Another week, another heatwave. It probably hits different in Turkey. Anyway, today I'm looking at the third and final entry in the Ezio trilogy. It seemed strange, since the last game had a pretty solid ending (for Ezio, that is).
When we last left off, Desmond Miles found the Apple, but was mentally influenced by a Precursor named Juno to fatally stab Lucy Stillman. The shock sends him into a coma, and he's put in the Animus. There, he finds himself in a "safe mode" known as "The Black Room", where he encounters the consciousness of "Subject 16"; his predecessor in the Animus who committed suicide after prolonged exposure to the Animus caused him to lose his grip on reality. 16 tells him that he needs to find something called the "Synch Nexus" while reconciling the journies of both Altair and Ezio.
Anyway, we jump forward to 1511. Ezio is now in his fifties and the Mentor of the Italian Assassins. But he's also weary of the constant war between the Assassins and Templars. Seeking to understand the origins of the conflict, he travels to the Assassin Brotherhood's original birthplace in Masyaf. There, he discovers a door to a secret library that requires a series of keys hidden around the heart of the Ottoman Empire in Constantinople. Visiting the city, he finds the Assassins trying to keep the peace as the sultan's two sons vie for power and a Templar-influenced Byzantine faction extort the populace. At the same time, he develops a romance with the Venetian scholar Sofia Sartor. The keys themselves also contain imprinted memories showing Altair after the events of the first Assassin's Creed, including his rise to power as the new Mentor of the Levantine Assassins, his conflict with another Assassin, and his training of the Polo brothers which paved the way for the establishment of the Italian Assassins.
While Brotherhood was pretty much solid, this one's more of a mixed bag. There's some truly brilliant moments, but the various plot threads seem to meander a bit. Ezio gets introduced to a new hook-blade which aids free-running and can also be used in combat. For example, you can use it to pull down scaffolding and take out any troops in the immediate vicinity. But that's also achieved by throwing enemies into it.
The notoriety system from the previous two games has been replaced with "Templar Awareness", while the Borgia Towers are replaced with Assassin Dens which the Templars seize. You can renovate shops and landmarks within areas where you control the Assassin Dens, but that increases your Templar Awareness. If you fill that meter, the Templars may attack one of your dens, requiring you to take part in a tower defence game. Its difficulty can be random, but you only need to really do it once for the tutorial. You can also level up your apprentices to full-on Assassins, and put them in charge of the dens. Some even unlock side missions, but these take ages to do so.
One thing that did throw me off from time to time was a changed interface. You now have two weapon wheels. One is for your primary weapon, which can be your hidden blade, sword, short blade, crossbow, or fists. The other is for your secondary weapon, which can be the hidden gun, throwing knives, poison darts, bombs, or money. It can be funny when you're trying to equip coins to get rid of some beggars, but then you also accidentally draw your sword and scare them off. The other common issue is that it's mapped to the button that was previously used to turn on your "Eagle Vision", so that can cause muscle memory issues.
Speaking of bombs, one of the big mechanics introduced in this game was bomb crafting. In the two previous games, you had smoke bombs. In this one, you can make different kinds of bombs for combat and stealth (such as luring guards away with decoys). That's something which got used a lot more than the Den Defence.
All in all, Revelations is still a pretty solid game despite its faults. It does a great job of wrapping up both Ezio and Altair's stories to pave way for a new protagonist.
Happy writing. And happy gaming.
