Hello Everyone. Today I'm going to be writing on AC Revelations.
I've written pieces before on AC2, Brotherhood and the bombs in Revelations. I recommend reading those first as they build up my points and I'll only be discussing aspects new or specific to Revelations.
https://mieckfram.blogspot.com/2019/03/bombs-in-assassins-creed-revelations.html
https://mieckfram.blogspot.com/2018/11/critique-and-analysis-of-ezio-trilogy.html
https://mieckfram.blogspot.com/2019/05/critique-and-analysis-of-ezio-trilogy.html
For a really quick summary of those points in case you don't wish to read them: AC2's boring and limited gameplay. Story is lacking because Ezio's arc doesn't really happen and the villain is so absent. Brotherhood: Somewhat improved gameplay. Story is also lacklustre as we don't really see Ezio grow and Ceasre is just as absent as Rodrigo. Map isn't that fun to traverse due to the lack of buildings in the Eastern and Southern parts. Bombs in Revelations are mostly redundant except for the shells and diversion bombs.
With that said, let's begin. This won't be as organized as my past works.
Gameplay:
Pretty much the same from Brotherhood. So all my prior points apply. Counters and Chain kills are way too dominant completely removing any amount of challenge (Rev removes the VR missions from Brotherhood which was a great application of Bro's weak gameplay in such a way that it made it really fun and worth playing). All the new additions like the Hookblade Counter throw, Hookblade Combat Hook and Run, Counter Steal, though cool, have no real utility. Stealth is made somewhat better due to Diversion Bombs. Mission design is somewhat open ended.
The map is a huge step up from 2 and Brotherhood. One of my biggest criticisms of those games' maps was that unlike AC3 onwards, you can't parkour on natural surfaces like cliffs, hills and trees yet so these games should hide that weakness by being as Urban as possible. But AC2 had maps like Forli and Tuscany that had a significant portion of it be flat terrain that wasn't interesting to navigate. Brotherhood had Rome whose Eastern and Southern Parts mixed flat terrain with hills that were pain to climb because you had to run around finding the exact path around and up them. Rev's Constantinople is 99% dense urban city which complements the Ezio games' parkour and other mechanics like blending and using factions. In addition, the city is quite varied in its disticts, the landmarks and locales feel much more exotic and colourful compared to Italy. It's just a great map in detail and how it complements the mechanics.
The Hookblade is the biggest new addition. And I'm mixed on it. On the one hand, I like how it improves aspects from movement from the past games that needed improving. Climbing towers is less tedious because instead of just holding R2 and moving the left Stick to make Ezio slowly inch himself up, Ezio climbs them almost like Spider-Man at times (there's even an achievement, "Spider-Assassin" for climbing the Haggia Sofia in less than 25 seconds). Being able to extend your reach, quickly drop off a ledge, Hook and Run, Zipline all make movement a lot more fun. On the other hand, said "Spider-Assassin" makes other aspects of parkour redundant that were once interesting aspects like horizontal vaulting. In past AC games, you could vault left and right will climbing or wall running to gain extra height and keep your momentum allowing you to climb stuff faster or even climb stuff you couldn't with normal parkour. Wheras now, the hookblade lets you climb stuff faster than vaulting even could and climb stuff you only could with vaulting. Vaulting still has some uses in getting some collectibles but as a whole it's not quite as useful with the Hookblake around. I feel the best parkour so far would be a compromise. Keep the movement stuff I praised, make towers smaller or a mini parkour gauntles that vaulting lets you complete it faster to make learning it more worthwhile.
Also: having the hookblade replaces some of the regular Hidden Blade Animations. I wish they were also included to add variation as the only place you'll see them is in Altari's memories.
Rev Reworks how Noterity works. Instead of max noterity making enemies more likely to detect you. It makes Templars launch an attack on one of your bases and you have to play a version of tower defense to defeat them. And honestly, I quite like it. I even activated that Ubisoft Club reward for more Tower Defense material. I wish there was a spin off iPad game with this concept.
You can send Assassins to do missions in other parts of Europe like in Brotherhood. There's more of a reason to as cities you bring under Assassin control send you extra money and bomb resources. The issue I have is that Templars will launch attacks if you neglect cities so once you have conqured most of them so I had to keep breaking from what I was doing to ensure all of my Assassins were always on duty.
