Assassin's Creed Unity

It's been a busy weekend I can tell you that. A busy weekend running around the streets of Paris in revolutionary France, assassinating Templars, climbing epic buildings like the Notre Dame and generally admiring the scenery.

Assassin's Creed Unity just came out and I have now finished the single-player campaign, some side-missions and two co-op missions. There is still tons of stuff to do in Unity but for me the single-player campaign has always been the most important part of the game. Unity is the first PS4 game I've played and it looks absolutely stunning. With incredible detail, gorgeous reflections and colors the city of Paris looks and feels like a living, breathing city. For the first two hours I was totally in awe and it felt like for once the expectations I had for a game were met. The two last games were good but not great and even though Black Flag was an exciting addition to the series I think it included too much sailing around and too little parkour and assassinations.

So, the good thing about Unity is that it once again feels like an AC game. You have your historic city and time period, your charismatic protagonist (no one beats Ezio but Arno is pretty good) and your evil Templars. So far so good. But unfortunately the mystery and “spark” of the game series is a bit lacking. Or maybe it's just too similar to the first four games and you're sitting there thinking, been there, done that. Anyway, when Unity shines, it shines as bright as the sun and if you focus on the good things instead of the bad, Unity is a great addition to the series.The good thing about the game is that were once again in a city and in a historic time period, The French Revolution. That is one of the things that makes the AC universe so great, that you can go to different time periods and mix history with science fiction in a clever way. The characters are interesting and Arno makes a good addition to the Assassin Brotherhood.

The story itself is not revolutionary but quite good and the lines between good and evil, Assassins and Templars have been blurred once more. The modern day story has been cut to a minimum and is barely a story, but only a way to explain how it's possible to relive your ancestors memories and who Abstergo and the Templars are. I think it's sad they've started to skip the modern day story altogether as for me that was one thing that made the Assassin universe more interesting and complex. I always liked Desmond's story and the Ancient Civilization stuff but maybe they just ran out of ideas to keep it going.

About the gameplay. Stealth has been improved a lot with a stealth mode and a cover system that should have been included a long time ago. You now feel more like an assassin when your sneaking around. Stealth is also now more encouraged as fighting enemies has become more challenging. And if you're up against more than three enemies at a time you're going to have a bad time. Luckily you can use smoke bombs and cherry bombs to distract enemies if you ever get into trouble.

There is also a lot of indoor activity and assassinations this time and sneaking in through a window to a palace is very satisfying. A nice addition is that in almost every sequence there is a mission where you can choose how to proceed and also create different opportunities to complete the mission. You can now also customize your character in a way you haven't been able to do before. With different skills, weapons and clothes and armor. Aside from that there is not that much new about AC Unity. The online co-op missions are of course a nice welcome and I will probably play more of them and as you can take different approaches you can play them many times.

When it comes to side-missions, treasure chests, collectibles (or almost everything else for that matter) I rather choose quality over quantity, however AC Unity is filled with the latter. I know I can just skip them but they're also a bit distracting as there's always something popping up on the mini-map or on the screen. And if there is a treasure chest behind every corner containing a small amount of money it doesn't motivate me as much to loot it as if I happen to stumble upon a chest somewhere that actually contains a significant amount of money or some unique piece of armor.

Coming back to Europe from being away on the other side of the Atlantic in the last two games, AC Unity is a step in the right direction (an European speaking here). However the weak spots are still there and the over-saturation of the franchise has taken it's toll on the Assassin's Creed series.

I still think Unity is a good game that could have been great and the franchise is definitely not dead, yet. I'm still a big fan of AC and as I have noticed when playing other games it often helps to play them again after a while and get a second impression. Some games you come to love even more.

+ Looks absolutely gorgeous

+ Incredible details

+ Improved stealth

+ Relatable protagonist

- Modern day story (or lack-thereof)

- Distracting and tiresome side-missions

8.5/10