Assassin's Creed: Unity Review
The story starts off as a lengthy and deep tutorial following the footsteps of Arno, the new protagonist. You see Arno as a child and through part of his adulthood which educates you on his story, where it started and where it leads him. Arno has faced troubling times throughout his life and it’s time for him to expose what it was that caused these troubles, the dark secrets and corruption of the Aristocracy.
Let me start off by saying “Wow”, visually Assassin’s Creed Unity is flawless and real proof that the developers know exactly how to work their engine and utilise their skills to create the most beautiful and believable landscapes in gaming history. Lines are straight, round edges are round and colour, texture and lighting are perfect, constantly. And to mix this with what is some of the most breathtaking architecture in the world, you’re really in for a treat… This is True “next-gen” standards!
You get to experience France in a way and an Era that is only possible through the dedication of talented video games developers.
Then we have the CGI and again, it’s flawless. At one point I thought I was watching a movie and was emotionally drawn into the scene. Character emotion was written all over their faces as it would be in a real life situation and the voice acting (although a little strange… I’ll cover this later) was spot on. Having said that, there were times when I was speaking to an NPC and I could barely hear what they were saying due to the very loud background noise. I appreciate that you can change volume settings but this shouldn’t be an issue in the first place. So, make sure you use subtitles!
Moving through France is (as mentioned above) a great experience, not only because of the visuals of the architecture, but because it’s the first time in a video game where I felt that each and every person was unique. Apart from the guards I cannot remember seeing the same person twice… you know what I’m talking about; You’re playing a game and every person has the same face and is wearing the same T-shirt as every other third-person, right? Yes, but not in THIS Assassin’s Creed: Unity.
The majority of the main story missions are very fun as are the diverse side-missions. The general feel brought me back to the original HITMAN days where you’d think a strategy and choose one of the many options available in order to deal with the said missions as stealthily as possible. It was great! However, moving, is at times, sluggish and clumsy and annoyingly it got me killed on several occasions. Sometimes you want to run through the crowds without jumping and climbing, but Arno thinks that every grab-able piece of street furniture is a challenge. It did get frustrating at times especially when I was just walking calmly and Arno would get on a bench and walk along it and refuse to get off without some over-the-top jump.
A few other things that annoyed me have to be 1) the voice acting. At times the characters would throw in a French word or French tone to their words but they mostly sounded Cockney (East London). It was a little strange and at times funny, but wrong nonetheless.
2) The loading screens are very long and can bring you out of the “gaming zone” that you might be in. it’s nothing game breaking, but it’s definitely an annoyance that I would have hoped would be brought to near in-existence in this day and age.
3) Crash, freeze and glitch. Yes, I came across one of each and all at annoying times, especially when you rarely get an autosave where you’d want it the most. However, I know that we’re in a time where gaming development is very complicated, but you’d like to hope that issues like this would be easily found and dealt with in the QA process.
There is an online multiplayer option for those that want to scale France with their friends, but due to the game not having been released to the masses it was not possible for me to try this out and therefore leaves me unable to comment on this offering.
Assassin’s Creed: Unity is a real gem and the best in the franchise. It’s the first time since the original that I have felt in-love with Assassin’s Creed and can’t wait to go back to France and uncover the rest of what the game has to offer. There may be a few issues and a few tweaks that I’d personally like, such as the removal of the HUD and other screen clutter, but overall it’s amazing!
Whether you’re a fan of history, Assassin’s Creed, architecture or gaming general, this is a must have title that will keep you busy, wanting more and in awe for many hours.
9/10
Review By wicket2961
