PC

The Witcher 2: Assassins of kings (Enhanced Edition) – Xbox 360 Trailer

Here is a cinematic trailer for The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (Enhanced Edition) showcasing Geralt and the Kingslayer in beautifully rendered cutscenes on the Xbox 360. The Enhanced Edition comes with three discs, two booklets and a map. If there is special unique content on the discs then they are worth something. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (Enhanced Edition) is a role-playing game developed by CD Projekt Red Studio and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. It releases on the Xbox 360 April 17, 2012. Thanks Gamespot.

Borderlands 2 – Doomsday Trailer

I am no longer worried about Borderlands 2 after watching the Doomsday trailer below. We finally get to meet the four new players in Salvador, Maya, Axton and Zero. Zero in particular intrigues me since he looks like a cyborg ninja and could possibly be a new class. 4 player co-op, more guns, new rides that can fit all four players finally looks like solid additions to Borderlands 2. Play split-screen and claptraps are back. I notice many action set-pieces involving flying machs and huge monsters in the trailer.

The artstyle looks even better than the first game. I notice alote more snow in Borderlands 2 from the trailer. Handsome Jack is the new bad-guy tyrant bent on destroying Pandora. The Borderlands Premiere Club is a Pre-Order Bonus from select retailers. It includes a Golden Key, Vault Hunter’s Relic and Gearbox Gunpack. Borderlands 2 was developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K Games for the PC, Playstation3 and Xbox 360. The game drops on September 18, 2012. Thanks Gamespot.

Far Cry 3 – Gameplay Video

How can you not be impressed with this new Far Cry 3 gameplay footage? The video below shows shootouts, driving and interacting with some of the game’s NPC’s. You also have alote of action set pieces in Far Cry 3 that i didn’t expect to see. The jungle setting looks gorgeous. The character models looks really detailed. You can see how yellow that one guy’s teeth are in the video.

Then again, all Far Cry game’s look great. I love sandbox first-person shooters and this one should deliver the goods. I like the cover system and sliding mechanism. I have many questions about the game’s story but those will have to wait. Far Cry 3 is a sandbox first-person shooter developed by Ubisoft Montral and published by Ubisoft for the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. The release date is September 4, 2012. Thanks GamerSpawn.

Bastion – Review

Published By: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Developed By: Supergiant Games, Genre: Action Role-Playing, Release Date: Jul 20 (Xbox 360), Aug 15, 2011 (PC), Rating: E10+, Systems: PC, Xbox 360.

Presentation: Led by narrator Logan Cunningham Bastion’s presentation oozes with style and substance. For this Gamer Blog article i played Bastion on PC via Steam. The only modifications i did to the game was raise the resolution up to 1680 x 1050 and anti aliasing to 4x. The game ran great. I played Bastion on normal difficulty for the review with a gamepad. The Xbox 360 gamepad worked wonderfully for this game. Bastion’s quality is throughout. You can pick any aspect of it whether its visuals, sound design, story, gameplay and content, Bastion is solid from top to bottom. My entire experience was flawless. No bugs, no glitches no freezes. The game ran great throughout its entirety. The atmosphere of Bastion is cool. Its a extremely cool game to play. I actually felt cool  playing it.

Story: Bastion stars “The Kid” as the narrator calls him. The Kid has white hair and swings a Cael Hammer and shoots with a Fang Repeater. The world was recently rocked by a science experiment gone horribly wrong. That experiement was called the Calamity and it wiped out practically all man kind. The Kid with the help of Rucks (the narrator) must hunt down Cores and Shards to build Bastion. Bastion is a special land that holds special powers along with many secrets including a way to reverse and prevent the Calamity from ever happening. Along the way The Kid rescues survivors in Zulf and Zia. Zulf ends up betraying The Kid and Rucks and kidnaps Zia. Zulf learns the truth of the treachery behind the Calamity after reading a rare diary. Zulf unites his people against The Kid which is another story angle in Bastion.

