Wednesday, October 26, 2022

First Play Review - Assassin's Creed: Revelations [2011]

Assassin's Creed: Revelations is the final chapter in what is known as 'The Ezio Trilogy' bringing the epic saga of Ezio Auditore DeFirenze (Roger Craig Smith - Batman: Arkham Origins) to a stunning finale. It's generally considered the weakest of the three however as the main plot is much more by the numbers than the previous games, but I believe the ending sequence is the strongest so far, a fantastic bookend to an exciting series even if the game as a whole is not superior to it's predecessors. After  completing the previous two entries in the series, I said I would complete the trilogy before giving the franchise a rest for the time being.

For Desmond Miles (Nolan North - Uncharted) in the present day, Revelations picks up shortly after the terrible events at the end of Brotherhood. Desmond is in a coma but his mind is being supported by The Animus entirely as he follows the memories of Ezio, now a little past his prime and on his final quest to unlock the Library of Altair in Masayaf. But first he needs to find the keys in the city of Constantinople in 1512.

Constantinople is a wonderful setting for a game. It's a much more layered city than Rome and lends itself even more to the parkour staple. Much like your time in Rome in Brotherhood, you will play about 95% of the game in Constantinople and Ubisoft Montreal continued to make strides pushing even more fidelity out of their engine - although it was showing it's age when released originally. The streets were now filled with even more varied denizens and it's much more visually different from the Italian sights and sounds of the previous games, from the Turkish and Greek background noise to the brighter colours that the Byzantines pioneered in their fashion.

Gameplay is pretty understandably not changed much from the previous series entry. This is seen as a negative by many but I'd have thought changing the formula before Assassin's Creed III would have been a mistake as it really is a continuation of what's there before as opposed to a new experience. You have all the weapons and gadgets you had in Italy, obviously after going through the usual process of buying and upgrading them all again, while both fighting and movement seem very familiar to the point where the tutorial is much lighter probably suggesting that it's not for noobs to be beginning here. I was also never killed in CQC by an enemy which I put down to a familiarity with the unchanged control system spread out over 100 hours of Assassin's Creed over the past few months more than the game being easy (there are no difficulty levels). The control scheme does use different buttons here for Eagle Sense and a general context actions now which seems more fluid for the latter during gameplay. 


Your new gadget is the "Hook Blade" which means that you can use the Hidden Blade as a spring loaded hook that seems to allow you to scale buildings faster with less effort which is also suggested as a plus as Ezio is viably getting on in years. The new blade also allows him to hook onto some very conveniently placed zip-lines about the city for a quick escape. Two major additions are the use of crafted throwable bombs which you gather ingredients for and use to kill/distract enemies. The other addition is a mini-game in which you defend your bases against assault by assigning resources to guard captured bases in order to prevent them falling into Templar control. The latter addition I felt was unnecessary, uninteresting, and the tutorial event felt clunky in the Revelations interface as the camera can be dodgy at the best of times. I basically never let my notoriety fall far enough to be attacked so none of the base attacks actually triggered and I literally bypassed the entire mechanic for the whole game! With regards to the bombs I found very little use for them, preferring to either use my crossbow to range enemies or use stealth to get past guards rather than bombs for distraction.

What I did enjoy was the expansion of the "Brotherhood" system where you rescue citizens, invite them to join your cause, and subsequently train them as Assassins by sending them on missions in return for XP and rewards. You are also allowed to assign five Assassins to each of about 12 cities around the world as well as maintain a pool of 12 at the ready meaning you had to rescue and train an army of about 72 to fill all available slots. I have an itch for unit micromanagement not scratched since I played MGSV so this worked and I spent over a week building my army rather than advancing the game's plot. It's a totally unnecessary time sink that doesn't do anything in the game to really aid you but I enjoyed doing it and therefore I won't apologise.

Two sections of the game are not played as Ezio. As Desmond you're on an Animus constructed island where you explore areas of puzzles as Desmond narrates your history from childhood (including voice memories from his father (John DeLancie - Star Trek: The Next Generation) up to the point where Desmond is taken from his barman job in New York by Abstergo just prior to the events depicted in the first Assassin's Creed. The narrated levels "Desmond's Memories" are jumping and construction puzzles that are so wildly out of place in the game that I couldn't enjoy them and only did half of them, watching someone silently do the reminder on YouTube.

The other memory sequences are discovered as Ezio finds the Maysaif keys in Constantinople. In these memories you play Altaïr ibn La-Ahad (Cas Anvar - The Expanse) at different periods of his later life after the first game. They serve to piece together the puzzle of how the keys were sent to Constantinople and depict both the fate of The Apple, Altaïr himself and serve as a bookend to our original protagonist's story.

