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Assassin's Creed: Unity

Assassin's Creed: Unity

After a lengthier hands-on with the new-gen take on Ubisoft's franchise, we find a lot that's familiar, and not quite as much new.

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Unity's being sold as a soft reset of the series by Ubisoft, though players that have followed the franchise to now needn't worry that their multi-game research of the time-skipping saga is being casually tossed out the window. It still ties into what's gone before, and keeps a lot of the traditions of old. That does mean however, that anyone looking for inventive reinvention as the tale of assassins and templars goes new-gen will be disappointed.

Unity feels like a halfway house, alterations made within the familiar framework of what's gone before rather than a wholesale refresh. It looks prettier sure; Parkour animations are better, improved. There are a new fun series of side-diversions, while the main story actually pulls us in rather than puts us off the usually stale generations-spanning war between the two factions.

But this is a safe upwards step rather than a thrilling leap into new adventures. Despite a few years in development - and two studios being given one half of the in-game city to develop each - we still climbing over familiar territory.

So that soft reset sees us exchange the oceans of Black Flag for a sprawling city once more, and a young man being initiated into the Brotherhood and taught the way of an Assassin. That means everything has to be relearnt, and for Unity, earned.

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Assassin's Creed: Unity

You've your basic moves and attacks, but a XP upgrade system is in place that means the likes of the once-standard dual-blade kill needs unlocked before you can use it. We actually like the idea behind this, as it adapts the gameplay progression to story, and allows you to customise your assassin to your preferred style of play.

So the game opens with you needing to train to earn your cowl. Exactly how that training is envisioned for Unity is not yet known. Our new, extended hands-on drops us in Paris at the commencement of our training's finish - our first contract kill without our mentor guiding us every step of the way. Here's hoping that whatever preceded this scene doesn't copy the arduous tutorial intro that formed Assassin's Creed III's opening hours.

We're let loose on the French capital for four hours, in that time playing through sequences 3 and 4, which include a handful of main story missions and a smattering of side objectives that we could freely dive into. We're pulled away from one Xbox One console and dumped in front of another twice in that time: the first for a dip into the four player co-op Heist missions, the second a jaunt into a two-player quest.

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Let's talk the good. There's now a full customisation system in play for Arno (and by extension, your MP character) of which the skill upgrades are one part. Stripping you of your once traditional mechanics such as dropping money to attract crowds as distraction may feel a poorly-judged decision, but it does mean by building your skills you appreciate them better and helps you lightly direct your favoured play style.

Assassin's Creed: Unity

Additional skills increase your agility or defence, and these then co-exist with your weapon choices, letting you go for heavier weapons or keep your armament concealed and built for quick kills. On top of this, you can deck Arno out in different outfits of different colours, though you've got to have the currency to buy them first. It's a flirtation with diversity that we welcome.

Cutscenes are fantastic. Not only do they better anything we've seen in the series thus far, and indeed, better than some other new-gen titles, the characters, Asssassin's council aside, capture your attention. We have to hold off on making a judgement on Arno for the moment as we're still trying to get a feel for his character, but it's a shame a Frenchman doesn't have a French accent (and saying the odd "merci" during conversations doesn't really cut it).

Side-objectives are promising. Paris Stories offer a mixture of short tales in which you're given different reasons to use your usual abilities, and the missions help flesh out the city's character.

One particularly fun sideline has us listening in on stories of a man-killing giant who was reportedly haunting the poor quarter of the city, which led us to a house full of oversized furniture, and down into the basement... to face an unhinged (but short) killer in a butcher's gown.

A chance wander into the local police station has us unlock the beginnings of a murder mystery subplot, which expects us to track down evidence and suspects across the city to aid understaffed (and mostly sleeping on the job) police officers. Unfortunately we only experienced the setup to this side objective, as no lead had presented itself by the time our session was over.

Introducing characters from any historical period and making them captivating for those of us not well-read on the era has been a problem for the series since the start. Black Flag's etching of the pirate colonies worked well because they came bundled with a natural swagger and inflated ego - always fun to watch.

Unity takes a different approach, and once that actually works in its favour. The key assassinations we perform unlock the murdered soul's memory of the past few days, a rapid fire series of flashes showing their motivations, their deepest desires... and a glimpse of other, shadowy figures involved in their crimes, and whose perspective on these shared events are then seen when they are also downed. So as each assassination is completed, we get a gradual reveal of the wider character tapestry that ties Templars, beggars and the wealthy together.

Assassin's Creed: Unity

Yet the processes that join these all together are very familiar. High-profile assassinations mark out the number of alternative entrances, potential kills, and other mission-specific data at their start, to better emphasis what options are available to you if only you explore first. But the gameplay is the same, and you're funnelled towards the same blade kill. It's iconic, and satisfying to an extent, but we'd hoped for some more variety in assassination technique.

And then there's the issue with the controls, which we found to be imprecise in moments when we really needed them to be perfect. A few days after the preview session, we started questioning whether the problem was us, not the series. Have we been playing Assassin's Creed wrong all these years? To us, a parkour master should be able to flow through the city speedily and without mistake. Why would you make use of a slow walk when the Assasssins are built for speed?

While the controller setup has been tweaked in order to stop players unintentionally leaping to their deaths and make parkour moves up or down levels a lot easier (hold A to go up, B to go down, Arno automatically skittering along walls to get you safely where you want to be) we still had moments when we were left swearing at the TV for our adventurer going everywhere but where we wanting him to go.

Like trying to make an easy forward leap towards an open window, but instead our Arno lands on the walls and ledges around it as we repeatedly try and go straight into the building. Embarrassing as there other players await our entrance to carry on the mission. Or when we make a jump between buildings a split-second after our co-op partner, only to miss and land in the streets below. Trying to get round guards undetected became an issue, even with a new stealth button, that we eventually gave up the ghosting and just attacked. The combat at least is still enjoyable.

Assassin's Creed: Unity

But these are the same problems we've had in nearly every other Assassin's Creed game and one we thought would have been eradicated in the switch to a new generation. It's telling that we prefer the stealth and climbing mechanics of the new Tomb Raider over Assassin's Creed. As a result, we question whether the problem's us rather than the franchise.

But it does remind us that Assassin's Creed's origins lie in the platforming classic that preceded it - 2003's Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. The first AC game released four years later, and while in the following seven years the control scheme was tweaked, altered, it hasn't evolved that much.

As a technical achievement, the digital version of Paris is quite something. But what we get up to on its streets and along its roofs feels more like an expanded version of what's come before, rather than a new-gen revolution. For fans that have followed the franchise passionately since Altair's first leap, it'll likely be enough. For us though, we're still waiting for Assassin's Creed to make the climb to new heights.

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Assassin's Creed: UnityScore

Assassin's Creed: Unity

REVIEW. Written by Mika Sorvari

"You'll scream, swear and pound your head against the coffee table, and then you'll reload the game, because when it works, it really works."



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