Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood was a bastard of a game for leaving us on the cliffhanger that it did.

Don’t worry, guys who haven’t played it yet, I’m not going to tell you what happens, or the details of how Revelations kicks off – but feel safe in the knowledge that everything is explained early on – to an almost surprising degree.

And what you witness in this game will definitely set you up and get you very excited for the epic conclusion we’ve spent three games trying to wrap our minds around.

Of Ezio and Altair

After the events of Brotherhood, Desmond is finally feeling the full effects of traipsing through the lives of his ancestors and, as alluded throughout the story, he’s losing control of his mind.

In fact, his mind has become splintered, and the only way to save it from being treated as a bad file by the Animus is for him to gather the pieces together by seeing through the lives of Altair and Ezio, and experiencing exactly what it is they have to show him.

Be warned, Revelations assumes you finished the previous games completely – secrets and all – so if you haven’t, you may be a little lost to start with.

Once again, Assassin’s Creed drops us predominantly in the role of Ezio Auditore who, incidentally, is following in the footsteps of Altaïr ibn La-Ahad from the first game. This time around, Ezio is looking for the five keys Altaïr tasked Marco Polo’s dad to hide in Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) which unlocks Altaïr’s private library in Masyaf – which holds an incredible secret that will tip the war in the Assassin’s favour.

Along the way, Ezio also finds that the city is in the middle of a power struggle between Ottoman Lords; there’s shady Templar influence backing agents of the fallen Byzantine Empire; as well as finding himself in the position of once again building up the Assassin’s influence in the city and the entire Mediterranean (apparently the Assassin’s suck at holding onto power).

It may sound like there’s a lot going on there – and there definitely is – but it’s not an entirely good thing.

Revelations lacks the driving force that made II and Brotherhood such epic tales. There’s no real personal motivation to push you forward (aside from the lame tacked-on one you encounter during the story); there’s no “Borgia” factor (emotionally rooted motivation) – instead relying on Ezio’s general good nature to help people out, more than anything else.

The story comes across disjointed – jumping between arcs and characters – and you almost end up feeling like you don’t really care about the city’s troubles – or even the city itself; making some of the training and upgrading processes that make a return from Brotherhood feel more like a “meh” than a must.

However, the Ezio/Altaïr story conclusions are satisfyingly delicious, and even though there aren’t many Altaïr sequences (which will disappoint Team Altaïr), when he does feature, those segments will teach you a lot about what went down after the first game, and how it all fits into the bigger picture.

What’s in a game?

A lot of the gameplay mechanics from Brotherhood are back; from buying up shops and landmarks across the city, to finding hidden things lying around in inconspicuous (and sometime not so inconspicuous) places.

The gameplay itself hasn’t changed all that much across the entire Ezio arc, and if you’re playing the games in quick succession, you’ll feel at home rather quickly. The horses are gone, though – so thankfully you won’t have to battle any mounted a-holes – except for two rather frustrating sequences you’ll hit early on and much later in the game.

Of course, they wouldn’t give us a new game without adding a bunch of new things as well; the biggest new feature is the bomb-making – but Ubisoft have also given us an annoying tower-defence game, and a weird extra first-person segment to replace the puzzle-solving secret bits of old.

Bombs are expanded as a weapon – and can provide an entirely new way to go about killing your enemies. They come in three flavours: lethal, tactical and diversion; lethal bombs, as the name implies, are used to cause damage; tactical bombs, such as smoke bombs, are used to give you the edge in combat; and distraction bombs are used to lure enemies away, or isolate them so you can sneak past or murder them.

Each bomb has three components to them (shell type, impact range and effect) with a load of different types for each component – which means there are literally hundreds of different bombs to make – and for the most part, it’s a purely optional exercise, so if you prefer tried-and-true methods of maiming, you can do that too.

To expand assassin influence, you have to once again assault Templar dens by killing the Templar Captain(s) controlling them – upon doing so, it will become a new Assassin base. If your Templar Awareness meter gets full, though, the Templars will move to take a den back, and you’ll need to defend it.

Cue the most frustrating “tower defence” mini-game ever.

In the den defence, Ezio stands atop the rooftops of the area and has to assign different assassin classes to different zones to fight the Templars as they assault the base in waves.

