Revelations: final thoughts
I've "finished" Assassin's Creed Revelations, and watched Embers, which means that I've done all of the Ezio stuff for Assassin's Creed.
Since the trailer came out for Revelations, I've been hella excited about it.
On consideration, it isn't as good as Brotherhood. The story is slighter, and it suffers from the lack of a villain as good as Cesare. In fact, I found it pretty hard to remember who the baddies were until they reappeared at the end.
The city of Constantinople (pronounced Con-stan-tin-owe-powe-lee in the Italian accent) is big, but it's nowhere near as interesting or diverse as Rome was in Brotherhood. In Rome, I could tell where I was in the map (more or less), just by looking at what was around me. The streets, buildings and countryside gave a bit of diversity in the playing environment. Constantinople looked impressive with lots of minarets and spires, but it was a very samey city. Apart from the shoreline, the Palace, the Arsenal and the cistern where the Romani lived, it wasn't immediately easy to tell where you were. There weren't even many slightly more open spaces, like Rome had. It was a very cramped city. Cappadoccia was a nice change, but not that interesting on its own.
There were a lot fewer assassination and Courtesan missions, which were two of the more exciting things to go and do. Also, while Brotherhood had the Christina missions as a reward for you unlocking more of the game, there's no such bonus with Revelations.
I also missed the interactions with the crew outside the Animus. It was good to actually get some story and sense of character
The new feature of bomb making is quite good fun, and does add a new dimension to the game. For the record, I don't think you can have more fun than going up to a group of guards and launching an impact blood bomb at them. As the bomb is fired and detonates at close range, Ezio is covered in blood from head to toe, which is a great time to start swinging an axe. There's other enjoyment to be had, like putting a tripwire bomb on a rooftop, to catch a patrolling guard. Put it down when his back is turned, then retreat to another rooftop to watch him nonchalantly walk into your mine.
The addition of the zipwire is nice, but there's not enough of them to make for reliable travel. They are fun to use, and I'm delighted that a) there's an achievement called "Show off" if you can drop off a parachute onto a zipwire and b) I did it.
The slow-motion when you're in the middle of a kill streak is quite good too.
Summary: It's a good game, but I've been spoiled by how good Brotherhood was
Since the trailer came out for Revelations, I've been hella excited about it.
On consideration, it isn't as good as Brotherhood. The story is slighter, and it suffers from the lack of a villain as good as Cesare. In fact, I found it pretty hard to remember who the baddies were until they reappeared at the end.
The city of Constantinople (pronounced Con-stan-tin-owe-powe-lee in the Italian accent) is big, but it's nowhere near as interesting or diverse as Rome was in Brotherhood. In Rome, I could tell where I was in the map (more or less), just by looking at what was around me. The streets, buildings and countryside gave a bit of diversity in the playing environment. Constantinople looked impressive with lots of minarets and spires, but it was a very samey city. Apart from the shoreline, the Palace, the Arsenal and the cistern where the Romani lived, it wasn't immediately easy to tell where you were. There weren't even many slightly more open spaces, like Rome had. It was a very cramped city. Cappadoccia was a nice change, but not that interesting on its own.
There were a lot fewer assassination and Courtesan missions, which were two of the more exciting things to go and do. Also, while Brotherhood had the Christina missions as a reward for you unlocking more of the game, there's no such bonus with Revelations.
I also missed the interactions with the crew outside the Animus. It was good to actually get some story and sense of character
The new feature of bomb making is quite good fun, and does add a new dimension to the game. For the record, I don't think you can have more fun than going up to a group of guards and launching an impact blood bomb at them. As the bomb is fired and detonates at close range, Ezio is covered in blood from head to toe, which is a great time to start swinging an axe. There's other enjoyment to be had, like putting a tripwire bomb on a rooftop, to catch a patrolling guard. Put it down when his back is turned, then retreat to another rooftop to watch him nonchalantly walk into your mine.
The addition of the zipwire is nice, but there's not enough of them to make for reliable travel. They are fun to use, and I'm delighted that a) there's an achievement called "Show off" if you can drop off a parachute onto a zipwire and b) I did it.
The slow-motion when you're in the middle of a kill streak is quite good too.
Summary: It's a good game, but I've been spoiled by how good Brotherhood was