By Ben Mapp
Gamers, you can all breathe easy now. November is over. With so many highly-anticipated releases having come out within mere days of each other, the wallets and purses of gamers everywhere were emptying by the hundreds. Grand Theft Auto V found a prettier home on next-gen. Far Cry 4 came wandering out of the wilderness looking for food, and – in what has become a once-a-year celebration for veteran Ubisoft fans – the Assassins and the Templars were once more waging war across time.
Gamers, you can all breathe easy now. November is over. With so many highly-anticipated releases having come out within mere days of each other, the wallets and purses of gamers everywhere were emptying by the hundreds. Grand Theft Auto V found a prettier home on next-gen. Far Cry 4 came wandering out of the wilderness looking for food, and – in what has become a once-a-year celebration for veteran Ubisoft fans – the Assassins and the Templars were once more waging war across time.
Firstly let’s look at the facts.
Last month two completely separate Assassin’s Creed titles were released on exactly the same day. Each of the games was developed by a separate Ubisoft branch. The first would serve as a direct sequel to last year’s release, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, whereas the second promised to deliver an entirely fresh experience comparable to a reboot, despite still being set within the same in-game canon. Whilst both games shared plot strands, they were individually marketed as standalones. The first being exclusive to last-gen systems, and the second being exclusive to the next-gen systems. After their latest IP Watch_Dogs received a relatively disastrous critical reception earlier this year, the month had arrived for Ubisoft to relight their relationship with their loyal fanbase.
The more observant of you will notice that we chose to review Assassin’s Creed: Rogue (the first of the two new Assassin’s Creeds) instead of its graphically-superior sibling upon release of the two games, which we did for two reasons. First of all we knew that much of the marketing Ubisoft had invested into the dual release was focused almost entirely on Unity, and the second reason is that we recognised – out of the two titles – Unity would likely be the one more widely covered in the gaming news afterwards, regardless of which was actually the better game. What we didn’t know was that choosing Rogue over Unity was, in fact, the wisest option of all. Playing through Rogue first gave Ubisoft a little more time to deal with the reckoning of their distraught consumers who had paid fifty quid for an incomplete game in Unity. By the time we finally got around to starting Unity ourselves, Ubisoft had just released their third patch for it (which included over three hundred in-game bug fixes). This patch was accompanied by a public apology for the game’s state at launch, and the promise to everyone who purchased the game of free DLC.
Since we missed the tsunami of glitches and bugs which apparently plagued the game on release day because we were too busy sailing the North Atlantic whilst singing new sea shanties with Templars (in Rogue), we’re going to pretend that Unity’s launch went off without a hitch, and judge it solely on its gameplay content as we did with Rogue.
Last month two completely separate Assassin’s Creed titles were released on exactly the same day. Each of the games was developed by a separate Ubisoft branch. The first would serve as a direct sequel to last year’s release, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, whereas the second promised to deliver an entirely fresh experience comparable to a reboot, despite still being set within the same in-game canon. Whilst both games shared plot strands, they were individually marketed as standalones. The first being exclusive to last-gen systems, and the second being exclusive to the next-gen systems. After their latest IP Watch_Dogs received a relatively disastrous critical reception earlier this year, the month had arrived for Ubisoft to relight their relationship with their loyal fanbase.
The more observant of you will notice that we chose to review Assassin’s Creed: Rogue (the first of the two new Assassin’s Creeds) instead of its graphically-superior sibling upon release of the two games, which we did for two reasons. First of all we knew that much of the marketing Ubisoft had invested into the dual release was focused almost entirely on Unity, and the second reason is that we recognised – out of the two titles – Unity would likely be the one more widely covered in the gaming news afterwards, regardless of which was actually the better game. What we didn’t know was that choosing Rogue over Unity was, in fact, the wisest option of all. Playing through Rogue first gave Ubisoft a little more time to deal with the reckoning of their distraught consumers who had paid fifty quid for an incomplete game in Unity. By the time we finally got around to starting Unity ourselves, Ubisoft had just released their third patch for it (which included over three hundred in-game bug fixes). This patch was accompanied by a public apology for the game’s state at launch, and the promise to everyone who purchased the game of free DLC.
