezio darts back to Istanbul, where he finds Yusuf and the other guards murdered by the Templars (breaking Tenet Three by the way: “Never compromise the Brotherhood”). Enraged, Ezio gives a rousing speech to the rest of the Assassins, who assault the Bayezid Arsenal (see, it was possible to do this WITHOUT imperiling civilians). Ahmet holds the upper hand, however, and gets the keys whilst using a decoy of Sofia to trick the Assassins.

Ezio successfully rescues the real heroine, and the two embark in pursuit of Ahmet, culminating in him and Ezio toppling over a cliff in front of the returning Ottoman Army led by Selim, who states he is now the Sultan before committing fratricide and rudely sparing Ezio on the basis of Suleiman’s favor.

Prior to the Final Sequence commencing, Animus Island is on the verge of collapsing. To save Desmond, 16 sacrifices himself, giving his own peroration about man being the sum of his memories before tossing the protagonist into the Black Door. Back in the past, Ezio and Sofia return to Masyaf Castle, entering its hallowed grounds. Ezio goes alone to the library, finding Altair’s skeleton, a final Key, his Apple of Eden, and finally a message he knows he must deliver to Desmond as the conduit. For each of the speeches we’ve encountered in the past three sequences (Ezio’s eulogy, 16’s homily, Ezio’s defining of the Creed, and finally his commentary to Desmond), I gotta commend the writing team for their ability to weave strong prose. It’s a hard enough facet to pull off with one brief articulation, yet they succeed on all fronts.

Unfortunately, the warning from Jupiter to Desmond kind of showcases why Revelations was poor filler as nothing Desmond learns really matters. The Assassins were already aware something had befallen the Ones Who Came Before, and, because of the events of The Da Vinci Disappearance, William already knew the location of the Grand Temple. Yeah, the CGI cutscene depicting the initial Solar Flare is harrowing, but it seems like it was concocted solely to give a grander feel to the finale than it actually warranted.

With that knowledge, Desmond’s mind is restored and he awakens just as the team arrives at the Grand Temple, setting up ACIII.

With Ezio and Desmond’s stories wrapped-up, let’s shift gears to Altair. During the marketing, Ubisoft hyped up how you would be able to play as two Assassins, which I suppose was technically the truth but will be rightly interpreted by fans as a white lie. Every time Ezio holds a Masyaf Key, the player is transposed to a memory of Altair, and it cannot be emphasized enough how short they are. I wouldn’t be surprised if all six of them totaled to no more than 30 minutes, most of that runtime being artificially-induced by things like slow-walking speeds and repetitive loops.

But that aside, the real qualm I have with this whole section is how scattershot it feels. Like, I can’t see any rhythm to the specific moments the writers chose to flesh out (and, within the scope of the game, why Altair chose these memories for a future Assassin to relive). You have the following:
-Altair saving Al Mualim pre-ACI
-Altair burning Al Mualim’s body immediately after ACI
-Altair losing Maria and fleeing into exile after Abbas takes over
-Altair returning to the Brotherhood as an old man and taking back the Brotherhood from Abbas
-Altair handing the Codex and Keys to the Polo Brothers as the Mongols invade
-Altair sealing the Apple in the Library for good

So, what was the thematic purpose- to tell the tale of Abbas’s betrayal? No, cause he’s only in half the items. Fill in the gaps post-ACI? Well, they entirely skip over Altair’s involvement in Genghis Khan’s death and his 20-year expulsion. Detail his learning of the Apple’s secrets and how Assassins should accept when they have seen enough for one lifetime? Again, the 20-year sabbatical is glossed over (minus one brief voiceover in the last memory), which is where Altair learned the Piece of Eden’s secrets and wrote-up the Codex. The only thing that is consistent is the showcasement of the Apple causing havoc amongst humanity, which we already knew from ACI, ACII, and Brotherhood, making it redundant if it is that.

As you can see, there is nothing tangible to grasp, making me speculate whether more was originally intended that simply had to be trimmed for publication punctuality. I wouldn’t be surprised if the writers wanted to do what the advertisements boasted- conceive a secondary tale with Altair that ran parallel to Ezio’s, providing a sequel of sorts to ACI that fans unaware/avoiding of external media would be able to enjoy. Alas, such was not the case, and while it does have some nice moments, you can’t help but see the effects of the rushed production, from Altair literally having the same animations as Ezio to possessing Eagle Sense (even though he didn’t have it in ACI and even though the developers deliberately avoided giving it Desmond) to Eagle Sense being inconsistent in who it marks as hostile/friendly to the resolution of the Assassin Civil War literally being counter-disarming to, as stated beforehand, the shortness of the whole enterprise.

I also hate to say it, but the voice acting for the main players is not good at all. Abbas and Maria are both atrocious, while Cas Anvar is mediocre as Altair- he doesn’t sound anywhere near as cool as Philip Shahbaz did, with his register being too high-pitched sounding. A shame given that this is one area that Ubisoft generally excels at.

