I do have some memories with this particular game. This was back in a time period where was I was really into Assassin's Creed and Revelations was very hyped up for me. I played at it at the time and I recall liking and I would defend a lot around the first few months and a year of it's release, apart of me wonders was because I wanted to trick myself into liking it. Playing it now however, when I was playing ACR, a question kept popping up in my mind, "why was this game even made?" Sure a media product is to ultimately make money but with ACR, the story feels like a filler and monster of the week episode and the gameplay felt as marginally different as ever before. Everything about it feels like it needed to be made because Ubisoft needed an AC game out, not because it was a game that they felt needed to be made. I know the story of it ACR being a reworked 3DS game originally but it doesn't help it's case.
The story is the first example of what I mean. The Ezio portions of the story is esstentially a macguffin hunt. The problems with those stories is that the plot itself is not interesting on it's own. Ezio needs to stop the Templars from getting into Altair's library. Supposedly, the reason why Ezio wants to do this is because his father talked about it his writings but in AC2 itself no such thing gets mentioned. ACB never really sets up ACR in any big way. At the end of that game Ezio is the hero who beats Ceseare, wins and everything goes his way. What's even there for him to do in ACR?
There is also very little at stake. Why do the Templars need the Maysaf keys? They are already in control of everything behind the scenes and they don't know what is in the Library. Is it a doomsday weapon, will it win the war? All too vague to be interesting. The twist makes it even more hollow that it's Altair's Apple of Eden, but why does that matter Ezio has his own Apple stashed away.
Due to all this, the game sets up a political sub plot and a love story since the Macguffin hunt is not interesting on it's own. The former is not interwined with Ezio's motivations and the latter is. The romance with Sofia is hard to be invested in since Ezio is just using her without telling the truth. Ezio always tells you how she is a light in his life since the scenes they have together and her Sofia's characterization herself doesn't do enough of the heavy lifiting. Sofia's backstory is never even properly revealed either. She only exists so Ezio can have something to gain at the end of the story since macguffin hunts usually end with the hero not getting material gain but the bonds they made along the way. The political sub plot ends with Ezio banned from Constaninopple, a place he was already not going to come back to.
The ending itself is just a rethread of AC2 and it doesn't even recontextulize that game's ending since Desmond on gets mentioned at the start of ACB and inbetween this and the ending of ACR, Desmond never gets mentioned again so when Ezio says he came to gripes with everything at the end of ACR, it feels unearned.
Ezio is also very much a gary stu in ACR. It's downplayed in this game but it's still there, he accidentally kills Tarik but it never leads to anything disastrous or haunt Ezio later down the line. Sofia nearly gets killed towards the end of the game and she never argues, resents Ezio or slowly forgives him for what he did, she just instantly forgives him. Ezio also compromises the Brotherhood since him telling Yusuf to guard Sofia leads to his death, the latter died protecting a girl he didn't even know and the Ottoman Assassins are okay with that. Altair doing something like this is the inciting incident that jump starts AC1's story and in ACR, he gets away with it scot free. I thought ACR was going to make me win Ezio over as a character but all it did was make me dislike him even more.
Altair's story is pretty interesting in how it sort of feels like a gangster story but instead of a crime family it's with a cult group and I almost wished he was the main character since it was more interesting than Ezio's macguffin hunt and the loosely connected sub plots. It was fun to see Ezio fanboy over Altair at the end of his memories.
The gameplay is the same but with more fluff and with some minor improvements. The bombs you never need to use unless if it's to get the optional objectives which I don't care for since I need more than self imposed restriction to enjoy a game. Stealth and enemies are the same which makes bomb use even more redundant. It's the same enemy roster and enemy AI from AC2. You can still hire prostitutes for many of the stealth sections and parkour is unreliable due to rooftop guards.
The AI is also very buggy making stealth even more a game of luck rather than anything resembling skill thus encouraging the player to hire prositutes even more when given the chance.
Combat is the same ACB, with chain killing being very overpowered. There is one difference now which are the Janniseraries. These guys have you work a little harder to kill them since kicks won't work and can even use a gun to shoot you at a distance can't be countered. They take about halfway through the game for them to be part of the enemy roster, one big issue is that usually one or two of them with regular mooks and with enough chain attacks, they will go down usually being 3 so with lots of regular mooks and not more than two Janniseraries tops in a horde, combat is still brainlessly easy but just slightly harder than usual.
You are still never forced to use wall and side ejects.
Some good is that ACR is a vibrant and colorful and the hookblade is an okay innovation even if it is just a faster version of climb leap.
The sections were you get the Maysaf Keys are enjoyable since they feel like Prince of Persia levels of sorts. I enjoy them since I prefer that style of game than what AC tries to be.
ACR is also shorter than ACB which is good to me since if the game was longer I'd get more annoyed.
Overall, ACR and the Ezio Trilogy as a whole was me asking myself, "why?" What was the point in me beating the games when I barely got much enjoyment from playing them? All Ezio's games did was remind me why I enjoy the stories and games that I enjoy since to me they are big budget games that manage to get so much wrong in my eyes.
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