Assassin's Creed: Revelation's Review

Aside from this, much of the gameplay feels the same. If anything, combat feels a little bit sloppier. Brotherhood felt very smooth and was a huge improvement over Assassin's Creed II, but with Revelations it doesn't seem to have the same flow any more. Almost everything is the same - you can still instant kill guards if you're on a killing spree. But there just seems to be something that's different. Perhaps it's the types of guard that are present within Revelations - they're a lot trickier to fight against and don't open themselves up for the same artistic fluidity. Or perhaps it's to do with the removal of the combat's rhythmical flow - you can now just spam the attack button.

The climbing is also very familiar, aside from the added hook blade element. But unlike previous games, your climbing skills are never really tested. There are some cool underground caverns to explore, but none of it as particularly challenging on the mind. Instead, these thought-provoking sections have been replaced by chase scenes to cater for those thrill-seeking junkies out there.

Constantinople is a huge city and a great location for an Assassin's Creed title. It features many different elements, and quite a lot of the city works well - it certainly has atmosphere. There are some parts that feel a bit too saturated though and this is a bit of a problem on the whole. Many the city elements are carried over from Brotherhood, but they don't feel as though they fit with the city in the same way.

You've got the Byzantine (Borja) Towers and the city renovation system, but the game just doesn't compel you to dive into this side of the game - it doesn't feel fresh any more. The same also applies to the "Brotherhood" Assassin recruitment, although small additions have been made here. You can now assign certain assassins to run Dens, each of which will have their own mission tree if you talk to them.

Unlike Brotherhood, the Byzantines will also try to reclaim regions that you have taken from them, leading to an odd tower defence simulator. This element of the game is more of an annoyance than anything. It's frustrating to be in the middle of something, only to be summoned somewhere to the other side of the city because you need to do some micro-management. The tower defence simulator is also quite underwhelming. You can assign Assassin Leaders to roof tops, place ranged attackers there and put up barricades, but it's all rather slow and boring. Even when the action gets more hectic, it doesn't feel very engaging.