User:D. Cello/sandbox/blogpost
It is here!
After a year of anticipation, the wait is over: Assassin's Creed: Revelations officially comes out and once more shines the bright light of the Assassins onto a world darkened by Templar treachery.
As Desmond Miles, you will wade through subconscious and memories - both yours and from your ancestors - in order to put your shattered conscious together.
As Ezio Auditore da Firenze, you will journey to the ancient city of Constantinople, following the footsteps of the greatest Master Assassin, in order to discover the Order's most guarded secrets.
And as the legendary Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, you will walk through the spires of Masyaf and gain knowledge on the events that came to shape the Assassin Brotherhood and tied together the destinies of three different individuals.
One bartender. Two assassins. One destiny.
And accompanying the release of the PC version of ACR, comes the review, by the Mentor itself ^^
Even though the game has been out for a couple of weeks, PC players are getting it now, so I still will treat the game info as spoilers -- I don't care if someone says "oh, the game is out, it isn't spoilers anymore'. I HATE to be told details, and as such, I respect if someone doesn't want to know spoilers too. As such, this will be spoiler-free, except in a few sections, where the info will be hidden by a spoiler box to keep it away for unwanting eyes ^^
Also keep in mind it's my oppinion as a gamer and as person -- I won't flamboyant the games flaws -- Im not paid by Ubisoft and my commitment to the wiki won't affect my judgement of the games strong and weak spots. If you don't agree with something that I said, sound off in the comments below. If you agree, also write down below ^^
TO THE REVIEW!
You already heard about the hookblade, but you didn't heard how few ziplines there actually is. You read about bombs, but no one told you how often they tend to run out when you most need them. This review will tell you all those aspects other texts forgot, and eventually cover what they said too -- after all, it's a review =P
The game begins with our Desmond friend in the Animus after being in a coma following ACBH's events. Despite Desmond's face looking like it was trampled by a horse (it's even less alike to the original model than the AC2 version), his voice is still coming from the throat of Nolan North -- a presence that even with the Desmond's memories, still is unfortunaly absent from the game. The setting of Desmond's coma limits his interactions with the outside world and remarkably, the inside world as well -- Sixteen appears, but even him feels... shallow -- what in turn makes North's and Desmond's influence in the game extremely weak.
Desmond is catapulted into Ezio's life, and we are presented to the awesome E3 video of the Masyaf fight, but instead of the music "Iron", a Ezio voice-over that doesn't fit the mood is the soundtrack of the animation. Roger Craig Smith is a terrific voice actor, but as we are presented with a scene of Ezio sidesteping a dude and running him aground with his own sword while Ezio muses and narrates about how long Masyaf ins't in Assassin control for over 300 years, you realize the developers might have picked a better moment for Ezio's letter monologue than a 40-vs-1 fighting sequence.
Afterwards, Ezio gets out of Masyaf and all that, and after arriving in Constantinople and metting Yusuf, the games sets you free -- no longer blocked districts like AC and ACBH -- the city is yours to roam.
Ezio
Gameplay
The gameplay is largely unchanged, but still it feels very different. The first thing I noticed is how poorly designed the places are. Unlike AC and AC2 and even BH, there are a lot of buildings in AC that you rpetty much cant climb in one goal. You freerun up a wall, and then Ezio grabs into a ledge and you can't keep climbing -- the reason varies from not having a climbing point to grasp, or the fact that where he is hanging doesn't allow him to put his feet against the wall and use the hookblade, but one way or another, that "fluid" climbing has been hampered by level design in some places.
The hookblade is a cool addiction -- like the Apprentice system in BH, a nice idea, and a few missed opportunities. For one, the hook and throw is simply amazing, altough you'll be surprised how many times the guard you just grabbed by the neck at 15mph with a metal hook and threw from a 4-store high building hits the ground alive. I feel we could have a hook and steal ability isntead of the counter-steal -- in a fight, the priority is kill before being killed, not stealing the gaurd's pouch and have him angry at you for being a assassin with pickpocket tendencies.
Another cool thing is the ziplines -- they really are a blast to use, BUT they are very few in between. They hardly coincide with your path and are not as all proeminent through the city -- you can see them anywhere, but to go to them and use them usually is harder and slower than to just run towards your goal in a straight line. This again is a sign of poor level design. Altough the tunnels cover some of that zipline lack as my admin User:War Clown pointed out, they shouldn't replace it -- ziplines don't involve loading, and are way more fun than using a menu.
The combat system overall is similar to BH, altough the double kill streaks aren't featured anymore -- you can't attack a opponent and hold the attack button to shot guard 2 through guard 1's head or similar -- you cna only kill one at a time, altough Ezio will ocassionaly perform a double kill at his own pace and moment of choice.
Enemies have a wider diversity, altough those freaking agiles are back -- they completely remove the thrill of a chase by stabbing you in the back. Speaking of stab, we have stalkers -- creepy (and ocasionally faggy) sons of bitches who sneak behind you and try to stab you -- but you can counter and stab their throat with their own knife if they grab you before you beat them. We have the Janissaries, that are the sultan's guard and Cesare-level of annoying -- they block 99% of your attacks and you can't counter kill them when their health is full, but unlike AC1 Templars that also couldn't be killed with full health, they have a tendency to not attack you and shoot you every few seconds, making combat with them a frustrating button mashing.
Graphics
Graphics are better than ACBH, Ezio's robe specially -- they are absolutely and completely gorgeous. You have only 3 sets of armor avaiable to purchase, and the first one is the one most similar to the original look -- once more we can't remove armor, a feature that has been heavily missed by fans of the series. BEsides those 3 buyable armors, you can unlock two more -- the Master Assassin, that makes Ezio look like a battle robot, and the armor of Ishak Pasha, a meh armor that has a freaking mask on it. At least the cutscenes remove Ezio's mask so we can see his face in all it's ridiculous splendor. Ridiculous because once more, character designed fucked it up XD To exemplify, my girlfriend looked at him and said "Merlim, what have they done to his face?"
The city looks good -- I specially LOVED what they did to the moon in this game -- it's simply amazing.
an check reviews on sites like IGN and Gamespot, but those guys can't write fun. =P You can't feeeel the love out of their words, so if you want REAL reviews, expect ACWiki's ones in the following week. XD One for each platform, and the PC review will be written by yours truly. ^^
And just expanding a little on the comment I made earlier, Skyrim and MW3 are two fantastic games that came out this month too -- if you love open ended games like AC and are willing to lose a good deal of your social life playing a huge game, Skyrim is the one for you. XD I'm not saying you will lose your social life, but you will need a lot of willpower to stop playing it once it bewitches you =P so if you are on a holiday (or your girlfriend isn't around -- Hi honey! =P), use that time to play Skyrim until the initial 10-hour hype passes, that way you can play it less later once you're used to its awesomeness =P
And Modern Warfare 3 is a must-have for the FPS fans -- I played around 3 hours of it so far, and the campaign is simply fantastic: enthralling, cinematic, unexpected, and lots and lots of fun. Get it!
Sooo that is all for today! Enjoy ACR, update the wiki - lets keep this place the awesome compendiumn of Assassin's Creed that it always has been - and post your comments below – me and the staff want to hear your opinions! Safety and peace, folks.
Cello out.
"With most men, unbelief in one thing springs from blind belief in another."