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[Wvrs]

I played Assassin's Creed: Unity when it first released; I was put off by the glitches and overwhelming number of Ubisoft trademarked open-world filler, and pretty quickly shelved it. I've been a fan of the series since waiting for the first game to come out, but since my initial experience with this game I've not given it much attention.

Anyway, I just returned home from a couple of months of travel, and spent about half that time in and around Paris. Seeing France, learning its history and language, it inspired me to give this another shot. And I'm loving it.

The glitches seem for the most part fixed, the framerate is reasonably steady, and I'm playing with the light HUD, meaning I've stripped away the mini-map and its constant nudges towards mindless filler content, so all I'm left with is a beautiful full screen of 18th century Paris. And it really is beautiful; after having spent so long in the city today, it's really added to my appreciation of what Ubisoft have realised here. From the stained glass of Notre-Dame to the weathered sign of a Boulangerie, every minute detail of the city is realised with so much care and attention. I think I'd enjoy myself even if all I had to do was roam the streets of Paris.

But I'm enjoying the game itself, too. I'm pretty much just ploughing through the main story, not letting myself get bogged down by character customisation or side-missions, and it's fantastic. It's a game about assassination, and for someone who was put off by AC4's meandering into pirate simulator territory, it's nice to finally have an iteration of the series focused around scaling beautiful buildings and jumping off them onto unsuspecting targets. I don't think I've enjoyed an Assassin's Creed game this much since AC2.

The setting of the French Revolution is great (although it could be better tied into the plot, right now I think I'm halfway through and it seems very periphery for such a world changing event) and I'm enjoying the story and characters; playing with the French dub and English subtitles is really adding to the immersion for me.

I'm just left wondering what the opinion of others towards the game is now, almost two years after release? It's rare that I see much aside from scorn for the game, so I'm glad that despite that I decided to give the game a chance again and appreciate it for the things it gets so, so right.

 

[User 479360]

It gets a bad rep for its glitches, but it's actually one of the better Assassin's Creed games and I quite enjoyed it.

 

[Zophar]

Yeah, I didn't really understand the poor reputation either, but in my defense I played it well over a year after release. Game was gorgeous and the atmosphere was perfect, and it certainly played a lot better than III. I hold it and Syndicate in roughly like esteem, though I think Syndicate gets the edge for characters and style.

 

[A.Romero]

I'm not necessarily saying it is a good game but... I enjoyed it. And at launch.

It is the first asscreed since the second one that I purchase full price (I actually pre ordered it) and didn't disappoint. I only ran through the campaign, though.

 

[Newlove]

I quite enjoyed Unity. The graphics were insane on PS4. Good soundtrack as well.

 

[User 479360]

I played through it at launch. I fell through the map once or twice, but other than that I didn't experience much in the way of awful glitches.

So, when the hate hit, I was kind of surprised. I thought it was beautiful and immersive.

 

[Indelible]

I played it a year after release so I didn't experience any technical issues on PS4, really enjoyed the story and characters.

 

[Greatest Ever]

The open world assassinations were the best parts of the game, they were legitimately great moments. Otherwise that game sits on the line of occasionally bad, occasionally mediocre.

 

[SJRB]

I never had many problems with Unity, framerate aside. It's excellent for the most part. I also really liked how they tried to change things up a bit by adding the "killbox environments" and added sidequests involving detective work.

And sheeeesh, the visuals. The artwork. The city design. The atmosphere. Arno's animations. God-tier.

 

[singhr1]

The main reason I play Assassin Creed games is to relive an important time period recreated beautifully in an interesting location. Unity delivered on what I wanted.

A lot of people complain about the high density of the side activities on the map. I don't have the compulsion to do them so I can easily ignore it but I can see how that can turn off completionists. I guess I could say I "ploughed through the main story" like you, but I did complete some side missions if I felt they were interesting or providing some interesting rewards, such as some of the more unique weapons or armor sets.

 

[AwesomeSauce]

I got it for $10 on Black Friday and honestly I really enjoyed it. Probably one of my favorites in the series. What stood out to me the most was the amount of costumes/armors in the game. I spent way too much time making my dude look cool before doing missions.

 

[Toa TAK]

I liked it enough at launch, and thankfully never ran into any glitches. It's still the best looking AC game, but it's poor story and characters just kind of killed whatever AC zeal I had at the time.

 

[Forsaken82]

The Detective mission content was in my opinion the best thing to happen to this series since AC2's Economy system.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

It was a pretty good game at times, but the bugs and collectibles bloat, not to mention pushing the user toward microtransactions hurt the final product.

Assassins Creed Syndicate really took the best parts of Unity and improved upon it dramatically.

 

[Struct09]

It gets a bad rep for its glitches, but it's actually one of the better Assassin's Creed games and I quite enjoyed it.

These are my thoughts too. It's unfortunate that the launch was so rough but I actually had a good time with the game.

 

[Kamina]

Good AC game indeed, not as good as IV though, still worth playing. And the Ending of the Main Story wasnt my cup of tea since it wasnt too happy.

 

[Muffdraul]

It was never anywhere near as glitchy as the internet would lead you to believe. Pretty sure most of the more heinous jpegs and gifs were sourced from early PC versions without the day 1 patch. I played it on PS4 and I experienced a small handful of glitches, almost all of them involving NPCs doing goofy shit. Nothing game-breaking. Ubisoft deserved a bit of a pranging for their "900p on PS4 for parity" and "female characters are too hard to animate" PR debacles, and Unity was a casualty of that.