Each wave is progressively more difficult, but still easy enough to defeat – until the “final wave” of enemies comes with a massive cannon, of course.

Yup, it’s totally plausible to kill off all Templars with ease, and then lose to the cannon in the final wave.

Call me bad at games, but I found it easier to let the Templars recapture the den, and then immediately move to take it back. Killing the captains is easier, quicker, and you know what? It’s more fun.

Tower Defence just feels like a bad idea in a game like this – especially if every action (like buying shops) boosts up your Templar Awareness meter, and you then have to run across the city – while on your way to do something far more important – to defend a base.

To avoid having your den attacked, you can place a master assassin there; but he first needs to be trained up (a la Brotherhood) through sending him on missions – as well as completing unique master missions. Again, it all boils down to your motivation, as it’s not really compulsory to do any of this – it’ll simply make life easier, giving you bonuses and a stronger presence in the city.

Another optional extra is collecting Animus fragments across the city, which unlocks special secret levels back on Animus Island (you’ll understand when you play it); these levels are…weird. You play from a first-person perspective, and hear Desmond talking to himself, recounting the events of his past, while you navigate the area by placing blocks.

These sections have a very Portal-esque feel to them, except nowhere near as refined or cool. They attempt to tell a back-story, but never quite feel like they belong. I have a sincere preference for solving the puzzles like in the previous games to get bonus info, to be honest.

Consistant Constantinopoli

The graphics are precisely what you’d expect from an Assassin’s Creed game running off of the same engine it’s been using for the past few years – the game still looks brilliant, but its age is starting to show a bit.

Constantinople has been recreated excellently – and I at least know, thanks to my mother (who had recently been to Istanbul) jumping up every time she saw a landmark she recognized, that the city has been accurately mapped.

Moving about the city is as fun as ever – dashing on the rooftops, using the new hookblade to zipline from building to building, or to dispose of enemies in horrific new ways.

Animations are still very fluid, and Ezio feels like he’s a part of his environments – and the sequences involving Altaïr have a noticeably different feel to them. Killing your opponents feels exponentially more satisfying with the new  ‘finishing blow’ animation sequences – with one in particular making me feel a bit queasy (spoiler: it involves some rather violent 180 degree neck-snapping).

Friendly fire

Another thing Revelations adopts from Brotherhood is the multiplayer.

Brotherhood probably boasted the most amazing multiplayer mode in a game for a long time – with each player having to use their wits (and perks and skills) to play tag with a knife to the face.

Revelations builds on Brotherhood’s multiplayer without changing (read: breaking) anything, while adding some new features.

New characters, new locations and new ways to customize your character and guilds – and new modes like artifact grabbing (basically capture the flag) and death-matches.

If you thought killing people was fun before – deathmatch will provide you with a new challenge, where you’re literally left to observe your surroundings to figure out where your enemy may be lurking.

There’s just something awesome about blending into a crowd and watching an unsuspecting opponent walk right by you, and rewarding his negligence with a special meeting with your blade.

Revelations’ multiplayer mode uses Ubisoft’s lovely uPlay DRM – so you’ll need a uPass which will come bundled with purchased games – but if you got the game second hand, are renting it, or are borrowing it from a friend, you’ll have to buy a pass to enjoy the multiplayer.

Formula Four

The story of Ezio (and by extension, Altaïr) is what AssCreed fans will really want to see from this game in the end; and you’ll be excited to continuously discover how the plot thickens – even if all the Ottoman fluff just doesn’t feel very necessary.

There are enough new features here to keep you interested – but at this stage in the series, it feels more like Ubisoft are cluttering your to-do list in the city, rather than giving you a balanced set of tasks to get through.

Assassin’s Creed follows the formula; it does it in a new city, with new faces and new big events – but in the end what you’re really playing is Assassin’s Creed 2: Brotherhood: Revelations.

To call it anything else would be misleading – but that’s not really a bad thing, is it?

And if you make it through to the ending (which won’t take you that long if you’re not going for 100% completion)…what you see…well, let’s just say that it’ll motivate you to wait for the NEXT big Assassin’s Creed release in 2012. Trust me, I’m already counting down the weeks.

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