Visuals: The graphics in Bastion’s three quarters top down gameplay view setting popped out of my screen. The use of colors and imaginative art design was diverse and impressive. The cutscenes and character designs told a story within themselves. When you visit the Skyway and venture out into the many stages you witness great as well diverse artwork on each stage. The texture work and anti aliasing really shined on my PC. Bastion truly is a goodlooking little arcade game.

Sound: The proactive/reactive narrating done by Logan Cunningham was superb and added a cool vibe to Bastion’s already cool presentation. The music throughout was supurb. There was not a single moment during my plathrough where i wanted to turn the volume down. The music coupled with the reactive voice narrating gave Bastion a great atmosphere while fighting Gasfellas and Scumbags.

Gameplay: Bastion’s gameplay is standard action-RPG fare. You hack’ n slash, roll to evade, use range weapons and melee weapons to get the job done. You collect XP for defeating enemies and level bosses. Much of Bastion’s gameplay  is centered around rebuilding specialty shops within Bastion. As you build the Bastion you can unlock the Forge where you can upgrade weapons. The Distillery lets you assign a special ability to a slot. You unlock slots as you level up. You can move and switch special abilities anytime when your in the Distillery. The Arsenal lets you choose a long range and melee weapon. It also lets you assign special attacks in one slot that consumes Black Tonics. Special attacks come in the form of Hand Grenades, Whirl Wind and Mirror Shield.

You can build a Shrine in Bastion which pays respect to the Gods. But what is cool about the Shrine is that as you collect idols of Gods while out hunting for Cores and Shards. You can bring those back and set them in the Shrine to activate gameplay modifiers. Think of Halo Skulls. You can activate a God Idol and the entire gameplay of Bastion will slightly change in some aspect making it more difficult. The first idol i collected was the Pyth bull. When you build the Lost and Found in Bastion its  basically a general store. Here you can buy materials to modify all of your weapons.

You can also purchase Mementos and Spirits at the Lost and Found. The currency in Bastion are fragments. They are little blue shards that appear when you defeat enemies. You can also destroy objects and parts of the environment to get fragments as well. The Bastion is the main hub in this game clearly. Over time as you rebuild it and ask Rucks, Zulf and Zia questions about items, you add them to Bastion. Not only as decorations but as potential gameplay sequences like Zulf’s pipe for example. You can add a baby Squirt a baby Ankle Gator, a mailbox and Pyth statues.

Combat in Bastion is great. Countering, blocking and evading just adds the iceing on Bastion’s gameplay cake. Weapons i collected in Bastion: Cael Hammer, Fang Repeater, Breaker’s Bow, War Machete, Rusty Musket, Duel Pistols, Army Carbine, Galleon Mortar and Fire Bellows. But wait! The most powerful and my favorite weapons come at or near the end of the game in the Calamity Cannon and Battering Ram. The Battering Ram is such a powerful weapon that you have to choose to help Zulf and leave the weopon or keep the weapon and leave Zulf behind. I left Zulf behind. On a side note there are a few times near the end of Bastion where you have to make gameplay decisions. What’s most important is that the gameplay in Bastion felt visceral. Its fun and addicting. The enemies are diverse and bosses like Queen Ann provided challenge.

Replayability: Bastion’s stellar campaign lasts a good five hours. After you beat the game you can play New Game Plus and Score Attack Mode. You can also activate idols in the Shrine for more variety. If you’re an achievement hunter you can clean up on those as well. Bastion has no co-op or multiplayer which it doesn’t need since the game is primo as is.

Final Verdict: Bastion is a great action-RPG thats big but is wrapped up in a small arcade package. I tried to nitpick this game to see if it had many glaring faults, it doesn’t. Its as quality as quality gets in regards to videogames. Thanks for reading.

8.5/10

Far Cry 3 – Stranded Trailer

Who’s hyped for Far Cry 3?  I admit i am. After beating Far Cry 2 a few years ago and seeing the direction Far Cry 3 will be taking i’m pretty psyched for number three. The open world jungle exploring first-person shooter is back along with Far Cry’s stellar visuals. The trailer below is a documentary style cutscene showing the opening moments of Far Cry 3′s protagonist and his two friends.

