Overview

Most people agree that Jesper Kyd's music has been a key component of the success of Assassin's Creed throughout this generation of gaming. While most regard Assassin's Creed II to be the pinnacle of the series, his unique experiments of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood were also notable. On Assassin's Creed: Revelations, he developed many of the ideas from both games to offer a fascinating experience. For the first time in the series, he also worked closely with a cinematic composer — Lorne Balfe — to create the largest soundtrack in the series to date, suitable for capturing the title's vast scope and three characters. The full soundtrack for the game is a three disc experience available through Amazon MP3 and other digital retailers. A downloadable digital soundtrack was also included in the Signature Edition of the game, exclusively featuring Jesper Kyd's music. This review refers to this promotional release.

Body

Jesper Kyd captures a sense of excitement in Assassin's Creed: Revelations by blending hints of Hollywood with instruments inspired by the East. "The Wounded Eagle", for example, thrusts players into action with its edgy Arabian string melodies and booming drum rolls. It sounds authentic enough to fit Ezio's mission, but is still accessible and catchy thanks to its Western influences. "Fight or Flight" expands on these ideas to portray the busy Turkish setting with a unique assortment of woodwind, string, and percussion performances. Kyd recorded with a team of featured soloists to ensure that such performances are as authentic and impacting as possible. Since this is played when escaping the Templars, he also incorporates electronic beats maintain a sense of action and fortunately mix well with the acoustic instruments. In many ways, these tracks are developments of the stylistic ideas of track like "Venice Rooftops" and "The Madam" from the Assassin's Creed II soundtrack and most will agree that is no bad thing.

But of the action tracks, "Ambush" is the most outstanding. It returns to the ideas of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood by incorporating haunting vocal chants that capture the sheer force of an unstoppable assassin. It's also effective how Kyd mixes several melodic ideas in this game above the relentless percussion polyrhythms. "Die by the Blade" features some of the most fascinating timbres ever featured on a video game. Rather than simply emulate Eastern aesthetics, Jesper Kyd incorporates a range of unusual features to accentuate the bustling feel. Most notable is the prepared use of double bass by featured performer Diego Stocco (of Sherlock Holmes fame), which is both effective in context and fascinating on a stand-alone level. The track also features vocals incorporating the Azan — the Islamic call to prayer. This is not intended to be offensive to the religion, but rather authenticate the regional feel and capture Ezio's desperate situation. There are even more action-packed tracks across the Complete Recordings album.

Assassin's Creed: Revelations incorporates several other unique beautiful ambient tracks that are played throughout while free roaming. In "Welcome to Kostantiniyye", Kyd avoids stereotypical ambient approaches — such as using sound effects or whispers — in favour of subtle but affecting use of authentic instruments and vocals. This really gives the feeling of being in a lively world and helps to give the title its soul. A lot of fans will also notice similarity in the melodies with Assassin's Creed II, which helps to connect the games and give the series a recurring theme. Once again, Kyd also captures a sense of suspense that is strongly tied to the situation in the likes of "The Traitor" and "Yerebatan Cistern". While the latter is a little too modest for my tastes, the former captivates with its ominous strings use nonlinear development. Regardless, both are very well-integrated into the circumstances they are used in.

Ubisoft's strong placement of music in the game is also reflected by the placement of several key tracks. "The Crossroads of the World" is mostly played at the beginning of the game to enforce many stylistic and thematic ideas featured throughout the soundtrack. It presents Kyd's vision of the main theme on slow swelling strings above acoustic guitars performed by Dan Sistos. But its most iconic section is two minutes in, where mournful vocals combine with much darker strings to create an image of an ageing Ezio. When this track is established, the game eventually replaces it with other material, including "Byzantium" — another heartful ambient track that derives many of its ideas from "Welcome To Kostantiniyye" — as the title explores other areas and characters. However, the main theme is incorporated in several other tracks in the album — including several cues featured in the Complete Recordings album — but it is also reprised with "Nova Roma" as more climactic and personal missions emerge. It's dark slow-building development here is a driving force in the game's development.

Summay

Overall, this is a generous sampler of the full soundtrack and, in particular, features many of the highlights of Kyd's contribution. Once again, most of the tracks here are both amazing during gameplay and interesting enough to warrant stand-alone listening. However, it omits many of the tracks from the full soundtrack — including all of Lorne Balfe's main theme, cinematic, and multiplayer tracks — so fans desiring a complete musical experience should head fir that one on Amazon. This is nevertheless a good bonus with the signature edition of the game.