Assassin’s Creed: Unity

We all know what Assassin’s Creed is by now. A majority of us either grew up playing it or had a close friend who grew up playing it. There was a time when Assassin’s Creed was sweeping the gaming landscape. With a new entry coming out every single year, and not a single one of them missing. Assassin’s Creed to Ubisoft is what Call of Duty is to Activision, the money rake. They had found a formula that worked and with each new entry they would attempt to find ways to slightly innovate on what they had done. Assassin’s Creed 2 refined the basis set by the first, and its story sequels Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood & Assassin’s Creed: Revelations would expand through new gameplay mechanics like the brotherhood system and traversal options. Fans then got Assassin’s Creed 3 which threw a lot of sh*t at the fan while wrapping up the Desmond Miles storyline, and one year afterward Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag. A revolutionary pirate game that is still considered by many to be the best pirate game ever made. You have six games made within the span of seven years. All of which have an 80% or above critic score on Metacritic.

Everyone expected Assassin’s Creed to keep going upward for years to come, but there’s a reason why you should end modern franchises and move on after a few entries. E3 2014, a few months after the release of next generation consoles, and Ubisoft were getting ready to showcase what they could do with next generation technology. They presented Assassin’s Creed: Unity to their fans with a fancy cinematic trailer. Probably the most popular and infamous reveal in the entire series’ history. They were aiming for a beautiful world heavily populated by human life. A heavy focus on co-op as previous entries delegated it to game modes outside the main story. Increased focus on graphical fidelity, etc. Assassin’s Creed: Unity was advertising itself to be the grandest Assassin’s Creed game to date and fans were eating up the hype. The game released late the same year and it was…. A total sh*t show. Nothing about Assassin’s Creed: Unity at launch worked. The game was riddled with bugs, barely stable enough to support multiplayer, constantly crashed on both PC and consoles, and spawned a dozen or so memes about what could go awry. Not to mention Ubisoft indulging in greedy corporate practices by incorporating microtransactions that could allow players to purchase overpriced endgame gear very early on in the main story.

Assassin’s Creed: Unity is basically the original Fallout 76 before Fallout 76 existed. Losing any and all trust Ubisoft fans had in the company, and spanning multiple lawsuits for how players felt cheated from their purchase. This is the point in Ubisoft’s history that marked their descent. Any games going forward would have to be treated with care. Some were and some were not. People saw more mediocre products come out from Ubisoft, and what was once an industry titan was now one of the worst companies in the industry. All this from an Assassin’s Creed game. Time has passed since the release of the game, and with it came dozens of patches. The development team trying to find a way to make this disaster of a game somewhat playable. While not every problem was solved they did eventually make a better product. Salvage bits they cared about the most during development. Assassin’s Creed: Unity was semi-complete years after launch, and the fans who returned to see what was offered enjoyed it. They enjoyed it alot in fact. Once the black sheep in the franchise had now become an underrated gem. Fans began to love Unity, and part of it can be due to how newer entries have strayed after from the formula of the older games. Unity tries to preserve this essence and for the most part it succeeded.

I have a plethora of friends who adore the Assassin’s Creed series, including the new entries, and the one they always recommend to me the most is Assassin’s Creed: Unity. Hyping it up to be an all time great. I believed every word they said and stepped into Unity with optimistic skepticism. Knowing what I’d be playing wouldn’t be perfect, but maybe just maybe there was a lot of good on offer. Having spent the last few days playing all of Assassin’s Creed: Unity my conclusion is this: Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh. Hot take coming in. One of the hottest takes I’ve given in a longass time. Assassin’s Creed: Unity is one of the most frustratingly okay games I’ve played. In some way I feel like I’ve let others overhype this one for me the same way Cyberpunk 2077 was also overhyped for me. Even then I don’t think I would’ve loved this one with low expectations. I can see why people love Assassin’s Creed: Unity. The game has a plethora of good ideas the series has abandoned since then. However, the implementations of these ideas aren’t good and what we end up with is a rough product. A title that didn’t spend enough time in the oven due to company deadlines and was rushed onto store shelves. Issues you can still see plaguing it today.

New question: Why didn’t Assassin’s Creed: Unity click for me in the same way the other titles did? What problems remain after the patches, and are there other reasons this game had failed at launch aside from the bugs? How can innovation fail, and was what they were aiming for too far ahead for its time? Assassin’s Creed: Unity is an interesting case study where the building blocks for a good game are there, but collapse due to over ambition. Today we’re going to be discussing why Assassin’s Creed: Unity is a painfully alright video game, how it possibly regressed in an attempt to expand, and what we could learn.