If you seen the E3 2011 video you will immediately recognize the psychopath in the trailer. He begs the protagonist’s friend to shoot him. At which time the the psycho kills his friend and the protagonist escapes only to be stranded. Far Cry 3 is developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft for the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Its release date is TBA. Thanks Gamerspwn.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Review

Published By: Bethesda Softworks, Developed By: Bethesda Game Studios, Genre: Role-Playing, Release Date: November 11, Rating: M, Systems: PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Price: $59.99

SPOILERS THROUGHOUT

Presentation: You can’t review The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim fairly without talking about its perfomance issues, bugs and glitches. I did play Skyrim on my Playstation 3 for this particular Gamer Blog review article. To say Skyrim is an ambitious game is an understatement. The game is visually stunning and its scale is equally as impressive. Skyrim is an open world game with day and nightime cycles. Animals of Skyrim such as deer, mammoths, elks, trolls and walruses inhabitant the northern mountain land of Tamriel. With Skyrim’s ambitious beautiful huge world came many glitches, bugs, freezes and sometimes hilarious physic effects.

During my playthrough i encountered bandits that float in midair and walk without moving. Anoter glitch happened when i called and captured the dragon Odahviing in Dragonsreach. The trap magically pops up and Odahviing starts dancing (looks like he was dancing). Anyways, i talked to the guard to let the dragon go and in which time the dragon attacks and kills everybody in Dragonsreach. The second time i played the scene Odahviing ends up taking me to Skuldafn on his back. Another glitch happened when i attacked a giant and he hit me so hard i almost flew into orbit.

The latter glitch was actually pretty funny and omg worthy. The game breaking glitches come in the form of freezes and one in particular really really upset me. The final battle with Alduin in Sovngarde. As i took the last of Alduin’s life the game frooze. Keep in mind this was my first time fighting him so i was very upset. How can a game lock-up as you defeat the final boss? It was a coincidence i know but very bad timing on Skyrim’s part.

Apart from the performance issues Skyrim pretty much nails all aspects of presentation. The atmosphere is organic and brimming with detail. The orchestra score is amazing and the visuals are topnotch and were very impressive for an open world game with so much going on. The menus had a nice navigation system for quick access to magics, weapons and anything else for that matter. For the amount of content and detail of each object in Skyrim. For a game that is so layered with options and content i never felt overwhelmed or confused the entire playthrough. Skyrim is ergonomically built for gamers.

Story: The story of Skyrim puts you in the shoes of the Dragonborn who is the one true soul who can defeat the eldest and most powerful dragon in existence “World Eater” known as Alduin. In the beginning of the game Dragonborn was awaiting execution till Alduin showed up which sets off a chain of events all over Skyrim. Alduin immediately started resurrecting dragons to fight along side him. To defeat Alduin Dragonborn has to learn the way of the Voice which is called Shouts. In Skyrim dragons speak through powerful thu’ums which can have all types of  powerful effects. With the help of the Greybeards and Paarthurnax (dragon) on High Hrothgar the Dragonborn learns the way of the voice and Alduin’s source of power and why he’s in Skyrim.

The reason Alduin is in Skyrim was due to him being cast while in the past with an Elder Scroll. Many years ago Skyrim’s greatest heroes Haken One-Eye, Felldir the Great and Germliaith Golden-Hilt battled Alduin. The problem is the three of them couldn’t actually kill Alduin so Felldir the Great banished Alduin to the future which is Dragonborn’s time in Skyrim. You actually do get to fight Alduin in Dragonborn’s time once before going back into time to fight him alongside the three great heroes in Sovngarde. With the help of the Dragonborn’s Dragenrend shout the four of them were  finally able to kill Alduin. When i look back on Skyrim’s story i think its average. You could tell very early what the plot of the game might be about.