The new Eagle Sense has its issues. Being able to see enemy patrol paths is great. Complements stealth and bombs so well. But needing to scan enemies makes it feel like a downgrade. In past, and later games, you just need to turn on Eagle Vision to see your target. Not scan a bunch of potential targets to get the real one.
And that's it for Ezio's gameplay.
Story:
Let's start with Desmond's section. He's trapped on Animus Island, a safe mode place in the Animus and is unable to contact the outside world. He has Clay (Subject 16) keeping him company and preventing the Animus from trying to delete him and providing him with the chance to see more of Ezio's memories to allow himself to wake up. During this, he can sometimes overhear conversations from the outside world and these are some of the best dialogue in Desmond's sections. Instead of the crew making snappy one liners, they show more emotion and have more discussions. Whether it be William talking about the Apple, Rebecca being affected by Lucy's death and Shaun arguing that Desmond is a Templar Spy. It's really well done and I wish there was more of this.
His main gameplay is to access these optional "Desmond Memories" unlocked by finding fragments as Ezio that have him play in these odd and abstract puzzle platforming sections where you place blocks down to navigate platforming challenges. It's surprisingly fun and open-ended at times (when you don't have to do parts perfectly for a trophy that is). I also like it because it addresses one issue I've had with AC modern day sections, since these sections are much more limited than the past, playing them feels like playing a diet version of the main game. With the puzzle, there's more of a contrast and change of pace. I especially love how the environments change depending on the part in the story. Like flowing river or the dance party's red. It really adds to the surreal and dreamlike feel.
The main issue I have is the story in these parts. There are 5 long episodes that recap Desmond's backstory, the same backstory you'd already be familiar with if you spent any time in optional conversations of the last major games, especially AC1 (AC1 sums up that Desmond grew up on a farm with conspiratorial hippies that were actually Assassins, he was trained a bit, he ran away and was captured by Astergo in one conversation with Lucy). So it ends up feeling redundant. We don't gain any new info we didn't already know about Desmond, and stuff like him partying with girls or sleeping under the night sky aren't really relevant to the wider picture. Even the ending of these memories, Desmond accepting his role as an Assassin is redundant because he already accepted that since AC2 and was 100% on board ever since. There is some value with Desmond commenting on these events and showing how he regrets his decisions but you don't need 5 Episodes for that. You might argue that these help newer players catch up on Desmond's backstory. But the issue is that since these segments are optional and nothing in the game even pushes you to do them, the only players that would be interested are players that are already interested in Desmond's story and thus would know his backstory. It's like if Batman Arkham Knight had a 3 hour side quest where Bruce has to find casefiles for the murder of the Waynes so he could narrate their deaths to the player and how it affected him. The player playing this game would already know about the death of the Waynes and its importance so to recap it wouldn't really benefit them.
I don't blame the devs for this. Desmond is trapped in the animus. There aren't exactly a lot of things he can do. But If I could have designed these segments, here's what I would have done. Firstly, I'd have Clay introduce these "hey, if you get the time, go through these memory portals, you can get into the guts of the Animus. Don't worry it's safe. You look for code to stabilize the Animus and maybe even send a message to the outside world". This will help at least pique the player's interest. Secondly, I'd have Desmond collecting Code Fragments through these memories to help with that to give a narriative purpose to these segments. Memory 1 would be Desmond's recap in its entirity. Memories 2-5 would a condensed version of the Lost Archives DLC. And Memory 5 would have Desmond using all the fragments he's collected to send a message to Rebecca. I'm picturing something a little cheesy to act as a contrast to the serious tone Rev has had. Something like "Whatsa Matta you Rebecca". But I feel that may conflict with what Rev is going for. So something simple like "I'm Ok- Des" and for the crew to be elated and start becoming a little hopeful. I feel my version has some improvements. Aside from having a new and small story, we learn about Clay. The guy who's been helping Desmond out since AC1 as practically a ghost and it's wild he's relegated to a DLC featuring block puzzles most players wouldn't play. We also have Desmond directly confront that Lucy and Warren were in cahoots together. This is something that doesn't really come up much despite how wild it is and how much drama you could squeeze out of it. One issue I do have is that Clay's story isn't that important to the overall plot. But I feel the new info plus what it shows Desmond and the audience makes up for it.
