[PC/360/PS3] Assassin's Creed Revelations

[Doopri]

Honestly, I'm just not compelled to talk about it.  I'm nowhere near as motivated by it as I have been by past games.

i dont know what is more telling - that bullwinkle isnt compelled to talk about it, or i feel the need to come on here, for a game i was REALLY looking forward to, and basically say "yea i kiiiiiiiiiinda like some of the stuff it does BUT..."

im going to finish it, im having fun with it - but i think unless you really love assassins creed, or want to see what this assassins creed buzz is all about and every used copy of 2 and brotherhood was burned in an anti-ubi riot, you can probably hold off on playing it.  or at least hold off for more impressions as it could just be me, i dont know.

[msteelers]

The previous Assassin's Creed games have been some of my favorite of this generation, but this game hasn't truly pulled me in yet. I'm still very early on in the game, so I'm still in the tutorial section of the story. Still, these tutorial missions aren't very good and if I was a new AssCreed player I would probably stop playing.

My biggest problem though is that so far I feel like this game has suffered from the "adding stuff for no reason because it's a sequel and we feel obligated" syndrome. Outside of the hook blade, none of the new stuff is very interesting (so far).

[Bullwinkle]

The previous Assassin's Creed games have been some of my favorite of this generation, but this game hasn't truly pulled me in yet. I'm still very early on in the game, so I'm still in the tutorial section of the story. Still, these tutorial missions aren't very good and if I was a new AssCreed player I would probably stop playing.

My biggest problem though is that so far I feel like this game has suffered from the "adding stuff for no reason because it's a sequel and we feel obligated" syndrome. Outside of the hook blade, none of the new stuff is very interesting (so far).

Even the hook blade isn't that great at the beginning (I assume it gets better).  Frequently, it's just an extra step when jumping to another rooftop.

[msteelers]

The previous Assassin's Creed games have been some of my favorite of this generation, but this game hasn't truly pulled me in yet. I'm still very early on in the game, so I'm still in the tutorial section of the story. Still, these tutorial missions aren't very good and if I was a new AssCreed player I would probably stop playing.

My biggest problem though is that so far I feel like this game has suffered from the "adding stuff for no reason because it's a sequel and we feel obligated" syndrome. Outside of the hook blade, none of the new stuff is very interesting (so far).

Even the hook blade isn't that great at the beginning (I assume it gets better).  Frequently, it's just an extra step when jumping to another rooftop.

I think being able to use it while running away from some guards could be pretty good. You're right about the climbing though.

[leo8877]

I haven't played since AC2 (and only a little of that one) and there's so much to do now that I'm totally lost. 

[Harkonis]

I've tried every AC, but I always get bored before the 33% mark.  I did really enjoy the multiplayer in the previous one though it did have a couple crippling problems.  I'd love to try it out with you guys at some point.

[Purge]

I've just finished the SP campaign, and while I didn't get 100% sync, I did get a ton done.

There is a bug in the game, and I'm going to mention it in the review I'm about to write, but I'll share this now as a warning: (360 at least)

Once you take over all the cities in the Risk-like game, and if you queue up your commands you will end up creating such a backlog of message events that your game will lock your console. I have the new slim 360, so its not some e74/rrod issue. I put in other games to confirm, no issues. Running the savegame from cloud or from hdd made no difference. At one point, I had it lock 8 times almost immediately after restarting my save game ... I was in the midst of an "away from Istanbul" mission, and had no access to the risk game. Every time a mission completed, it would lock up the console entirely. Thankfully it remembered that it completed so after the 7 remaining missions, it stopped locking and allowed me to continue.

I stopped playing the minigame at that point, although I already dominated all cities and had loaded them up with 5 lvl10 assassins each (of each variety , bow, warhammer, dagger, hiddenblade).

