REVIEW: Assassin’s Creed Unity

I have been a series-long fan of Assassin’s Creed. At the risk of being forced to don lenseless thick-rimmed glasses and write my memoirs on a typewriter in Starbucks, I liked Assassin’s Creed before it was popular. I’ve been with the series since the launch of the first game. It was hard as hell, but I loved it. I loved 2 just as much. I loved Brotherhood and Revelations. I really liked Black Flag. The basics had started to get stale, but the pirate and ship elements kept it fresh for me. I …still won’t talk about Assassin’s Creed 3.

I came to Unity with very high hopes. This seventh game in the franchise (not including mobile and DLC titles) is touted as taking the series back to its roots and bringing back the best of Ezio’s and Altair’s adventures.

The first thing to mention is this game is gorgeous. It’s also huge. It’s very hard to compare it to the open seas and island-hoping of its predecessor, but it certainly puts Venice and Rome from earlier titles in the shade.

In the hallmark of recent Ubisoft games, you start in a ‘pre-title’ prologue sequence. This time you begin as a young child, playing with a female companion (who remains throughout the game) and learning the basic game controls (such as a new ‘distraction’ mechanic to lure guards to the last place they saw you, pulled straight out of the most recent Splinter Cell games).

You are also introduced to the setting – Late 18th Century Revolutionary France – and the long running feud between the Assassins and Templars. The murder of your father spurs you on to a revenge trip which sees you wind up in the Bastille and then into the arms of the Assassin’s Brotherhood.

The setting is striking. France is vibrantly brought to life in dizzying detail. Climbing around the likes of Notre Dame Cathedral actually lets you explore it to a level that just isn’t available as a tourist (in fact Banzie and I spent a frankly sad amount of time admiring the iconic flying buttresses). The streets are alive; full of people, animals and stories …and with the first stages of rebellion hanging thick in the air.

However, graphics aside, the first thing that bothered me as I started playing was the lack of context. One of the strongest Aspects of the Assassin’s Creed series has been the way it inserts the story into a heavily fact-based historical setting. On a recent holiday to Venice I toured the main sights and it was amazing how much I already knew about the history just from playing Revelations. The last days of the pirate kings (or yes, even the American Civil War) were intrinsic to the progression of the story in previous titles. With Unity that doesn’t feel the same. The history is still there if you want to go and find it (mostly in the form of newspapers to read and other incidental objects) but it feels entirely incidental to what is going on in the plot of the game (rather than integral to it, as in titles like Black Flag). I spent a very long proportion of the game only being aware of the impending revolution from my own knowledge, and having no idea who’s side I was on, or whether *I* (Arno Dorian) cared.

For many that may be a blessing, but to me it’s a genuine loss. The historical settings have always felt like a character in themselves to me, and Unity (wrongly, I’m sure) can occasionally feel like the game was written first, and then they chose an historical setting in which to place it.

However, there is more than enough to do around late 1700’s Paris and Versailles. In fact there is SO much to do, it’s a little daunting. There are the usual chests to collect. This time round ‘feathers’ have become cockades and fragments are now Nomad points (which can be used in a directly connected mobile game). Assassin missions are back, and I have to say far more interesting than simply following and killing people. You will help various characters (including historical figures such as such as Madame Tussauds) recover lost items, find out information, free political prisoners or… well, yes assassinate targets.

This time round the ‘Base’ (in the style of Ezio’s villa in Monteriggioni or Edward’s mansion on Great Inagua) is the Café Théâtre. Again you use a combination of missions and money to upgrade and update it, unlocking secret rooms and outfits in the process. Naturally the better the renovation, the more money the Café brings in per hour to be picked up at your convenience (yes Claudia, I’m here to look at the f***ng book).

There are also plots to uncover, characters to aid and a set of new ‘crime solving’ side missions in which you aid a lazy police chief to solve murders via stealth, investigation and a heavy dose of eagle vision. There is also the very welcome return of puzzles (although in a much more simple and heavily diluted format than Ezio had to deal with) via Nostradamus’ clues –with the goal of unlocking the series-staple super armour.

There is the usual opportunity to buy new weapons and armour to boost your stats, but there are now far more options. Weapons come in the form of Pistols, single handed weapons, two-handed weapons and pole-arms (to bolster the usual wristblade, bombs and a new wrist-mounted crossbow). There is a far greater selection of each, and within the same price brackets you can choose options that focus on speed, damage, or blocking etc. Likewise with your clothes you can change your Hood, top, belt, wristcuffs and trousers. Again there are many choices for each, and you can play with the stats to put together an outfit at each price range which best suits and augments your style of play.

