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Assassin's Creed Unity Criticized By Former French Politician

Former presidential candidate labels the game "propaganda."

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Not everyone is happy with the way in which Ubisoft's recently released action game Assassin's Creed Unity depicts the French revolution. Former French minister and presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon recently denounced the game during an appearance on French radio.

He slammed Unity, labeling it "propaganda" that presents historical figures such as the "cretin" Marie-Antoinette and King Louis XVI as upstanding people while simultaneously showing the French masses as savages, according to a transcription of his talk by the Daily Telegraph (via Polygon).

Jean-Luc Melenchon
Jean-Luc Melenchon

Melenchon added that Unity depicts Robespierre as a monster when the truth of the matter, according to Melenchon, was that he was a hero of the French revolution.

"It is propaganda against the people, the people who are (portrayed as) barbarians, bloodthirsty savages," Melenchon said. "In 1789 there were the poor aristocrats, and they are presented as fine upstanding people."

Overall, Melenchon described Unity as a game that "presents an image of hatred of the Revolution, hatred of the people, hatred of the republic which is rampant in the far-right milieux (of today)."

We have reached out to Ubisoft for comment and will update this post with anything we hear back.

Unity launched last Tuesday across Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. Fans immediately cried out over the game's technical issues, which Ubisoft is working "furiously" now to fix. For more on Unity, check out GameSpot's review and what other critics are saying.

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