Assassin’s Creed: Unity: Review
WITH Assassin’s Creed: Unity the funniest thing happened. Ubisoft conducts a multimillion-dollar PR campaign for the game, showers all the biggest exhibitions in the industry with spectacular presentations, bombards the public with statements about a breakthrough in the genre – and as a result, critics give the masterpiece almost the same relatively average score that it receives in less than five minutes Assassin’s Creed: Rogue – a product of secondary importance, the rate for which the developers had was significantly lower. Failure, natural course of events or marketing mistake?
Return to roots
About non-standard work capacity of PR specialists from Ubisoft we already know firsthand. Suffice it to recall the loud promises regarding Watch_Dogs. Advertisers have done a disservice to the new Assassin’s Creed, putting it almost on a par with the seven wonders of the world. Yes, they coped with their task: the public really believed that Unity will be a breakthrough in the series and will have new mechanics, redesigned parkour and a bunch of other nice goodies. The great magic of marketing lies in the fact that, although everyone knew in their hearts that there could be nothing radically new in the next part, everyone began to behave as if Ubisoft will begin to flow with unprecedented creativity.
What could have happened as a result?? That’s right, broken hearts, dashed hopes and painful disappointments. Against the backdrop of loud promises and rosy fantasies, reality always seems grayer than it is. The list of reasons for public indignation was topped by technical crudeness Unity. The game came out simply unfinished – with a huge number of bugs. Characters fall through the ground, the laws of gravity disappear every now and then, textures often “forget” to load in time, and enemies sometimes seem to be trying to prove that zero IQ is not a death sentence. Ubisoft I already apologized for the misunderstanding, but it didn’t make anyone feel any better.
However, if we forget about technical difficulties and talk about substantive matters, then it is worth recognizing that the concept Assassin’s Creed has already exhausted itself throughout Ezio’s long and painful adventures. It would seem that the developers understood this and changed course in time. But, having plowed the sea, we return to our native European continent and discover that things are still there. Black Flag was an experiment, a revolution, a radical turn in the development of the series. Unity – this is a return to the roots, to big cities, stealth and… at the same time, this is a step back.
You are a Templar, I am an assassin. We will never meet
No matter how much they hinted Ubisoft, that the concept of temporary travel with the help of the “Animus” can be abandoned and only the historical part of the assassin’s journeys left, the developers stand their ground and take the idea to a completely unseemly form. It’s no longer possible to walk around Abstergo or chat with members of an underground group of assassins – the “modern” part comes down to videos between missions in which the assassins of our era, as if making excuses for what was happening, explain what we forgot in revolutionary France at the end of the 18th century.
In the plot component Unity imitates previous parts of the series. Stories of love, revenge and political confrontation – all these lines are once again intertwined into a complex dramatic knot that we have to unravel. The plot starts quite traditionally: the father of Arno, who has barely stopped walking under the table, is killed, a rich aristocrat takes custody of the guy, and the hero begins an affair with his daughter. The love line is a drama in the spirit of “Romeo and Juliet” – he is an assassin, she is a Templar, feelings flare up between them. The confrontation between the two orders turns out to be the engine and shadow side of the historical process, the authenticity of which is reinforced by the presence in the frame of Madame Tussauds, Robespierre, marquise de Sade and many other real historical characters. That’s why Unity copes well with its educational and educational functions.
Imitation of the second part is also https://ukcryptocasinos.co.uk/review/gxmble/ found in the image of the main character. Young Arno – a kind of young Ezio. A sharp mind, a violent character, a disregard for norms – the Florentine assassin was fully distinguished by all of this. At first the character is interesting, but his image is a carbon copy taken from the second part, and therefore he is perceived as stale and secondary. And when the guy is initiated into the assassins, his agility and enthusiasm will completely cool down. Arno will become a gloomy and taciturn type like Radunhageidu, consumed solely by thoughts of revenge.
Paris I love you
We will spend most of the game time in one huge city – Paris, recreated, according to the authors, on a scale of 1:1. The developers did a great job on the setting. The surroundings of revolutionary France are conveyed superbly: general devastation, scaffolds on every corner, angry crowds shouting rebellious slogans. When you sit on top of Notre Dame Cathedral next to the stone gargoyles, you get a shiver – so picturesque and realistic is what is happening there, on the streets teeming with hundreds of angry Parisians. The colorful videos were not staged, Ubisoft really shows us what nextgen can do.
The city map is dotted with all kinds of synchronization towers, chests, shops, side quests. Unity offers us a rich “sandbox” in which we can dig for dozens of hours. The interface has become a little more convenient; you can find out about the location of nearby “interesting” points without looking at the map – important marks are visualized right around the Arno model.
But the main innovation that had a direct impact on the gameplay was the appearance of open buildings. Now we can really get inside many buildings through doors or windows and walk around the apartments, and not use the premises only as through corridors, as in the third part. The decoration of the premises deserves special attention: both the huge temple halls with stained glass windows and the cozy nests of the petty bourgeoisie are drawn and furnished extremely carefully, which, of course, plays into the hands of the atmosphere.