The details of Skyrim’s story are drip-fed through moments with NPCs such as Septimus, Paarthurnax and Esbern. Asides from the main story of killing a powerful dragon you have a raging war going on between Ufrec Stprmcloak (Stormcloaks) and General Talius (Legion). Before being able to use Dragansreach to trap Odahviing you must get a treaty done with the two warring factions on High Hrothgar with the Graybeards. My personal opinion is that the best stories i experienced came in the form of random NPC encounters and just playing the game. There are so many natural and memorable moments to be had in Skyrim’s world.

Visuals: Skyrim features a gorgeous world littered with sweeping mountains, forests, caves, waterfalls and even antarctic like settings. Its a vast and very detailed world. Even the thousands of objects you find each have detail you’d never expect. The NPCs are nicely detailed. The wildlife in Skyrim such as Frost Spiders, Ice Trolls and Mammoths all featured nice texture work and imaginative design. The design of some enmies such as the Mechanical Guardians showed off the diversity in Skyrims graphics engine. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a great looking open world game.

Skyrim isn’t perfect however nothing is. I can nitpick how the ground textures look blurry at times but why? The overall game is gorgeous and organic.  The lighting and fog effects while in dungeons and caves created a thick atmosphere as you fight Draugrs, bears or trolls. The special effects from shock, flame magics and dragon shouts were always fun to look at. I also enjoyed the brutal melee finishers. Even the third person viewpoint finally looks good in a Elder Scrolls game. I would switch to third person many times on foot when exploring Skyrim. I also enjoyed riding my horse around and looking at the gorgeous mountain vistas from time to time.

Sound: The Nordic themed orchestra music reminded me of Conan when i was a kid. Its really amazing stuff. When dragons attack the music oftentimes shifts from its calm tranquil melody into a more thunderous beats that got my heart pumping. The music while in castles and villages was atmospheric as well. The sound effects of the dragons were impressive. Many of the voice actors did a fabulous job. I really enjoyed listening to Paarthurnax speak.

Gameplay: Skyrim at its essence is a Role-Playing game. Sure you earn XP for doing practically everything in Skyrim from lockpicking to enchanting your weapon. There are so many areas and stations to hone and level up your abilities. You can use alchemy labs to create potions. Use workbenches for weapon smithing that will improve your weapons and armor. Use cooking pots to create new foods that improve your stamina and health even further. Reading books can open new quests and level up skills. In Skyrim you level up accordingly. What i mean by that is take by Redguard class build for example. For much of the game i used a enchanted melee weapon in my right hand and destruction magic in my left.

My one-hand melee and destruction magic skills ended up being the most advanced skills in the game. For the most part whenever i used a new skill albeit restoration magic, bows or conjuration magic they would level up automatically over time. You do of-course have the ability to choose perks and special skills as your entire class build levels up in Skyrim. You can pick one attribute for Health, Stamina and Magika. You then pick one perk point to unlock a special ability whether its for combat, armor, magic etc. The latter takes place on a nice looking constellation screen that was easily navigate and shows you exactly what skill you unlock does.

You can assign all food,  magics, shouts, potions and scrolls to a quick access menu for use in-battle. Skyrim has a great amount of flexibilty regarding its combat. I duel wielded magics and weapons. I used a sheild in left hand and melee weapon in right. I used a bow. You can upgrade your skills to make duel wielding magics and weapons much more powerful. The problem was never with the diversity and content of Skyrim’s combat.

The problem is with the combat itself. Its just not visceral or engaging and for the most part its not challenging. The only challenge if you can call it that was the boss fight with Nahkriin. The highlight of Skyrim’s combat should of been dragon battles. They weren’t because they weren’t challenging. Dragons just flew around in circles depending if you have Draganrend you could knock them down and just beat them to a pulp. The attack patterns of each dragon was virtually identical and predictable.

Replayability: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim took me 49 hours to complete. For the most part that was with a few side quests completed but mostly the 18 main quests. As far as replay value take your pick. You can play the game with different race build or continue playing in Skyrim’s sandbox after you killed Alduin. The goreous world of Skyrim is charming enough to keep you playing long after you completed the main story.

Final Verdict: Skyrim is a great Role-Playing game make no mistake. Its big, ambitious and filled an unbelievable amount of content. But like with many ambitious games there are problems. those being bugs, freezes and glitches.

