If you've read some of my previous Assassin's Creed reviews you'll know this is one of my favorite all time franchises. However this time I'm almost bored with the series and haven't gotten half way through the game despite having had it since launch. I don't want to get lazy with this review but Ubisoft got lazy with Assassin's Creed so it's fair territory to keep this short and sweet.
There really isn't a lot to be said for AC:Rev that I haven't said about AC:II or AC:B. Rev is the same damn game with a handful of minor differences. Ezio is an old man. There are a handful of stages for Altair. There are bombs. There are (so far) optional "Den Defense" mini games. And finally, you play some mini games in FPS mode exploring Desmond's past. I will review these new parts in kind.
1. Ezio is older. His beard is now gray and for a while in the game you're so beaten up he can't climb. But later he gets better and also a "hook blade" which is the most ridiculous game mechanic addition in a long time. It sorta gives you another six inches of reach and lets you use zip lines.
2. Altair's stages (half of the "Revelations") fill in a bit about what happened before and after the first game of the series. They're interesting but the mystery and lore of the games is really removed by their presence. I guess that's why that Lost show was so great. I've never seen an episode, but they apparently never answered more questions than they asked. Perhaps Ubisoft was trying to avoid the critical mass of mystery:known that Lost and other shows/games had and though, "Well, we'd better wrap this up."
3. Bombs. Yup, about this time gunpowder was everywhere, so it makes sense that people would have grenades/bombs wherever. And if you thought Assassin's Creed needed to be easier, well, now it is. There are lots of different kinds of bombs and they're separated into a few categories; deadly, distraction, and well, there's another category but it's sort of irrelevant since the bombs either kill people or don't. You'll get a few types of shells for the bombs that basically make them explode on impact, stick to stuff, have a timer or a tripwire. Finally you add gunpowder that affects the radius and some substance that affects how the bomb works.
The bottom line is that the game is now completely out of balance. If you need to take out yet another faction leader. Just drop a bomb from the rooftop. Mission over. AC:Rev is the easiest of all the games I've played. And it wouldn't be so bad if bombs were rare and/or expensive. But NOOoooo... They're bloody everywhere! There isn't a spot in the main game where you can't see either a bomb box or a black market guy where you can buy more. So unlike in the previous three games, AC:Rev is no longer about being stealthy or subtle. Nope. Now you just rain death from the rooftops until your mission is complete. If you run out of bombs, odds are you've got 25 bolts and so you waste 'em with your crossbow.
4. There are "Den Defense" mini games that make absolutely no sense within the context of the game and are literally just a tower defense game thrown in. I've only played one of them. It was mandatory. And I have no clue how to access any more.
Here's how it works. At some point in the game you find that one of your many Assassin Dens is under attack and you decide to go help out. When you get there you find a handful of jarring inconsistencies with the AC world. The first is that, quite conveniently, there is only one route from the bad guys to your door. Well, thanks all you random citizens for blocking up the ten or thirty other paths to the Den! The second is that whomever wants to storm your building decided to keep back all his good troops and send the guys who can't climb everything in site... or fight. The third one, and worst, is that you've spent a LOT of time recruiting people to your cause in the game, however when the assault begins you just start buying up more and more assassin's. They jump on the roof, perfectly trained and ready to fight. When you're done, they just disappear back into thick air, never to return.
Perhaps I'm missing part of the Den Defense mini game. But as it stands, it doesn't feel like it adds anything to the game but silliness.
5. Since Desmond is "stuck" in the Animus (did I not mention that? Well he is) you don't interact with the real world at all. Throughout the game you'll see little balls of light called Animus Fragments. Collect enough and you get out of the main game and head into one of the Desmond side games. These all consist of small first person puzzles where you navigate your way through a 3 dimensional maze. Your only tools are the ability to make ramps and planks on which to walk. Throughout the mazes you'll see scenes from Desmond's past and he'll narrate his life for you. This completes the "Revelations" of this game.
When I played through AC:B I felt I was getting bored. With AC:Rev, I know I am. I've had the game for months and haven't bothered to play it very much because I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere in the world of Assassin's Creed. AC:Rev doesn't give you the sense of progress a game with this many sequels should have. Rev is just a giant pack of new levels for AC:II complete with a different set of accents and words that the Animus doesn't translate.
The back stories aren't interesting, and I'm pretty sure having Desmond's past narrated subtracts a great deal from the experience. Before he was this cocky kid sucked into a world he would never understand. Now he's this cocky kid whose background anyone who calls themselves a writer could have created.
Again, I haven't finished AC:Rev. It's so flavorless I don't have the drive to go after it again. I've been side-questing in Skyrim the whole time I could be playing AC:Rev. And if I didn't have Skyrim I'd be playing Mass Effect 2 in preparation for Mass Effect 3, or just tooling around in any number of other games.
I heard there was supposed to be yet another AC game coming out later this year. A "3". It'll have to wait for the bargain bin no matter how much hype they have.
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