Assassin's Creed: Revelations
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Assassin's Creed: Revelations is a 2011 action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is the fourth major installment in the Assassin's Creed series, a direct sequel to 2010's Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, and the third and final chapter in the "Ezio trilogy". The game was released on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Microsoft Windows in November and December 2011.
Plot
After the events in the Colosseum Vault which resulted in Lucy Stillman's death, Desmond Miles entered a comatose state and awoke in the Animus' Black Room, following being placed back in the machine by his father, William Miles, and Harlan T. Cunningham. While Shaun Hastings stayed behind in Rome to attend Lucy's funeral, William and Rebecca Crane monitored Desmond's condition while they headed for the city of New York.
Within the Black Room, Desmond met the virtual construct of Abstergo's sixteenth test subject, Clay Kaczmarek, who explained that in order for Desmond to regain his consciousness, he must relive the remaining memories of his ancestor – Ezio Auditore da Firenze – until a Synch Nexus triggered. Entering a digital portal within the Black Room, Desmond began reliving the later life of Ezio, who was now in his early 50s and on his way to Masyaf.
In March of 1511, Ezio traveled to Masyaf after he discovered a letter by his late father regarding the secret library of the Assassin Mentor Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad – that was rumored to contain his invaluable knowledge – hidden beneath the old Assassin fortress. There, he was greeted by a battalion of Templars led by Leandros, whose forces managed to overwhelm Ezio in a fight; in the midst of his execution, Ezio escaped and made his way back into the fortress. He later found the entrance to the library, but learned that it needed special keys in order for it to be unlocked.
Why It Rocks
- The Anvil engine had a complete overhaul for this game. Graphics have been improved immensely while issues that plagued previous Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 entries such as visible LOD models along with NPC and shadow pop-in are now almost completely gone, though screen tearing is still an issue.
- Decent story that has Ezio looking for a hidden library belonging to Altaïr in Masyaf while Desmond must relive Ezio's memories in order to prevent being trapped in the animus.
- This game introduces the hook-blade and bombs.
- The hook-blade is used to climb faster, use ziplines, and you can even use it to steal from enemies while in combat.
- Ingredients can be collected to make bombs, which can be used to assault enemies, distract them, or to escape.
- Accurate representation of 16th century Constantinople.
- The opening cinematic for when you become Ezio and the ending cinematic looks amazing, especially for 2011.
- There are Templar Dens in the world (similar to the Borgia towers), which can be captured and turned into an Assassin Den. When you don't have an assassin in charge of a Den, the Byzantines will try to retake it, which leads to the mini-game: Den Defense.
- Den Defense is strategy game where Ezio has the ability to command and deploy Assassin units to defend the den from approaching Templar troops.
- In addition to the apprentices, when you upgrade an apprentice to an assassin, you get a Master Assassin mission.
- As you complete the first part of all the Master Assassin missions, you'll unlock Yusuf's sword, Mehmet's dagger, and the Master Assassin armor, the most powerful weapons and one of the strongest armor in the game.
- When you complete an apprentices' mission that apprentice will be put in charge of an Assassin Den. When all apprentices are in charge of all Assassin Dens, you won't have to do Den Defense anymore.
- Throughout the game you're required to find Maysaf Keys that reveal more of Altair's story; mostly events that happened after the first game, leading up to his death. This includes the creation of codex.
- The game wraps up the story of Altaïr and Ezio nicely.
- Amazing soundtrack.
- The music XMB on the PS3 is absolutely beautiful
- Subject 16's identity is finally revealed and the DLC, The Lost Archive, tells his backstory.
- It also explains why Minerva had Desmond kill Lucy at the end of the previous game. It turns out she was a Templar agent who planned to kill Desmond, Rebecca, and Shawn after they found what they needed.
- Good voice acting.
- There are animus fragments throughout the world and for every 5 animus fragments (up until 30), you unlock a chapter about Desmond's backstory all the way up to the first game.
- Early copies of the PS3 version included the first game as a a free bonus.
Bad Qualities
- There are stalkers who will try to backstab Ezio, which can be kind of annoying as you have to listen for them, but it can be hard to hear them.
- Den Defense gets repetitive after a while and is somewhat pointless since if they take over a den, you have to just kill the captain again, which isn't hard.
- The ending for Ezio is a bit abrupt with the full ending being a bit of an info-dump.
- The antagonists and their motives are decent in this game, but they are pretty forgettable, especially compared to previous games.
- Most of the NPCs look the same mainly because a lot of them wear the same clothing but in a different color and have the same face.
- You only get to train 7 apprentices to full assassins.
- The Present Day storyline doesn't do anything except explain how Desmond avoids meeting the same fate as Subject 16 and that Desmond is chosen by those who came before to stop Judgement Day.