8.5/10

Mass Effect 3 – Demo Impressions

*SPOILERS* will be present throughout this article. (Before i begin i want to thank Moonwalker1982 over at the Gametrailers forum for alerting me of the early access demo for Mass Effect 3. If you’re wondering you can  try and win the demo here. Mass Effect 3 is a role-playing game developed by Bioware and published by Electronic Arts. It releases March 8, 2012 for the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. So how was the demo. Its Mass Effect albeit a different Mass Effect. If your ecpecting this game to play exactly like Mass Effect 2 your going to be sightly disappointed.

The title screen featured menus of  Single Player demo, Multiplayer, Extras and Quit Demo. The Multiplayer is locked as of  February 11, 2012. From what i understand there will be a way to attain an early pass to the multiplayer  demo. I would stay connected to that Bioware facebook fan page link if your interested. Next i jumped into Single Player Demo to get this party started. I had to pick between Male or Female for my Commander Shepard.

Choose Your Experience

In Mass Effect 3 you have the option to play through the entire story campaign in three different ways.

Action: With Action the game moves faster. You jump right into the action as Shepard. Combat difficulty is adjustable and all conversations play out as cutscenes. I stayed away from the Action mode. However i might try it later.

Story: You customize your character. Story mode tones down the combat of Mass Effect 3 in favor of experiencing and controlling the interactive story. I also stayed away from this mode.

Role-Playing: For purposes of this article i choose this mode to do my demo playthrough. Role- Playing mode is classic Mass Effect mode in a nutshell. Its the most traditional mode there is to play Mass Effect 3.

After picking my gamemode (Role-Playing) i had to customize Commander Shepard. You know the routine here, you create a name and change his or her looks accordingly. Next you have to pick Classes.

Classes/Super-Powers

There are six default classes in Mass Effect 3 which includes: Soldier, Infiltrator, Vanguard, Sentinel, Adept and Engineer.

Soldier: Adrenalin Rush, Concusive Shot, Frag Grenade, Incindiary Ammo, Disrupter Ammo and Cryo Ammo.

Infiltrator: Disrupter Ammo, Cryo Ammo, Incinerate,, Tactical Cloak, Sticky Grenade and Sabatage.

Vanguard: Incendiary Ammo, Cryo Ammo, Biotic Charge, Nova, Shockwave and Pull.

Sentinel: Throw, Warp, Lift Grenade, Tech Armor, Overload and Cryoblast.

Adept: Warp, Throw, Shock Wave, Singularity, Pull and Cluster Grenade.

Engineer: Incinerate, Overload, Cryo Blast, Combat Drone, Sabotage and Sentry Turret.

I’m sure you caught a few of the new  abilities and gadgets above like Nova and Lift Grenades. Whats more important is the Class you feel most comfortable with. I picked the Vanguard for its high risk reward style of gameplay. Plus i beat Mass Effect 2 on its hardest difficulty as Vanguard my first try so that helped. I also wanted to check out Nova but to no avail. Every new ability was locked in the demo.

After you choose your Class you then proceed through a few Psychological Profile questions. For these i choose Earthborn and Kaiden Alenko. You had to pick between Ashley, Kaiden and “Numerous” who died from previous games. So i picked Kaiden as the soldier that died. It reflected immediately on the Earth portion of the demo as you see Ashley again. For Service History i picked War Hero. Now its time to play the game.

Gameplay Sequance  1: The cutscene starts off with views of earth and text describing the human’s role in the galaxy. The scene shifts to Shepard who is on Earth and been relieved of his duty. Admiral Andersen escorts Shepard to a Defense Councel meeting, you see Ashley along the way.  Shepard and Anderson witness the Reaper attack up close and personal at the meeting. During the attack most of the councel was killed except for Shepard and Anderson. The two soldiers make there way out of the huge structure to witness the attack first hand.

