AC: Revelations is Ezio's swansong in the franchise, but also in a way remains as much of a conundrum as the conspiracies he spent all those years unravelling.
I've been replaying the Ezio Trilogy recently, and ACR was the one entry I was most curious to replay. Back when the game first came out, I remember disliking everything about the game. But much like an ill-patient Ezio in his youth, I was wrong.
To be honest, I've been pleasantly surprised.
AC: Revelations isn't a perfect game by any means, but what it does, it does well. For the most part.
Back on my original playthrough, I definitely didn't appreciate the emotional depth they tied to Ezio's story in Revelations. The parallels between Ezio and Altair for example, that are explored in flashback missions, and the subtlety of messages Altair was trying to convey to his peers, that resonate with Ezio and his direction in life, were the most engaging parts of the game for me.
Constantinople is a more interesting terrain to navigate too, compared to it's predecessors. I could just be fatigued by Renaissance Italy after 2 games of it, but Constantinople feels more atmospheric. Especially with its decadently dressed NPCs, and more "geographically accurate" instruments in the OST and ambience. In terms of size, it's somewhat smaller than Rome was in ACB, but bigger than maps in AC2. It hits that "goldilocks size" for me, even if Constantinople is split into two halves. Mission placements sometimes go from one end of the map, to the other, but the tunnel system from Rome returns here and is fully functional from the off. So use it, abuse it, make life easier for yourself.
Parkouring flows better in Revelations too, with a better mini-map for guidance, better building placements, and the key addition of the Hookblade - a hidden blade Ezio can use when freerunning, to launch himself when climbing, latch onto walls when jumping, leap from those lanterns that swing you round corners etc. It's a neat addition that speeds up traversal just that little bit, but goes a long way in terms of player satisfaction.
At the same time though, the game feels very "stop and start"-ish. It's bogged down with this obligation to throw you into Desmond cutscenes as soon as you finish a sequence, and they're just the most boring things going in Revelations. Especially early on. When I first fired up the game, I quit literally 10 minutes in because the intro cutscene just bored me that much. If you're invested in that, you'll find enjoyment in them probably, but at the end of the day, we all want to just be running as Ezio, being badass. So I ended up skipping those cutscenes for the sake of pace.
Combat is essentially the same as Brotherhood, being able to chain kills after an execution, but somehow it feels like a step back here. It doesn't feel as satisfying as it did in ACB, and I can't put my finger on why. Maybe because there's slow-mo kills which don't feel in anyway stylized enough, to warrant the focus? I'm not sure. Something just feels off. The newly-added bomb crafting mechanics were cool, though you'll forget you have them at some points. But they make already easy missions, even easier when you can just take out guards with a single boom even the Costco guys would be proud of.
While we're on the subject of combat, I remember back in the day, the game getting a lot of flak for the Den Defence missions. But in my playthrough, I only did it once? I'm not sure what the fuss was about but I guess there's some Tower Defence side missions I didn't do, so just bare that potential annoyance in mind.
Of course, the multiplayer and all online services with this game are no more. So don't be buying any character packs you may see out in the wilds of the internet. Plus of course you have to sign into Ubisoft Connect, or Uplay, or whatever they've called it these days, when you load the game. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. They need to do away with that launcher.
The PC port is acceptable, but controller users will have to remap button layouts and suffer from "Press Button 6 to do this," and be left wondering what exactly "Button 6" is. FPS wise, it's stable for the most part but does dip in sections unexpectedly for seemingly no reason. It's much less glitchy than Brotherhood and 2's PC ports were, but not immune to jank.
But yeah, that's Revelations.
I'd recommend getting alongside the other two Ezio games, ideally in a sale when it's dirt cheap - it's an easy game, with the easiest "100% Sync" requirements in the trilogy of Ezio games. and took me 12hrs to get through the main story.
It's a bittersweet end to the Ezio saga, both in terms of the Ezio story, and the fact that Revelations was clearly rushed due to the yearly release cycle back then. With more time, it could've been a more polished experience, like making the villains have more presence and impact, and help form a more fully fitting end to the Ezio story. What we got though, is fine. Nothing hugely remarkable, just more of the same, done well with some new blemishes to give it a little distinction.
Old dog, new tricks and all that; just like Ezio in this game.
