At its best, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations will make you feel like an untouchable assassin during times when things were still simple, but at its worst, you’ll get a sense of déjà vu, kind of like you have been there before, killed that guard before and clambered up this building before.

In-between these moments you will encounter a few scenarios that will shock you and awe you: You will be awed by how much detail can be crammed into a city the size of Constantinople, but you will be shocked that Ubisoft is getting a bit desperate and trying its hand at tower defence mini-games.

Revelations sees an older Ezio travel to an even older Assassins guild headquarters where he retraces the steps of legendary assassin Altair (the main character in the first game). This soon leads him to Constantinople where he searches the city above and the sewer systems below for a collection of keys that will unlock a big secret back at base.

Ezio still has to contend with the Templars and that group’s nefarious agenda and he still has a massive city to explore, with towers to climb and eagles to chase away from their perches. Not a lot of things are new in Revelations, however, and this is probably where my biggest concern for the series lies, that is, a lack of innovation.

Meanwhile, Desmond Miles is stuck in the Animus in modern-day times and is being helped by a mysterious character who claims to also be trapped in Abstergo Industries’ historical DNA machine… If you have no idea what I am talking about then you will be very confused with a few seemingly random flash-forward sequences during your time in Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. Playing the previous games are assumed as far as the story goes and if you haven’t played other titles in the series, the narrative in this game can become puzzling. So why do the developers still include the same tutorials throughout the first few minutes when it assumes you know what you are doing?

In Revelations, you now have a hook-blade that you can use to reach higher places than before and you can also use it zip down lines between buildings, but I did wonder why people in Constantinople had lines between their homes as there were no telephones or electricity back then…

The hook is a weapon of mass assassination and deadly at close range. The variety of weapons in Revelations has increased a lot as well with more swords, spears, axes and especially grenades now playing a bigger role. Grenades can now be crafted, too, and mixing three different parts together will yield different explosive results. If you are not the crafting type you can loot bodies for weapons and cash, and spend that on new clothes and weapons. You can also purchase shops by renovating them and allowing its proprietors the chance to pay you back in kind.

Combat feels as good as ever, but games like Batman: Arkham City have surpassed it in terms of fluidity. Batman does not feature any blood, however, where Revelations is revelling in it! Gruesome slow motion kill scenes add a bit of cinematic flair to it, just in case you were not awed enough.

The multiplayer of Revelations has seen a lot of spit and polish since Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and is better than ever. Different modes allow you to play stalker and prey and often when I was playing the singleplayer game I suspected a random real life character was following me. Imagine my surprise when one of those characters really did try to kill me - those stalking Templars! The fun paranoia from the multiplayer games has been captured perfectly in the singleplayer game.

Graphically the game also looks amazing and even lower spec PCs such as mine run very well and can be scaled up to look even better. Thankfully Ubisoft has relaxed its draconian DRM a little and only a single online activation is required.

If you like Assassins Creed you will love the conclusion of the two main characters’ stories (unless Ubisoft runs out of ideas and brings them back a few more times). If you enjoy open-world action adventure games then you need to play all the titles in the series as there is still no equal, but even though Revelations has been refined a bit and looks and feels different to its father game, don’t be surprised if you get bored by the time you play Revelations.

The Good: Great game with loads of sentimental moments; big cities with intimate, fluid combat
The Bad: Needs a bit of a break before the next release or it will suffer exhaustion.
The Ugly: Assuming I know the story but not how to play the game?

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