Final Verdict: All good things must come to an end. While Assassin's Creed obviously continues far past this point, this is the end of The Ezio Trilogy. I think gameplay here in Revelations was the most polished and enjoyable despite the lacklustre new features added. While it's fair to say the main story to the game is the weakest, the saga of the series most beloved protagonist comes to an exciting conclusion. We also get closure for the fate of Altaïr in the game's ultimately satisfying and poignant ending.

DLC: Assassins Creed: Revelations featured three DLC packs, 2 for multiplayer maps and skins while the third was "The Lost Archive" a puzzle game inside The Animus similar to the aforementioned "Desmond's Memories" and not something I wanted to play. Therefore I also watched these on YouTube to get the whole story. Purchases of Assassin's Creed Revelations Gold Edition get all the DLC included.

Technicals: 35+ approximate hours playtime through Ubisoft Connect using a Nvidia 3070Ti @ 3440x1440 @ 175Hz with max settings on Windows 11. As with Assassin's Creed II and Brotherhood, Cutscenes force 16:9 ratio with black bars, returning to 21:9 for gameplay. Win 11 HDR provides no notable enhancement.

Bugs: Sadly there was a significant amount of crashes in Revelations, far more than the previous two games combined. There was a three of instances where the game would crash in the same place and not advance after a restart. This issue was solved by setting the processor affinity on the Revelations process in task manager to only use CPU 0 and then re-enable all processors after the sequence had resolved.

The Assassins Creed: Revelations base game is available from the Ubisoft Store or Steam for €14.99 with significant sales occasionally. The Assassin's Creed: Revelations Gold Edition was available for €19.99 at time of publication. Reviewed copy purchased from The Ubisoft Store in 2019 for €4.80.

Series Timeline [PC]:
Assassin's Creed [2007]
Assassin's Creed II [2010]
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood [2011]
Assassin's Creed: Revelations [2011]
Assassin's Creed III [2012]
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag [2013]
- Assassin's Creed: Freedom Cry [2014]
- Assassin's Creed III: Liberation HD [2014]
Assassin's Creed Unity [2014]
Assassin's Creed Rogue [2015]
Assassin's Creed Syndicate [2015]
Assassin's Creed Origins [2017]
Assassin's Creed Odyssey [2018]
- Assassin's Creed III Remastered [2019]
Assassin's Creed Valhalla [2020]
Assassin's Creed Mirage [2023]
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Tuesday, October 18, 2022

First Play Review - Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood [2011]

Note: The version reviewed is Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood - Digital Deluxe Edition

Rather than release an Assassin's Creed III with a new protagonist next, the success of Assassin's Creed II prompted Ubisoft to continue the story of Ezio Auditore in a new game to be released in 2011, only a year after the last instalment. In June 2022 Ubisoft announced that the ability to download and play the DLC for Brotherhood would cease on September 1st (this was changed to October 1st after Internet outcry). Having gone through ACII in July to prepare myself for Brotherhood, it was now early August so time was of the essence.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood continues the narrative of Assassin's Creed II pretty much the moment the previous game ended both for Desmond and Ezio and their respective plots continue. Desmond and his new crew are "on the run" and Ezio is on the trail of the Apple once again but this time his adventures are restricted to mainly one open-world location, Rome. Here Ezio seeks to thwart the plans of Cesare Borgia who has claimed the Apple for the Templars as well as seeking his own personal vengeance.

One should not believe that this game suffers from a single location as may have been perceived as a failing of Dragon Age II in the same year. While we did see one small part of it, Vatican at the end of ACII,  here the entire city of Rome is rendered and is, as one would expect, much larger than any of the previous game's locations and sustains the narrative for the vast majority of the game. With support for The Assassins somewhat scarce Ezio builds up Rome with his wealth in a similar manner which he did with Monteriggioni and wins the respect of the Mercenaries, Courtesans and The Thieves Guild which become more available to help him as he wrests control of each district of Rome from the Borgia and returns it to the people.

Ezio's home base is now a brotherhood safe house in the heart of Rome and it is from here, as "The Mentor" he starts to build a new army by training assassins. This is done through the addition of the "Brotherhood" system, allowing you to recruit and train NPC assassins by sending them on money and XP-gathering missions and also providing support to you in times of need. It's a very interesting addition to the game and despite it's benefits it provided a major distraction for me as I like to micro-manage any kind of minions when I get them. Also an improvement is the use of horses, both inside the main city walls and on the outskirts. They come when whistled for and you can make great use of mounted combat (below) as well as a convenient method of travel from practically any two points.

While some things change, others stay the same and Leonardo Da Vinci returns to send Ezio on a series of adventures outside of Rome which are welcome changes of scenery and provide him with some new gadgets including parachutes and a crossbow, the latter becoming one of my more personal favourite weapons in the game as a one-hit-one-kill near silent ranged weapon. Also the same is most of your missions which while vastly superior the the original game, are still pretty much the same as with ACII, but that's OK this is a continuation of before not a reinvention of the wheel.

