Mission design is sharper in this iteration, though the whole thing is a lot shorter. There is only one quest for the Factions. Romany, Mercenaries and Thieves litter the city, but their quest line is very short. To offset this there are Master Assassin quests that you can trigger when your assassins are a certain level, these play out from 10th and 14th level so that there is a sense of reward to the progression of your low level assassin to the rank of master. There are also a few interesting gameplay mechanics that make a debut alongside the regular missions, which are also pretty well designed and the storyline is worth following to its ultimate conclusion.

There aren’t quite enough new mechanics and so on in this instalment to really make it shine above Brotherhood though, which was a major step forwards for the franchise...and a much longer game. It is a fitting send off for both Altair and Ezio though and that’s worth the price of the single player admission at least.

Graphics

This is definitely a good looking game, it’s beautiful in places and there is no pop-in at all across a huge sprawling city. Constantinople looks truly fantastic here and the sense of wonder in the architecture has been evoked in every single brick and gilded rooftop. There is some repetition in terms of NPC character models and faces, but I always thought of this as a trick of the Animus anyways so it doesn’t really spoil things for me at all. It is definitely the best looking Assassin’s Creed game to date. The camera has finally been fixed too so it always points at Ezio and doesn’t tend to wander off in a combat, or at least it didn’t through the whole 12 hour playthrough.

Animations

Using a new animation system for faces (Mocam) and body movement, these are some really well done motion capture animations in terms of character interaction in the various cut-scenes and so forth. It shows mostly in the face though, with a slight disconnect from the actual body animation, it’s only a minor niggle in an otherwise great system.

Physics

The physics in the game seem to be similar to that from Brotherhood, though with the added effects from explosive based bombs. In terms of combat physics the characters interact well and there are some great physical battle moves. Impacts and crowd physics are also spot on with the crowd being a very viable way to cause trouble for guards and the player in chases.

AI

Assassin’s Creed 2 and Brotherhood set some nice standards for the combat AI and traversal AI. In Revelations they have smoothed this system a lot more and it allows for better battles and even more impressive chases.

Sound

A high quality soundscape has been created for the game, with the city coming to life day and night with vibrant and varied audio cues. The combat sounds are great with the clash of sword and the crack of guns from the various Ottoman and Byzantine enemies.

Music

The soundtrack to Revelations is one that evokes the right themes and emotions, it is beautifully moving in places and suitably stirring in others. This is a soundtrack that fits the superb set-pieces gorgeously and there is one part later on near the end of the game that truly had an emotional grip on the senses. It matches perfectly and you’ll know it when you get there...

Voice

The voice performances in this iteration of the franchise are some of the best yet, with Ezio on top form and Nolan North reprising his role as Desmond. The rest of the cast do a good enough job and there are some really great new characters with excellent performances.