Altair's Story:
Altair's missions take place at different points in his life due to the nature of the memory disks. They are very well written. I even got a little teary at Altair's final confrontation with Abbas. There's also some thematic connection to Ezio's story with the whole "I've done enough for one life" theme. Overall, very well done. I'm sad Altair's life hasn't been the focus of more games given the timespan of his character, the events he's been a part of and the places he's been.
There are some issues. Some of the impact is lost because we don't see the stuff that happens in between memories. Like, we had no connection to Altair's son before he died. We don't see Altair in exile, we just see him coming back after his Exile and taking back Masyaf so to Altair and the world it was this long hard struggle but we just get the ending. Maria probably would be the oddest to players who played just the main games since she's had like 2 minutes of screentime tops across the franchise before Rev and you'd wonder why Altair is with a Templar and it's no big deal. Unless you played the PSP game Bloodlines and see how they came to be friends which retroactivly makes that memory in AC2 a lot better. There is a bit of a retcon with Altair's personality since Adha's death should have made him bitter.
Also, I'm a little sad his short blade is gone even though the sheath is still there. I also think the gameplay would have been a little cooler if during the Altair sections, some elements of AC1's gameplay was brought in. Like the old school grab, step and counter commands. It would help to make Altair feel more distinct to Ezio and since these sections are quite brief, wouldn't annoy players who are used to the new commands too much.
The most unintionally hillarious part of the AC franchise to me is Altair's kids' surnames and I love it. Seriously: "Ibn La-Ahad Thrope"? "Son of No One Thrope"? That's like naming your kid "Jeff, My Name isn't Jeff" and it's great. Realistically it should have been "Ibn Altair" but I'm not complaining.
Ezio's Story:
My first real praise is towards the presentation of Ezio's segments in paricular. The production value, cinematography and athmosphere is the best of the trilogy by far. Unlike Brotherhood, Rev actually feels like a Sequel rather than a DLC stretched out.
The Writing is also somewhat improved in places. One of my biggest criticisms from 2 and Brotherhood was how everything was so one-dimensional and how Ezio was portrayed as basically a Mary Sue at times. Rev has him feeling like a mentor and even makes mistakes and takes responsibility for them. The only exception is the Cappadoica section. Which seems to revert back and be uncritical. Ezio sets of explosives that wrecks the entire settlement, likely displacing the entire population and killing a large section of it. He broke the first tenant of the creed big time there and nobody seems to mind.
I do have an issue with Ezio's overall arc. More specifically with how it unfolds. This part from TV Tropes sums up part of it:
"Arc Fatigue: Note that this isn't an indictment of the game as a whole; Constantinople is a great setting idea, bomb-crafting is neat, and there are some really good moments... but while Ezio and Altair got a well-received closure, some players and critics felt that Ezio's story was kinda played out by this point, having already completed his Hero's Journey and a post-Hero's Journey."
Another issue I have is Ezio's decision to retire and he's seen enough. We don't really see Ezio really pondering this decision aside from 1 mention to Claudia in a letter in Sequence 1. I think it would have been more interesting if this aspect was integrated more into the game. Like Ezio sorta knows this is his last adventure so all his actions in Constantinople will help sustain the Assassins once he's done. Which reminds me:
The Assassins and Yusuf are kinda superflous to Ezio's main story which is finding the keys and bonding with Sofia. Like, in Brotherhood, there were missions to build up the Assassins and build up Rome because that's how the Assassins were taking back control and bringing the fight to the Borgia. It had its flaws sure, but it did fit in better. In Brotherhood, it was the Borgia's oppression that was closing down shops. But in Rev, why are stores in the biggest bazaar closed? What is Ezio gaining by renovating them? He's not going to live in Constantinople. He's just here to find the keys. You're telling me Ezio is such a capatalist that anywhere he stops, he makes invests his money there?