All the aspects discussed to this point have been mandatory, so let’s move onto the optional content, which is what most open world games rely on for longevity. The good news (for my fingers) is there isn’t much. Seizing Templar-controlled districts functions the exact way it did in Brotherhood -- kill the captain and light-up the brazier, the only difference being the Captain isn’t automarked and must be manually found. When you reclaim an area, you’re given the option to enlist two Assassins, thereby jumpstarting Revelations’s version of the Recruit System. In my review of Brotherhood (https://backloggd.com/u/RedBackLoggd/review/535532/), I noted how the conscription dialogue got repetitive and that it was a missed opportunity to not make these acolytes unique. Well, to Revelations’s credit, it does partly go the unique route: one of the two individuals you meet post-tower conquering is a distinctive NPC who has their own mission by which you can successfully convince them to join the Brotherhood. When they reach the rank of Master Assassin through experience earned from Mediterranean Defense (Rev’s take on recruit contracts), they provide a two-part Master Assassin mission. Like with the Faction Missions in Brotherhood, the quality of these comes down to YMMV, but I did appreciate the writers for partly deviating from Brotherhood’s generic template.

Mediterranean Defense is a bit more complicated- it’s not just about finishing asterisk commissions, but now about securing Assassin control over a city. This is done through investing money into those asterisk tasks, which eventually build-up to a big contract in which you take back control from the Templars. It honestly is a big monetary investment; however, successfully holding a foreign metropolis results in a steady stream of revenue to your bank. Your other main source of income? Good old-fashioned renovations! The funny thing is Revelations doesn’t bother giving a story reason for their existence (or even explaining that they exist!)- they’re just there for the sake of having more things to do I guess.

With regards to factions, each one only has a single mission to complete (in comparison to the innumerable ones that adorned Brotherhood), the Gypsie one being mandatory for the story. The gypsies, to clarify, have taken on the role of courtesans, and while I doubt the Romani people would appreciate the spiritual comparison, the animators did differentiate them via special dance moves and a hauntingly-beautiful singing they chant when blended with.

Then there are Piris Reis tasks, which, while giving you more backstory on the esteemed admiral, are essentially just glorified bomb tutorials (with some QOL defects like dismantling your current array of bombs and leaving you in whatever section of the city they take place in).

Besides those, there isn’t much else to complete in Istanbul. There’s a fight club, but it’s as brief as Brotherhood’s, and your atypical collectibles (reduced to just chests, Animus fragments, and memoir pages culminating in a new armor).

Outside the Animus, Desmond is granted access to five personal missions that provide vital details regarding his background and how he came to be found by Abstergo at the beginning of ACI: where he grew-up, his childhood life, and his reasons for ultimately running away from home. Nolan North’s narration in these scenes is superb, and while I wasn’t quite convinced as to how they built-up to Desmond’s embracement of the Assassins by the end, the mini-story was overall good. What most fans will find interesting is the radical departure in gameplay: you aren’t doing parkour, but instead first-person puzzle platforming. I personally loved them- while simple, they were a great accompaniment to the standard AC systems, and brought to mind games like Portal 2.

Graphically, it seems like Revelations took one step forward, two steps back from Brotherhood. You no longer have draw distance issues, but smokescreens cause pixelation disruptions and faces have taken a turn into ACII territory- while Ezio’s new countenance is ragged on the most, Suleiman, Clay and Desmond turned out worse (also how did Desmond grow such a long beard in the time since Brotherhood?).

Istanbul is widely praised as one of the best locations in the Ezio Trilogy, and I can definitely see why- it hits a nice middle ground between the filtered blushes of Florence and the greyscale tone of Roma, being realistic but naturally-colored if that makes sense. Like, the shades seem to come from the architecture itself and not a fake screen someone put over the lens caps of the game camera. Unfortunately, you still get that yellow tint that Western media like to dash atop all Middle Eastern civilizations.

SFX remains as top notch as ever from Ubisoft- the only thing I would have wished for is more chink variations for the different surfaces the hookblade latches onto. As it stands, you only get a singular metallic din for everything.

Voice acting (besides my rant about Altair’s memories above) is really good. Like I told you guys before, Ubisoft knows how to cast their main players, and I want to give a brief shout out to Graham Cuthbertson, who took over Subject 16 from Cam Clarke. While Clarke succeeded at portraying a man who was literally losing his mind, Cutherbertson takes on the post-insane/post-clear Kaczmarek who has embraced the frailty of his existence. His irregular convos with Desmond throughout the game are enticing primarily through his acting as he walks the line between Shoulder Devil and Shoulder Angel.