Someone asked a question about whether there is a benefit to letting your master assassins die, and there may be - one of the guild challenges is to successfully complete the tower defense game x3. Well, if you complete the master assassin missions for all 7 bases, the templars cannot attack your bases anymore so you've been painted into a corner. If they die, perhaps you will be able to have that base get attacked). Also it means that your other assassins cannot go higher than lvl10 (you need to assign them a base to go to 11-15, where 15 requires 15500xp). I've got, what, 5 x 10 cities, plus my 12 (7 master)... and while the first slot in each city is a "master" slot (they can't even go out on any missions) they don't get credit and grow in ability beyond 10.

I just need to get a little more MP time to get my review out.

I'm not sure how strong a non-european character will be processed. Think about it ... there's only one way Desmond has these histories in his DNA. He is a direct descendant of both Altair and Ezio de Auditore de Firenze. I'm sure some strong racial features could be washed away with the number of generations.

Lastly, the game is compelling for the storyline as it does move things forward. Not as far as AC2 - it was by far the best in terms of progress. The end of Brotherhood was certainly interesting, and while ACR is worthwhile (e.g. the Desmond puzzles reveal some of his own personal background), it isn't as big as ACB or AC2.

One thing I didn't realize until late in the game is that while either falling or jumping in the air, if you pass near one of the ziplines with your hook out (B), you'll hop the line even if you didn't start at the beginning. I do not recall the tutorial teaching you that.

Lastly, the thief guild has the best faction ability. While hired, they will follow you and loot the bodies of your victims for you. They will also pickpocket for you too. The faction abilities are not explained anywhere, so I may as well tell you, the Romanies will poison guards (unprompted), and the mercenaries will keep the beggars away.

[Doopri]

Spoiler for Hiden:

i love how the devs went with the "matrix 2" ending

[CeeKay]

Risk like minigame?  haven't made it that far, but dammit if that doesn't make me disinclined to play at all.  I was already meh on the tower defense portion after I played it;  what's next?  you need to take care of your assassins in a Sims like game?  need to hang out with them like GTA IV?  an assassin breeding game a la Spore?

[leo8877]

**stuff**

Dude, spoilers!

[Doopri]

oh damn sorry leo i usually try to be REALLY good about spoiler tags but thought this was obtuse enough that those who saw it already would laugh and those who hadnt would only get a "huh?" out of it... ill go back and edit in some tags!

[leo8877]

oh damn sorry leo i usually try to be REALLY good about spoiler tags but thought this was obtuse enough that those who saw it already would laugh and those who hadnt would only get a "huh?" out of it... ill go back and edit in some tags!

  Thanks, I edited my post too!

[leo8877]

Gamefly is offering to let me keep this for only $35.99 already...I wonder if it's not doing so well?

[Purge]

Risk like minigame?  haven't made it that far, but dammit if that doesn't make me disinclined to play at all.  I was already meh on the tower defense portion after I played it;  what's next?  you need to take care of your assassins in a Sims like game?  need to hang out with them like GTA IV?  an assassin breeding game a la Spore?

Brotherhood had the same thing, didn't it? Where you can send assassins off to run missions in other towns.

[CeeKay]

Risk like minigame?  haven't made it that far, but dammit if that doesn't make me disinclined to play at all.  I was already meh on the tower defense portion after I played it;  what's next?  you need to take care of your assassins in a Sims like game?  need to hang out with them like GTA IV?  an assassin breeding game a la Spore?

Brotherhood had the same thing, didn't it? Where you can send assassins off to run missions in other towns.

it wasn't Risk like though, it was assign a bunch to a mission, they get XP and you get money.

[Purge]

You can now take over the locations, assign assassins to that area (thus allowing you to then collect more assassins).

[msteelers]

Gamefly is offering to let me keep this for only $35.99 already...I wonder if it's not doing so well?

I got the same email from them. I didn't have to game the system in order to get revelations, which is odd for a new game. I returned both BF3 and COD back to gamefly the Friday after revelations came out, and it was sent to me almost immediately. So either Gamefly overestimated the demand for this title and ordered way too many copies, or the overall demand is really low.