Final Verdict: Although this is only the third Assassin's Creed title I believe at this stage Ubisoft already knew that this franchise was going to be a yearly milkable cash-cow as CoD is for Activision. While graphics did see an uplift, there wasn't too much technically changed for Brotherhood. Most systems including combat remained relatively intact and while the new additions such as the Brotherhood system and using a crossbow were most welcome, the narrative was a little weaker than ACII. There was times the game it felt like a major DLC for ACII, but perhaps just a really really long, unmissable and worthwhile one.

DLC: Originally Assassins Creed: Brotherhood featured two DLC packs The Copernicus Conspiracy and The Da Vinci Disappearance with several hours of additional story content. Purchases of Assassin's Creed Brotherhood: Digital Deluxe Edition have both DLC included. At time of writing the ability for the DLC pack to be downloaded will be removed from Ubisoft Connect on Oct 1st 2022.

Technicals: 35+ approximate hours playtime through Ubisoft Connect using a Nvidia 3070Ti @ 3440x1440 @ 175Hz with max settings on Windows 11. As with Assassin's Creed II, Cutscenes force 16:9 ratio with black bars, returning to 21:9 for gameplay. Win 11 HDR provides no notable enhancement. 

Bugs: (1) Two to three unexpected program quits over the course of 35+ hours. (2) There ware a number of event sequences that could not be completed due to the framerate being higher than anything at time of release. If the framerate is capped to 60FPS for these sequences, it runs perfectly. (3) Late in the game a sequence did not trigger, halting progress. The level was restarted and the event triggered correctly the second time through. (4) One of the DLC packs did not activate correctly, a file was made available by a user of the Ubisoft Tech Support forums to correct the issue.

The Assassins Creed: Brotherhood base game is available from the Ubisoft Store or Steam for €9.99 with significant sales occasionally. The Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood Digital Deluxe Edition was not available for sale at time of publication. Reviewed copy purchased from The Ubisoft Store in 2019 for €5.44.

Series Timeline [PC]:
Assassin's Creed [2007]
Assassin's Creed II [2010]
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood [2011]
Assassin's Creed: Revelations [2011]
Assassin's Creed III [2012]
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag [2013]
- Assassin's Creed: Freedom Cry [2014]
- Assassin's Creed III: Liberation HD [2014]
Assassin's Creed Unity [2014]
Assassin's Creed Rogue [2015]
Assassin's Creed Syndicate [2015]
Assassin's Creed Origins [2017]
Assassin's Creed Odyssey [2018]
- Assassin's Creed III Remastered [2019]
Assassin's Creed Valhalla [2020]
Assassin's Creed Mirage [2023]

Monday, October 03, 2022

First Play Review: Assassins Creed 2 [2010]

Note: The version reviewed is Assassin's Creed II: Digital Deluxe Edition

Assassins Creed II is a direct sequel to the original Assassins Creed. The modern day story of The Animus continues as does the struggle between the Templars and the Assassins. The Templars continue to seek "The Apple of Eden", a McGuffin which they intend to use to enslave the world, and the noble Assassins seek to protect it. The genetic memories being followed to lead the Assassins to victory however are now of new protagonist and his adventures in Renaissance Italy. Many of the elements return such as the hidden blade, rooftop parkour and blending into your surroundings to escape your foes.

It has been three years since my first step into the world of Assassin's Creed by enjoying the original game in one of Ubisoft's most famous franchises and I was itching to return to see for myself why the series had spawned almost a dozen sequels in just 15 years. During the summer Ubisoft announced that they would limit the functionality of some of their older games, including the retirement of multiplayer and servers used to deliver DLC on September 1st 2022. One such game would be Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, the third game in the franchise which I had not yet played. However, more pressing was that I hadn't yet played Assassins Creed II which preceded it. It was early July and the race was on.

Assassins Creed II picks up for Desmond Miles in the 'present day' pretty much when we left him at the end of Assassin's Creed. However after exhausting the immediate relevance of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad's memories you now delve into the past of Ezio Auditore da Firenze, a descendant of Altaïr some 300 years later and whom the modern-day Assassins believe will reveal the location of "The Apple" in 15th century Florence. Ezio is a completely different character to Altaïr which is a godsend as the latter was an uncharismatic and deathly serious compared to Ezio who quickly establishes himself as a lovable, womanizing rogue, yet fiercely loyal to his family. We learn more about him in the first 30 minutes than we are ever likely to know about Altaïr and it's easy to see why our new protagonist is considered the favourite of the series.

