Assassin's Creed: Revelations, for those of you who can't read abbreviation-speak.
Day one in this new game, and I certainly feel like AC thinks it's my first rodeo. This is a painstaking amount of tutorial for running and climbing that is being spoonfed in my direction by a ghostly apparition of Atair, the Original Assassin. I'm either not following the storyline closely enough, or they're not making it clear enough - for some reason, an extremely aged Ezio has traveled to Jerusalem and the stronghold fortress of the assassins from the very first game. After reviewing moving, running, climbing, and leaping, we go on to a brief review of basic combat and assassination. Then, a refresher course on tailing a target, with a new twist on Eagle Sense, where you can either see a ghostly apparition of the target walking away, or at least make out a remnant of their path. Why we are in a Templar-infested Masayaf, I did not really figure out.
We skip ahead to Sequence 2, where Ezio is arriving in Istanbul and meets the local assassin branch representative, Yusuf. As far as I can understand via Ezio's correspondence with his sister, Ezio discovered a secret door with tons of locks that was created by Altair, and both he and the Templars want to get to the chamber beyond. This search has lead him (and the Templars) to Istanbul. For right now, of course, your ultimate mission is on delay as you make friendly with Yusuf and help him and every other person in the world with their problems, first. Fortunately, the game now has "walk with me" mode, which means you just need to get near your buddy and Ezio automatically follows at a casual pace.
More tutorials. Remember how to pickpocket? Not that I will ever need it after I begin my massive renovation and financial takeover of this entire landscape. Next, here's something new for you - the hookblade. The assassins of Istabul have added a nice little hook to their hidden blades, and Yusuf takes some time making sure you grasp the concept. With it, you can zipline along the many ropes strewn about the city (and zipline-assasinate), hook a person and hop over him ("Hook and Run"), reach higher when you climb, and change the hanging pot-turn maneuver into a long-jump maneuver.
Now here's something strange, Assassin Tower Defense? A diversion from your regular game, where you defend an assassin den from attacking templars by assigning crossbow/rifle assassins to a rooftop and build barricades. Yes, I will happily do more of these later. Let's keep this extremely long tutorial section moving for now.
Next, Yusuf teaches me how to go on the attack for more territory - Eagle Sense has been changed a bit, you now go into Eagle Sense mode and hover over each person until you identify if they're the target you're looking for. In a Templar-controlled territory, you need only to identify and kill the Captain, and then climb a tower and light a signal fire to regain the region (but it can be re-conquered by Templars later). Naturally I did not notice the part where "full synchronization" was achieved by not being seen killing the Captain, and ran right in there and lost 50% synch! I did that about 6 more times before I learned to pay more attention to the mission statement before blundering in. For example, the next mission asked you to pickpocket a key from a guard, but I murdered him instead. Whups.
Next tutorial is on assassin recruitment, and after that, assassin use in-game, and finally, assassin deployment to outlying districts. I find it an enjoyable and rewarding part of the game, but I may be in the minority. All of the guild missions are also unlocked, and I took a quick look at the lists. It is a long and exhausting-looking set of conditions. This is going to be a long game.
After that, the Istanbul assassins want to teach you about bombs. AC:R has a ton of bomb options. You actually have to gather materials and craft your own, so you can pretty much personalize your bombs to your playstyle - bouncy or sticky, big bang or small bang, filled with shrapnel, or filled with poison. I was pretty much overwhelmed by the options. Batman and Link may be seeing green at this point - three separate bomb pouches! Two wheels worth of items - poison daggers, bombs, crossbows, tiny gun, hidden blade. So many options! I just wanted to stab a dude, guys. I have more instruments in my bag right now, (and a lot more blank slots to be filled later in the game!) than I did in Trauma Center, and I was playing a freaking surgeon. Just.... crazy. There's no less than 8 mini-missions inside the bomb-crafting store to teach you how to use your multitudes of bombs, and you have to pass each one before those bombs become unlocked for purchase. This will take more than one day.
