The Assassin's Creed serie is, by far, one of the best video games serie I've ever played. It has everything: good, breathtaking plot, smooth controls, inovations throughout the serie, charismatic characters everywhere, and world-domination conspiracy! What's not to like?
To breeze through the serie: the first one was amazing, but grew kinda repetitive toward the end. The second opus was breathtaking: it took everything good from the first one, made it better, and added sooo many wonderful things. The contrast with the first one made it seem like THE best opus in the serie. Now I can't tell which one really is the best: Brotherhood had quite his share of good stuff and all, but it felt... Unfinished. All those good ideas didn't quite hit their target. And yet, playing Brotherhood felt awesome. It was true joy to roam around Roma, and the Borgias were quite the opponents for the master Assassin Ezio had become.
How about Revelations now?
If I had written this article a week ago, I'd have said it was a good AC game, but not much more. But I've finished it not an hour ago and... Woooooow.
It begins with excellent storytelling, and moving around a wounded, weakened Ezio felt amazing. Then, the story keeps being good, but the characters introduced felt ... not really hollow, but not as deep as I was used to. I got kinda lost in the missions thread; where did Ezio really fit in there, apart from being a wild card? Thankfully, Ezio's new love interest, Sofia, and their story kept the game from feeling stale. Because plot didn't keep me from hating the new features.
First, the newly introduced bombs. Sure, it was a good idea. But as they weren't that useful, I found awkward how they kept popping in the game: most chests didn't even hold a cent, but gunpowder. I mean, those chests didn't always make sense in the other games, but at least they were rewarding. Come on, it's the third chest full of ingredients I don't need or can't carry because I'm already full of them! I didn't even use half of the different bomb types. But well, it was an inconvenience I got around supporting.
But the Assassin's Den system? Come ON. You can't get to most viewpoints because they're conveniently in the middle of a Templar camp, so you have to track down the captain of this den and put a blade through his throat. Well, that's the same as the Borgia Towers, right? Right?
NO, because this time the Templars try to claim them back whenever you do too much illegal things. LIKE RESTORING A SHOP. OPENING A BOOKSHOP WILL MAKE SOLDIERS COME AFTER YOU EN MASSE TO SLAUGHTER YOUR FRIENDS. Well I just have to kill them all, that sounds fun! NO. You have to defend your den with an army of Assassins at your command, in a tower-defense style minigame. Still sounds good!
...
...
... Well it isn't any good. Your assassins will chop through 99% of the templar raiders with ease, so no fun here. Then a huge siege machine comes out, blast all your defenses, and you can do so much as take half its health, because f*ck you that's why. Seriously, I didn't win a single Den Attack! It's faster to just let the ennemies win, and take it again right afterwards. Oh, wait, that makes the Templar super-aware of you, which means that if you don't bribe heralds fast enough they attack another den. Nice, isn't it? You just lost an hour of playing. The den system made me so made I didn't even use the Assassin Missions system; to keep it short one of your assassin students is so good he has a mission for you, and when you finish it he becomes a Master Assassin. Sounds cool, but you have to keep all your dens. And level your assassin pupils (same as in Brotherhood, so waaay too long and not rewarding enough) to the max level. Well, maybe I'll play it again just for that later, but right now I'll pass.
Apart from that, most of Revelations felt quite good, as much as Brotherhood. And that's my main problem: it wasn't really better than its predecessors. All AC games were a revolution in themselves before this one, and... well it stayed a good game, but I had as much pleasure playing it than I'd have had replaying through Brother or AC2. So... it's still a wonderful game. By all means it was awesome! The feeling of liberty, of power, was still there, and it was really enjoyable. But just as much as Brotherhood.
I loved Revelations despite its few drawbacks, and if you've played the other Assassin's Creed, you should play it too. You will enjoy it.
See you around! Next time, some roleplaying.
No comments:
Post a Comment