GRADE: B
From the desert expanses of the Holy Land to the bustling cityscape of Roma, the holy triumvirate of assassins finally receive their well-deserved curtain call in the shape of Assassin's Creed: Revelations.
But while the Italian merchant of death is aging gracefully in the first series' closing moments, the franchise's unaltered gameplay is not.
Revelations opens with a failing Desmond Miles (the contemporary killer and heir to the bloody assassin throne) lost in the malignant machine that gave him insight into his ancestors' past. Perhaps unsurprisingly, virtual limbo in the Animus is a lot like last year's unnumbered continuation of Ezio Auditore's search for the Apple of Eden.
Like a deadly Sherlock Holmes, it's up to the elder Ezio to put together the pieces of the age-old jigsaw puzzle that the assassins have vehemently pursued throughout the series to finally put an end to the grade-school Assassins versus Templars rivalry.
As Revelations marks the fourth title in five years, there's a significant amount of recycled content in this stealth-laden installment, and while some the original mechanics work like a well-oiled machine, others are falling apart at their Canadian-made seams.
Players who partook in Desmond's previous enterprises will feel very at home here. Combat continues to rely heavily upon well-timed countering and the effective dealing of death using one of the assassin's specially-designed side-arms. Players once again gain health and abilities by buying out Constantinople's vast bazaars and marketplaces, accumulating cash and reinvesting in the trade route's historically lucrative locations.
As players retake the city from the crumbling Byzantine Empire and its Templar overlords, more Assassin Dens become available for the player to acquire. Like Brotherhood before it, players recruit, train, and manage up-and-coming assassinlings to call on in the heat of battle.
While the aforementioned system still shines, the prized addition of a glorified tower-defense does not. In order for players to retain their hard-earned lairs, they must conduct periodic defense missions that take Ezio to the streets commanding his rag-tag army to stop the invading forces. Players place the rooftop-bound underlings and have them rain fire on the encroaching templar troops.
Unfortunately, while this system had the potential to integrate two fun-loving genres it instead creates drudgery unparalleled in any other of the stealth genre's cornerstone series.
Thankfully these fleeting battle-royales are few and far between, and the game focuses much of its attention on the completion of Altair and Ezio's final story arch, a bittersweet conclusion for two of modern-gaming's most iconic characters. But those uninitiated into the Brotherhood should not be deterred, as the game's cinematic action and frenetic gameplay is just as easy to pick up as it was all those empires ago.
The city itself serves as a perfect backdrop for the aging assassin. The Middle-Eastern melting pot of Constantinople is packed to the haunches with potential targets and political intrigue, as many of the game's missions follow a young Suleiman dealing with his uncle's unquenchable thirst for power.
The city feels more vertical than that of Jerusalem or Rome, and to compensate developers at Ubisoft traded the Assassin's standard twin-blades for their upgraded recurved cousins, the hook blade. A change in scenery and a new set of steel is a welcome upgrade, but admittedly much of this assassin's quest is a trip down memory lane.
Multiplayer matches make their return to the series in a big way, pitting player's potential killing power against one another in either team or free-for-all settings. Additional modes, avatar customization and creative perks are all fantastic additions, but in a multiplayer world full of guns, thugs, and bombs, it's difficult for Revelations to make its way into the online spotlight.
While Ezio's final adventure is one littered with experiences all-too familiar and repackaged content that has seen its fair share of the disc tray, this last nostalgic romp with the adolescent-turned-aged assassin is a fitting farewell to the king of the hidden blade.
Email: arts@ubspectrum.com
