Revelations has brilliant beginning to Ezio's journey in which we are treated with a beautiful and amazing pre-rendered opening. In terms of in-game graphics, they are a noticeable improvement over Brotherhood which was surprising. Character models look smoother and more detailed while environments look less flat. All the standard additions from previous games are here and most of them are available right from the start. While there are plenty more features added in to make the Assassin's Creed experience even better. The hook blade makes climbing/free-running easier as you can now jump higher and there are also zip lines which looks cool when you're on them. Additional combat options include dragging down scaffolding to crush enemies and counter stealing but they don't make a huge impact to the game (you only find these out as they're required for trophies/achievements...). Playing through the game, it feels as though the system doesn't have the same leniency in determining where Ezio should jump so. All too often, you don't get those moments where Ezio just blasts through the path. Instead, Ezio pauses a lot now and you have to readjust his position to get to the next spot. In general, the game doesn't feel as polished as it could have been, some things feel clunky and it's hard to pinpoint what exactly is dragging the game down.
I am playing the digital version from PSN and the load times feel longer. You often end up just waiting for the next section to load. Occasionally the whole game will freeze for a moment as the game needs to load the environment (and this is not straight after booting up the game either). It also froze my PS3 more than once, I am not sure if this is just buggy or I'm just unlucky. Unsurprisingly, it's incredibly easy to get sidetracked from the main story path. Even if you think to yourself, "okay, I'm going to get the story out of the way first", you end up diverging from the path to maybe sync a viewpoint (unblur a portion of the map), upgrade some shops or do some treasure hunting. All of this is available very early on and can get overwhelming with the amount of stuff to do and what you want to do first. Time goes by really quickly as you're getting from place to place and it's a lot of fun chipping away at the options. Even after the main storyline has ended, there are lots of collectibles and side missions that are to be left and unlocked. Being the fourth game in there series, even with the multiple additions, it still feels very similar. Sure, it's a different city but the way you traverse is mostly the same, the way the mission structure works and the mission styles aren't dramatically different.
This works against the game as it doesn't feel that it brings any new innovative features. The battle system continues to feel that it could be streamlined more. Controls are slightly tweaked so it will take a short time to readjust (especially when you want to activate eagle vision and instead end up activating your secondary weapon...). The missions doesn't feel as fun as those in II and Brotherhood. There were a few where you end up wrestling with the controls and failing it. In general though, the game is easy and you usually only die because you were rushing it or the controls failed you. While there are the stellar missions where the platform rushing is so much fun. Then again, I found the Desmond sequences to be extremely annoying and did not constructively add to the game. Best to ignore it as from a story and gameplay point of view, it fails on both counts. The game stars an older Ezio and it feels that since we have journeyed so much with him, literally his whole life. It also gives the character a more refreshing change, instead of the younger cocky Ezio we were familiar with, he is much more experienced and calculating. You'll be swapping to Altair from time to time, his missions aren't bad but he is not as charismatic as Ezio. His missions are also not as fun since the majority of them you will be playing as an old Altair, too old to be nimble enough for scaling buildings.
Like in previous games, by the time you're halfway through, the story kinda goes off the top of your head. You start to just follow the mission objectives without really caring or following the story. It goes off the top at times. The last few chapters felt short and rushed, especially when they dragged the beginning on for longer than necessary. The ending was disappointing, at least with II and Brotherhood, they were both interesting and revealing. Whereas Revelations doesn't live up to it's name. It felt anti-climatic and it was yet another cliffhanger which didn't have the same hook to get your anticipated for the next game. However, when you end up seeing Ezio and Altair, knowing that this game is the final piece in their saga, you feel sad. The city of Constantinople does not have the same distinctive designs that make it memorable like in previous games. It also feels somewhat smaller than Rome in Brotherhood. I don't know whether this is the case or not but whereas in Brotherhood, you would still find new places or landmarks, in Revelations, it feels like you've seen the whole game map by the third memory sequence. The music is excellent, pumping adrenaline through you. It feels bolder and more noticeable. Overall, while still a decent game, it can be buggy and is suffering from franchise fatigue.
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