I really like this series, but this is easily the weakest since the original. Hopefully it's because we've already spent two full games on Ezio and that timeline, and not because of the yearly release cycle of death.

[Doopri]

and not because of the yearly release cycle of death.
 

im guessing this   i know a lot of the stuff that bothered me seemed like things that would have benefited from a longer time in dev (more, interesting missions, a more epic storyline, a more varied world, more fun tombs to explore and fewer little glitches).  i also bet they worked on the endgame first, as the last sequence / sequence and a half start to show some ingenuity after a lot of "filler"

i HOPE the team thats doing the next one has been working on it since bhood, and they dont just slave march this same team directly into the game coming out next year because that would be a nightmare for us, them and the series.  i also HOPE the team keeps some of the neat little additions that this game added in - i like the tower defense and the fact that there are ways to avoid it when you dont want to do it, or do it when youd like.  i also REALLY like the way challenges for the guilds were divided up and how completing them offer cool little perks ranging from weapons to better abilities.

oh and clean up the tower takeovers!  they were so much more fun in Bhood!  i would stalk my prey and approach each kill based on the behavior of the captain - here it was all smash and grab, with the poor and unoriginal tower areas all requiring me to simply rush in and stab - seriously each tower was EXACTLY the same.

[msteelers]

Is there a benefit to assigning assassin's to the cities you take over? Is it better to assign them to a city, or keep them out on missions?

Oh, and f*** the tower defense mini-game. I hate it. I can't think of a single redeeming quality.

[Doopri]

msteelers something that took me waaaaaay too long to notice (as in, probably the last third of the game) is that once you have more than 2 assassins in a city, you can send the second, third and so on, on missions in that city.  i forget what you push, but after you pick a mission and get the line up of assassins where you select them to send them off, look at the bottom of the screen.  if you have more than 1 assassin stationed in the city, youll see a buttonpress you can use to switch to the guys (girls) stationed in that city to deploy to that mission.  you can even mix and match from your stable of assassins and a city guy or two.  you can NEVER send the first assassin in a city on a mission

i THINK the cities are better able to stay in your control with assassins guarding them.  also, they gain xp so if you dont want to send them off on missions, you can station an assassin in a city (upgraded for a larger xp gain) to level - late game it makes leveling much quicker.  keep in mind, however, that you can ONLY SWAP assassins once theyre in a city, never decrease the number of assassins stationed in a city.  so if you station someone in a city knowing you want them back (for whatever reason) make sure you have an assassin in your "stable" that you can swap into the city at a later time, to get the one you want back.

[Purge]

when in mission list, hit x to toggle istanbul <-->local chapter .

[msteelers]

I finally finished this yesterday, and I'll give it a resounding "meh". AC1 was boring, AC2 was great, and Brotherhood was fun and moved the story forward a lot at the end. Revelations falls somewhere between AC1 and Brotherhood.

The new gameplay mechanics were largely useless and not fun. I really didn't like the tower defense game, and while I enjoyed sending assassin's on missions in brotherhood, I just didn't care for it here. I think taking over cities and having to micro-manage them wasn't intuitive and largely unneeded. The game became much more enjoyable once I had finished up most of the random side stuff and focused on the final couple of sequences. Of course I also blasted through those last sequences in a few short hours.

The game also does little to advance the main story. It's nice to see Ezio chasing the clues that Altair left behind, but the payoff left me confused.

Spoiler for Hiden:

Is there more than 1 apple? I thought Ezio had the apple from one of the earlier games, and don't the assassin's have that apple in the present? I got the impression that Desmond was going to bring them to Masyaf to get the apple that Altair hid and Ezio left behind.

The biggest knock against Revelations is that I know I could go online and find out the answers to my questions, but I don't really have the drive to do that yet. The first thought that went through my head when I finished was "Bring on Skyrim!!"