You can see a giant Dreanought attacking buildings like it was ripped out of War of the Worlds. You see chaos as Reaver ships drops hordes of husks down. The scene looked impressive visually. Next a tutorial sequence happens. You learn how to sprint and jump with Shepard. I absolutely hate the sprint animations of Shepard in Mass Effect 3. Asides from maneuvers, you learn how to take cover and shoot enemies called Cannibals. Cannibals sorta look like Husks except they shoot back. Much of the Earth demo is about Shepard reaching the Normandy in time to call for help at the Citadel. As you make your way through the level (which isn’t big) you meet a kid who is hiding from the chaos. The kid dissapears and after some item looting and scavenging you learn the Heavy Melee attack.

Shepard charges up his biotic fist and the camera zooms back then rushes forward as Shepard melees. it looks pretty awesome. You find a radio near a crash site and radio the Normandy to pick you up. Shepard leaves but Anderson stays in hopes of defending earth. Commander Shepard gets reinstated right before the Normandy leaves. The first sequence of the demo ends. There was a few Uncharted and Michael Bay moments in that first sequence that i didn’t really like and didn’t seem “Mass Effect” at all. There were many cutscenes and some dialog conversation trees but not many.

Gameplay Sequence 2: The second sequence of the demo has Shepard paired up with Wrex in search of rescuing a female Krogan captured on Mordin Solus’s Salarian home world. Also along for the ride is Liara and Garrus. Since you have a full team at this point i’ll list the guns from this section of the demo.

Guns: M-22 Eviscerator, M-9 Tempest, M-3 Predator 1, M8-Avenger 1 and M-92 Mantis 1.

During this sequence there is much more gameplay going on. As your trying to release the female Krogan your team is ambushed by Cerberus agents. Lots of gunfights while using your wheels came into play here. As far as using your team’s biotics, switching weapons etc its pretty much the same. What has changed is the maneuvering. You can roll side to side while in cover. I think it feels weird personally Mass Effect always had a grounded feel to its characters movements. Now you can just roll around real fast and at any direction. The shooting doesn’t feel as visceral as Mass Effect 2.

The controls while in cover feel more clunky and not as grounded as Mass Effect 2. The gameplay feels a tad bit different all over judging from the demo. As i made my way towards the end of the level you have to fight a huge human operated mech. I used the shotgun with incendiary rounds to take him out. As far as AI goes that part remains the same and was solid. You meet up with Wrex on the ship where he tries to be romantic with the female Krogan but fails as she rips the shotgun from him and shoot two Cerburus agents before they could kill her. The demo ends shortly after.

Other Stuff: the demo is pretty long maybe 40 minutes depending on your gamemode. I was able to reach level 14 after defeating the mech. Its Mass Effect but its different. I personally thought the demo was sorta a letdown because the “feel” of the gameplay is different. I don’t really care about the Uncharted and Michael Bay cinematics but when you start changing the gameplay feel your going down a slippery slope. Thanks for reading.

Sleeping Dogs – Cinematic Announcement Trailer

Sleeping Dogs is the new name thats been given to True Crime: Hong Kong.  Sleeping Dog puts you in the shoes of  undercover cop Wei Shen. Wei Shen will have his hands full as he infiltrates one of the biggest Chinese Triad Gangs in Hong Kong. The open world nature of Sleeping Dogs and the fact it takes place in Hong Kong has my interest piqued. As far as the trailer goes it reminded me of some of Chow Yun Fat’s gun-ballet movies he did back in the “80′s”.

There is no gameplay in the trailer below which blows but the live-action trailer gave me a good visual as to what kind of missions you will be pulling off for the Triad. The entire notion of being an undercover cop also adds that hardboiled vibe to the game. Sleeping Dogs is developed by United Front Games and published by Square Enix for the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. It releases querter 4 of 2012. Thanks sleepingdogsgame.

Natural Selection 2 – Trailer

Natural Selection is a first person sci-fi action game centered around humans versus aliens. The game is an updated version of the Half-Life mod game Natural Selection and will be available through Steam for purchase. The game doesn’t look bad from a visual standpoint showcasing good lighting and imaginative alien worlds among its settings. The humans use an assortment of weapons including pistols, flame throwers, assault rifles and melee weapons ( axes).