All of the above can be bought and upgraded using one of several in-game currencies, or by spending ‘Hack’/Helix points… which are bought with real money. Yep, sadly microtransactions are fully in effect in Unity. Black Flag toyed with the option of ‘time saving bundles’ that were bought as DLC and unlocked all weapons or ship upgrades etc. These bundles are still available, but so too is the much more nefarious ‘second currency’ option. I think it would be a stretch to suggest they ever amount to paywalls in the game, but let’s just say there are certain weapons who’s in-game price is massively disproportionate to the others and will take a LONG time playing to afford ….but which can be instantly purchased with real money. The pricing, as well, is a little insane. £7.99 will get you 1000 Helix, and if you want a ‘bargain’, £64 will get you 20,000. For reference, one top level pistol can be bought for 1000 Helix. One pistol. £7.99.

We have become accustomed to seeing these sorts of points bundles in ‘freemium’ mobile games, but in a £55 pound AAA release they are out of place and frankly tasteless. You can’t help but feel it’s a comment on how Ubisoft have come to view us gamers, and it’s not a complementary one.

The skills Arno has and can earn are also revised into a more RPG-esque style. Instead of simply acquiring new skills and abilities as you progress (as in previous titles), you now decide how to spend your Assassin points to give your character the skills you want. In theory this is a nice way to ensure when each person’s character comes to multiplayer, they all bring a different skill set with them. However, in practice being unable to use your pistol, pick a lock or blend on a bench because you haven’t unlocked it yet just seems weird. The game tries to strike a good balance of making sure there is a way to complete every mission regardless of your chosen skill set. It is mostly successful, but accidently results in making certain sections more linear. For example on a two player mission my fellow Assassin and I were limited to one access point in a mission simply as neither of us had ‘level 2 lockpick’.

The combat is heavily revised in Unity as well, and I would draw parallels directly back to the original game and taking on Templars as Altair. Unity has a much stronger focus on Stealth than the last few titles, and in keeping with this open combat is MUCH more difficult. Without massive amounts of upgrades, taking on a group of 6 enemies is suicide. Combat is more nuanced, and requires perfect timing. More than that, parry and dodge can no longer simply be spammed to avoid attacks. Dodges and parries have to be both timed perfectly and directed towards the attacker in question to be effective. This can be punishing as hell, but has two effects: it makes a hard won victory in combat much more satisfying and it genuinely pushes you try to stay unseen where possible.

There is also a HUGE problem with the combat, which can at times be alarmingly close to a game-breaker. A large number of the enemies have one or two hit kills if they are given the opportunity to wind them up or line up the correct shot. Not a problem when you are given the opportunity to take the appropriate action… only, far too often you aren’t. Guards will come in with a spear thrust from well off screen with neither warning nor chance to react, and that thrust will desynchronise you instantly. Likewise a rifleman that isn’t even in the immediate area can end a perfectly executed mission with one shot and without ever revealing his actual position. The fact that this can occur (without any opportunity to stop it) within the final minutes of a very long mission can make you scream and realise you’d rather be taking part in the ‘awesomepocalypse’ anyway.

It’s a shame that this can happen with such regularity, because the combat has the chance to be brilliant and challenging.

This takes us on to the companion app (which is FINALLY available for Windows Mobile and Windows 8 tablets! Yay!). The basic feature of the companion app is to provide a second screen, full 3D map/GPS tracker. This looks great AND is brilliantly helpful. On top of that the companion incorporates a Management game akin to ‘Kenway’s Fleet’. Only accessible from the Companion, this ‘Nomad’ game lets you send individuals or groups of Assassins (instead of Ships) to complete various text-based missions, and their chances of success depend on the difficulty of the mission the number sent, their levels and skills etc. Assassins can be recruited and upgraded via Nomad points, which can be collected in-game or via minigames on the Companion map.

The companion also provides the opportunity to customise Arno, manage your ‘Club’ (clan) and other administrative stuff. Of course, if you want the best companion experience, you’ll want to upgrade to and pay for the ‘premium’ app, right? (yes, really).

