Ubisoft Montreal’s latest entry in the Assassin’s Creed series has been receiving a clout of negative press since its Mid-November launch on all major platforms. I believe our readers deserve a more balanced evaluation of the game than some of the more lopsided reviews currently in circulation. Assassin’s Creed Unity did suffer from multiple bugs (some involving the companion app for smartphones), but underneath those issues was a game that outshone its predecessors in both story and gameplay, even before a patch was released.
We decided to delay our review of Unity due to the countless bugs that hampered its functionality. Ubisoft’s recent patch – which weighs in at a hefty 2.76GB – addresses a laundry list of issues that plagued the game since launch. The patch repairs numerous missions, NPC glitches, and performance issues that caused both the Campaign and Co-op mode to crash.
Compared to Black Flag, Unity is a far greater achievement in providing a living, breathing world inside the Assassin’s Creed universe. The cities contain a staggering amount of activity that was not possible on previous next gen systems. The streets are littered with thousands of townsfolk going about their daily business. Merchants are seen selling their wares; women are robbed and opportunities to stop the would-be thieves arise often; and the French folk involved in the French revolution – which sets the stage for Unity’s story – are constantly being harassed and even murdered in broad daylight by blood-thirsty, cutthroat thugs.
And that is only a fraction of Unity’s beauty. The French Revolution is only the basis of a much meaningful story that involves Arno and his lover Elise. Part love story, party murder mystery — Unity’s story jumps from one scenario to another as it tries to connect all the dots. It’s one of those tongue-in-cheek experiences that has you second-guessing the story’s direction the entire time you play.
The single-player campaign is rife with missions that contain a variety of objectives. While not related to the main story, the mini objectives have you investigating local murders, accomplishing ‘Crowd Events’ that involve killing the Templars, and even escorting important figures of the revolution through streets occupied by thousands of rioters. Since Unity’s open sandbox world offers so many possibilities, the player can spend hours exploring the city for random events to participate in. And while this is one of Unity’s many attractions, the most important one is how Ubisoft reformulated the story-driven missions.
In prior games, story-driven missions would require the player to perform a specific set of actions or the mission would end. For example – If the player didn’t use stealth during part of the mission, the mission would end and the current progress would be lost. Unity, on the other hand, doesn’t punish gamers for experimenting. A mission that would normally be stealth-based can be approached more aggressively, but at the expense of money and Creed points. Additional rewards such as armor, clothing colors, etc., are rewarded to the player as long as the end objective is completed.
French Revolution Paris offers many opportunities for the aspiring assassin. Old buildings can be purchased, renovated into Cafe Theaters and then used as safe houses for Arno. These locations are used to equip new armor, re-color existing gear, and to participate in both single-player and online multiplayer missions. Multiplayer missions are located throughout the city; they are represented by dark hooded assassins.
The number of players varies based on the mission, but it’s typically between 2-4 players. Prior to the patch, online multiplayer was plagued with connection drop outs and FPS issues, especially in busy areas of the city. These issues have been rectified by the recent patch, and the online stability of multiplayer (not to mention the FPS issue) has improved.
The more serious issues such as getting stuck in haystacks or falling through the game world have been repaired since launch. But before Ubisoft’s patch, Arno would get stuck in a haystack near the bridge near Assassin HQ in Saint Louis. Moreover, he would get trapped in three other haystacks throughout the game. As for falling through the game world – during the mission ‘Occupied Paris’, Arno would fall through a zeppelin and remain stuck after jumping from the top of it. Other bugs include getting caught inside a roof in Palais De Justice and the Temple, to name just a few.
Due to the sheer amount of content the patch repairs, it would be impossible to list it all in a single review. But patch notes do exist on Ubisoft’s official message board if you’re interested in reading the details.
Despite the issues that plagued Unity’s launch, Ubisoft has done an admirable job of repairing the issues and compensating gamers for the inconvenience. Everyone will be receiving the ‘Dead Kings’ DLC for free once it becomes available. Gamers that paid for the Season Pass will be able to pick a free game from a list that includes – The Crew, Far Cry 4, Watch Dogs, Rayman Legends and Just Dance 2015.
It would have been difficult to recommend Assassin’s Creed Unity in its prior state. But now that it’s actually playable and less likely to have any further issues, I can say with conviction that Unity is the single best game in the series, controversy excluded.
Mike Pittaro
Platform: Playstation 4
Developer: Ubisoft
Publisher: Ubisoft
ESRB: M (Mature)
Price: $59.99
Assassin’s Creed Unity Official Website
| Review Score | |
|---|---|
| Graphics |  |
| The sheer size of Paris, and the detail seen throughout, is absolutely staggering. | |
| Sound |  |
| The city comes to life with realistic crowd effects and other environmental sounds. | |
| Gameplay | |
| The single-player and co-op missions create a seamless experience. | |
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| Now that Ubisoft has patched Assassin's Creed Unity, there is no reason not to own a copy; it's one of the best games in the series. | |
