Memories
As with previous episodes in the series, Assassin’s Creed Revelations begins with a linear collection of missions that gradually introduce gameplay concepts, abilities and different styles of challenges.
For newcomers, the low difficulty of these opening tutorials offers a great opportunity to experiment and get a good feel for the game. More experienced players can treat these sections as a quick refresher course, and speed through them with commensurate haste and confidence.
Once you complete the first Sequence (story chapter), the Revelations sandbox begins to open up. In addition to main story missions (“Core Memories”), you will encounter a vast wealth of side quests, minigames and incidental challenges.
The majority of these are purely optional, and are not necessary to complete the central storyline. However, these “Secondary Memories” can enable you to make Ezio wealthier – and, as a consequence, stronger and better equipped.
As with Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, progress in the main story eventually unlocks a management metagame where you can invest Ezio’s money in restoring aspects of Constantinople’s business infrastructure, for which he receives a dividend at regular intervals.
Though the initial costs may seem high, the ultimate rewards are far greater. Completing side quests and pouring the profits from Ezio’s labors back into Constantinople is the only realistic way to afford all equipment and items. What’s more, there are also a number of noteworthy completion bonuses to obtain.
There is no right or wrong way to approach optional objectives in Assassin’s Creed Revelations, but there’s certainly an ideal path. Throughout the interlinked Walkthrough and Side Quests chapters we present a considered route to full game completion, with an emphasis on minimizing unnecessary effort and maximizing potential profit.
Full Synchronization & Memory Replay
All Core and Secondary Memories in Assassin’s Creed Revelations have Full Synchronization conditions. These optional objectives are specified once you accept a Memory, and can be checked by visiting the pause menu once they are underway.
Completing a Memory and its Full Synch objective leads to 100% Synchronization, increasing the Total Synch level at the DNA Menu by the maximum amount. Fail a Full Synchronization objective, however, and the mission only counts as 50% complete.
While some Full Synch conditions can be completed on first attempt, others are more challenging; it may be that you must entirely familiarize yourself with the demands of a task before you can reasonably expect to satisfy the requirements.
In these instances, you can return via the Replay Memory function (again, found at the DNA menu) to try again at a later date.
After a short load break, the Replay Memory option transports Ezio back in time and places him next to the appropriate Memory Start marker.
Interestingly, though, he generally retains all weapons, armor and equipment acquired in the intervening period, which can make previously demanding tasks much easier. You can leave Replay Mode at any moment by selecting Exit Replay at the pause menu, and jump through cutscenes with the Skip Cinematic option.