Fourth game in the series. The yearly updates are really beginning to impact on the quality; it feels hurried, and is glitchier than ever. There’s nothing game-breaking but it’s frustrating restarting missions because some fool got himself entrenched in a wall. My favourite was the beggar with the three-legged stool embedded in his chest. He followed me like some kind of lovesick puppy. I tried to kill him with the hidden blade but his stoic, mocking reluctance to even flinch while I repeatedly knifed him finally won out and I gave up.
It appears to finish both the stories of Altaïr and Ezio (who still runs like he's smuggling a potato up his hole). Ezio’s ending is the first decent ending the series has ever had. Of course they tack on a second one with Desmond that proves once again they’ve been winging it from day one with that piece of shit storyline.
Acquiring money is less of a hassle than before. I'd every shop and faction building renovated, and discovered over 90% of the treasure (the remainder was in an inaccessible zone) after just the second chapter. I was never, ever out of cash for essentials. It was a pleasant change from previous games.
There are some new additions, the best of which are the zip-lines. There's bomb crafting but you’ll rarely need to make use of it. There's an unbelievably bad RTS section; it’s poorly designed. The less said about the horse and carriage missions the better. Instead of flags or feathers you have fragments to collect that open Desmond Missions in a hub-world. A first-person perspective jumping and disappearing platform section has to be the worst idea conceived by anyone ever.
Ironically, the city of Constantinople is my favourite of any of the games so far; it’s beautifully realised and has less cul-de-sacs and pointless corners than previous cities. It was a real joy to navigate.
Buyer's Guide:
Available for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC in too many editions. The Standard / Animus / Collector's / Special / Signature / Ultimate / Ottoman Edition all add some extra crap. The PS3 version comes with the first game free but they haven’t tweaked it or fixed the frame rate.
2½ warm potatoes out of 5
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