Knowing this would be the end of the Ezio trilogy, you can expect it to be heavy on the storyline, answering the questions you were asking yourself when Brotherhood ended. And it lives up to the expectations of any AC fan who have tasted how brilliant this franchise is shaping up to be.
The game kicks off showing us Desmond stuck in a comatose state within the Animus after the concluding events of Brotherhood, and he must live through the memories of both Ezio and Atair in order to save his own memory from getting wiped out.
In this state, his consciousness finds itself on an “Animus island” along with the consciousness of Subject 16, from where he has to access his memories of his ancestors and complete the entire memory sequence in order to return to his body.
Through his memories we continue with the journey of Ezio, years after conquering Rome from The Borgias. He now travels to Masyaf, where the Assassin’s Order was established by his predecessor, Altair. Here, Ezio wishes to access Altair’s library, which contains something that will change the face of conflict between the Templar’s and the Assassins. But the library is locked by 5 Masyaf keys, scattered by Niccolo Polo during his voyages across Constantinople. Hence Ezio heads to Istanbul to recover the keys and find the powerful item inside the library.
Gameplay has remained pretty much the same, carrying over features from the previous two games and introducing minor changes like the introduction of a hook blade, and the zipline system of navigation across the even-more beautifully detailed city of Istanbul. Ezio might have greyed his hair, but his back is straight and he loses none of his abilities, in fact gains more vicious executions during combat and better lines to impress his maiden, Sofia Sartor. After recovering each key, we can play through individual adventures of Altair after the events of the very first game till the time of his passing away at the age of 82(or somewhere thereabouts). This three way story, that of Altair’s redemption and rebirth within the Order, Ezio’s journey and his political involvement with the Sultans of Constantinople makes the shorter campaign very compact and intense. The tremendous voice acting, diverse level designs, smooth platforming and detailed visuals only add to the storyline to make this probably the most complete game in the franchise till date.
Minor bugs are present in the game for which the 3 patches are required to upgrade the version, and playing with the same mechanics and system might feel obligatory at times which should not be the case for a title which should be completed to see the end of what has been a tremendous journey for a single character. Not all the content is worth exploring, but whatever is available for play is ridiculously entertaining and should keep u hooked till the end.
Though this is not perfect, but is certainly the best way to see off the trilogy which ends with the message that the fate of the planet lies within Desmond’s hands and he must find the temple which contains the information left behind by the First Civilization regarding the final apocalypse of Earth.