Story

The year is 1776 and we follow Arno Dorian, son of Charles Dorian who is secretly an Assassin. The two attend a public event and Charles sends Arno off while he discusses important matters. This is when we learn of Arno’s relationship with Elise de le Serre, a noble girl who is Arno’s only friend. The two love to play together and have always an eye for each other. At times they’d get each other in trouble, but it was all fun and games. Elise dares Arno to steal an apple which he manages to do, but guards begin flooding the halls. Unfortunately it’s not because of Arno. A terrible event had occurred on the premises and Arno rushed in to see what happened. A man had died and unfortunately it was Arno’s father. The killer had escaped the premises and nobody got a glimpse of what they looked like. Arno’s father died quietly minutes before Arno arrived which leaves him traumatized. Unable to mentally process the only family he had and being unable to say goodbye to them. The young Arno is taken in by Elise’s father, François de la Serre, and raised to become a noble servant rather than rot away on the streets as an orphaned peasant.

Flash forward several years after these events and Arno is now a young man. Still finding ways to get in trouble while getting by each day. Constantly busy due to the work at one of François’ estates, but every now and then he’s told of his daughter. When she comes back to town, and takes the opportunities to remeet with her. This time it’s a party, and Arno finishes his work as soon as possible to attend this party. Including slipping a letter underneath the door of François’ office which he failed to deliver moments earlier. Arno attends the party, has fun with Elise, and the two plan to catch up more later. As Arno leaves he witnesses François killed by a gang of strange men. These men call the guards, have Arno blamed for the crime, and he’s taken to jail. All of this happening amidst the French Revolution mind you. Citizens flood the streets to rebel against the cruel king they live under. Their screams can be heard outside the prison walls, and all Arno can do is think about what may arise the next day. France and its uncertain future.

Arno goes to sleep and awakens the next day to find one of his belongings stolen by a cellmate. A watch which Charles gifted him at a young age. Arno fights the crazed thief and accosts him of the strange writing on the prison walls. Only to find the writing gone until the thief forces him to focus. The thief tells Arno he has a special gift, that he knew his father, and that both he and him were Assassins. The thief’s name is Bellec, tells Arno he has great potential, and says he can train the boy into something better. An image his father would be proud of. Arno spends the next two days training until the prison is finally attacked by the chaos outside. Prison guards storm the cells to beat prisoners out of spite, and Bellec & Arno use this as an opportunity to escape. They do so and Arno leaves Bellec to find Alise. The streets are in ruins and he finds Alise in the old estate he worked in. Alise reveals to Arno her father was a Templar leader, and the letter Arno failed to deliver would’ve saved his life. She knows Arno didn’t kill her father, but somewhat blames him for his death. Arno becomes a sad homeless drunk, but remembers where Bellec told him to meet when he had nowhere else left to go and wants to seek a greater purpose.

Arno locates the meeting spot where he’s taken to meet the Assassin Brotherhood. You should know who these people are by now, so I’m not going to explain further. The Assassins as of right now are trying to maintain peace in France while attempting to pursue treaties through politics. They recruit Arno into becoming an Assassin and from there his true journey begins. Sending him from target to target, mission to mission until they eventually locate the main individual behind the killing of François. Someone they know is of the Templar Order, and probably has a great deal in the ongoing French Revolution. It’s going to be a dangerous ride, but Arno came prepared. Ready to face an uncertain future.

Gameplay

Whereas Black Flag stemmed off from the older formula, Unity attempts to return to it. Bringing back older systems, mechanics, and expanding upon what Assassin’s Creed 2 and the other titles tried to do. Venture across an open ended city, partake in numerous activities, try not to cause too much of a scene, and pursue the objectives on hand. You could simply walk or run to each place you need to be, but you also have the high ground. Buildings you scale up onto and traverse their rooftops. You can parkour and use traversal tricks to get around, and one of the game’s newest additions is being able to free-run up or down. Allowing you to preserve fluid movementum and go the vertical direction you need. Unity has one of the franchise’s most diverse and difficult to master parkour systems. There’s a reason why there’s dozens of videos online showcasing and pushing the parkour to the utmost limit. You can still play this like a traditional Assassin’s Creed game, or you can go the extra mile and learn how to run around this world like a badass. Shall you become David Belle or Michael Scott when he attempted to land onto a dumpster?