The humans also have jetpacks (pretty cool huh). On the other side of the fence you have the monsters/aliens who come in different shapes and sizes and look to have have an assortment of special attacks. The action looks fast pace judging from the trailer. Natural Selection 2 is developed and published by Unknown Worlds Entertainment for the PC. The release date is TBA. Thanks MachinimaTrailer.

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations – Review

Published By: Ubisoft, Developed By: Ubisoft Montreal, Genre: Action/Adventure, Release Date: Nov 15/29 2011, Rating: M, Systems: PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360.

Presentation: Assassin’s Creed: Revelations makes an attempt at what every good fourth game in a series should do. It added new gameplay elements, combat elements and spiced up its action with more  set pieces. Don’t worry the open world platforming of Assassin’s Creed is still intact and still the best gameplay this game has to offer. When examing the entire presentation of Assassin’s Creed: Revelation a couple of things stood out from previous games. The flow and structure of main missions regarding locating the Masyaf keys was actually fun. Its not your typical dungeon crawling exploration like in past games. There are more action set pieces and diversity when locating the keys.  Whether they are puzzle based or tracking down a group of Templars on a boat the action was ramped up.

The settings are different, no more Italy hello 15th century Constantinople. Constantinople made a very nice change of pace from previous Assassin’s Creed games. Its as if i was transported back in time running around the legendary The Grand Bazaar market while tracking down would be Templars. Not all is good with Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. I seen quite a few NPC glitches in-game coming from groups of patrolling Templar soldiers mostly. Most of the time they either walk into walls uncontrollably or stutter/vibrate so fast you wonder if they are going to blow up. Combat and platforming has been diversified with the addition of the hookblade weapon Ezio carries.

Story: Considering this is the fourth Assassin’s Creed game i was pleasantly surprised at how good the story was. The character development of Altair and Ezio as they bid farwell to the series was handled well. You almost even feel a little sad to see them go. As far as the main plot of Revelations goes its mostly a story of Ezio finding secret keys left behind by Altair. The keys are called Masyaf keys and with the help of Ezio’s new love interest Sophia, he is able to track down all six. The Masyaf keys opens a secret library that holds the Apple of Eden.

Ezio near the end of the game realizes he was a conduit to relay a message to Miles Desmond. Desmond soon gets a vision of a future-like utopian world being destroyed by forces unknown. Desmond Wakes up to his father and the other assassins after being in a coma the entire game. He says, “I know what we need to do”. He shows his arm and the Apple of Eden has activated something in his DNA. It makes a better cliffhanger story-wise compared to Brotherhood. Most of the characters in Assassin’s Creed: Revelations were fleshed out due to great voice acting and writing. You even see a different side of Ezio as he dresses up as a performer singing at a party to distract crowd goers. Whether it was Sophia, Altair or Yusef they were all believable characters.

This is Assassin’s Creed: Revelations right? So where is the whole “Revelations” tied into this game? Everytime Ezio finds and decripts a Masyaf key you are transported back in time to a gameplay sequence telling Altair’s story. Altair’s story takes place over his entire life which was really cool to see. You relive Altair when he was in his 20′s, 62, 82 and then 92 years old. Altair spent his entire life protecting the assassin’s creed and held the Apple of Eden from the world for many years. Altair’s journey is another reason why i enjoyed Assassin’s Creed: Revelation’s story so much. It added a deep layer to Ezio’s journey of enlightment.

Visuals: The engine showed its age alote during my playthrough. However the settings of Constantinople and Cappadocia brought new flavor to the art department. The texture work was ok for stone structures and rocks. The lighting was decent as well. There where a few wow moments pertaining to action set pieces. The in-game cutscenes featuring some of the character’s faces was clearly subpar from a visual standpoint. I must admit i never got tired of exploring the vast city of Constaninople, it was gorgeous and open city featuring many great views. So all in all i would say great art but average textures.

Sound: The orchestra did a great job. Then again all Assassin Creed games feature great music and this one was no different. Voice acting and writing was superb throughout as well. I enjoyed how the music would ramp up and slow down in-game accordingly.

