Reviews// Assassin's Creed: Unity

The Assassin's Creed franchise has had an incredible run. From a lack-lustre first outing, it transformed itself in to a succession of huge and immersive must-buy games. Unity is the seventh major title in the series, and the first developed specifically for the current generation of consoles.

But Ubisoft currently finds itself in a difficult situation. The games sell well to a huge audience of enthusiastic fans. As a result they cannot monkey with the mix too much, for fear of alienating the faithful. Equally, they cannot let things remain too much the same, for fear of wearying those same fans. They are, to use a cliché, between a rock and a hard place (though if a rock is not a definition of a hard place, I do not know what is... oh, is THAT what it means? Perhaps I should have used the immovable thing and the irresistible force analogy, but you get my drift).

So Unity mixes things up just enough to feel different, but not enough to feel innovative. Of course, since it is set in an all-new (to the series) landscape of 18th century Paris, the game immediately has plenty to delight fans. Paris is one of the world’s most beautiful cities, and it is beautifully realised in the impressive new game engine.

Both buildings and characters (playable and non-playable) are fabulous looking. And since (thanks to General Dietrich von Choltitz) Paris has managed to escape relatively unscathed through Europe’s major conflicts, many of the buildings and streets you wander around and clamber over are recognisable to any modern day Parisian tourist, which adds considerably to the thrill of the game. Indeed, you’ll probably never see or experience Notre Dame like you will in the game.

The creation of this game world is nothing short of miraculous. When some racing game franchises can barely manage an annual iteration that merely adds a few new cars and tracks, for Ubisoft to have created a Paris this rich and detailed is frankly amazing.

The processing power of the new machines has not been used purely for visual beautification of the game. Level traversal is also now much more fluid, and there are more character animations, which means your character performs little flips and pirouettes as he parkours his way around the Parisian rooftops.

There have been widespread reports of framerate issues relating to the character movement... and while these are definitely present, they have not been a significant problem for me. But, by the time I had my review copy, an update file was available, and this may have improved matters compared to what earlier reviewers saw. It has not (yet) completely eliminated the issue - I had one particularly bad instance, when my game froze up completely for over 30 seconds. I was about to restart the game, but I went to get a drink first and when I returned, the character, who had previously been suspended mid jump, was stood at the roof edge, ready to continue.

Apart from this, I had just one other instance of minor frame rate flicker. Neither issue has been significant enough to spoil my enjoyment of the game, and my personal belief is that the foofarah is a storm in a teacup. Sure, it should not happen. But, equally, it’s nothing to have a big cry about.

The game itself holds no great surprises. If you liked previous games in the series, you are likely to like this one. If you did not enjoy previous games, it is highly unlikely that this one will convince you otherwise. Some things are improved, some are not - but that’s a deeply subjective point of view, and almost every player will feel differently about it.

As usual, you enter the Animus, a gizzmatron which enables you to enter an immersive virtual-reality historical environment derived from your character’s genetic memories (and those of others). As usual, you are fighting in the past for the future, and your character will move between historical adventures and ones in the current day. The setting, as I already mentioned, is Paris at the start of the French Revolution.

You play as Arno Dorian, who due to circumstances beyond control is held responsible for the murder of his girlfriend’s dad. As you can imagine, this does not endear him to her. He takes up with the Assassins to avenge his father and hers, and to clear his name, all in the interest of getting into her French knickers.