Assassin's Creed Revelations

The tower defense segments are clearly unfinished, and the assassin recruit system, while improved from Brotherhood, could still use some work to really polish it up. But Revelations gets what props I give it, mainly because it finally iterates on what I would consider the really important part of Assassin's Creed -- that is, assassination, by way of infiltrating Templar lairs. And it actually culls a lot of the garbage that's accumulated in the franchise, like the retarded Subject 16 puzzles.

Of course, nothing can fix how ridiculous the series storyline is -- except perhaps the real-life passage of 2012, which will hopefully force a reboot after this year's quintilogy conclusion. But Revelations also comes out looking relatively good here, because it does such a fantastic job of utterly ignoring the plot. The vast majority of the campaign focuses on Ezio's story, which is of limited interest but is at least inoffensive. The Desmond content accumulates to about ten minutes, and the Altair flashbacks - although they sometimes awkwardly squish his backstory into exaggerated melodrama - are mercifully brief.

There's still plenty to improve on, like the overcrowded controller map, some missions which fail instantly when you're detected, and generally terrible writing. But this is the most promising sequel to Assassin's Creed yet.

Better than: any previous Assassin's Creed game
Not as good as: Batman: Arkham City
Please, please Ubisoft: finish the series this year, and then make it something better for the next one

Progress: Complete