opinion: On Steam, Assassin’s Creed Unity is currently incredibly cheap – the perfect time to give this game a second chance. It deserves it.
I’m glad Assassin’s Creed Unity was a disaster at release. Hmm, ok. That sentence does sound very cynical. I’ll try it again, but differently:
I’m glad I didn’t play Assassin’s Creed Unity on release (yes, better). Which was unusual for me. Because I’ve actually been an Assassin’s Creed fan since the beginning. Even the still very edgy first part I loved fervently. I still love it today. After that, I understandably devoured every sequel.
It feels a little strange today when I think of that time. Because back then, a much greater passion for this series blazed in my chest than it does now. Unity was the first sign of that fire going out. After the game was released despite its disastrous technical state, I decided for myself at the time: I’m not playing that!
In the meantime, seven (!) years have passed since the release and only recently was I able to bring myself to give this prodigal son a second chance. The only thing I didn’t see coming was that I’m having a lot of fun with it.
That’s why I’m sitting here now, taking a look at the current Steam Sale, where (Unity is on sale for a mere five French Euros) and feel obliged to say: Take this opportunity and play it too!
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The standard in the past, an exotic today
When I look at the receptions for Unity shortly after its release, this game had even more problems than its horrendous bugs back then. After seven years of annual Assassin’s Creeds, Unity simply wasn’t exceptional enough. Especially compared to Black Flag, its direct predecessor.
Unity took a step back, set its sights on its more expansive past and decided to dock right there. The game feels more like a sequel to the Ezio trilogy, but not a sequel to the pirate adventure Black Flag. And that’s what was apparently a problem for many.
But that decision is now precisely why I’m so glad I didn’t play it back then. Because seven more years after Unity, the world looks different. Assassin’s Creed no longer comes out every year, and when it does, it’s open-world action RPGs. I don’t mean that in a derogatory way, but subjectively this change of direction never appealed to me.
Playing Unity now takes me back to another time and that’s what makes it so refreshing. It triggered exactly what a fan actually wants from a sequel. Like coming home – to a renovated flat. Everything is familiar, what I used to love is still there. Just in a better, cosier and more beautiful way.
This open world should be seen
If I were absolutely ignorant and someone had guaranteed me that Unity came out last year, it wouldn’t have even occurred to me to doubt it. The look of this game genuinely stunned me.
That’s one of the reasons why Unity feels like a completely new Assassin’s Creed to me, one that I’ve just waited a very long time for. Visually, this game is beyond reproach and would pass for a big-budget production even today. This starts with the incredibly detailed character models, continues with the fantastic lighting scenes and even affects the lovingly designed interiors, some of which can only be seen for a few moments at all.
Don’t even get me started on the parkour animations in the running game and the cutscenes. The look on my face when I started the game must have been something like Marie Antoinette’s when she learned that the French lower class can’t eat cake instead of bread.
To be fair, there are still some unattractive pop-up effects. Apart from that, though, there’s nothing to take me out of this world. Paris buzzes with life, the streets are packed and yet the inhabitants don’t move as a homogenised mass. In between the rabble-rousing, I can always make out individual details like a dancing couple.
In addition, the city tells the story of the time. Sure, burning flags and angry citizens are one thing. But if you keep your eyes open, you understand all too well why these people are actually so angry. As an assassin, I see Paris from all sides. One minute I’m sneaking through the gold-decorated corridors of Versailles as Arno, the next I’m running along the cobbled streets of the noble district, before I eventually see the dirty side of the city, where the streets are full of mud and rubbish.
Do me a favour and really use Unity to breathe in its Paris for once. This depiction of a historic city is, in my opinion, unrivalled to this day.
Does it still play well?
Graphics are not everything. The gameplay, however, is showing its age. Unity has held up worse here in particular. But really only if I set a high standard.
Unity does not play as dynamically throughout as the developers probably dreamed it would. The battles in particular are a strange mixture. Obviously they have tried hard to spice up the often criticised (because undemanding) fights of the predecessors.
At least in terms of ambition, this works quite well, but at the expense of dynamics. This may also be partly a remnant of the bug hell that Unity once was. Because not only does it control clumsily, occasionally the camera doesn’t really want to.
But let’s be honest. If you have to fight a lot in Unity, it’s your own fault. In no Assassin’s Creed before or since has it been more worthwhile to sneak. It’s such a great feeling to feel like a real Assassin again here!
Because let me tell you something: I find assassins and assassins exciting! So … as a dramatic fantasy, not as a real profession. And Unity is in many ways the pinnacle of what the series once wanted to be. Here I get to sneak, use gadgets and get as deeply involved with the creed, assassins and taking out people of power as the name actually implies.
Forgiveness instead of retribution
One of the biggest problems of the French Revolution was how the violence kept escalating at the time. To a point that you could really only feel sorry for the nobles, even though they brought it all on themselves. And Unity, too, when it was released, was
entirely justifiably criticised.
But time heals many wounds and what was once nothing special can now shine in a completely different light. Especially when bugs and external circumstances are more to blame for the failure than the game itself.
Unity is still far from perfect today, and with this multiplayer Ubisoft certainly didn’t think about people trying to have fun with it seven years later. But apart from such rare lapses, there are plenty of arguments to forgive Unity. If only to see this world for once.
