#ac:r

Storywise, this game has a lot going for it. Ezio wants to find the keys to the Masyaf vault in hopes of finding a Piece of Eden Altair found as well as assist the Constantinian Brotherhood in their endeavors to prevent the Templars bringing back the Byzantine Empire. Altair is trying to reclaim the Brotherhood from Abbas. Desmond is trying to piece his mind back together after the events of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood within the Animus with the help of Subject 16. You would think that with as many storylines as there is, they would get in the way of one another, but surprisingly they don’t, they all feed into one another very well and don’t overshadow the other either.

Like Brotherhood before it, gameplay is more or less the same with a few new additions. Ezio can now craft and throw bombs of various types. These types include impact, which work as normal bombs; fuse, which helps create distractions; tripwire, used for traps; and sticky pouch, which work similar to C4. Although the game has a rather impressive bomb customization system, I personally didn’t use them all that much. It wasn’t because they were terrible, but it was because I had other tools that could get the job done more effectively. Ezio also has an upgraded variation of the second hidden blade, known as the hook blade. This blade allows you to use ziplines, reach higher places and even vault over enemies. This was actually a neat little edition to Ezio’s toolset and it made traversing the rooftops of Constantinople more enjoyable.

Calling upon your fellow Assassins makes a comeback and honestly it's more or less the same. Again you need six Assassins to call upon Arrow Storm and once again, you can hold the call button to unleash it, or just simply call them to fight alongside you. Like Brotherhood, calling in an Arrow Storm will pretty much let you pass any obstacle you might have.

The crossbow weapon also makes a return, and once again you have to buy it and this time around, I actually found acquiring the weapon difficult. Why? Because earning money in Revelations is actually surprisingly difficult. Everything and I mean everything will keep your money pouch light, from buyable collectibles, weapons and armor, and refilling your medicine, knives, and other tools.

The only way to get money is to complete missions, earn money from repairs shops, and loot bodies. You could get money from chests, but this go around chests are more likely to wield bomb components than money. This was actually where the challenge in Revelations lies. It’s not in combat or stealth, but rather where to invest. Do you invest in shops to get more money down the line or do you invest in your gear and equipment to carry out missions?

What’s perhaps the weirdest stipulation is when it comes to repairing shops to increase your revenue is that Ezio’s notoriety will increase. That’s right, the simple act of repairing the shop for money, will cause city guards to pay more attention to Ezio’s actions.

It’s not like you can just take down a poster to reduce your notoriety like the previous two titles, if you want to decrease your notoriety, you have to either bribe a herald or kill an official. Bribing a herald costs money. If you’re trying to save up money for something you would think, “oh I’ll just kill the official” that’s an ok idea, but officials now have guards escorting them. That means if you kill an official, there’s a chance that your notoriety might not change or go up more if you’re spotted. On paper, it’s a good way to determine risk/reward, do you use your money to chip your notoriety down little by little, or do you try to find a way to take down the high official without getting spotted to reduce your notoriety greatly? However, that also feeds into my argument that you could just use Arrow Storm to solve this problem, having the risk of possibly getting spotted completely eliminated.

Now, what about the Desmond segments. Surprisingly, I actually liked these segments. As Desmond, you’ll wander through different Animus Nexus rooms to help the Animus distinguish what is Desmond, what is Altair and what is Ezio. You’ll solve puzzles to get to the end of the room and in the process learn more about Desmond’s backstory and his connection to the Assassin Brotherhood. Although Desmond himself has had mixed reception, it was nice of Ubisoft to finally let players know Desmond as we’ve been with him for five games already and have had very little to go on. I did have some disappointment in Desmond’s story as it seemed like it was trying to build up a showdown between him and Subject 16, but it never happened.

As far as Revelations itself goes, it’s a really awkward entry in the series gameplay wise. The story does an excellent job having so many different events and stories going one without overshadowing one other. The solutions Revelations tried to introduced from Brotherhood I felt simply didn’t work as you can still solve a lot of situations by either calling your Assassins for help or just using Arrow Storm.

As far as the Xbox One backwards compatibility goes, this was by far the smoothest one in the entire Ezio Trilogy. There was no environment clipping, no disappearing body parts, and no hard crashes.

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations receives a 3 out of 5