“Assassin’s
Creed Unity”
Assassin’s Creed Unity is a worthy entry
to the series, albeit it has its problems. You are Arno Dorian. Arno joins the
Assassin brotherhood as part of a personal vendetta, and it’s quite evident
that his personal issues get in the way of what is morally right. For God’s
sake, at a certain point in the story he murders several people over some wine
and to get his pocket watch back. Simply put, he’s a bit of an a-hole, but
still manages to pull off a considerable amount of charm, reminding me of Ezio.
Unity manages to establish a solid relationship between Arno and his childhood
love, Elise. The two play off of each other well and you can really feel the
chemistry.
Taking place during the French Revolution
in 18th century Paris, Unity’s Environments are breath-taking. I
grew excited each time I was about to synchronize a viewpoint. As the camera
pans out and the music adheres to the gorgeous view of Paris, you really get
this sense of a living, breathing world. Story-wise, Unity stumbles to establish
solid ground, bouncing around from the modern world and something about finding
the “sage-being” to stopping the Templars. It’s all very confusing sometimes,
but Arno’s journey is still a lot of fun. An important high-point of Unity’s
story are its “open-ended” assassination missions. These give you the opportunity
to plan out your kill; go through underground tunnels, set off fireworks as a
distraction or maybe poison your target’s drink. Each “open-ended” mission has
a different set of routes so choose wisely. I found myself constantly reloading
a checkpoint due to being detected just so I could achieve that perfect kill.
Paris is grand, the streets littered with
thousands of NPC’s milling about their business. An unfortunate side-effect of
these thousands of NPC’s is the frame rate. According to Ubisoft, Unity is
supposed to run at a locked 30 fps, but when the screen is filled with
pedestrians, the game can dip to about 20. In a couple rare circumstances where
there are no pedestrians present, the frame rate has literally dropped to the
point where it looks like I’m playing a slide-show. While not game-breaking by
any means, it really grinds my gears when developers fail to live up their
promises. Ubisoft doesn’t exactly have the best track record right now (Watch
Dogs = meh). Other mechanical problems occurred such as NPC’s floating in
mid-air, or at weird angles, clipping, Arno getting stuck in certain objects
and enemies spotting me, but then immediately acting like I was never even
there even if I was standing directly in front of them and Arno falling through
the map.
Oh, and did I mention the practically broken
cover system? Ubisoft thought that they were doing the game a favor by adding a
cover-system, but it turns out that was a mistake. Cover is initiated by
holding down the left trigger to crouch and then pressing “x” or “a” to stick
to a wall, etc. Why is it broken? Because, half the time, even if something
clearly has room to take cover behind, Arno does not take cover. It becomes
difficult to even identify whether you are even in cover or not. Be mindful,
Ubisoft is releasing patches, (they’ve already released two), planning to fix
any issues. At least they care. The good thing is though, unless you’re a
cynical, nitpicking nut-job like me sometimes, these issues won’t ruin the game for you.
Don’t you just hate when you run out of
stuff to do in a video game? Well, Unity solves that by filling your entire map
with icons for side missions, treasure chest locations, Income revenue
properties, journal locations, collectible locations, etc. Honestly, it can be
very overwhelming. Your map becoming just a sea of icons can make it very easy
to get lost. The filter option to make it less overwhelming isn’t very specific
so you are still bound to get lost one way or another. I never thought the day
would come where I would say that a game had too much extra content.
Speaking of treasure chest locations,
Unity has a companion app that is used to unlock additional content in game.
The app is a game in itself packed with little mini games, assassination
targets, and puzzles. While it is always cool to see developers making good use
of other technology for incorporation with their games, Unity’s companion app
is more trouble than its worth, and it’s free; not counting the optional $1.99
you can pay for “heat-maps” or something. In addition to the treasure chests, there
are “Nomad” chests scattered throughout Paris. To open these chests though, you
must use the companion app. I bought the game on a console, not my iPhone, so just let me play it on my console! It feels like too much of a chore. Speaking of game-immersion breakers, Ubisoft decided to add micro-transactions to Unity ranging from $5.00 to $100.00. Are you serious? Last time I checked, I paid $60 for this game, I don't want to see micro-transactions. While playing the game without them is fully achievable, no need to panic, it is still sickening to see Ubisoft insert this blatant cash grab into an already $60 game.