The redesigned parkour system looks good visually, but functionally it is often not at all intuitive. Sometimes have difficulty performing certain movements, such as walking down a wall or pushing off an object. In general, moving across rooftops has become a little more difficult and a little less dynamic. This is also due to the fact that it has become too easy to escape from pursuits – the guards do not at all want to bother themselves with climbing buildings.
Fencing Master
In any conflict situation, it is much easier to give in and escape from the eyes of your pursuers than to get into a fight. But if it comes down to it, we will have to face quite significant changes in the combat system. First of all – visual. It’s a pleasure to look at the bloody fountains splashing from the victim after a colorful “fatality” performed by Arno. Animations of movements and strikes have been redrawn and become more brutal, but at the same time their number has noticeably decreased, and the assassin’s repetitive techniques are quickly becoming boring. The very principle of combat has changed slightly: “block – counterattack” against fighters with one-handed blades and “roll – attack” when meeting with guys from a heavier weight category – two tactical approaches that, after an hour of practice, become a universal tool in all fights.
The main change in the combat system is the new blocking mechanics. She now began to resemble Batman: you will have to press the button at the moment the enemy strikes. This did not bring anything radically new, but in battle you will have to be more attentive to the yellow stripes lighting up above the enemies. Difficulties arise when the process of monotonous shredding of opponents is interrupted by musketeers, who quite confidently put an end to all Arno’s plans with just two shots. It is this circumstance that forces you not to go ahead, but to look for safer options for achieving your goal.
The authors managed to complicate the combat process, but this was done at the expense of its primitivization. There are no more grabs or variable strike combinations left. Moreover, you won’t even be able to change weapons during a fight or pick up a blade lying on the ground. Thinned out inventory with assassin weapons. The developers have emptied the trash can and left all the essentials. We can take with us one of three types of weapons, differing in length and weight. However, the way to handle them in all cases is almost the same and comes down to alternately pressing two buttons – attack and block.
The Gentleman’s Assassin’s Kit also includes smoke bombs, pistols and a couple of other necessary "gadgets". A phantom blade has appeared, successfully replacing darts and crossbows. I’m glad that none of the things are lying around like dead weight in Arno’s pockets; they all turn out to be useful to one degree or another.
But we won’t be able to use all the equipment right away. The French assassins turned out to be far from being as smart as their ancestors, and therefore Arno will have to master all the tricks from scratch, gradually learning the skills and talents that were available to other great killers from birth. “Tuning” includes improving health, melee and ranged combat, and “stealth” abilities. For example, we can teach Arno such basic things as opening chests or shooting pistols. This is done for points earned during missions. In addition, the game has two currencies intended for "upgrading" the assassin’s equipment, and one of them is converted from real money. Microtransactions are not at all necessary for successful completion, but the fact of their presence leaves an unpleasant aftertaste.
Thou shalt not kill. Or at least hide when you kill
The increased importance of stealth is evidenced by the very appearance of the stealth movement mode, which was so lacking in previous parts. As already mentioned, the new “Assassin” has grown not so much in breadth as in depth. Spacious interiors of buildings with a large number of interior items opened up new opportunities for gameplay. Hiding behind tables, beds and altars and taking turns eliminating his opponents, Arno becomes somewhat similar to Sam Fisher. True, the stealth mechanics are not varied and developed enough to surprise, and opponents, due to their stupidity, often refuse to notice even an assassin running right in front of their noses. There is also a strong lack of the ability to whistle that was cut out for some reason. But, being successfully integrated into the traditional parkour gameplay, local stealth creates at least some feeling of freshness.
The assassin missions turned out to be a pleasant highlight of the game: there are no unnecessary scripts or strict instructions on what to do. There is you, a goal and a huge territory. Planning a murder and calculating the trajectories of the guards is no less fun than an action game. Sometimes there are several options to achieve a goal.
The secondary tasks also featured a little more variety than usual. Riddles Nostradamus will make you wiggle your brains a little, and “Parisian stories” will allow you to plunge into separate non-plot mini-adventures. Not all of them are exciting, but sometimes there are some memorable tasks. The notorious cooperative missions are also well implemented. In addition, on the streets you will encounter many random events such as thieves running past or bandits beating up innocent citizens. Overall, there is a lot to do in Paris.
Unity – trimmed on all sides A.C. The developers have deprived the game of a huge number of achievements in the series. On the one hand, this is bad, since we have already been accustomed to the abundance of gameplay possibilities. On the other hand, the stealth charm of the first parts has returned to us. But such a revolution in concept, which once produced Black Flag, V Unity didn’t happen. The perception of gameplay remains the same. Before us is again a tortured, beaten and a hundred times tired mechanics. From creative reinvention to blind copying – one step. AND Unity took this step.
Pros: an atmospheric depiction of revolutionary Paris; presence of open buildings; good opportunities for stealth passage.
Cons: a storyline with boring pathos and a boring hero; weak AI is unable to maintain interest in stealth mechanics; lack of many gameplay elements of the latest parts; microtransactions; bugs.