Since we missed the tsunami of glitches and bugs which apparently plagued the game on release day because we were too busy sailing the North Atlantic whilst singing new sea shanties with Templars (in Rogue), we’re going to pretend that Unity’s launch went off without a hitch, and judge it solely on its gameplay content as we did with Rogue.
Looking back however, Unity’s faults should have been obvious from its first reveal earlier this year. After the annual Ubisoft leak, where we learned that the next instalment of the Assassin’s Creed series would be set during the French Revolution (and before we knew anything substantial about Rogue), Ubisoft confirmed the finding with a trailer showing the new protagonist – Arno Dorian – witnessing a public execution down at the entrance to Notre Dame from the rooftops. The confirmation of the Parisian setting would make Unity the first game since 2010’s Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood to have a primarily European setting. In fact, after eventually playing Unity this November, I was startled to learn that this was only the first similarity to Brotherhood and the Ezio trilogy as a whole I would come across.
Just for instance, Arno resembles Ezio to some degree in the early chapters of the story (white shirt, longish brown hair in a ponytail), and even shares Ezio’s desire for revenge against the Templars who (as with Ezio) murdered his father. Arno is later framed for a crime that he didn’t commit (as with Ezio) and then falls in with the Assassins after learning that his father was secretly an Assassin (as with Ezio)… Now really, I’m all for poetic repetition but this is just feeble storytelling. However, storyline aside, this is the first exclusively next-gen Assassin’s Creed. It’s the reason there was so much hype for the game prior to its launch.
Just for instance, Arno resembles Ezio to some degree in the early chapters of the story (white shirt, longish brown hair in a ponytail), and even shares Ezio’s desire for revenge against the Templars who (as with Ezio) murdered his father. Arno is later framed for a crime that he didn’t commit (as with Ezio) and then falls in with the Assassins after learning that his father was secretly an Assassin (as with Ezio)… Now really, I’m all for poetic repetition but this is just feeble storytelling. However, storyline aside, this is the first exclusively next-gen Assassin’s Creed. It’s the reason there was so much hype for the game prior to its launch.
Whilst it is no secret that Ubisoft have made a huge achievement with their realistic, and authentic, sculpture of eighteenth-century Paris (and oh my is it pretty), the game still requires substance (which – to be fair – it has to an extent). However all Assassin’s Creed games from last year onwards on must face the prospect that we live in a post-Black Flag world. To me, and many fans of this series, Black Flag was the apex of this series as it offered enough gameplay diversity and mission-based freedom (as well as featuring some of the series’ most interesting characters) of them all. If you’re going to revert back to having one massive primary location, like with Rome or Constantinople (2011’s Assassin’s Creed: Revelations), then you have to at least keep the gameplay varied enough to maintain the interest of the veteran players. For newcomers to the franchise, Paris is certainly interesting and different enough and makes a nice change to the generic, ruined-city-based-shooter. But for long-time fans of this series, the setting (however large) is actually a step backwards. Partially this is because, at least at the moment, the only thing about next-gen consoles which make them next-gen consoles is the graphics.
It is one thing to make a city look beautiful, and Ubisoft’s vision of revolutionary Paris is truly a marvel to behold, but after a short while you just get over it. Yeah, the development team worked tirelessly to develop a reliable, true-to-life representation of Paris back in the day and then filled it with typical Assassin’s Creed-y things to do, but that’s the thing. Everything you do in Unity was introduced in Brotherhood, where we found it new and fresh. But the series has moved on since then, introducing new play-styles to accommodate its newer, more inventive, more modern mechanics.
It is one thing to make a city look beautiful, and Ubisoft’s vision of revolutionary Paris is truly a marvel to behold, but after a short while you just get over it. Yeah, the development team worked tirelessly to develop a reliable, true-to-life representation of Paris back in the day and then filled it with typical Assassin’s Creed-y things to do, but that’s the thing. Everything you do in Unity was introduced in Brotherhood, where we found it new and fresh. But the series has moved on since then, introducing new play-styles to accommodate its newer, more inventive, more modern mechanics.
Be sure to join us for Part Two!
Have you played Unity? Do you feel the same as us, or do you disagree? Let us know in the comments below!
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