Assassins Creed has become an important series for the current generation of gaming consoles. While many have assumed that annual releases would over saturate the exposure of the franchise, Ubisoft has shown that they can refine the gameplay of the series while weaving an intense and engaging story for fans to enjoy. The newest incarnation, Assassins Creed: Revelations, looks to be another huge hit for Ubisoft. At E3, I was lucky enough to receive an exclusive demo of Assassins Creed: Revelations.
Picking up right after the cliffhanger ending of Assassins Creed: Brotherhood, Desmond Miles is stuck in a coma from the effects of the Animus and must continue to relive the memories of his ancestor Ezio Auditore de Firenze in hopes of eventually awaking. Ezio himself is now a master assassin nearing the end of his lifelong battles with the Templars. His quest brings him to Constantinople about five years after the close of Brotherhood. My demo began with the a demonstration of Ezio’s new weapons. Smoke bombs are still in, but now Ezio can eventually upgrade his bombs to be much more deadly. After targeting a pair of guards, Ezio killed both with a single well placed explosive. As a group of guards ran through the town square to see what all the commotion was about, Ezio scaled the side of a building to escape. Using his new hook blade, Ezio was able to reach much higher ledges than when he just used the climbing glove in Assassins Creed: Brotherhood. Once he reached the roof the building, Ezio used the hook blade to zip-line down a rope to the other side of the town.
While Ezio had managed to escape the guards for the moment, the city security was now aware that an assassin was in their midst. By raising a massive chain across the port of entry, the city guards blockaded the waterways making Ezio’s escape nearly impossible. An explosive at the base of the chain took care of the blockade, but also reduced a portion of the city to rubble. Ezio scaled the rigging of a nearby ship and found a flamethrower mounted to the bow. After a minute or two of sustained flames, the docked enemy fleet was in ruin. A well placed cannonball destroyed the flamethrower and forced Ezio to desert the sinking ship. Dodging flying debris, Ezio jumped from ship to ship before finally reaching his own ship. As Ezio’s ship sailed out of the bay, I was treated to a panoramic view of the destruction Ezio left in his wake. Ezio may be old and nearing the end of his Assassins Creed story, but he is more deadly and effective than ever.
As Ezio’s portion of the demo came to a close, I was led into another area of the demo room which held a pair of Animus chairs. After sitting down, I was treated to a frustratingly short teaser of Desmond’s experience in Assassins Creed: Revelations. Since Desmond is now stuck in a sort of Animus limbo, the teaser showed large geometric buildings appearing in the empty spaces of the Animus loading area. As Desmond looked skyward, now sporting a black hoodie and white t-shirt, the teaser came to an end. Looks like we’ll have to wait until November 15, 2011 to see how it all ends.
For more details on Assassins Creed: Revelations and to see a developer commentary video of the demo, visit: www.assassinscreed.com and www.facebook.com/assassinscreed.
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