[PeteRock]

That's kind of a shame to hear.  I've felt that each game in the series has improved incrementally from the prior, so it's unfortunate that this isn't the case with Revelations.  I was hoping for a fun finale to the series with some closure or resolution with the various storylines, but it doesn't seem like I will be satisfied with what I get.  I'll still give it a try and my own evaluation, but at least my expectations will be tempered and therefore mitigate the severity of my disappointment.

[Videmon]

I love how they showed what goes on with Altair after the original. I did not enjoy Ezio's story very much. I have my idea's of what happens to him but it would have been nice to have it all wrapped up before it ended.

[Purge]

We knew that Ezio had to have kids - otherwise, he wouldn't have been in Desmond's genetic makeup.

Spoiler for those who've finished it:

I'm interested in meeting his parents ( his dad is identified at the end moments - the guy that was coordinating their cells' activities over the past few games - we've seen emails from him in both brotherhood and AC2 IIRC).

I also wonder if Lucy is truly dead. She could be important, or could just be another dead assassin.

Now they have a piece of eden (the first apple), they know where a second apple is, and there is the staff.

[CeeKay]

the achievements for the single player DLC pack 'Lost Archive' have been revealed:

Spoiler for Hiden:

   Part of the Creed   10
Take the induction leap of faith   

   Jump they say   10
Reach the Animus memo
   
   Enter the Animus   10
Enter the Animus simulation   

   Meet your maker   10
Finish memory five   

   Find all Pieces   50
Find all decipher fragments   

   Save yourself   10
Land on a block after falling more than 25 meters   

   Impress Warren Vidic   50
Complete the Animus testing sequence without failing   

   Cross Styx without dying   25
Make it across the river Styx without failing   

Secret Achievements

   The Loop   25
Experience the loop   

   Breaking the Loop   50
Break the loop, escape the cycle

[JCC]

I am, as usual, late to the party. I almost finished this game before I got started. That chariot ramming section at the beginning nearly broke my patience. I think I finally got by it on the dozenth (or so) attempt. I have no idea what I did "correctly" on this last attempt to survive. I have always found these vehicle/action sequences to be pretty annoying in the AC games, and this was maybe the worst. I managed to finish the "tutorial" kill and get back to the animus. Pretty underwhelmed with that beginning and I haven't even made it to the new stuff that everybody dislikes.

[CeeKay]

this game is just not clicking with me, so off to YouTube to watch the ending.  I'm not sure if I'm burnt out on Ezio or if it's the fact this game just feels unpolished, but I cannot bring myself to care enough to play through it, even after restarting to see if it was just due to taking a long break from it.

[Autistic Angel]

Revelations has no emotional hook.  AC2 and Brotherhood kick-started their stories with major events that fueled the rest of the narrative.  The main thrust of Revelations seems to be Ezio's desire to learn more about Altair's experiences with the Widget of Destiny, a project which is roughly as exciting as listening to someone explain all the family tree branches they've explored on Ancestry.com.  The fact that we already know Altair to be the least personable videogame character this side of a tertiary Sonic the Hedgehog sidekick doesn't help.

There's also a distinct lack of polish compared to its two predecessors.  It isn't *disruptively* buggy, but there's plenty of instances where Ezio will grip his hand a few inches above the actual handhold, or hover just a little bit above the spire point he's supposed to be balancing on.  In one mission that demands absolute non-detection to achieve 100% sync, I was able to pass by using Ezio's thundering wrist-gun to blast everyone in the head without triggering the slightest bit of interest from their friends.  Maybe it's supposed to be part of the Collapsing Animus conceit this game has going on.

I'm not quite at the point that CeeKay is -- I'm not ready to abandon the game and just watch the conclusion online -- but I might get there.  It's certainly the weakest AC since the original.

-Autistic Angel

[JCC]

Yeah I am not hooked at all with this one, which is saying something, since I am pretty much a fanboy of the series. (I loved the first game!) The tower defense thing is just a lame waste of time. After a couple of nights with it, last night I yanked it out of the tray and started playing Saints Row 3 instead. Not sure when I'll get back to it.