Mirror and Image made a fan novelization of Revelations, and it's amazing. It fixes most of the issues I have towards the story, characterizes and develops characters so well. Seriously, it's better than the real thing. They levelled many criticisms towards the original game like :
"Revelations is a game that deeply suffers for its game mechanics: from recruiting assassins to defending dens to recruiting guilds it paints Yusuf in a very poor light as a leader, and yet he has important death scene that we're supposed to care about. Yusuf's development in the game is little more than a caricature (though that's a hell of a lot more than Sofia gets... more on her later) for the simple reason that the game is doing too much. The story has something of a kitchen sink mentality - we have the political intrigue of Suleiman and his uncle and father, the trials of Yusuf, the master assassin missions, the quest for the memory disks, the Altair side-story, and oh yeah, Ezio needs to fall in love with someone by the end of the game. The idea of a game being that dense is normally great, but the juggling act the writers are forced to do means that none of these stories gets the time and care necessary for any of them to develop well. The price is that many of the characters of the game flatten out because there just isn't time to craft it. Good thing novels and novelizations can be any length we want. :P And so, as many readers have praised us for, we've taken some stark and deeply trivialized characters (re: Sofia) and did our best to turn them into real people. Yusuf gets perhaps the most development here, but even this little bit that's done fleshes him out and makes his scenes more important and more poignant, and so will it go- we hope - for the rest of the fic......Author's Notes: (Or, Why Sofia Sartor Drove us NUTS): Okay, being authors pretentious enough to not only novelize the AC games but also change certain major story points, we took one long look at ACR, specifically at Sofia, and spent a great deal of our time planning the fic instead lamenting and gnashing our teeth at one Sofia Sartor. We've mentioned in an AC:Unity rant on our livejournal that the women of the AC franchise tend to get stuffed in fridges or damsel'ed. Sofia is perhaps the most pretentious example of this.
Before we start ragging, we need to express that we love the IDEA of Sofia. We love that Ezio, after fifty years of fighting and serving, finally manages to find a small bit of happiness in his life and manages to get a family of his own. We like the idea that Sofia is not an assassin at all and knows nothing about the cloak and dagger world that surrounds Ezio. We like that she's meant to be a nerd. And while we both roll our eyes at the huge age difference between them we accept that such a gap was common to the point of normalcy back in the day. Look at Bartolomeo and Pantasilea - they have a similar age gap and it still works.
But good GAWD Sofia suffers terribly in this game. She suffers from kitchen sinks, game mechanics, bad writing (which we normally are incapable of attributing to Ubisoft), bad stereotyping, bad everything. She is less a character and more an archtype - and a poorly written one at that.
The first thing she suffers from is the kitchen sink. There is so much going on in Revelations, from the Ottomans to the Janissaries to the Byzantines to the keys to ALTAIR to Yusuf etc; and while most of the plots can all interconnect Sofia - who by definition of being ignorant of this Assassin/Templar war - is wholely isolated from the overarching plot. She becomes a subplot in a game where she was supposed to be a feature. While Yusuf suffers this as well, he at least gets a couple walk-and-talks and memories where he's out and about giving him a sense of belonging to the world; Sofia by contrast is ONLY ever interacted with in cutscenes, removing any players sense of connection to her. The next thing to hit her is the obvious attempts to modernize her. Does it make sense in the sixteenth century Ottoman empire that a woman will be an independent business owner? Does it makes sense that she's in what's supposed to be a tactful period dress when her cleavage is on display for the world to see - again in sixteenth century Ottoman empire?
But by FAR the thing that hurts her the most is the combination of the writing and the gameplay mechanics. Because Ezio is the protagonist, he's the one who gets all the objectives to accomplish. Any gamer recognizes that towns people and quest givers are utterly incapable of doing their own jobs until you the player swoop in to save the day. For Sofia this is compounded by the limitation that she's supposed to be "normal" (blatant modernizations excluded, of course). What does Ezio actually DO with the Sofia missions? 1. He meets her and introduces her to the map (and how does he know that she's an experienced cryptographer? Whatever, it's not the worst sin that's committed) 2. He saves her from Duccio (male empowerment) and then saves her from waiting for a delivery (dafuq?). 3. He learns her shop is robbed once or twice a year (da-DOUBLE-fuq? WHAT?) and rescues her painting 4. Picks flower for her in what is the ONLY EXISTING well-written scene with her.
We hated, and I mean hated Sofia until A Little Errand. The best thing about that memory is that why Ezio is doing this mission is contextualized to the actual relationship rather than saving the damsel in distress.
