Having a successful franchise is hard to maintain. After every hit installment, the development team is immediately tasked with topping the last with something bigger and better. The team behind Assassin’s Creed has heard that quite a few times now. They always do their best and it has turned out pretty worthwhile so far. So now we have game 4 in what was a soaring franchise and let me tell you, it is looking a bit long in the tooth. I can’t say that is surprising. It just didn’t have the same sense of wonder and amazement this time around. After all, how can you keep that up time and time again? The only answer is that you can’t and eventually you hit a downslide. That is where Assassin’s Creed: Revelations finds itself.
After the jaw dropping improvements of AC2 over the first and the nifty assassin guild that Brotherhood introduced, I have to say I knew that the tweaks to the formula this time around would be minimal. And they are. The assassin guild has been given more depth. Now you are not only sending your assassin recruits on missions to different cities, you are sending them to take cities away from Templar control. Once you have successfully reclaimed the city, you will receive daily income and resources. You can also build up the city to increase these. And Templars can attempt to take a city back from your control so you really have to maintain you presence there.
The development team has also put effort in new bomb making system. I found the real useful one remained the smoke bomb so you can call that a wash. There is also a new thing called an Assassin’s Den. It is like the guild buildings from Brotherhood only it is for the assassin’s guild. They have incorporated a sort of tower defense system with these dens but I found them incredibly off-putting so I won’t waste my time describing them. The only other thing to mention is the hook blade. This is a new tool that has replaced the hanging jump from AC2. It also allows you to use the strangely placed zip lines throughout the city. Minor improvements.
Now let us talk story. After all, if you are in this deep, you probably have an interest in how the whole Desmond/Ezio storylines play out. Well the core story of the game is pretty bland. Ezio has to find some keys to access Altiar’s secret library. Throughout the game Ezio actually gets to relive some of Altiar’s memories. So if you are keeping track at home, this is Desmond reliving Ezio’s memory of reliving Altiar’s memory. Yep. Once again those looking for Desmond stuff will spend the whole game left waiting for the end to get a little hand out but not enough to sell you on. This is Ezio’s conclusion and it could have been more fulfilling.
Don’t get me wrong, I thought this was a solid Assassin’s Creed game, the problem is you have played that same game 3 times already. Watching Ezio grow old was kind of neat. Really, he reflects how this game feels. I understand that they made money hand over fist and that was the point of this whole Ezio spin-off of the series. Once Brotherhood came out I knew what they were up to. Hell I bought them. But I will tell you this, if this next game is not the final game, it would be near impossible to get me to buy another off-shoot.