Assassin's Creed: Revelations Multiplayer Preview
Assassin's Creed: Revelations is a game with a bit of an identity crisis. The first game was totally fresh, a new approach to environment navigation that pioneered the series' concept of being hidden in plain sight, rewarding players that kept to the roofs or blended in with the crowd. The second took this raw grain of brilliance and nursed it to flower, its fruit being a totally different setting and main character to propel the increasingly complex story of deuteragonist Desmond Miles forward. Brotherhood kept to the streets of a fractured Italy but its focus was on building a secret society, amping up the action and further varying the play structure.
But what does Revelations have? Same (now) old Ezio, same (now less) old Italy, plus a return to Constantinople last seen in the first Assassin's Creed. What's new? What's exciting about this iteration in a franchise that has seemingly prided itself on showing the player something they've never seen? Ubisoft apparently didn't want to reveal that at Eurogamer Expo, instead showing just the multiplayer portion of the upcoming game.
Which is largely unchanged from last year's model. A wide game where the stakes are life and death, plugging into the complex stealth mechanics seen from the second AC onwards and bringing them to the online realm. Framed in the virtual reality world of Italia created by a modified Animus residing at the Abstergo headquarters, players must either avoid assassins by blending in with other passers by or take the fight to those in hiding, sneaking up upon unsuspecting foes. An awareness meter is conferred upon attackers giving a rough indication of where those running are stowed away, gradually growing larger when approaching their target. A keen eye is still required to notice when your chosen opponent does something to distinguish them from the pack of identical NPCs.
When eluding aggressors the pay off is long in coming but immense when it arrives. Keeping a low profile may not sound exciting, yet the tension that builds – even amongst the distraction of a busy convention full of noise and light – is profound. Moving from crowd to crowd, haystack to rooftop under this open cover keeps your team's score racking up, remaining calm and collected under intense pressure a significant challenge.
Revelations' engine has been improved certainly, though not particularly significantly. The frame rate is now locked to a smooth pace after the odd dips that previous entries had experienced, textures feel just as tangible, light blooms just as convincingly, character and world design is still gorgeous. The brief video leading into the session I experienced was the only major improvement, particularly in facial animation.
It would appear from this introductory animated sequence that this online component of the game may have a little more weight in terms of how it will affect the main narrative found within the Assassin's Creed mythos. Warren Vidic, one of the chief scientists at Abstergo and a member of the Templar Order, leans over the Animus upon which you are lying and promises that - should your training be successful - unimaginable secrets about the world will be revealed to you. As Vidic is one of the primary antagonists of the series and well informed of the Templar's activities, it's more than possible that through the acquisition of levels in the multiplayer mode, more details of the AC universe will be revealed.
Of course it could be an intro and nothing more, which raises a rather pertinent question: why were Ubisoft not showing more of the story itself? Arguably this is the most important single component of the series to date, to not highlight why fans should be getting excited for this instalment is disconcerting. For those that really enjoyed the multiplayer, this is more of the same, look for it later this year.
