#Assassins creed unity story series#

YouвЂ™re still escorting NPCs from Point A to Point B, jumping down from rooftops to stab bad guys in the head and the handful of other tasks that various Ubisoft studios have been regurgitating for the last seven years. Even the gameвЂ™s city-minded side missions, collectively referred to as вЂњParis StoriesвЂќ in ACUвЂ™s progress tracker, fail to offer any meaningful connection between ArnoвЂ™s actions and the daily life of your average Parisian.Д®ven most of the missions follow the same incredibly tedious formula employed for most aspects of the ACU single-player campaign. ItвЂ™s kind of stunning to see how incredibly Ubisoft Montreal failed to give AssassinвЂ™s Creed UnityвЂ™s recreation of 18th century Paris any semblance of life, despite the fact that youвЂ™ll rarely find Arno onscreen with less than a few dozen other residents of the crumbling French capital. By the end of Unity, Arno feels like a blank slate still awaiting input from an outside party, but the game never gives players a chance to make their own impression on what I found to be the least-interesting environment in the series. Ubisoft has given themselves a number of possible paths forward, which has me hoping that whatever comes next could take astronomical leaps forward similar to AssassinвЂ™s Creed II.Д«ut the mere possibility of a better tomorrow isnвЂ™t enough to justify a higher score today.ДЄssassinвЂ™s Creed UnityвЂ™s storytelling and narrative components are designed for a game that offers a great deal more freedom over the direction of the protagonistвЂ™s story than what players will find in ACU. If IвЂ™d finish wading through the minutiae leading up to Sequence 6 or 7 and then suddenly find myself in the political thriller that Ubisoft Montreal tried to create.ДЇor what itвЂ™s worth, I did eventually take an interest in ArnoвЂ™s story вЂ¦ but not until about 30 seconds before the credits rolled. Some of those enjoyable bits were even positioned closely enough together for me to occasionally wonder if AssassinвЂ™s Creed Unity might redeem itself at some point.

YouвЂ™ll actually experience most of DorianвЂ™s formative moments yourself, but those not especially interested in playing AssassinвЂ™s Creed: The Sims Edition will be happy to know the campaign skips a healthy chunk of our heroвЂ™s adolescent and teenage years. Those whoвЂ™ve read any of my previous reviews will know I prefer to steer clear of spoiler territory but letвЂ™s just say that Arno has a good deal more logical progression in his back-story than your average AC protagonist. Thankfully, Ubisoft Montreal managed to pack more than a few marquee moments into what has to have been one of the action-packed lives led by any 20-something during the French Revolution. Unlike previous games in the AssassinвЂ™s Creed series, which have occasionally spanned numerous decades, Unity focuses on a surprisingly limited slice of DorianвЂ™s life. In AssassinвЂ™s Creed Unity, players assume the role of Arno Dorian a young assassin hell-bent on revenge against those responsible for the death of his adopted father. I just hope that, like the original AssassinвЂ™s Creed, Unity is paving the way for something substantially better.ДЄssassin's Creed Unity Photo: International Digital Times

#Assassins creed unity story series#

Truth be told, for the first time since the series debuted, I actually regret spending money on an AssassinвЂ™s Creed game.

And the less-than-stellar frame rate present throughout much of the AssassinвЂ™s Creed Unity experience is only one of the many issues I have with ACU. Return trips to Versailles also offer an excellent look at the AssassinвЂ™s Creed Unity that could have been, had Ubisoft Montreal had managed to get the gameвЂ™s frame rate issues under control.Д«ut the occasional postcard-worthy panorama canвЂ™t justify the monotonous game design baked into every layer of the AssassinвЂ™s Creed Unity experience and ongoing performance issues with every version of ACU regularly make the gameвЂ™s graphics as much a burden as they are a benefit. It was during these moments, like watching the fog clear from the gardens at Luxembourg Palace, when it was easy to see why some at Ubisoft believed so strongly in this yearвЂ™s AssassinвЂ™s Creed. At times, the visuals in Unity can be absolutely breathtaking and there were moments when I was blown away both by the gameвЂ™s scenery and its recreations of iconic French landmarks like Notre-Dame Cathedral. There are certainly moments in AssassinвЂ™s Creed Unity that will make you wish every game could benefit from an army of artists equal in size to the one that worked on ACU. AssassinвЂ™s Creed Unity wasnвЂ™t the train wreck that I was expecting, given the uproar we all witnessed on launch day, but a renewed focus on cooperative gameplay and ACUвЂ™s handful of interesting campaign segments fail to offset the many, many flaws evident throughout AssassinвЂ™s Creed Unity.