Revelations is a good game, but little changes and a weak story makes it feel like an unnecessary addition to the series
*spoilers from Brotherhood*
The game picks up where Brotherhood left off in Desmond's story. Desmond finds himself trapped inside of the animus with Subject 16 after falling into a coma. S16 tells him that the only way out is to relive his ancestors' stories until there is nothing left to learn from them. So we jump back into Ezio's shoes one last time as we join him several years after we last saw him in Brotherhood. Ezio has traveled to the former Assassin's fortress in Masyaf to discover secrets Altaïr had previously discovered, but he finds Masyaf taken by the Templars, who mark him for death. Upon escaping, he learns that five disc-like "keys" are required to unlock the door; that the Templars have one underneath the Ottoman Sultan's palace; and the rest lie hidden in Constantinople, part of the Ottoman Empire. So he then travels to Constantinople where your adventure begins.
To start with, the Assassin's Creed story has been interesting in almost every game so far, but Revelations provides the weakest story. Ezio's story is ok but it almost feels like filler and it contains a romantic sub plot that just feels tacked on. Desmond's is just shallow and feels even more like filler. Altair's story is actually pretty interesting, on the other hand, and his segments are actually the best parts of the game. Overall, the story concludes Altair's and Ezio's stories nicely, but the whole plot just feels like filler and is by far the weakest story yet.
The city of Constantinople looks as gorgeous as any previous AC game, although it's missing the nice array of colors that the last two games had. Still the city looks beautiful and it was nice to play outside of Italy for a change. I just wish it was as fun to play around in like Rome or the cities in AC2.
There isn't too much to say about the gameplay as it hasn't changed much from the last game. The combat is pretty much the same with new animations for countering your opponents. There are new guards, however. Some of them have rifles which can make fighting more challenging as well as a new enemy that takes multiple hits and deals an even greater amount of damage. Other than that, if you've played previous Assassin's Creed games, you won't find the combat or climbing too different here.
Revelations does offer new features and gadgets for you to play with; some good, some bad. The recruiting assassins feature makes a return from Brotherhood but this time, you can receive missions from them once you assign one of them as the leader of a guild. There are also ziplines for easier get aways and assassinations, as well as a faster way to travel, and parachutes which come in handy for jumping off taller buildings. The best new gadget you will get is the hook blade. This handy gizmo will make climbing buildings easier and faster, and can save your jump when jumping just a little short of the next building. Other than that, the game features bombs which you can customize yourself like smoke bombs, trip bombs or even bombs that splatter blood on your enemies. Most of these features are nice but really, the only truly useful one is the hook blade. Bombs are nice too but they are hardly needed.
The worst new addition to this game is den defense. When you conquer a den from the templars, you will occasionally be attacked by them and you will have to run all the way to the den and stop it from being taken. How do you do that? You play a tower defense mini game and defend your den. Sounds fun, right? Well, it's not. You take control of Ezio (or rather a marker) and assign different assassins and barricades along a narrow path and try to stop the templar forces from coming through. In the last rounds comes a large machine that is almost impossible to stop. If enough reach your den, the templars take it back, but you can still take it by yourself the way you usually do (which I just prefer anyway). For a tower defense game, it's "meh", there are much better ones out there. The biggest problem is it just doesn't belong in an Assassins Creed game. It's shallow as a TD game, it's a chore to play and it just feels tacked on. Luckily, it doesn't happen often.
Another gameplay style they tried to add are the Desmond sections. In these levels, you control Desmond in a first person view and are given to types of blocks to build; one rectangular and one ramp. Basically you just have to navigate through a labyrinth while avoiding hazards with the blocks you have. It's kind of like Portal only without the portal gun.....and fun. Yeah, these sections are a neat idea on paper, but they're just boring. Once again, it's simple tacked on gameplay that just feels out of place.
As said earlier, probably the best part of the game are the Altair sections. When Ezio receives a disc, he takes it back, decodes it and we get to play a short mission following the protagonist from the first game; Altair. The story is the most interesting of the 3 as we follow Altair before the first game (in one mission) and afterwards as he grows older. It's too bad these parts are so short, they are the most action packed, interesting and by far, the most fun.
Multiplayer makes a return in Revelations. New multiplayer modes are added to the already existing modes, including "story-oriented quests", as well as a new Capture the Flag mode. Among the new additions is a new multiplayer mode, Deathmatch, with no compass pointing toward your assigned target. There is a box in the top right of the screen where your current target is displayed, which glows blue when you enter the line of sight of your victim. There is also Simple Deathmatch, which also removes the abilities and perks from the players. Overall, multiplayer is the one major improvement over Brotherhood and is a lot more fun this time around.
Overall, Revelations is a good game. The hook blade is a handy new tool, the gameplay is still solid and the multiplayer is better than before. However, it adds modes (den defense, the puzzle sections) and elements that just feel unnecessary and outside of the Altair segments, the story just feels like filler. In some ways, it improved in some areas but overall, Revelations is a step down in terms of gameplay and story as it just feels like an unnecessary addition to the franchise. I would recommend it to fans of the series only.