Assassin’s Creed Revelations: smoke gets in your eyes

Posted by on July 3, 2012 in Game Diaries

I have the utmost respect for the people at Ubisoft. They’re involved with some of my favorite game franchises going, and their work glows with thoughtfulness and care. However, even I can admit that they’ve made some really dumb decisions. Like the fact that they release PC versions of their games months after the console versions. Like their ultra-restrictive DRM. Like the smoke bomb.

After the jump: Ka-pow! Ka-pow! Ka-pow!

Like most competitive games, Revelations is a careful balance of power. Running speeds, ability cooldowns, distances, space. All tuned to create varied, fun, and fair encounters. The smoke bomb undoes all that. It’s bringing a gun to a knife fight, or a lightsaber to a gun fight, or Ryan Gosling to a hot fight (that’s a thing). In every game mode, in every role, in every situation, the smoke bomb is the answer.
Smoke bomb is an active ability that, when triggered, unleashes a cloud of smoke that stuns and disorients other players caught in the blast. You can even fire it after an assassination animation has begun playing to dodge the hit. Nothing infuriates me more than stalking my target for the better part of a minute, finally going for the kill at the perfect moment, only for him to interrupt the attack with a smoke bomb and then stun me. I literally scream with rage when this happens. I’ve had to explain things to the neighbors.

It’s been a problem.

In Revelations, Ubisoft decided that players should be able to throw abilities, which means the smoke bomb is an offensive tool as well as a defensive one. See your target on the other side of the plaza? No need to actually sneak over there. Just throw the smoke bomb from thirty feet away and walk over at your leisure.

In the latest patch, Ubisoft altered the sound of the smoke bomb — who knows why — to a much more annoying one. Because the smoke bomb is in constant use, the new ka-pow! ka-pow! ka-pow! is always echoing through the ancient cities you’re traipsing around in. It kind of sounds like there’s an old Pinto backfiring up the street. Maybe it’s an animus ancestor reverse-memory echo or something.

Revelations multiplayer is fun, unique, and endlessly thrilling, but I can’t lie to you. People abuse the smoke bomb. Fortunately, when the smoke bomb spam becomes too much, I’m glad there’s a small mode called simple deathmatch. It’s the deathmatch mode, but with all the advanced abilities stripped out. I just stalk, hide, run and kill. Like the name says, it’s simple. It’s pure. After a few rounds, I’ve dulled my rage and I’m ready for the full range of options again. There’s just nothing else like it.

Hopefully, I’ve encouraged some of you to check the game out for yourself. Maybe I’ll see you there. You won’t see me, of course. But maybe I’ll see you.

Click here for the previous entry.

Giaddon has been a fan of Assassin’s Creed since the very first trailer. While everyone was cheering the Assassin’s Creed 3 E3 video that showed Ratonhnhake:ton blow up an entire British fort to kill one guy, he was scouring Youtube for floor videos of people playing the multiplayer.

  • Mercanis

    Though I’ve never played an Assassin’s Creed game, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this series of game diaries. Thank you for writing them, Mr. Giaddon!

    Hopefully the AC multiplayer will inspire unique multiplayer modes in other games as well.

  • Giaddon

    I’m glad you enjoyed them! I agree, a lot of multiplayer games seem like redundant shooters. It’s great to play something that feels so fresh.

  • Joe

    It’s kind of odd Ubi has become a publisher name I can trust despite the whole DRM issue. 9 times out of 10 if I buy a Ubi game it’s great and money well spent, even if it’s a PC title released later than its console counterparts. It’s just unfortunate there are these ancillary issues that take away from their fantastic games.

    At any rate, it’s good to see some AC coverage here. I haven’t gotten ’round to Revelations myself because there’s been a glut of amazing games the past several months but I’m looking forward to it (the smoke bombs not so much).

  • Jeff3F

    Thanks for writing these–I’ve had lots of fun with Ass’n's Creed over the years, but I didn’t make time for the last one. I may have to now…the question is where is the multiplayer community healthiest (PC v 360). Which platform is the author playing on? Also, smoke bomb complaints are timely (4th of July and all that).

  • Giaddon

    Thanks for reading them! I play on PC. The population is healthy enough that I can get a game going whenever, but I don’t think the population is huge.