Assassin's Creed: Revelations

If you're an avid fan and follower of the Creed, you're sure to find plenty to please you but for those longing for answers and a step further for the series will find one step forward, two back, along with a thick fog covering up the path ahead.

Revelations does add extra features to the series' existing template of great environments, atmosphere and visual flair propping up weak gameplay mechanics, which helps offset the effect of diminishing returns. Players who didn't mind the limited platforming and simple combat of the previous games will likely come back for more. However, we're hoping for a more radical overhaul and refocusing of the series by the time the next instalment arrives.

It's a shame the additions to Assassin's Creed: Revelations' single player aren't as impactful as before. Maybe it was inevitable considering the yearly release cycle, but the majority of its improvements are incremental at best, while the rest are disappointingly substandard.

The thrilling gameplay that attracts fans is still here, although it's a bit obscured by too many mini-games that are less fun than or relevant to the core experience. The story is finally ended but we're still left wondering what's next for Desmond. Multiplayer is, as expected, awesome.

It could have been great as a DLC for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, but as a standalone game it doesn't work that well.

It cannot be said enough that underneath all the padding remains that same excellent stealth assassination gameplay. Brotherhood's multiplayer returns largely unharried, and fans enamoured with the series will certainly be able to see through the surplus soft tissue to appreciate the singleplayer's unquestionable inner beauty. The rest will rightly conclude that Assassin's Creed: Revelations is the most disappointing entry in a spectacular series.

If you're a dedicated fan and want more of the series, you'll have fun despite being disappointed at the lack of exposition. As for the casual players, there are unfortunately very few reasons to check this out.

The elements added to Assassin's Creed: Revelations do make it feel like a more different and occasionally surprising experience compared to Brotherhood, which felt like an expansion pack. But at its core, we're still playing the same game for the third time.

Revelations very much feels to me like a team checking off items from a list. Ezio, Altair, and Desmond are here; there's parkour; there's combat; there's a bad guy, eventually; there are puzzles; there's a big beautiful world to explore. The problem is, they never seem to cohere into a single experience, and the kind of passion and quality that has made this series so good in the past is missing.

Despite the faults though, Revelations remains an intriguing proposition because of gaming's finest Italian hero after that plumber in dungarees. Seriously, if there was an Oscar for game characters Ezio would walk it more often than not. If you're less entranced by Mr Auditore then Revelations is a more difficult sale.

At its core, this is the Assassin's Creed we've grown to love in recent years, and it still serves as a pretty good time sink -- plus, it's a necessary bridge to next year's already-announced follow-up. But obligation shouldn't be the primary reason to play something, and sadly, that's too often the case in this humdrum campaign.

More than any other episode of the series, Revelations shows the limits of its gameplay - it is high time to revise. Yet Constantinople is a beautiful playground, full of things to do. The story provides some surprises and takes us into a pleasant adventure. All this is in addition to supporting a fully fleshed out multiplayer...But in the end it left a bitter taste left in my mouth.

So, for the first time, a new Assassin's Creed game is worse than its predecessor, the first time the short development period has had a noticeable impact on the game's quality. It's a game of nearlies and might-have-beens: summed up by the hookblade, a supposedly key new feature which in practice merely extends Ezio's reach slightly, and allows him to glide down the occasional zipline.

Where Brotherhood enhanced the thrill of being Ezio Auditore, Revelations distracts from it. Ezio may look old, but it's the series itself that really shows its age.

Revelations' least noisy moments are its purest, and in the hot and crowded Constantinople, they feel few and far between.

Not bad if you're looking for exactly what Brotherhood brought us and still a beautiful living world, but a lack of news, strained story and repetitive missions lowers the experience.

Building on the foundation of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Revelations had a fantastic opportunity. Sadly it is wasted on annoying mini games and uninspired escort missions.