Another new addition to Unity is proper stealth mechanics. The older one had some stealth, but not of the truest scent. You could stealth kill enemies from above, below a ledge, or from behind but it wasn’t traditional stealth. Theory were technical limitations and quirks the player would have to work around. Unity goes beyond this by having actual stealth. Being able to crouch, use cover to your advantage, having an actual purpose to use half your side equipment, and multiple ways of working around a singular problem. Buildings are living, breathing spaces now and you have to consider the best way of getting inside them. As trying to fight more than two enemies is a death sentence, which we’ll touch upon soon. Find weaknesses in structures, go in through ways least expected, and take opportunities when you can. Especially with Blackbox Missions, the missions where you have to kill a special target. You could take the straightforward way of sneaking up and killing them. However, before the start of each mission you’re shown special opportunities you can take, and some of these may be easier approaches than the straightforward route. Think creatively and you may be rewarded better. Similar to how targets in recent Hitman games can be dealt with in ways beyond just pulling a gun and shooting their face.

If you do get spotted while sneaking around you’ll be forced into combat. It’s similar to previous games except now it’s harder and relies more on deflection. Parry enemy attacks and strike when you think they are open. A yellow flashing bar indicates when to parry, and a red bar indicates you have to dodge rather than parry. A target icon means an enemy is getting ready to shoot, and guns are unavoidable. You can heal using medicine bottles in your inventory, but these are finite and have to be either bought for an expensive price or looted from enemy corpses by random chance. Die during a mission before reaching a specific objective and you’ll be forced before the start of sneaking in. This is why Unity is one of the most punishing Assassin’s Creed games to date. Requiring you to think and plan ahead before rushing in. There’s a heavier focus on stealth and I can respect their attempt to make Assassin’s Creed more like what they wanted the older games to be. Hopefully you can find François’ killer, bring upon justice, and watch as France fights its way into a better tomorrow. (Deep breathing) Okay, now for all my critiques.

Thoughts

Assassin’s Creed: Unity is a game loaded with good ideas, good intention, and potential. That last word I really want to incentivize, because it truly describes how dozens of fans felt before this game originally released back in 2014. The stakes were high and in some way if Ubisoft didn’t place them as high as they were the reception probably would’ve been better at launch. Issues I have with this game are a result of over ambition, rushed development, and how poorly executed the ideas of display were. Honestly, my opinion on this game is similar to that of So Says Jay. An essayist who covered a plethora of Assassin’s Creed games including Unity. I don’t wanna sound like I’m ripping off his video, so I’ll try to differentiate as much as possible. Go watch his video though if you haven’t, it’s good. I can understand why people enjoy Assassin’s Creed: Unity. It is the last fans saw of the older formula before Ubisoft began simplifying mechanics and going down a different road with the franchise. Creating the now divisive RPG anthology. People miss traditional Assassin’s Creed games and going back to this one now is refreshing especially with the years of patches. You get to see more of what the game could’ve been at launch, and what it was is an innovation of what Assassin’s Creed 2 and the older games before Black Flag were.

However, much like my opinions on Cyberpunk 2077 the patches and better state of the game are not a good excuse for terrible design and rough edges. Looking past the bugs you can still see a buttload of problems. Issues that prevent Unity from reaching the heights it was aiming for. The elements that could’ve been smoothed out, because for some reason this game plays worse than the games before it. Now comes time for the list of hot takes I have on Unity. The game is often credited for having one of the franchise’s best implementations of parkour. It has a high level of mastery, the ability to freely run up and down gives the player a wider range of control, and the world is built around the player’s arsenal of skills. It is good, but the gap between high mastery and simply playing it is jarring. There were a lot of moments when Arno did something I didn’t want to do. Maybe I want to run around a tight corner, but Arno instead ends up jumping onto an object. Maybe I want to jump up to a ledge or grab a surface, but Arno doesn’t do this. Maybe I simply want to go through a window, but Arno ends up moving another way or jumping to reach another ledge I was aiming for. These frustrations begin to pile up and form what is an annoying character to control. These problems were an excuse in the older games, but here you’re things to be more polished up seeing how this is the seventh mainline entry in the series. 

I begin to think about Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag and how despite removing certain aspects of the older games they made a more polished experience. Traversal felt good, your character actually leaps where you point him, doesn’t grab onto things you weren’t aiming for, and just walking felt normal rather than clunky. Another thing Black Flag polished up was the combat. Sure it was extremely easy as any enemy countered could be killed instantly, but it was fun and fluid. Death in Black Flag was fair and enemy attacks were clearly indicated. There was always a way to counter what they were about to do as long as you paid attention. Unity attempts to make the combat more challenging, but in doing so they added a bunch of unfair elements.Whether it be trying to handle a bunch of enemies at once and trying to counter them en masse rather than see them take turns. Giving players open windows to observe and counter. Sometimes the attack wind up is extremely short and they hit you within less than a single second. The ability to use a human shield, something seen in past entries, is gone now and you have no way to avoid enemies with guns. The game is not afraid of having multiple firing all at once. It also doesn’t help, again, that the game doesn’t always do what you need Arno to do. Your controller inputs are delayed, so Arno doesn’t end up attacking or countering even when you press the button at the right time. I thought it was due to equipment load or stamina at first, but no this just happens. It feels less like my own fault and instead the game.

