Assassin’s Creed Revelations: beta impressions

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood was the Assassin’s Creed franchise’s first stab (sorry!) into online multiplayer. There was a lot of scepticism that the multiplayer would be simply tacked on, as just another bullet point to add to the back of the box; but that was far from the truth. Brotherhood’s stealthy multiplayer worked surprisingly well, with a good selection of game modes to keep players occupied, and extra bonuses if you took down your target using stealth rather than running about like the crazed Ghostkiller from the Scream movies.

The latest game, Revelations, comes merely a year after the last game, so you wouldn’t expect much innovation or deviation from the previous year’s game. The menu has been streamlined, and you now have three main options in the menu: Player, which gives you all your stats, and allows you to customise your weapon selection and perks; Game, which enables you to customise your game and set up a private match; and Friends, obviously, lets you invite friends into your game (or accept invites) but there is also the addition of challenges, which gives you the option of ‘daring’ friends to beat your score on any game mode. This works in a similar way to Need for Speed Hot Pursuit’s Autolog, but perhaps Ubisoft should make more of it, like Hot Pursuit successfully did, as it seems to be hidden away within the menus at the moment. We did have a few issues with the friends system. For some reason the game decided to separate us from our friends during some games, and we ended up on opposing teams. This wouldn’t have been a problem, were we still able to communicate via our headsets – but the game stopped us from doing so. This made playing with friends a very fractured experience. Hopefully this will be remedied in the final game.

There are a couple of returning game modes from Brotherhood, including Wanted (a Deathmatch mode where players hunt for their target, while avoiding a pursuer) and Manhunt (A team-based mode where teams take it in turns to be the hunter or the hunted in two separate rounds, like a violent game of hide and seek.) There are a couple of new modes that are demoed including Easy Deathmatch, and Artifact Assaulter. Easy Deathmatch is pretty self explanatory, being a simplified game of Wanted, with abilities like trip mines and smoke bombs turned off, which makes for a more level battlefield. Although in this mode there are no clones of your character, which makes hiding impossible – and the game more frantic. The other new addition, Artifact Assaulter, is unique, and is similar to the Plunder mode that appeared in Uncharted 2. Here you have to grab the opposing team’s artifact and take it back to your base, while they are trying to do the same to you. There is a red barrier surrounding your opponents’ artifact, and when you cross it, you become a target. It adds something different to the formula and is a very welcome addition. The only problem we saw with this mode, was that the artifacts appeared in the same area of the map in each game, which meant that you ended up taking the same route over and over again. A bit of variety would be very welcome.

There are some tweaks to the gameplay, with players now able to kill opponents while they are climbing, or pulling them off ledges, which is good fun. Another part of the game that appears to have been tweaked is the speed that your character moves at. It just seems a lot faster to climb up walls, and it makes the game a whole lot slicker as a result. They have also added Contested Kills, where players manage to smack their assassin before they get killed, gaining extra points, and also reducing the points your slayer gains from the kill. This however appeared to be completely random, with players landing a punch even when it appeared that they had no idea you were there, which was a tad annoying. There are a selection of new perks and weapons at your disposal, including a trip mine, which you can lay down and watch explode as your pursuer approaches. Weapons are upgradeable as well, with Credits earned from each game played, and there appears to be a lot more options available to players from what was available in Brotherhood. Taunts are also now available, which give you bonus points, as well as the ability to antagonise your enemy. Clan and personal tags have been added, but there isn’t a great selection on offer, with only limited customisation of your shield crest; but we feel this will be greatly expanded upon when the game finally hits the shelves.

Obviously with the game being set in Constantinople the characters are new, but they don’t seem as varied as Brotherhood’s, with the Doctor and Trickster being sadly missing. Perhaps the final build will have a more varied cast of characters to play as, but we were left slightly disappointed by the bland selection on offer. The two maps available to play are both set in Constantinople, and they seem to have been pared down significantly from Brotherhood’s sprawling vistas. This makes the games more intense, and it moves at a faster pace; although there wasn’t a great deal of variety between the two maps that were demoed.

Overall we were really impressed with the Assassins Creed Revelations beta. Ubisoft have made a lot of tweaks to the Brotherhood template that greatly enhance the already solid gameplay, and we have high hopes that Revelations will be a great alternative to the militaristic march of the FPS.