This is the fourth instalment of the Assassin’s Creed series that both ended and started a new chapter.

The Story:

After the shocking cliff hanger that surprised so many video gaming fans, this was the long awaited story that would end the trilogy of Ezio’s life. (Not giving anything away) The story begins with Desmond (Subject 17) finding himself on a strange, small deserted island. But all is revealed when he is surprised to have a first meeting with someone he did not expect to see. This mysterious island is explained to be the very core of the Animus (a machine that can show the memory’s of someone’s ancestor). After Desmond fell unconscious in the previous game, his mind was redirected in the Animus’s core data bank in order to stop Desmond’s mind from completely collapsing. However this is only a temporary measure. The more time Desmond stays in the Animus the more risk there is of the whole system collapsing which would result in Desmond’s death. To escape the island get back to reality in his own body Desmond must live through the his ancestor Ezio Auditore da Firenze’s memories in order to learn all there is that Ezio learned as well as revisiting Desmond’s previous ancestor’s memories Altair. By doing this Desmond will separate the confused crossover of memory timelines linked with himself, Altair and Ezio. That is why Desmond is stuck in the Animus. It can not distinguish between all three memory timelines resulting in the collapse. Now this all seems quite confusing but trust me when you play the game it will all make sense. Most of it anyway. Like I said before this was the end of Ezio’s Chapter and a hinted start of a new direction of story telling.

Now personally I found this to be a dull story. In previous stories, there was more activity in the way of plots with both Desmond’s ancestor’s and Desmond himself. This focus’s mainly on Ezio and occasionally Altair. Even then Ezio’s story is quite slow with no real plot. Literally the whole game is with Ezio trying to find these 5 ‘Masyaf Keys’ in order to find what Altair kept secret behind closed doors. Hardly any twists and shocks as was created before. The only real intriguing thing about the story is the occasional flash backs on Altair’s memories and the ending.

Unlike before, more questions are added to the video gaming fans with hardly any answers to the previous games. We are almost completely placed in the dark which is a shame as this had so much potential. This game seems more like a chapter to just kill time for the next one like waiting at the traffic lights. Very disappointing.

The Game Play:

The game play seems to have remained the same with only very minor changes from Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. The mini map has been made to look blue (still the same shape as before). The health bar is different and the money currency is different. The only real difference that takes effect is the fact that you free roam in different environmental locations. There are also these so called ‘Den defence’ optional objectives to try to add some differences but to be honest I find then very frustrating and annoying to the point where you could throw your controller at the T.V.

The Graphics:

This has to be the very best part of the game. You can tell instantly the more advanced detail that has gone into the game. The PS3 console’s technology has evolved into something that is both pure and very realistic. This was a new beginning for the series’ look. Astonishing locations and environments make this a marvel to look at. You could spend time just looking at all the details both big and small.

The Music:

Like before in previous games, the composers have continued to live up to their reputation in creating and evolving the instrumental music of the game. They still find ways of refreshing the old theme tune as well as composing music to fit all the environments and help to give the game more emotion even with the lack of dynamic story telling. An example of this is the chilling evolution of the old instrumental called ‘Earth’ which always gives me chills.

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations – Earth

So all in all this was a half and half situation. On the one hand a very poor piece of what you would call a plot with not too many game play changes, on the other hand a well executed creation of graphics and music. That is why I have decide to rate this game 6.5 /10