[Razgon]

Same here - I LOVE AC:2 and Brotherhood, but...the carriage scene had me take a 1 month break from the game, until I managed to get by that one. Whomever thinks up these things needs to be destroyed, fast, before the franchise is destroyed.

Honestly, I don't think I will ever complete this one..or even got more than one hour in it - all the gameplay elements just seems to be too annoying.

[whiteboyskim]

Having completed the game, I'll agree with the complaints on difficulty re: wagons and the glitches. No question those plus the lame tower defense and assassin stuff is just there to give you things to do. Upon completion I felt nothing towards the main the story. No elation, no frustration, no nothing. It was just over and that was that. Now, the finale involving Ezio, the redhead librarian, and the final flashback to Altair I felt was really well done. It didnt knock me out, but it felt like a good ending for all three characters. It felt like the right one too especially for Ezio. I'd recommend ignoring the side quests and plowing through the main story to just finish it but that's me.

[Purge]

To expand on WBS' comment - completing side-quests in this game is doing them for the sake of doing them. In my review, I had turned over every stone, and that got me hard lockups constantly while the queue of quests came back.

If you're low on e-peen points, go for it. But there isn't anything you really need to do, and once you have all areas locked down (take over fort, assign assassin to fort, complete their 2 sidequests to get them master rank), you're pretty much untouchable.

[PeteRock]

I'm really late to the party, having received a copy of the game for Christmas but only removing the plastic wrap a few days ago (it's amazing what you'll do to pass the time when placed on post-surgery "house arrest"), but the ongoing press surrounding ACIII rekindled my interest in revisiting the plight of the assassins to prepare for the release of III. 

The game starts off completely flat.  Dangerously so as it not only failed to grab my interest, but it also began with a few frustrating elements that risked pushing players away from the game.  As Autistic Angel mentions, there seems to be nothing to earn the player's interest.  The storyline almost seems like filler to provide a weak transition from Brotherhood to ACIII, if any transition at all (if it can be considered a transition to make a game so bad that players just want that particular storyline to end so they can move on).  But, I still felt compelled to press on, and eventually gameplay started to entertain enough to slightly overshadow the shortcomings of the game's storyline.  Not by much given the game's lack of polish and the added elements that do nothing to enrich the gameplay, serving more to frustrate or bore than to entertain, but free-running, city rehabilitation, and assassinations continue to entertain me (although I have yet to do a formal assassination mission  ).

I agree with all of the previously voiced gripes in this thread, but for some reason I keep pressing on out of some level of dedication to the series and desire to finish this installment in anticipation of ACIII.  Granted, I'm only at about 25% total sync, so I am still at risk of losing interest depending on how things progress.  I'm currently still stuck in Constantinople, which seems to look horribly hazy and washed out relative to the detail I remember from past games, perhaps from dust or smoke?  Either way it isn't as crisp or visually stunning as prior locales.  And there is no shortage of frustrating elements:  notoriety increases just from repairing shops, random Templar agents come out of nowhere to stab you in the back, no more ripping down posters to repel Templar awareness - only bribing heralds, taking over towers seems much harder than in Brotherhood - especially when targets run away immediately upon being identified, 100% sync requirements are often ridiculously difficult to satisfy (lost interest quite some time ago), and when the hell do I get to leave this overcast shithole Constantinople. 

I already have 18 1/2 hours logged and am only at 25% sync, so I feel like I've accomplished very little after having put so much time in.  Especially since there doesn't feel like there are many important things to do (been messing about with store repairs, viewpoints, recruiting assassins, and leveling them up).  I really hope things pick up, but I'm not very optimistic.