Sadly, I do specify “main” for a reason as I was very mixed on the crowds. You see, Ezio may have been transposed to a non-Italian state, but there was simply not enough time to radically change up the civilians, meaning you get what are fundamentally reskins: gorgeous reskins, but reskins nonetheless. Ubisoft’s ability to design a multitude of beautiful textiles for each of its walking models is a testament to the craftsmanship of the artisans, and on the surface things appear culturally different. However, spend even an hour and you’ll see that all of those changes were purely surface level. That is, the Turkish citizenry act the EXACT SAME as their Italian counterparts: they amble the same, speak the same, have the same reactions to Ezio’s actions, etc…There were times where they didn’t bother to change-up the accents (particularly for Heralds, though tbf, the game does conveniently claim that there are many Italians who have moved to the city), and even those instances with different voices I’m convinced were the product of an algorithm designed to synthetically alter the voices rather than the time-consuming process of re-recording dialogue to match pre-existing lip syncing.

With regards to music, I used to consider Revelations the best of the Ezio Trilogy as not only was Jesper brought back, but he also had his talents supplemented by the maestro Lorne Balfe (who would go on to compose his own masterpiece with ACIII). In replaying Revelations, however, things didn’t get off to a good start as a lot of the atmospheric tunes in Istanbul were merely recompositions of iconic tracks from prior AC games (not to mention the synchronization leitmotif was downright ugly, sounding like a wrong note on a zurna). Luckily, my memory turned out to be accurate, and the game slowly morphs into a masterclass of symphonic and vocal music. Part of this is because Revelations does a phenomenal job at syncing its music to its cutscenes, which goes a long way towards maintaining immersion.

I spoke a lot about the gameplay changes in the gimmicks section. The three pillars of AC have always been stealth, action, and parkour, so we’ll touch on each of these. With the addition of cherry bombs, Assassin’s Creed finally gives players sound manipulation options, allowing you to misdirect swarming enemies. Combined with the improvements provided by Brotherhood and you get a solid experience.

Combat is unchanged, though the interface has been swapped from a four-point option to a two-point one: left and down are stuck at medicine and unarmed respectively, while is up is reserved solely for secondary tools like daggers, bombs, and knives (which are in their own window now, enabling you to min-max different combinations). Unfortunately the crossbow is designated a primary weapon when you do get it, so pros and cons.

The only other interesting thing I caught with the traceuring was that the Hookblade would sometimes autopull Ezio over rooftop ledges or those signposts/gates that would annoyingly stop you during a freerun. It’s not that the pull-up in prior games was noticeably slow like in the Alice duology, but for a series focused on smoothly maneuvering throughout the environment, any small boost is fundamentally for the better.

Outside of that trifecta, a lot of small fluctuations have been made to Revelations to give it the tinge of a freshly-baked product. There’s a lot of screen jittering and a darker menu prompt whenever you start a new mission; a few new kill blows programmed; and slo-mos added to final enemy executions (though AC has unfortunately never been a series with good enough animations to warrant the close-ups). How far these go towards changing up the user experience will honestly depend on how far back you played Brotherhood, but they warrant being highlighted

Revelations is also arguably the most cinematic game in the AC series, with every single sequence seemingly ending on some massive action beat full of interspersed cutscenes. Such tactics have sadly become antiquated as gaming has shifted towards prioritizing player agency, thereby granting Revelations a retro-fresh aspect should newer gamers get ahold of it.

In addition, there were a number of small features I appreciated, such as every sequence beginning with Ezio writing a letter to Claudia.

But I’ve always been a story guy, and while Revelations does have a more consistent tale than Brotherhood (and doesn’t stupidly compile the penultimate sequences into a single mandatory endgame), it can’t overcome definitive flaws in its narrative, the first and foremost being how standalone it is. In the opening sentence of my Brotherhood review, I labeled that title the only direct sequel in franchise history, and I stand by that claim. Can anyone honestly tell me why Ezio had to be the protagonist here? It’s a new landscape completely divorced from the Borgias and doesn’t carry over any characters from his first two games. Why not have someone from a country closer to Turkey be the focus (or better yet, a Turkish Assassin)- surely they would have a greater connection to Altair than Ezio.

We all know he was selected for commercial hype, though the reality remains that Ezio is not given a convincing purpose unique to him. Combined with the lack of continuing plot threads, absence of existing supporting characters, and the violations of the Tenets, and you get a very mixed entry in the life of the esteemed protagonist.

Lest I end on a negative note, however, let me state that the one thing Revelations definitively does well is its emotionally powerful climax: Altair laying down to rest transitioning to Ezio going to the Apple transitioning to Desmond witnessing the end of the World was as evocative now as it was then, and remains only topped by Origins’s finale. If I were to rank games based off of the crux of their build-up, Revelations would certainly be near the top.



Link to the Revelations DLC “The Lost Archive” - https://backloggd.com/u/RedBackLoggd/review/562476/