Assassin's Creed: Revelations

The time has come. This is the end friends! The end of the Ezio storyline at least. But how does it go down? Will Ezio manage to stop the templars at long last? Or will they continue to be a thorn in the side of the Assassins?

Continuing on from the (rather sad) events of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, long suffering ex-barman Desmond is trapped in the Animus' very own blue screen of death, and he must work through all of the memories of both Altair and Ezio before he can get out and come back to the real world. Ezio is getting on a bit, but age doesn't seem to be slowing him down. Just wait 'til you see Altair! He'd be busting out his freedom pass, that's for sure. Could also do with one of those mobility scooters... but it might impact on the freerunning.

On the subject of Altair, he has hidden keys across the land of Constantinople which will unlock the door to his secret library, and you (as Ezio) need to find them before the Templars do in order to access the world changing secrets within. It makes a change from the usual eye for an eye style story, and is slightly less involving because of it.

Constantinople itself, aside from being quite difficult to spell, is amazingly recreated. Having been lucky enough to go on a trip recently to Istanbul (same thing) and seen many of the landmarks in the flesh is something quite incredible. The way the city can be both expansive and claustrophobic at the same time is captured perfectly. You almost wouldn't need to go and visit... you're not allowed to climb up the Hagia Sophia for starters... we should know... we tried. DAMN YOU TEQUILA!

Combat and controls are slightly different now as to what they were in Assassin's Creed II, with the main difference being in the introduction of a hook blade which you use in addition to your hidden blade. It enables you to deal with enemies in a non-lethal fashion, scale buildings much more quickly and easily, and make use of the many zip-lines installed around the city by your Assassin brethrin. Which was nice. Also new is the ability to construct and use bombs, which can distract, kill or confuse your enemies.

Also new, and this will be a bone of contention for some, is the addition of a tower defense style game for your Assassin Dens. When they are attacked by the Templars, you must rush to it's aid and fend off the attackers through tactical placement of archers, gunners, air assassins and barriers. For those of you who enjoy RTS style games, GREAT! For those of you who don't.... try not to let any of your dens get attacked.

The famed multiplayer is back, and is staying true to its roots by encouraging you to be the biggest bastard you can be. It's a good thing that the multiplayer has remained largely untouched, as it was nailed on the last outing.

The main issues we had with the game aren't enough to warrant avoiding it, but here they are nonetheless: Revelations does not make the leaps and bounds that the other games in the series have done. When using the hookblade to scale buildings, it's far too easy for Ezio to decide he instead would like to leap off said building to his doom, rather than climb to the top and do a happy dance. We also struggled with blending in with crowds this time around, even standing in the middle of a hired group who followed you would often not work, and occasionally they'd get bored of keeping you alive and hidden, deciding instead to just wander off, leaving you to get skewered and/or desynchronise. Lastly, and possibly most annoying, is the auto-save checkpoint system often leaving you in an infinite loop of doom by saving right before a fight kicks off and getting you into trouble by loading the screen after loading the fight, so you end up with half your health and a severe sense of rage.

Ultimately though, and most importantly, Assassin's Creed: Revelations remains an essential purchase. Fans of the series will want to see how everything comes together, and ends, and people who just wanna hop, skip and jump around Constantinople and stab random guards will also be in their element. You know, just don't try it at home.