Assassin’s Creed: Revelations Preview [X’11]

Ubisoft had a lot up its sleeve at Microsoft’s X’11 Preview Event last month in Toronto, with heavy-hitter Assassin’s Creed: Revelations being their game of show.

The twenty minute presentation I witnessed was interesting, immersive and impressive. It was demoed by a member of the development team at Ubisoft Montreal and did dual work showing off both Ezio and Altair at different points in the game. Certainly, as you know, this game is set to conclude the individual storylines of both of the heroic yet shadow-lurking assassins.

During its runtime, I was shown some very nice-looking gameplay. Most of it took place in Ezio’s shoes, however Altair was also prominently displayed during a latter portion. Most of the gameplay looked similar to its predecessors, with some improvements showing through. It also looked better in its visual style, running on an updated version of the engine that the development team used for Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. Fluidity in motion and some nice animations were abound.

One of the main new features shown during the demo was the ability to create bombs using bomb crafting stations. Players can walk up to these and utilize them to create a nice amount of variable explosives, each with its own unique end result. It’s to be expected that the ingredients will either be found or purchased at in-game shops. Players will want to take full advantage of it no matter how the mixtures are procured however, as it really seems to add a new level of strategy to the combat. The addition also brings with it some helpful new aids in attempted escapes.

In talking with the product representative, I found out that the game is set to be around the same length as its predecessors. New contraptions will be available for the player to use in both the game’s new city of Constantinople, as well as returning environments from the game that started it all. One of these new inventions is a weapon which will help players climb faster – something that will certainly come in handy during the action-packed escapes into obscurity that the series requires.

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations looks to improve upon its predecessors and seems to have achieved that goal. It looks great, plays smoothly and didn’t have any noticeable detractions evident during this hands-off demo. Its game worlds are large and interesting, with the new coat of polish on everything really standing out. In my opinion, it’s looking like the best entry in the series thus far.

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations is set for release on November 15.