I just replayed it about a month ago. It wasn't a bad AC. Not among the best, but a good one worth playing. The assassination missions themselves were some of the best since the first game. The only thing I really dislike about it is the mix and match costume system. It's not just aesthetic, each piece of clothing has stats. So you can end up in some situations where you'd be an idiot to not make Arno look like shit in your own eyes.

 

[red36]

One of the best AC games and looks amazing. I didnt play the british one, but id doubt they topped the love that went into rendering the Rococo beauty of 17th century France.

Having just played the FFXV demo, I was pretty underwhelmed only thinking 'welp, ACU topped this'.

 

[Catdaddy]

Made it about halfway(?) through it at release and dropped it just due boredom and the daunting map with all the collectibles. And not sure which one, but pretty sure a new game dropped I played and just never went back to finish.

I’ve been on the fence about starting a new game and giving it another shot. Just need to be in the right mood I guess. It’s one of the best looking games on consoles and best looking AC period. If I had never played Syndicate, I probably wouldn’t have any problems firing up Unity, but Syndicate was so good – I’d rather give that another playthrough.

 

[Sword Of Doom]

I just started playing this on PC and I'm enjoying it. I played a bit of AC Syndicate on PS4 and was just amazed at how beautifully Victorian London was recreated. Ubisoft doesn't get enough credit for the beautiful worlds they create. What you do in those worlds is another story.

I played enough of Syndicate to really enjoy it as a game. With Unity, I've just started so I can't comment on that. Hoping it's an enjoyable game

 

[CHC]

Game looks astounding but I never played it. Generally I'm not that harsh with the Assassin's Creed games because a) they can be had cheaply, and b) I know what I'm getting into.

Recently upgraded my video card so I will probably get this in the fall (since there is no annual AC this year) just to take a spin around the world. Seems like it's gorgeous, and the UI disabling is a great feature. Definitely planning to play in French with subtitles too!

 

[Bandit1]

It looked good, but that's about the only good thing I have to say about it. Played through it just a couple of months ago, after all the updates and it seemed to run okay with little to no glitches, but I just found the game to be really frustrating.

 

[tearsintherain]

It was technically an impressive game (ignoring glitches) and Paris the city was amazing. Arno, the main character, was pretty bland and boring though and reminded me of AC3 a lot in terms of just basically following orders and having little agency of his own, until at least the end. The story was super cliche and boring as well. The modern day stuff was just a mess as usual.

Paris though was really fun to explore and hang out in, way more than actually doing the main story missions. The mystery murder stuff was fantastic.

Ubi also made this weird decision to make combat harder after AC4, which was completely unnecessary. You couldn't do the whistle thing anymore, and instead had to use firecrackers (limited amount). Instead of chaining counter attacks forever, you had these asshole shooters who could shoot you from like 3 km away and you have no idea where they are so combat just became frustrating and you just wanted to get it over fast before you die to shots fired off screen.

 

[Stat!]

Loved it. I think it was my GOTY or something that year. The environment and open world itself was right up with GTAV with how dense and incredible it was. Co-op was a ton of fun as well

 

[User 479360]

I thought it was a solid 8/10.

 

[Ally of Justice]

I'm buying a PS4 in a couple weeks and I started reading a lot about the games I want for it. From Overwatch and Rocket League to Bloodborne and No Man's Sky, there are lots of games I want to buy, but the one I'm looking forward the most is this.

Right now, I'm learning French and, just like I did with English, I'm using videogames as a learning tool. I'm playing most games I own (that I'm capable of) in French and once I remembered about this game, I started saving again to buy a PS4 and once I read about this game having French audio with English subtitles, I went to buy it despite not yet having a PS4.

I am really, really looking forward to finally playing this, to explore this rendition of Paris (The graphics!!) to trying to understand and immerse myself into Paris and the French language.

I've only played Black Flag before, so I won't be really bothered about the changes in gameplay nor I have "better" AC games to compare it to.

 

[danmaku]

I put 30 hours into this game so far, and I'm still amazed at how good it looks. The amount of little details is insane, especially for an open world game.

Ubi really went full crazy with this game (maybe too crazy, considering the performance problems). I don't know what lighting model they used but it's beautiful, I took hundreds of screenshots from Paris roofs.

Wait, and the game? Well, it's standard AC stuff, with a lot more flexibility in story missions and some really cool side missions about historical events and characters (I love'em). People like to obsess over the amount of collectables, which is excessive but also very easy to ignore. All in all it's a good AC game if you're not tired of AC games.

 

[CanUKlehead]

I played through it about 3 months after launch when most of the major glitches were sorted. The game crashed a handful of times still, though.

Regardless, it was classic AC, for good and bad. The gameplay was tweaked but not improved I thought, but again, I was fine with it. The story was meh (especially the laughably bad ending), but I love me some Paris so that helped. I almost wish they had the guts to re-tackle Paris/France.

Now if I paid full price with all those glitches, well...

Though the remake in 10 years could be spectacular

 

[TheRatedD]

I absolutely love the first 2 hours of Unity, but I feel over time the story falls apart, which disappointed me. I still enjoyed it and got the platinum on PS4, but it definitely has its issues. Mainly the movements and taking cover. All that was improved in Syndicate. Though I think the freerunning in Unity is the best in the series. For some reason Syndicate restricts what they let you do, but Unity let's you do as you please.

And I agree with many others about the bugs. The only issue I really had at launch was the framerate in certain areas, but that's mostly fixed now.

Also, it seems that with every AC game it gets ripped to shreds at launch, and then a year or so later everyone praises it. I don't know why that mindset is almost exclusive to the AC series, but it's been happening with every game since Revelations (except Black Flag, which most people always enjoyed).