And that tiny amount of goodwill is utterly destroyed as Sofia is kidnapped off screen and needs to be rescued from hanging. And what does she do after seeing her life flash before her eyes? Does she demand to know what's going on? Does she feel conflicted when Ezio admits he's the one who put her in danger? Does she have a normal reaction to a near death experience? NOOOOOOOOOO, why try to make her a character now? Instead, not three seconds from struggling for breath she abdicates Ezio of any responsibility, saying, "You are not responsible for the actions of other men." HOW IS THAT THE FIRST THING SHE SAYS? And if that isn't insult to injury, the writers try to modernize her again by dragging her along with the over the top action set piece so that she can be damsel'ed AGAIN and make witty commentary about women driving. You know, for comedy, because there's so much of it in Revelations! And then she calmly lets Ezio walk alone into Altair's crypt for the end because of course she isn't meant to be there because she's just the love interest.
Sigh. Sofia is relegated to typecasting. The developers and even Ezio as much as say that he's going to Istanbul for inspiration, and so not only is she a damsel in distress, she is the "muse", a stereotype that women are often forced to be for men regardless of their own lives. Sofia, as all muses, is expected to drop whatever it is she is doing and help Ezio through his depression and fall in love with him, and it's not even done WELL.
And so, consider yourselves warned, OUR Sofia is going to be a little bit different."
Prince Ahmet is also the worst primary antagonist of any Ezio game thus far. He's another 1 dimensional moustache twirling Templar who sprouts how the Assassins are bad because they are naive. Only he hates diversity (we sure he's not a redditor?) as his only trait. He gets introduced so late and does so little and has such a simple character that he's so forgettable. Say what you will about 2 and Brotherhood but as flawed as the writing for Rodrigo and Ceasre were, they at least had something built up. Rodrigo killed Ezio's family and Ceasre destroyed the Villa so there was something to make them memorable early on. His final chase sequence is a nice spectacle though.
While somewhat detached, Ezio's time training Assassins is also done a lot better because some his recruits can have quests which help complete their training, culiminating in killing a Templar from the multiplayer mode. Some of these are a bit anti-climactic but they add a fair bit of character and life to your recruits who had nothing like this in Brotherhood. 3's approach to making them actual characters instead of randomized worked a lot better and Rev's approach is a stepping stone to that.
Piri Reis is amazing. Why is he limited to just 1 set of side missions and one cameo in the main story?
I recently went back and also got the Platinums for AC2 and Brotherhood. 2's was simple enough. Complete the game and then use Powerpyx's guide to find the remaining collectibles. Brotherhood's was a bit more tricky as the Mission with the tank and the flying machine that required taking no damage and had no checkpoints was a pain to keep retrying (Listening to the "How did this get Played" Podcast made it more tolerable). Rev's was the hardest of the trilogy, requiring completing 2 hard sections in the DLC without losing once which lead to a lot of resets, and looking for books and restarting a section over and over because it was the best place to kill 5 enemies in 5 seconds. One good thing about Rev I like was that finding half of the collectibles added the rest to your map. I love this because it rewards players finding collectibles, and makes it less tedious to find the final ones. Aside from that, it was straightforward.
In Closing, Revelation is the best of the Ezio games due to its map, its more detailed side quests, better writing and general design and presentation. Its issues are also shared by its predessors. I want to end this long journey on a positive note. Now, I know I've been harsh on these games. But despite everything, I don't hate these games. I find them flawed and overrated but I would never call them bad games. There's too much love and passion in these games, from people who likely worked in tough situations and crunched for these games, and that makes them a worthwhile addition to gaming libraries. I started writing my blog and AC2 was the first game I covered in extensive detail 2 years ago. I do this because I feel unbridled praise isn't helpful. If we praise these games and hold them up on a pedestal, we create a double standard as games that try and imitate them share their flaws but don't have nostalgia goggles to excuse their flaws (Syndicate), and the games that break away and do their own thing and improve on the franchise are hated for being different (Odyssey). I hope to at least inspire people to think a bit more critically about games.
So to the Ezio Trilogy, the games I played as a kid and inspired me to write about them, you may not be the best but you did inspire my imagination. To that, I say Thanks. I have the Platinums now so I probably won't revisit you ever again but the memories and experience were more important.
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