Historically, I can’t really say much
because I don’t know much about 18th century Paris or the French
Revolution besides Napoleon Bonaparte or guillotines and heads in baskets.
Although, Napoleon Bonaparte does happen to make an appearance in Unity, though
his presence is so lacking that it makes me wonder, did he really even need to
be in the game in the first place? Fortunately, this is not totally a bad
thing, because even if the game’s story isn’t perfect, Ubisoft has chosen to
focus the story on Arno, and this is good. Seeing Arno hone his skills and
become a master assassin. On a side note, Unity has these intriguing side
missions called “Helix-Rifts.” These “rifts”, transport Arno to other times in
history and task him with different objectives. An example; I was transported
into a rift as part of main story mission and to get out of the rift I had to
CLIMB, yes, CLIMB, the Eiffel Tower. SUPER COOL. It really was, and the weird
part was, for it being such a small part in Unity’s campaign, it was one of my
favorites. I got to man a gattling gun, shoot at war planes and scale a blimp.
It was amazing.
Multiplayer works well for the most part,
allowing players to form assassination “clubs” and take on missions together,
including heists. I would advise against playing with people you don’t know. A
better option would be to play with your own friends on your console. It makes
communication and taking out your target much easier. Multiplayer has a few
glitches as well, but none that can’t be fixed in the near future. Combat in Unity is much different in comparison to past games, it can be quite unforgiving if you don't practice at it. You cannot just charge into a group of enemies and expect it to be an easy fight. Especially because at times in combat, surrounding enemies will pull out their guns and try to shoot you while you are in the middle of a sword-fight. Ubisoft has added a parry system and the ability to perform a dodge-roll.
Graphically, as I stated before, Unity is
beautiful. Buildings are detailed gorgeously; even interiors shine bright with excellent
textures. Thanks to the power of Next-Gen, most random buildings can even be
entered now. Lighting is impressive as well. The cut scenes in this game, MY
GOD, some of the best facial animations I have ever seen. It’s odd to say how
impressive facial animations can really make you feel closer to a character,
but it’s the small things that can end up really mattering the most. The
blood-spatter effects that occur when fighting enemies or being damaged are
spot on. Stabbing an enemy, his clothes becoming soaked with blood or his blood
spattering all over a wall that’s behind him; it looks awesome. Traversing
Paris works well, most of the time. Ubisoft has simplified Assassin Creed’s
free-running mechanics by adding the ability to scale and descend buildings
just by holding down two buttons. It does wonders for traversing Paris and is a
welcome addition to the series. Watching Arno walk, run, and scale buildings is
astonishing. Depending on how you are dressed, seeing his hair flutter in the
wind or the back of his outfit sway as he scales a building looks excellent.
Unity also has a brand-new customization
system available in its campaign and multiplayer. In multiplayer, everyone is
still Arno, just with their own color outfits and gear. There are a decent
number of colors for your gear and tons of upgradeable weapons. Outfits from
the past Assassin’s Creed’s games can also be worn, but most of them must be
unlocked using an online service, “Assassin’s Creed Initiates”, which you
guessed it, isn’t currently running. Weapons range from, swords, pistols,
rifles, long and heavy. If you want some good gear, you better get to upgrading
your property in the game to obtain more revenue. Arno is basically
customizable from head to toe. You can change his hood, chest, his forearms,
waist and legs. Plus, the amount of options Unity gives you to change once you
choose what area you’re looking to upgrade is enormous. Each piece of gear has
different attributes; some improving stealth or melee, while others could
improve range. Arno also has a skill tree consisting of upgrades for stealth, melee, ranged and health.
Assassin’s Creed Unity could have been a
great game, but due to its “broken” launch with a host of bugs/glitches, there
is no excuse. Paris is a beautiful playground for the entry’s newest assassin,
Arno. Now that we’ve seen what Ubisoft can do with the power of new hardware,
even if there are problems, it is still absolutely mesmerizing.
Final Score: 7.8/10
PROS:
-
Charming lead character
-
Paris is GORGEOUS
-
Open-ended assassinations
-
Updated free-running
-
Helix Rifts
-
Character Customization
CONS:
-
Story fails to establish solid ground
-
Host of current mechanical problems
-
Map is a “sea” of icons
-
Frustrating companion app
