As someone who didn’t really have an opportunity to study history in school (Favouring a combination of mathematics and science at the time), I have always felt that I struggle to get the full experience out of an Assassin’s Creed game. That being said… whether a game takes place in 15th century Italy or during the American Revolution, Ubisoft Montreal have been able to construct immersive worlds based on the geography and history of centuries past, integrating their own Assassin’s vs Templar flair in ways that don’t completely ruin the authenticity of a constructed world. With Assassin’s Creed Unity now out on store shelves and based around the French Revolution which historically took place between 1789 and 1799, players are now being treated to what next generation consoles can contribute to this already strong franchise.
Storyline
The war between the Assassin’s and Templar’s resume once again in 18th century Paris, this time dragging a man named Arno Dorian into the mix. After witnessing the death of his father Charles Dorian, eight-year-old Arno is adopted by François de la Serre and raised alongside his daughter Élise. Completely ignorant of the centuries-long war, he is eventually dragged into it many years later after witnessing the death of François (Unveiled to be Grand Master of the Templars), forming an alliance with the Assassin’s who his father was once a member of. From there he sets out to discover who was responsible for the deaths, while at the same time also becoming ingrained in other Templar issues and often coming into contact with Élise, who through her fathers heritage is also a Templar.
The storyline takes Arno throughout the city of Paris, visiting a number of famous landmarks from the era and doing tasks that you would usually expect from an Assassin’s Creed game. While there isn’t much in this regard to help it stand out from earlier instalments, the storyline was still fairly decent; with numerous additional missions for players to go on to continually build upon the storyline. Unlike Assassin’s Creed III however where protagonist Connor (Ratonhnhaké:ton) became ingrained in the issue of the era (American Revolution), this time around it felt like the writers have simply chosen to follow a completely unique storyline set against the backdrop of the French Revolution, rather than having him heavily involved in it. Nevertheless, there are a number of famous faces which appear throughout including Napoleon Bonaparte, Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte and Louis XVI of France.
Unfortunately the one element that Ubisoft have chosen to further scale back on is the “Current Day” storyline; for the first time in the series not giving players access to a controllable character. With Desmond Miles’ passing in Assassin’s Creed III, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and Assassin’s Creed Rogue gave players control of an Abstergo Entertainment employee. At the very least in these games it was possible to do some sleuthing away from the Animus, despite the reduced role that the ‘current day’ plot had on the overall experience. This time around the “real world” scenario is a series of cutscenes where a character known as the “Initiate” interacts with an Assassin known as Bishop, who recruits him/her to scower the memories of Arno Dorian in order to find the location of a Sage. The only perk about this approach is that moments where you would do something in the real world were replaced by scripted “Rift” missions, taking players into Paris during different eras including World War II.
Design / Music / Voice Acting
Assassin’s Creed Unity is certainly one of the best looking games in the series to date, and given it is exclusive to the latest generation of video game consoles, the quality is evident when comparing it against the last-generation exclusive Assassin’s Creed Rogue which looks great in its own right. The open world environment of Paris is expansive and well-detailed, with many unique vistas to discover. Technologically the game has been improved as well, with hundreds of NPC citizens able to walk around the streets without any issue on performance. Unfortunately the performance isn’t all that fantastic, and is prone to lag to an unacceptable standard and an assortment of glitches. I found this to be most prominent inside buildings, and rendered some of the missions almost impractical to complete. Ubisoft really needed to spend some more time in testing to ensure this didn’t happen at launch, since it has proven to be far from a rare occurrence with gamers.
While not making up for the bugs by any stretch of the imagination, the development team have finally allowed greater customization of Arno’s appearance through equipment. With at least a hundred different equippable clothing pieces spread over different parts of the body and a number of colour combinations, you can make your Arno look fairly unique.
Assassin’s Creed Unity features a solid soundtrack that is unobtrusive but still compliment the scenes they are used in well. The voice acting on the other hand is fairly memorable, with each of the voice actors complimenting their respective characters personality well – although not entirely authentic sounding. As with previous games, the English dialogue is complimented by a few key lines in French. As these lines are not translated by default, I recommend keeping English subtitles on at all times.
Gameplay
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag pleasantly surprised me when they complimented the traditional “Assassin’s Creed” stealth / action-adventure gameplay with an awesome pirating system and an expansive world to explore. While Rogue opted to maintain that pirate-oriented approach for last generation consoles, Unity has gone back to the series’ traditional roots of traversing around a city, climbing up buildings, free running between rooftops and getting into sword/gun battles with opponents. Each of these mechanics are just as good as they have been in previous instalments, with a few small improvements to make things easier. For example, it is now possible to “Run Up” and “Run Down” when faced with obstacles whilst Free Running, allowing you to dictate if Arno climbs or dives under an obstacle. There are still a couple of issues you are likely to face, such as the game ignoring your button presses when hanging off a ledge or missing obvious grabbable spots when jumping from a building, but otherwise the experience is fairly fluid and much better than previous games. While the core experience is enjoyable, without anything unique to set Unity apart from other instalments, it does feel like a step back from Black Flag. Similarly, the assortment of mission types haven’t changed much, often involving an assassination or sneaking around a locale for reason X.
With a broad open world to explore, there are a variety of different activities to undertake outside of the main campaign. Some of these are minor on-the-spot activities such as taking down a criminal / tackling thieves and some include heftier tasks such as sub-missions throughout the city and helix rifts which require you to travel through alternate forms of Paris through the ages. At the very least you aren’t forced to travel the world looking for 100 inconspicuous feathers à la Assassin’s Creed II. There is enough to do in the open world to justify a couple of hours post-game, but it might not hold your attention for too long.
One of the major changes to Assassin’s Creed Unity is that there is no longer just one currency – but four: Livres, Sync Points, Creed Points and Helix Credits. Depending on if you want to purchase a weapon, unlock specific skills or hack a piece of equipment, you will need to use a different currency. Some are quicker to acquire than others, but you will generally unlock all of them through general gameplay and missions. It is possible to purchase Helix Credits through the PlayStation Store, but most of what you can do through them can be done in-game anyway. There is however a good variety of different options to choose from, will skills and equipment evidently tailored to different play styles. Do you prefer sneaking? It would be best to acquire some attire which boost Arno’s sneak stats. Are you more of a hands-on fighter? You might be better investing in a one or two handed sword than a gun and some clothes that boost your health.
For the first time since they introduced online multiplayer in Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Ubisoft have chosen not to include their traditional multiplayer mechanics; which required players to assassinate one another through a variety of different games. Honestly, it was about time they put that mode to rest. Instead, players are now able to invite up to three other players to join you in your instance of Paris, and can undertake co-op missions and a variety of other different things with them. In all honesty, I prefer to be a ‘lone wolf’ and didn’t spend much time testing this system out – but asides from the trouble of finding decent people to play with, it worked pretty well. If you choose to go solo however, it is possible to do at least some of the multi-person missions by yourself.
Final Words on Assassin’s Creed Unity
It is hard to consider Assassin’s Creed Unity as an improvement over Black Flag, which offered many gameplay opportunities both during and post-game. However the slight improvements across the board delivered another satisfying experience, with a solid storyline, decent visuals and the fundamental gameplay mechanics down pat. Unfortunately the glitches and frame rate issues at the time of my play test were a hindrance to my experience, and should not have been present at such a scale in any final release.
