Assassin's Creed Unity

You’ll praise this for its picture perfect Parisian playground, killer co-op and infectious customisation. But you’ll also want to baguette out for its aging mechanics and slippy framerate. [January 2015, p56]

Unity is an impressive technical achievement despite its issues, and it is certainly a significant step forward for the series as a whole. The difficulty of combat encourages use of the overhauled stealth system, perhaps signalling a shift towards a real focus on stealthy gameplay in the series, which is certainly exciting.

Assuming Ubisoft can fix the numerous bugs, Assassin’s Creed Unity might become a much better, more entertaining game. Unfortunately, some issues are part of the core experience, including a lackluster storyline and an ending that feels like a let down. When it works, Unity shows glimmers of pure brilliance.

Almost everything Unity does better than its predecessors comes with a caveat we wouldn't have to talk about today if Ubisoft had shown more will to renovate the basics. Still, you get what it says on the box, thanks to a solid multiplayer even a bit more. This year, that's good enough for me. But I'd be lying if I said I was still excited about what this new generation holds for Assassin's Creed.

Thanks to the amount of tasks, collectibles and a pretty good story, AC Unity is enjoyable. The newly introduced multiplayer co-op experience is thrilling too. What a pity that bugs, odd looking visuals and other flaws keep this game from being an enticing experience.

Assassin’s Creed Unity improves on the gameplay, the mechanics, the amount of people in the game and the music compared to earlier AC releases - and it even includes a fun co-op mode. Where it falls flat is on the delivery of the open world. It constantly feels like the PS4 is about to break under the pressure of working too hard. Framerate dips, pop up and ins and odd textures will definitely make this a pass for many gamers. We were still able to enjoy the game despite these short comings, but we can’t help but feel disappointed.

Mild improvements in traversal and combat are quickly overwhelmed by the creaking systems onto which they have been grafted. Revolutionary Paris is one of the most beautifully realised environments in a series that has had its fair share of them, but the game you play doesn't really do it justice.

There's a catch to more or less every improvement Unity makes. [Issue#251, p.58]

Unity’s metanarrative turns something specific into something simple, general, a clean way to experience a false history devoid of any attempt to explore what made the era so significant.

Bugs really throw Unity under the guillotine. [Jan 2015, p.78]

Assassin's Creed Unity takes part in revolutionary Paris, but there is no sign of gameplay revolution. Game suffers with technical issues, one can smell the free-to-play principles and there isn't anything fresh. But the game looks beautiful anyway.

Unity plays well, but it's not really good enough for a AAA-game to play well, and this especially applies to Assassin's Creed, which has always been a franchise with stronger narrative and thematic value than its counterparts.

Unity simply isn't ready for release. The majority of its new systems aren't refined enough, and its existing ones are showing their age. It's still intermittently enjoyable, but a serious step down from last year's Black Flag.

At release, it offers a staggeringly beautiful world filled with unfinished systems, ugly cash grabs, and a string of missed opportunities. [Jan 2014, p.108]

Despite the title, Unity is all over the place, a jack-of-all-trades that seems almost determined not to master any of its fundamental components.