[metallicorphan]

I loved Assassins Creed 1,2 and Brotherhood but this game failed to grab me like you said,however i only put a few hours into it(unlike your 18+hrs and 25% which is .. )

Everything you say Pete,rang true with my short play with the game,the game starting off flat and how the city was quite bland(Hazy and washed out as you say if Constantinople is the first city,as i can't remember now)

I DO remember for the first hour being disappointed in AC2,which from then on turned out to be the best in the series(IMO),so tried to play AC:R for a few more hours but without any luck

I have vowed to re-attempt to get into this game at a later time,probably before AC3 is released,or before i buy AC3 anyway


Re-reading this page(or reading it for the first time,i didn't realise so many did not get on with this game),i have to agree with Raz(for once),that carriage scene was awful,and although it didn't take that long for me,i still hated it and it kind of set the tone for me and this game

[PeteRock]

I loved Assassins Creed 1,2 and Brotherhood but this game failed to grab me like you said,however i only put a few hours into it(unlike your 18+hrs and 25% which is .. )

Oops.  I read the numbers next to my save game as number of hours played, but it was actually the time of my last save game.   

In checking my time played, it's only at 7 1/2 hours.  But, I'd say that's still a fair bit of time spent to only complete 25% of the game.

Despite the game's flaws, I still for some reason cannot put it down.  It certainly falls short of prior entries in the series, but so far it looks like I may still see it through to the end. 

[JCC]

Restarted this a week or two ago, and finished it tonight. Definitely, meh. I did less side stuff than I ever had in the previous games. I really didn't like virtually every new feature they added to this game. I can't believe what the end sequence gameplay ended up being. How about we do assassin stuff at the end of an assassin game instead of tacked on cheesy action sequences?

I am ready for this storyline to end. I hope they do it in AC3 because I really don't give a shit about Desmond at this point. I also hope they stick to the core assassin gameplay mechanics and drop these silly action sequences.... Unless AC3 gets rave reviews, I'll probably wait for it to drop to bargain bin prices to pick it up.

[PeteRock]

Restarted this a week or two ago, and finished it tonight. Definitely, meh.

Completely agree.  The more I play, the less I understand the relevance of the developing story of Ezio's investigation into Altair's history, and the Desmond story fragments are ridiculous in their design and pointless in their execution.

I did less side stuff than I ever had in the previous games.

I renovated all bookstores, blacksmith shops, and fabric locales, but I've quickly lost interest in assassin management.  I'll probably complete the master assassin mentorships, but the micromanagement of resources seems to provide zero in terms of rewards or motivation. 

I really didn't like virtually every new feature they added to this game.

The hookblade helps when I'm falling or jumping a long distance, but it seems to slow Ezio dramatically in his climbing.  The bombs have proven useless for me as I never see any reason to use them, the random killers in the crowd can be frustrating if you don't react quickly enough, and what the hell ever happened to assassination missions?  After all, you're playing the role of an assassin. 

I can't believe what the end sequence gameplay ended up being. How about we do assassin stuff at the end of an assassin game instead of tacked on cheesy action sequences?

So I have literally nothing to look forward to?  Great.   

I am ready for this storyline to end. I hope they do it in AC3 because I really don't give a shit about Desmond at this point. I also hope they stick to the core assassin gameplay mechanics and drop these silly action sequences.... Unless AC3 gets rave reviews, I'll probably wait for it to drop to bargain bin prices to pick it up.

I really hope ACIII is a major improvement, otherwise the franchise is going to see a drastic drop in fanbase.  Revelations has revealed nothing poignant so far, feeling instead like a heavy-handed attempt to make Altair more likable (perhaps regrets by the designs staff for creating such an unlikable character?).  I had expected story advancement, and instead Revelations just feels like pointless filler.

Still, I shall see it through.  I must.   

[Bullwinkle]

I'm having a tough time stirring up the desire to keep going with this one.  But I feel like I have to finish it.

[PeteRock]

Finished the main storyline yesterday.  I completely agree with JCC on the nonsense action sequence at the end of the game.  QTE gameplay?  Really?  In an Assassins Creed game?  For shame.   

Not only was the story itself anticlimactic, but they developers continue to make confusing hints to "those who came before" and what Desmond must do in the present.   

ACIII better astound and revolutionize, because Revelations did not reveal nor impress.