Gameplay: You can platform, use Eagle Sense, train and recruit assassins. You can buy real estate and earn money. You can send assassins on missions and rank them up. What Assassin’s Creed has been good at gameplay-wise returned in Revelations. Since this is the fourth game there were quite a few big additions to gameplay. You can  join assassins on missions which was fun at times. Missions vary from finding traiters to snatch and grab missions. Finding and rescuing political prisoners etc. Most of the classic random missions are also available. Another new feature is that Ezio can be attacked from anybody out of the blue. You can also reverse your secret attacker’s attack and kill him.

Bomb making while new and seemingly wanting to appear important from all of the various ingredients and combos isn’t really a “must” gameplay factor. There are times when you will need to use bombs but they are few and far between. Bombs come in three types of pouches Lethal, Tactical and Diversion. You can pick various shells, gunpowder and special ingrediants to create practically a hundred different bombs. Some bombs kill, some explode blood on enemies causing panic and confusion and some are just smoke bombs. You can contruct bombs practially all over the game even in restricted mission areas where bomb making stations are present. You can always buy ingredients from black market venders for bomb making parts. Like i said, for a deep system for making bombs its just not that important in the grand scheme of gameplay.

The hookblade is the new main weapon of Ezio in Revelations. Not only can you traverse higher and slide across zip-lines but also use it in combat. You can throw enemies with the hookblade which is a nice combat mechanic. It takes a little getting used to but once i did i welcomed the hookblade entirely. New collectibles came in the form of Animus Data Fragments that unlocks a gameplay sequence for Desmond on Animus Island called “Desmond’s Journey”. Desmond’s Journey is a first-person Portal-type game where you have to listen to voice narration of Desmond’s past as you change and place blocks to navigate a matrix like room. I didin’t like it, it seemed pigeonholed in and just wasn’t fun in my opinion.

And last but not least we have Den Defense. Whenever you kill a Templar Captain you gain a Assassin’s Den in its place by lighting the fire tower. Most times the Templars will attack your Assassin’s Den in retaliation and Den Defense ensues. To make a long story short Den Defense is a tower defense game inside Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. Although wonky i actually thought they were fun and a good change up from the normal gameplay. In Den Defense you are on rooftops overlooking streets where mindless templars will run in trying to knock down the Assassin Den’s door. Your job is to assign units and stop the attack by any means neccesary.

Pressing R2 (on DS3) you can bring up the unit wheel and pick units like Crossbow Man or Assassin Leader and put them on rooftops. Assassin Leader (units) raise morale of soldiers near them. As you gain more money you can unlock more rooftops and more ground level and place more units accordingly. Placing Barricades on the street slows down the attackers. What i did was place mostly Riflemen on rooftops and Cannons and Barricades on the street. I always had plenty of Assassin Leaders around my units on rooftops. If you manage to stop the attack your scored after on such stats as Assassins Called, Assassins Lost, Duration etc.

Replayability: The single player story campaign lasted me just over 14 hours. There are plenty of collectibles to collect for the achievement/trophy hunters. Multiplayer is back with some new gamemodes and a tie-in story featuring Templar training at Abstergo. The multiplayer does have a light story to it as told through voiced cutscenes. As you level up you will see more cutscenes detailing more of the Templar’s secrets. You can customize your character in a bunch  looks and abilities.

Some perks and abilities for more adnvanced players kinda take the steam out of newer gamers sails. I personally like Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch. They do have a capture the treasure type gamemode as well. More so than anything the multiplayer is niche and fun at times. Its about stealth and blending in using knives, no guns. And as far as replay value goes with the map packs and DLC being pushed out i say Assassin’s Creed: Revelations has solid replay value.

Final Verdict: Hey its the fourth game in the series so some things seemed worn out. I must say the additions of the hookblade, bomb crafting and den defense really spiced up the gameplay. I didn’t like Desmond’s Journy side missions but enjoyed the Masyaf key missions. The story was the most surprising aspect and just might be the best in the series. Farewell Enzio and Altair, it was fun while it lasted.

8/10