There are many additions and changes in Assassins Creed II. Ezio can heal his wounds, disarm foes in combat and is subject to a notoriety system which will have guards more alert to his antics. The main story is far more gripping than the original. It's structured differently and the gameplay missions are more varied now with multiple objectives that advance the plot as opposed to simply stalking and killing a target. Interestingly it also intersects with some more famous individuals one may remember from history class such as Pope Alexander IV, Lorenzo de Medici and your new best friend Leonardo da Vinci who creates some new equipment for you such as dual hidden-blades! In addition to the main story quests there are plenty of extras which range from mundane feather collecting to exciting assassination contracts. There are also Prince of Persia-esque puzzle-dungeons in which your accuracy and speed with acrobatics are considerably tested, rewarding you with the means to unlock powerful equipment.

One of the more interesting additions to the game is the inclusion of a central hub that's more than just the Assassins' safehouses of the original game. Ezio gets a home base in the form of the dilapidated walled town of Monteriggioni where you use your money to renovate, restore and earn income through tax. You will likely make far more than you can physically spend in the game, finishing with about a quarter of a million florins, enough to buy the papacy if you were allowed. Your home also allows you to display paintings you buy and display weapons and amour you acquire throughout your adventures all of which serve to cement your connection to the character as well as properly establish his connection to the world in a way not done in the original.

The detail level of the environment is also incredible. The Italian cities feel much more alive then those of the the holy-land and even more crowds of people are going about their business. NPCs range from courtesans which can be hired for distraction, street vendors telling you they have the best prices in all of Italy, to men carrying objects who curse you for causing them to drop them. And of course how could I forget to mention the deliberately annoying mandolin players blocking your path as they play misic for you in the hope of you sparing them some coin. Running through the streets can be difficult in crowds so free-running across rooftops can be a better way of traversing the world once you avoid guards positioned on the roofs who scold you before attempting to force you down. 

Sound design was standard Ubisoft fare, plenty of people cursing you and screaming in English but in vaguely comical Italian accents. Jesper Kyd returned to provide a competent and unobtrusive score as did Nolan North (Uncharted) and Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars) reprising voices for Desmond and Lucy respectively. They are joined by Roger Craig Smith (Resident Evil) as Ezio.


What really impressed me about this game, more so than all other elements was the sheer accuracy of the setting. I've never been to Florence, Venice or the other Italian locales depicted in the game but I do know something about architecture and to see the level of detail and accuracy of the famous buildings that still stand today is remarkable. After playing for a few hours I found myself watching travel videos on YouTube which go into the architecture and history of the buildings in which I had just spent hours scaling to find secrets and sneaking around silently killing guards. The thought occurred to me of course that it may in fact be easier for developers to input architectural studies of these famous buildings into to a 3D modelling application for the game engine than it would be to create an entirely fictional environment. Scaling the famous Giotto's Campanile and Brunelleschi's Dome on the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flower is an extraordinary experience probably more than flying over somewhere familiar in a flight simulator and enhances the unique connection one has with the game world.

Final Verdict: Ezio is a likeable protagonist who is enjoyable to control. His arc spans three games, the first two - this and Brotherhood - vie for first and second favourites of the pre-RPG genre that the franchise adopted with Assassin's Creed: Origins. It's easy to see why as Assassin's Creed II is as superior a sequel to a game as Half-Life 2 or Mass Effect 2 are. It took all the mechanics of the original, and refined them, making the ones that worked better and took what didn't work and changed it to make them work.


DLC: Originally Assassins Creed II featured two DLC packs The Battle of Forlì and Bonfire of the Vanities with several hours of additional story content. They were sequences cut from the base game on release due to time constraints. Purchases of Assassin's Creed II: Digital Deluxe Edition include these packs reintegrated seamlessly and unskippable as part of the main game.

Technicals: 37 hours playtime through Ubisoft Connect using a Nvidia 3070Ti @ 3440x1440 @ 175Hz on Windows 11. Cutscenes force 16:9 ratio, returning to 21:9 for gameplay. Win 11 HDR provides no notable enhancement. Only bug was about two unexpected program quits over the course of 37 hours.

The Assassins Creed II base game is available from the Ubisoft Store or Steam for €9.99.with significant sales occasionally. The Assassin's Creed II: Digital Deluxe Edition was not available for sale at time of publication. Reviewed copy purchased from Fanatical in 2019 for €3.39.

Series Timeline [PC]:
Assassin's Creed [2007]
Assassin's Creed II [2010]
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood [2011]
Assassin's Creed: Revelations [2011]
Assassin's Creed III [2012]
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag [2013]
- Assassin's Creed: Freedom Cry [2014]
- Assassin's Creed III: Liberation HD [2014]
Assassin's Creed Unity [2014]
Assassin's Creed Rogue [2015]
Assassin's Creed Syndicate [2015]
Assassin's Creed Origins [2017]
Assassin's Creed Odyssey [2018]
- Assassin's Creed III Remastered [2019]
Assassin's Creed Valhalla [2020]
Assassin's Creed Mirage [2023]