Now to be fair the reason combat was probably made as hard as it is because of the heavier focus on stealth. Unity saw the franchise’s first implementation of stealth and it was pretty good, when it works…. If it works. Again, for the third f*cking time, Arno doesn’t always do what you need him to do. Maybe you want to double assassinate two guys standing close together but instead he stabs one and lets the second one spot him. Maybe you want Arno to hide behind the corner, and the game clearly lets you but doesn’t do so and you start button mashing until it works. Maybe the enemy’s awareness starts going up wildly fast even though you’re more than a mile away. I like it when stealth games are punishing. Willing to slap the player in the face when they don’t take things seriously or try to rush it. However, there needs to be fairness to it. You need not only for the level design and ways of hiding to work, but also for the game to work. There are times when the areas you have to sneak around either over very little way of avoiding detection and make it downright impossible. What is the point of having a heavier focus on stealth when you can’t even utilize it to its fullest potential. It’s a good idea implemented poorly into a game. 

There’s dozens of other things I can complain about gameplay-wise. The dozens of perks you can unlock, and half of them being useless because they either deal with equipment that doesn’t fit your playstyle or are multiplayer focused. Money being given in low amounts. Less so than the previous games, and this makes buying equipment to survive hard especially with extremely high prices. One of your currencies being regulated through microtransactions allowing you to purchase endgame items early on and break the early game. The map screen being an absolute nightmare to navigate, because they flooded it with dozens of icons you have no intention to ever interact with. Collision issues, your character sometimes getting stuck in a wall, failing to fall while falling, having big hordes for the sake of having big hordes and this may be the reason why this game was and still is a technical mess. Assassin’s Creed: Unity wanted to be a grand innovation on the older games but if anything I feel as though they’ve regressed rather than try to improve. That’s why it’s a game with good ideas, but terrible execution of more than half of ‘em.

I will give credit where credit is due. France is a gorgeous city to waltz around in, and the French Revolution is one of the most interesting settings for an Assassin’s Creed game. Unfortunately they do not make good usage of this, which brings us to the story. It starts off really strong. The first hour of this game is great, but everytime it just sours in a pile of disappointment. With a main protagonist who's more of an idiotic asshole rather than someone you can sympathize with. A plethora of villains none of which are as interesting as other series entries. The revolution, the main events for which this game revolves around feeling more like an aesthetic rather than a topic for which the writers can tackle. The writers are confused on whether this should be a revenge story, a love story, or the path one sets for themselves. Notice how every other game I’ve covered from this series has been about the protagonist maturing or finding their place. Ezio may have had three games worth of character development, but we witnessed his entire life. Become a man, not let only anger drive him, surround themselves with loved ones, and learn to accept when it is finally time to settle down. Edward pursues a dream, a fantasy, only to realize his drive to pursue this dream hurts everyone around him. Leading him to accept his faults, try to fix the problems he caused, and tend to the very few people left who care for him. Bayek seeks revenge for the death of his son, but eventually it becomes a tale of grief rather than loss. Learning to move on, forgive himself for what he failed to protect, and venture on.

Each of these games are about something personal, because it’s in the title of the series. What is the main feeling I got after finishing the story of Assassin’s Creed: Unity? Uuuuuuuuuuuh. Same answer I gave at the end of this review. I have no idea what the writers of this story were trying to say. There is no message and anything they say lands flat. Nothing about this game sticks out to me. The endings fall flat and the love story they tell between Arno and Elise is either cliche or annoying. Assassin’s Creed: Unity is really just that. Good intentions, but man is it annoying to just play. An unpolished mess of mechanics, which is saying a lot considering older games in long running franchises are often considered sloppier. I won’t say Assassin’s Creed: Unity is a bad game. It’s okay, but it’s frustrating when you think about how this game could’ve been better if the developers had more time to refine the systems at play. It is the result of corporate buggery and practices, and I cannot understand how people can say it’s underrated without addressing the multitude of problems at hand. I give Assassin’s Creed: Unity a 7/10 for being okay.