Assassin’s Creed: Revelations Hands on at E3

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations had a huge presence at this year’s E3 and was the first thing you saw when heading over to Ubisoft booth at the show. Pre-E3, Ubisoft showed off new CGI for the Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, as well as an extensive story trailer that showed off new action packed gameplay from the campaign. Now that Ubisoft has successfully incorporated multiplayer into the franchise, the new multiplayer mode was also on display in lock-step with the single player offering.

As a fan of the franchise who’s been there since the beginning, I’m excited for Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. And this is certainly not because of anything groundbreaking that I’m expecting from the franchise.  Fortunately, I had no preconcieved notions that Assassin’s Creed: Revelations would be taking a step away from the successful gameplay offerings that have been featured in the first three games.

It’s blatantly obvious that Assassin’s Creed: Revelations is going to feel very similar to Brotherhood, and that’s a good thing.  The franchise has consistently stepped up both the gameplay and the story since the franchise originally launched back in 2007.  The promise of explanation is one of Assassin’s Creed: Revelation’s biggest assets, since the games consistently end on cliff-hangers, with Brotherhood having us peering over the deepest of valleys at it’s conclusion.  The game which is said to tie together the stories of the original, has its work cut out for it.  The stories of Altair, and the order of Assassins, Ezio’s role in Revelations, and of course Desmond, have all been promised to be funneled together in what can only be the lead-in to the official third act of the franchise in Assassin’s Creed 3.

In Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Ubisoft introduced a brand new multiplayer component, that for a first offering was nothing short of amazing.  Playing the role of one of many Assassins, each with unique abilities, was something that the true blue fan of the franchise had been waiting on for years.  As good as the multiplayer portion of the game was in Brotherhood, Revelations is taking a much more ambitious approach in it’s gameplay and story delivery.

The mysterious Abstergo organization is front and center in the multiplayer portion of Assassin’s Creed. In Revelations, Ubisoft plans to unveil new information via cut-scenes and new story telling mechanics with their Sophomore attempt at multiplayer in the game.  The idea for the developer, is to deliver bits and pieces of information to the gamer which reward the multiplayer gamer for their accomplishments in the mode.  The mode is set to reveal side story of the Assassin’s Creed Universe, that just won’t be found in the single player campaign.

On a superficial level, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations looked very similar to its predecessors.  Digging in deeper, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations should be the best AC to date from what we saw at E3.  Ubisoft found the magic formula that includes fun gameplay that looks fantastic on the surface, but the real key to this game’s success is going to be the overwhelming amount of explanation of story in Revelations, which we were promised isn’t just early marketing for the game.