Ubisoft are celebrating their 25th anniversary this year, one that sees them consolidate their presence as the biggest European games publisher in the world. But rather than the Tom Clancy games that have dominated much of the last 10 years of their release schedules, their biggest franchise now is Assassin’s Creed.

It’s a deserved success too, despite the fact that the first in the series was a very flawed game. The fact that Ubisoft addressed all of its most serious issues in the second game quickly won over detractors – as did the commitment to a range of foreign and historical settings that it’s hard to imagine a U.S. developer ever daring to use.

Revelations will be the third sojourn to the 16th century, although it’s set in Turkey, primarily Constantinople (modern day Instanbul), rather than Renaissance Italy. It also takes place several years after the events of Brotherhood, with Ezio an aging hero who has vanquished almost all of his enemies.

Ubisoft has promised that this will be the last game to star Ezio, but it’s the first to feature Altaïr since the very first game. Ezio discovers that the key to an ancient artefact was hidden in Constantinople by Altaïr – and much of the game is spent trying to retrieve it.

The first sight we had of the game was at Ubisoft’s pre-show conference on Monday. This featured both the CGI trailer and an extended section from near the beginning of the game, as Ezio attempts to take down a giant chain preventing ships from leaving port.

There’s very little stealth involved in his attack though, not least because he’s using the attack as an excuse to try out a new more powerful bomb – which proves to be no match for the lighthouse that one end of the chain is connected.

After that he tries to commandeer a ship, but is forced to sink what looks like half the harbour using a giant – and we assume entirely apocryphal – flamethrower, before embarking on an extended platforming section as he races across a series of flaming, sinking ships.

It all looks like great fun, but it also seemed over the top even for Assassin’s Creed. Not just in terms of the unlikely scale of the action, but Ezio’s ever increasing range of weapons, equipment, and mystical vision powers.

According to Ubisoft though, when the same level was demonstrated in real-time back at the show, the most important new feature of the campaign mode is Ezio’s new hookblade.

This is exactly what it sounds like (assuming you think it sounds like a small hook that extends from under Ezio’s already voluminous sleeves) and can be used for both climbing and in combat.

Ezio has a new hookblade, and he’s not afraid to use it

As soon as you rip off your first enemy’s face it soon becomes clear that it’s extremely useful both as a weapon and as a means to snag enemies in for closer damage. When faced with a crowd of enemies it makes combat more fluid, and almost on a par with the Batman games.

In terms of moving about the city it helps speed up an ascent, and can also be used to travel down zip lines – the preferred method used to get to the ships in the demo.

Apparently Revelations will still feature the ability to manage your own team of apprentice assassins, as well as the property-purchasing options from the previous games, but no details are provided as to the context of either.

Although being able to control Altaïr again is one of the big new features of the game it wasn’t demonstrated at E3 (apparently it’ll be Ezio reliving his past life, not modern day ancestor Desmond.) Desmond will be in the game as well though, despite all the trouble he got into at the end of the last game.

On the E3 show floor, the emphasis was on multiplayer rather than single-player, which as you might imagine worked in a manner very similar to Brotherhood. We would’ve guessed that adding a successful multiplayer to the series was all but impossible, but the last game proved otherwise and Revelations does its best to underline the point.

Ezio began to suspect that popping out for a crafty cigarette might not have been the best idea

Although there are promises of new game modes, avatars, and taunts, much of the emphasis seems to be on persuading competitors to play properly (i.e. stealthily) and not just go for the cheap kills. The basic Team Manhunt mode is essentially hit and seek with knives but it’s a lot more fun when everyone is trying to remain subtle about their murderous goal.

To encourage such behaviour Revelations now awards a bare minimum of points for a non-stealth score and at the same time increases the reward for assisted kills. Because the lock-on mode for targets now lasts longer – allowing everyone to see where the enemy is – assists are also made easier to organise.

In terms of other mechanics the stun ability has also been improved and now rewards you if you saw your assassin prior to being killed by them. As far as new weapons go the most important seems to be a landmine style trap (they’re not banned in the 16th century). Ubisoft has implied that the hookblade will be in the multiplayer, but it wasn’t present in the E3 demo.

Based on its E3 debut, it seems that the only real revelations in this new game will be in terms of the story, with the gameplay being very much a case of evolution not revolution. A more refined version of Brotherhood is hardly an unappealing thought though, even if we can’t help trying to guess where the next one will be set.

Formats: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Montréal
Release Date: 15th November 2011