There is also a nauseating need to sign up to a number of services and employ the companion and other elements to get the best from the game. For example, a number of the chests around Paris are blue. This means they can only be opened when the player has the companion app running. To sync the app with the game you have to make sure both are signed in to your obligatory Ubisoft Uplay account. Then when you open it you manage to level up your assassin rank, so off you toddle to the ‘ACInitiates’ webpage to manage that (which managed to crash my console well enough to require a hard reboot).

A feature that was massively pushed pre-release was Co-Op, and I have to say, this does pretty much everything you want it to. The same combat and skills issues prevail, but overall it is a brilliant way to experience the game. You start by teaming up with up to 3 friends and get the whole of Paris to free-roam together with all of the same features and instances (street crimes, thieves, and breakout violence) for you to tackle together. Between the skills, weapons and outfits available, you are likely to end up with a pleasingly distinct band of Assassins that will all fall into different roles when combat starts.

Likewise you can launch into Co-op Missions and heists by selecting them around the maps, and then choose to tackle them in whichever way you see fit. Each Assassin can take a different job to complete, work in pairs or you can just move together as one unit – all various options are catered for and can be employed to great effect. The feeling of working as a cohesive unit (when playing with the right people) can be brilliant. The synchronicity of one person taking out the rooftop snipers while another silences the scouts and a third picks some door and window locks to provide a means of escape is addictive.

On top of the usual skills you have access to multiplayer boosts, which can temporarily buff any weak areas in a team by increasing health, combat prowess and other elements for a few minutes. Of course, you can always make them even better by purchasing the ‘premium boosts’ with real money (sigh).

This game has the potential to be great even the above flaws with microtransactions and combat. Unfortunately it falls from that position by just being a bit… broken. The game suffers a huge amount of problems that simply shouldn’t appear in a full price triple A title, and especially not one that has been three years in the making.

The Frame rate in Unity makes me long for a return to Skyrim on the 360. Often the frame rate just drops and leaves the screen tearing and shuddering as you run through the streets. Likewise, large crowds and large buildings make the whole game slow down and at times it can feel like you’re playing in slow motion.

The draw distances for the buildings is impressive, but in contrast the crowds suffer massive pop-up. When you run through the streets at any speed, random NPCs will be regularly appearing and disappearing, often only feet from you. They will also regularly glitch into scenery or fall into the floor.

Watching a couple walking up a street only for the woman to disappear through the floor was particularly hilarious due to the man reacting as if she had been attacked or injured, and so freaking out. Having said that, when (several seconds later) she came shooting out from the floor and disappeared into the sky as if punted by Superman in a strop, he was actually remarkably calm…

These same problems can also affect the player. I have jumped onto buildings only to pass through the wall and get stuck in scenery. I once jumped off a building to do an air assassination, only for Arno to think better of it, miss the target completely, pass through the floor and fall through animus-space until desynchronising some 15-20 seconds later. I have also entered combat (especially in co-op) with a group only for my character to seemingly, instantaneously adopt a philosophy of passive non-aggression – or at least that’s the only explanation I have for why he stubbornly refused to take any combat commands (despite being in ‘fighting stance’) and allowed himself to be cut down without so much as a half-hearted slash or roll.

There are also loads of features missing. You can’t pick up weapons from the floor. You can’t hire courtesans or fighters. You can’t pickpocket. Much more importantly you can’t grapple. You can’t grab people. Despite there being a hugely increased focus on stealth, you can’t whistle to attract guards to your spot. Given the massive prevalence of firearms and the fact they can kill in one or 2 shots, there is no option to employ a human shield or evade gunfire other than to roll about the floor and hope it misses.

Combined with the previous issues such as with combat and the payments, these just come together to provide a game that just feels unfinished. It really is a massive shame because there is a genuinely great game under all the problems, and despite the issues there are some fantastic moments. Co-Op, when it works, is a joy and the new free-running animations look and work fantastically. Unfortunately the myriad issues can at times make this greatness very hard to see (or experience).

Hopefully a number of the problems can be patched (although whether that is acceptable is a conversation for another time), but some of them are inherent in the game itself.

As a result I find it hard to really recommend Assassin’s Creed Unity to anyone other than die-hard fans of the series that will persevere through the issues, the constant prompts to sign into subsidiary services and the microtransactions, to enjoy the latest chapter in the battle against Abstergo.

^HooksaN (@HooksaN)