- Unlike any of the other games, there are only two actual boss fights. The final boss isn't even a boss fight since you chase Prince Ahmet in a carriage. You don't even kill him either, he gets killed in a cutscene by a supporting character. Altaïr's is similar since he kills Abbas with one shot by the Hidden Gun.
- The next closest we get to a final boss is the penultimate boss, Manuel Palaiologos, who is rather easy since he's defeated by a single counter.
- The Lost Archive has two trophies/achievements that require you to take no damage during certain first-person platforming segments. While the summonable platforms do their job well in normal gameplay, they still suffer from wonky hitboxes which makes a no damage run more difficult than it needs to be — the launcher platforms in particular tend to very precise about where you can land on them without immediately falling off. To rub it in, the segments are also located a good distance into the level they're in, yet require you to restart the whole damn stage if you want to retry.
- Like the previous game, the multiplayer playerbase is mainly dead.
Trivia
- Like in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, guards can be stuck on a roof, which is more common and easier to find than the previous game, if you shoot, throw a knife or call the arrow storm, he will intensely ragdoll to the sky, which can be a very hilarious glitch.
Reception
Assassin's Creed: Revelations received generally positive reviews from critics upon release.
IGN gave the game a rating of 8.5 out of 10, stating "This is the best Assassin's Creed yet, even if that victory is claimed by an inch and not a mile. If you've been following the lives of Altair and Ezio this long, you owe it to yourself to see their last adventure." 1UP gave the game a rating of B+, stating "While Revelations lacks that one supreme improvement or standout mechanic that defined AC2 and Brotherhood each, it's still a damn fine sendoff for Altair and Ezio."
Edge gave the game a rating of 7 out of 10, saying that "unlike the elegant lead, who's grey-haired but unbowed by the end of the adventure, Assassin's Creed has been quietly compromised by age". Eurogamer also gave the game a rating of 7 out of 10, writing "where Brotherhood enhanced the thrill of being Ezio Auditore, Revelations distracts from it. Ezio may look old, but it's the series itself that really shows its age."
VideoGamer gave the game a rating of 7 out of 10, stating "So, for the first time, a new Assassin's Creed game is worse than its predecessor, the first time the short development period has had a noticeable impact on the game's quality. It's a game of nearlies and might-have-beens: summed up by the hookblade, a supposedly key new feature which in practice merely extends Ezio's reach slightly, and allows him to glide down the occasional zipline." GamePro also gave the game a rating of 7 out of 10, saying that "at its core, this is the Assassin's Creed we've grown to love in recent years, and it still serves as a pretty good time sink – plus, it's a necessary bridge to next year's already-announced follow-up. But obligation shouldn't be the primary reason to play something, and sadly, that's too often the case in this humdrum campaign."
Game Informer gave the game a rating of 8.75 out of 10, writing "a number of new features have been attempted to make Revelations feel new and different from its predecessors. In that quest for broader variety and a unique identity from the earlier games, Revelations makes some missteps that are hard to ignore. However, the game offers more of what has been great about the franchise, and that should be enough to bring most fans to the table, even if it is a poor starting point for new players." GameTrailers also gave the game a rating of 8.8 out of 10, saying that "the engine is a bit long in the tooth and some of the content isn't entirely worth exploring, but if you're looking for an unforgettable top shelf action/adventure, heed the creed".
Official Xbox Magazine gave the game a rating of 8.5 out of 10, stating "What's available here remains as ridiculously appealing as ever. It's still a thrill unique to the series to be perched six stories high, looking out across miles of meticulously rendered game world — even if that dazzling, danger-filled world has grown overly familiar, having traded what was once revolution for iterative evolution."
UK Official PlayStation Magazine gave the game a rating of 9 out of 10, stating "As a conclusion for Ezio's chapter, Revelations proves an utterly brilliant swansong."
In April 2020, Game Informer ranked the game as the tenth best game in the Assassin's Creed series to date.
Sales
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot announced during an earnings call on November 8, 2011, that pre-orders for Assassin's Creed: Revelations were "significantly higher" than figures for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, yet the firm is still expecting a "double digit decline" in sales for Revelations compared to the other title. According to NPD Group, Revelations was the fourth-best selling game in the U.S. in November 2011. Ubisoft announced sales of Revelations were up 10 percent year-on-year on 2010s Brotherhood. That puts Revelations' first month total at around 1.26 million. Revelations debuted at second place in the UK video game sales chart in its first week. Its week one numbers were better than those of its predecessor Brotherhood by four percent in unit terms and eight percent in revenue, making it the best performing title both in the series and in Ubisoft's history to date. 61 percent of the game's sales occurred in the first 24 hours. As of February 15, 2012, the game has shipped 7 million copies worldwide
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