Assassin's Creed Revelations Stars Ezio and Altair

Play as both while crafting bombs, using the hookblade and much more.

May 9, 2011

We all found out that Assassin's Creed Revelations was real last week, and today, we know a whole lot more. Game Informer's June 2011 issue is arriving in subscribers' mailboxes now, and it's packed with information on Ubisoft's flagship title -- including that we're going to get to play as Altair, the protagonist from the first game.

While it's true that Assassin's Creed Revelations is the final installment of the Ezio trilogy, the story has him chasing down five seals that will allow him access to an important artifact in Masyaf (the setting of the first game). Each seal belonged to Altair, and when Ezio nabs one, he gets to relive Altair's memories like Desmond relives things through the Animus.

Hookblade!

Making the setup a bit more confusing is the fact that -- spoiler alert -- Desmond is in a coma but hooked up to the Animus when the game begins. Desmond needs to fight through "the black room," an Animus world made up of his shattered mind and "the futuristic architecture of the Animus" to find a specific memory where he, Altair, and Ezio collide.

When we are playing as Ezio, who is now more than 50 years old and questioning how he's spent his life, we'll have access to the hookblade. The one screen released of Assassin's Creed Revelations showed the curved blade on Ezio's arm, but Game Informer has the facts on it. The blade can still be used for killing people, but the device opens up a ton of new movement options. Ezio can use it to zipline around Constantinople, propel himself up walls, and flip over opponents without breaking stride.

"It makes free running more fluid, faster, and more fun," Creative Director Alexandre Amancio told Game Informer. "It speeds up navigation by about 30 percent."

Also joining the fray in Assassin's Creed Revelations is the ability to make bombs. Game Informer said the game employs a simple crafting system that allows us to create more than 300 different bombs that range from flash bangs to smoke bombs.

While a lot of the Game Informer article detailed brand new features, the piece also focused on returning favorites that have been touched up. Multiplayer is back, but it's packing a story. As you increase your rank, you're moving up in the world of Abstergo and getting to know the Templar organization. This time around, you can change your character's appearance, create guilds, and craft your own coat of arms. Matchmaking will be faster, we'll be able to create custom playlists, and Ubisoft is planning Assassin's Creed tournaments.

On the single-player side, eagle vision is now "eagle sense" and will allow Ezio to listen in on far away conversations, hear heartbeats and predict where guards will move. There will be areas to infiltrate similar to the Lairs of Romulus from the last game, but they're based on an "undisclosed historical figure." Ezio's love interest this time around is a bookseller known as Sofia Sorto, who isn't a real person but is based on the Albrecht Durer painting "Portrait of a Young Venetian Woman."

We'll have more on Assassin's Creed Revelations as we move toward E3, but make sure you pick up the June 2011 issue of Game Informer for the full story on Ezio's return, new multiplayer characters, and more.

 

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