Assassin's Creed Unity is a colorful, vibrant experience. On the surface it may seem like a beautiful open world, full of adventures to be had. While this may appear to be the case, taking a longer look at it will ultimately reveal the many flaws and issues hidden within this parisian paradise.
The main quest follows the story of protagonist Arno Dorian, a charismatic young man full of charm and wit. The problems with the story of Unity aren't to be found in its hero. He's likable and charming, and I found myself quite entertained by his often sarcastic and wise remarks. The story fails in its main plot. At first it may seem that the game will focus on Arno's life as an Assassin, with him taking orders and navigating the ranks of the shadowy organization, similar to the fan favorite Assassin's Creed 2. However, the story soon turns away from the more interesting Assassin plot, and begins to focus on a more bland love story between Arno an a character named Elise. The Templar-Assassin conflict still plays a role, but this love story is meant to take center stage. i may not have minded this fact were the story written and executed better, but the plot is so full of cliches and bland writing that I found myself not caring during some of its more "emotional" moments, and accurately predicting simple and overused plot twists, removing most of the enjoyment I would have had for the plot.
Another flaw of the story is its disjointed cast of characters. If you watched the games trailers, you may have seen how the developers claimed to have created a "colorful cast of characters". These alleged vibrant and exotic characters actually play a very small role in the overall plot. While I did find myself enjoying these characters, I was soon disappointed to find that these individuals, like Napoleon Bonaparte for example, are barely even featured in the game, and only actually appear for a meager 2 missions, before vanishing in to obscurity, and being overtaken by the once more boring love story between Arno and Elise. This all culminates in to what is ultimately and extremely short and rather uninteresting main quest sequence, far worse than what could have been done with such and interesting and historical setting and time period.
Much like its plot, Unity's gameplay has its high and low points. One of the first things one may notice immediately is the extreme changes in the movement system. The game attempts to make a more refined, responsive movement system, giving the player more control over their character, but the system is unrefined, and it is often hard to navigate the map properly. One may often find themselves running in to a wall or falling down during a chase scene, or jumping on to a roof and being detected while trying to enter a window. The game also comes with a new feature, an enterable stealth mode. one press of a button will cause your character to crouch and allow him to more easily sneak around areas. However, the loss of many mechanics, such as the ability to whistle and attract enemies to your position, and the fact that attacking at any other speed either than a slow walk will get you easily detected by nearby enemies, along with the already difficult to use movement system, make completing missions stealthily hard to pull off, but for the wrong reasons. Combat, however, is a much different story. Unity brings back some of the more enjoyable factors from Assassin's Creed 2, such as the parry and heavy attack techniques, along with a new enemy AI system, making combat a more challenging experience, requiring much more attention and reaction than previous games. It is at many times far more entertaining to simply run in head on and attack with your sword,rather than take a more stealthy approach, and who could blame you for doing so. The game is also fairly colorful in its customization. The game boasts that Arno is the "most customizable assassin yet" and he certainly is. Where in previous games you could only select pre made outfits, the game now has an entire shop of armor and weapons to choose from, each with their own buffs to stealth, combat, and so on. This, along with the wide variety of weapons to choose from, including muskets, spears, and axes, makes every player's character unique and tailored to their own play style, along with a new perk system that allows you to focus your skills on specific aspects of your play style.
Missions have received a large remake as well. Ubisoft seems to have listened to the feedback regarding their typical tail and kill missions. As a result, almost all of the main missions and assassinations in the game are set in a sandbox style layout. You are often given a specific objective to complete, usually killing a specified target, and placed outside of the building or area you are tasked with infiltrating. You are then free to find a way to enter the building and fulfill your task, and there are many ways to achieve this, some more simple than others. You could charge in the front door, sword drawn, you could attempt to sneak in through a window and kill your way to your target, you could enter through one of the many openings in the Paris sewers and catacombs, or, you can sometimes find more creative means, such as bribing a maid to open a window, or allowing for a fireworks display to distract your target and the guards before you approach. These many factors provide a much needed replayability factor to the game, allowing for different approaches every time. the only downside of the missions is the added focus on stealth, sometimes forcing you to use it's difficult to maneuver and sometimes broken stealth system. There are also no shortage of side missions in Unity. There are more ambient, open world tasks, such as unlocking chests and stopping criminals, and then there are more structured missions, like stealing a chalice from the church, or hunting down a killer. All of these have decent rewards, and can allow the game to be played long after its main quest is completed.
Unity's online component is also a welcome addition. Working together with friends and coordinating attacks feels great and rewarding, and the rewards for these quests are usually well worth the effort. There are also specific perks and resources that can be used, such as a shared eagle sense and ammo cache, that make the co op more strategic and rewarding. The co op truly does best in its heist missions, where all players must work together to pull of a theft. with money being lost every time a team mate is detected, adding a need for communication to the game. The only downside to this otherwise interesting experience is that the match making is rather slow, and it often takes many attempts and long waits to get in to a match with compatible players.
The games setting and environment are also extremely interesting, but sometimes can be a bit of a burden as well. Revolutionary paris is painstakingly created with massive amounts of detail, with every building and area feeling unique. i often would find myself gazing over the ornate upper class areas on one side of the city, only to find myself in the poverty stricken lower class areas the next, with each building and area having the traditional Assassins Creed historical profile to accompany them, making your walk through Paris not only a beautiful experience, but and educational one as well. All of the characters feel unique as well, a surprising feat considering that the game often places thousands of them on screen at one time. This upgraded environment comes at a price, however. The game is plagued by an exorbitant amount of bugs that will often break your immersion, including crippling frame rate issues and occasional crashes and lockups. It's these kind of issues that make me wonder how much better the game could have been, had it been released a year or two later, with many refinements and fine tuning to improve it overall. Despite these flaws,the game still manages to create a beautiful and engaging vision of revolutionary Paris, with no shortage of gems for your eyes to take in.
Assassin's Creed Unity is by no means a perfect game. It's full of new innovations and promising ideas, aspects that are unfortunately overshadowed by it's many flawed systems and bugs. Its a game that is full of promising innovations that make me look forward to the future of the franchise in coming games, but is ultimately hindered by it's early release, in a series that would benefit greatly from removing its yearly release schedule.