Ahoy friends - I have survived my recent bout of hellish stomach flu and am back in action (with a serious backlog of games to get to sometime). October and November were months I was greatly looking forward to, their promise of a myriad of next gen titles got my hopes up - and for good reason. Many of the titles that have recently arrived are games that I have respect for, an uncommon trait for many releases these days.
I'm currently working through a number of titles, some of which my fiance enjoys playing as well. This will bring our target for today into focus, Assassin's Creed Unity.
My fiance and I have been playing the Assassin's Creed franchise together since before we were actually dating. By the way, before we continue there will be spoilers for numerous, if not all, of the Assassin's Creed titles while I discuss the most current - so viewer beware. Now where was I, right - ever since Altair stepped into the spotlight at the advent of Assassin's Creed it has been a game that brought my fiance and I together for hours of enjoyment. She loves nothing more than to run around, collect hard to find treasures, and dig up mysteries that my patience does not allow me to pursue. In all honesty, most of the legwork is done by her - if a massive brawl happens to break out, or a story mission that involves something stupid like tailing a target for 50 years without being seen shows up then I step in and play. It works out wonderfully, we chew through the title and make it out with almost every achievement - that is until recently.
Once Ezio Auditore took the reins of the Creed for his stretch of games things looked wonderful. Many of the gripes about repetitive game play and boring missions were corrected. As Ezio grew, the intellectual property grew with him and by the time we put our old friend to rest Assassin's Creed was in an amazing place. Combat was fun (though not difficult in the least), the story was interesting, there were characters we cared about, the list goes on - it was good old fashioned fun.
But all good things come to an end, and with the entrance of Assassin's Creed 3 the slow slide into mediocrity began. Connor, the main character, falls flatter than a drunk assassin attempting a dive into a hay bale and landing on a cobblestone street. His story, which was supposed to be one of the more emotionally rending tales was well...boring. His setting saved the game, that and the introduction of your own ship which would be the mainstay of the following title. These pluses do not forgive the horrible negatives which have only continued to infect following titles. The once interesting puzzles you solved that gave you a glimpse into the bigger picture behind the storyline were all but removed. Combat remained the same (more or less) and for the life of me I can't actually recall why the title was important to the overall story arch - this holds true for the next title, Assassin's Creed: Black Flag.
Another dull main character, Edward Kenway is not even an Assassin. He runs into one in the very beginning of the game, blows the guy away and basically decides to wear his clothes and hidden blade because they are super nifty, later allowing him entry into the Assassin club.
Ooook.... sure why not he is a pirate after all. Don't look here for story, I'm not even going to go into that line of questioning for this title because all I remember is driving my boat around sinking people (the only fun part of the game in my opinion). Don't get me wrong, the inclusion of naval combat was flawless and so fun that I let my fiance take over anything that had to do with land - I simply did not care about eavesdropping, tailing, or assassinating anyone (unless they happened to be on a boat I could sink of course).
Here we are, finally, at Assassin's Creed Unity (which by the way released the SAME DAY as Assassin's Creed Rogue that is only for last gen consoles and follows Black Flag closely with its ship combat etc.). Two games at once, really? Really? I can't tell if the Ubisoft team behind Assassin's Creed got cocky or if the good ol dollar sign won out in the end - but things are no longer enjoyable in the world of cloak and dagger assassinations - I AM SO TIRED OF TYPING ASSASSIN. Ahem. Sorry.
So I purchased Assassin's Creed Unity for Xbox One after the usual flurry of CG videos to hype up the populace before its release, and I'm not ashamed to admit I was one of those excited people. I love this series, well perhaps loved is more appropriate.
This arm of the Creed follows Arno...and ahhh....I'm not really sure why. His dad...or someone like his dad....or a foster dad....I dunno his dad gets killed and he wants revenge - enter the Assassins, recruiting harder than the US Army. Arno's story has already fallen out of my scope of interest, as has his character. Sure, the graphics are shiny and he looks amazing in game - but the overall glitchiness of the title hampers everything from game play to enjoying the character. Wide open windows beckon you to jump through them in seamless leaps from rooftops that would make Indiana Jones blush, yet no matter what I do I end up climbing around the window frame like a mentally damaged fly for about two minutes - if there are guards chasing me I am now being shot repeatedly in the back while Arno tries to figure out how to get INSIDE A WINDOW. Aggressive screen tearing also takes place, Arno falls through the ground into the infinite void now and then, and I've even jumped from a box to a fence only for Arno's model to be impaled upon said fence leaving me stuck and helpless. Ubisoft says that a patch is in the works to fix these problems - but why the hell are these problems here? How many titles do you have under your belt at this point? Enough to not fall into silly mistakes such as these I'd imagine.
See? We've done all of that, how have we not perfected free roaming movement without stupid bugs? Now, onto my major gripes. Let's begin with the combat, now melee battles in Assassin's Creed have never been challenging (boss "fights" included). Battles are simply a matter of countering then insta-killing the guy you countered, then flowing into an endless stream of brutality that ends when the last guard standing before you hits the ground like a perforated bag of red dye. Easy, but fun and cathartic, one of my favorite AC past times was running around cities attracting as many guards as possible and then getting into a brawl than dragged across entire cities until I was the last one standing. No more.....no more....
Combat in Unity, to be blunt, is one of the least fun pieces of the experience. I don't know why or how they changed it, but now I feel useless. Arno feels like a fifteen year old with a wooden sword, battles either start with you killing everyone before they draw their swords or guards noticing you and then piling onto you while you attempt to finagle your way around countering and killing your enemies - which never works how you need it to. A color now flashes above and enemies head right as they are about to strike you signaling if you should dodge or attack - guess how visible this is when you are fighting more than two people? Not very. Enjoy getting hammered by one heavy attack and then dying. As far as I can tell, perhaps I'm not far enough into the title, the fluid fun combat of yesteryear is gone and the crude simulacrum in its place is a complete disappointment.
Next up, the setting. The French Revolution has long been a period in history that I wished for AC to visit, but surprise - if you don't play through the multiplayer missions your involvement in the actual Revoltion at hand is minimal except for a meager handful of single player missions. Forcing AC players down the path of multiplayer is not a good choice, in my opinion at least. When I'm supposed to be occupying the shoes of an assassin I don't picture myself hanging out with five guys dressed just like me running around causing antics in French mansions. If you want to make a multiplayer game make a multiplayer game, stop watering down what was once and amazing single player experience to shoe horn in unnecessary content that no one asked for.
I still intend to finish the game because of my history with the series, but I've said it once and I'll say it again - this may very well be my last foray into the world of Assassin's Creed. My disappointment has been complete so far and my hopes are not high for a glorious turn around. In this next-gen of gaming there is no room for mistakes, because there are good games out there. Want to play a game 50x better than this that fills the same niche? Go play Shadow of Mordor - a downright fun game from start to finish. Now that Dragon Age: Inquisition and Farcry 4 have arrived I'm finding it hard to bring myself to put Unity back in. I flogged myself with the whip of The Evil Within until the game ended just to say I finished it, I will not do so again.
Shame Ubisoft...shame.
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