Assassin's Creed Unity Reviews
Assassin's Creed Unity refines the franchise's gameplay and graphics with next-gen tech, and the results are understandably excellent.
It stumbles out of the gates, but underneath the issues lies a pretty good experience that I would hope will get better with patches.
When I returned to the Paris rooftops far above the rabble below I marveled at how clean and ordered the city looked. It seemed endless, pristinely crafted and elegantly set. The rabble of the people turned to a muffled hum, and I forgot about the blood and shit-strewn streets where people carried heads on pikes and screamed for justice from a conflict I would never really experience. On the roof of the city, I thought I could maybe catch the faint words of a song that had some political resonance. But in retrospect it was probably just the wind, carrying nothing at all.
With Assassin's Creed Unity, there's a great game buried somewhere beneath an unforgivable amount of technical issues, from annoying glitches to frustrating crashes. It's a perfect example of how Ubisoft's insistence to annualise the series has backfired, as it's clearly an unfinished product.
The Assassin's Creed series' first 'next-gen' only iteration should have launched to much fanfare. However, although Assassin's Creed Unity is a really good game, the coding behind it isn't up to par. The result is an enjoyable experience that is marred by unfortunate technical issues.
Assassin's Creed: Unity is at once an object of exquisite beauty and exhausting boredom.
Every Assassin's Creed since II seems to focus on a particular gimmick, from the brotherhood, to the wilderness, to the open seas. Unity is an attempt to get back to the basics of stealth-action, and there are a lot of subtle upgrades that make the formula feel freshly tailored for this new generation. This is an extremely ambitious, beautiful game that you can spend a lot of time with. Unfortunately, system performance may vary substantially, Arno's story is a bit underwhelming, and if you don't have a few patriots to join you in battle the co-op missions won't impress. History has given us better Assassin's Creed games than this, but the Animus can still simulate a captivating adventure.
And not to say it's without its faults, as noted with some minor, yet impactful, movement snags and a dated combat system. Visually it sometimes seemed as though there were textures in lower resolution, more so in cut-scenes, and I also experienced significant load time a lot which broke the immersion element. The overall experience delivered significantly outweighs any of the negatives mentioned though.
All told, Assassin's Creed Unity is a great game that's been let down by some technical issues. It's a shame that Ubisoft drew attention to themselves with the quotes earlier on this year by implying one version had been held back, which judging on the PS4 version of the game simply isn't true. It's even more annoying to think that this will be the talking point when really it should be more about how Ubisoft Montreal have nailed the key things in the game and brought the best things from previous games to the table whilst whittling away some of the less well received parts. If you're a fan of the series, Assassin's Creed Unity is an absolute no-brainer. It distills the essence of the franchise into a campaign of decent length, with more variety than before and a much-needed revamp of the mission structure, and adding in a surprisingly deep and fun co-operative mode has revitalised the online side of things for the franchise. Much like a couple of other high profile franchises this year, Assassin's Creed has its best entry in years with the release of Unity. If the technical problems can be patched out, then add a one onto the score.
[T]he technical performance is such a hindrance and burden at times; you can only hope it played as great as it looks. There is a lot to love in Unity, like tons of content to keep you busy for hours on end, but you have to be willing to overlook its truly ugly shortcomings.
Unity attempts to improve on some of Assassin's Creed's innate problems, but it misses the mark as often as it hits. Nevertheless, you'll want to play it for the gorgeous rendition of revolutionary (etc.) France and the involving, opened-ended primary assassination missions. It's clear Ubisoft is trying to shake up the series a bit, but next time they need to shake a little harder.
Assassin's Creed Unity is indeed the prettiest version of Assassin's Creed yet, getting back to basics and focusing on the Assassin part of Assassin's Creed.
A thoughtful story with some great missions, but fundamental problems in control, balance, and tech hold the game back
Wandering around Paris is a real treat, visually the game looks great and Ubisoft Montréal has done a solid job of the visual and audio design. The crowds chatter away in French, adding a backdrop to the scene, while events of significance are spoken in English, allowing you to quickly pick them out. In terms of content, the main game was really enjoyable, while the sheer breadth of side content borders on intimidating.
Assassin's Creed Unity does so much good for the Revolution and also does some things that are not so great for the Revolution. If you are an Asssassin's Creed fan this decent title might be worth the purchase.
If you're a fan of the Assassin's Creed franchise you will undoubtedly love what Ubisoft has brought to the table with Assassin's Creed Unity. A vibrant playground that you can tackle alone or with friends, it adds just enough new while still staying faithful to what made it successful in the first place. Despite some minor hiccups along the way this is a great first showing for Assassin's Creed exclusively on current generation consoles.
True to its name, Unity is a cohesive collection of the fundamental elements of the Assassin's Creed experience, and feels like a much-needed reset for a franchise that was starting to become bloated and scattered. It may not be a revolution, but vive l'unité all the same.
For a series that's tackled colonial America, the high seas, and the Italian renaissance, Assassin's Creed Unity manages to keep it fresh. It has enough going for it to make it worth a purchase for the discerning gamer who may or may not still be suffering from the trauma of rote learning every detail of the French Revolution for academic purposes. Well worth the price of admission, and then some.
Assassin's Creed Unity manages to do many thing right like having a story that pulled me in, and made me want to keep playing to see how it all unfolds which was something Assassin's Creed III had a problem with. I was also happy that Unity focused a lot more on assassinations, and made some solid improvements to the assassination missions. While Unity managed to do a lot of things well, it has quite a few problems on the technical side of things like the glitches, framerate, and texture pop ins that can really take you out of the fantastically recreated 1790's Paris. Technical issues aside this is another solid entry to the series.
Brighter than Unity's ambitions, perhaps, since the sacrifices made on the story front are clear. But it's still an impressive sandbox, and does its setting justice. Rough edges or no, Assassin's Creed Unity is a technical step forward, and likely a title every fan who's made the leap to next-gen will want to see for themselves.