Assassin's Creed Unity
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 In Paris, we don't have faces, only eyes, and teeth.
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Assassin's Creed: Unity is a stealth action-adventure video game published by Ubisoft and developed by Ubisoft Montreal.
It is the eighth installment in the Assassin's Creed franchise and the first game in it to be released exclusively for eighth-generation consoles, specifically the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One.
Gameplay
Assassin's Creed Unity is an action-adventure, stealth game played from a third-person perspective and set in an open world environment. The game features a historical recreation of Paris in the late 18th-century at a roughly 1:1 scale. The setting is divided into seven major districts—Le Louvre, Île de la Cité, Le Marais, La Bièvre, Les Invalides, Quartier Latin, and Ventre de Paris—and also includes the town of Versailles, located on the outskirts of Paris. The commune of Saint-Denis (renamed Franciade during the French Revolution) is featured as part of the free Dead Kings expansion pack.
A number of side missions can be found and initiated from within the open world, such as "Paris Stories", which require the player to assist a non-playable character (usually a historical figure) with a minor problem; "Murder Mysteries", in which the player investigates various murder scenes, collecting clues and interrogating witnesses to determine the culprit; and "Nostradamus Enigmas", a series of cryptic riddles that lead the player to different artifacts, which can be used to unlock a special reward. Players can also find a number of collectibles scattered around Paris, including treasure chests, cockades, and artifacts, which provide various rewards, typically in the form of new gear or cosmetic options.
Unity's combat system was greatly refined over previous entries in the series, with fencing being used as an inspiration for the new system. The stealth system also saw several improvements with the addition of new features like manual crouching and the Phantom Blade, a variation of the series' signature Hidden Blade which doubles as a silent crossbow. Furthermore, the linear assassination missions from previous Assassin's Creed games were abandoned in favor of a new "Black Box" design, which offers more freedom to the player in how they go about eliminating their target; the player can explore the environment to find different entry points or possibly helpful distractions, allowing them to choose the approach that best suits them. For navigation, the game introduces new "Free-run up" and "Free-run down" commands to make it easier for the player to scale buildings in either direction, allowing them to make controlled ascents and descents at will. With the updated, larger crowds, new interactions with them are also available. The crowd regularly presents many activities, appearing organically, that the player can choose to engage in or not. Examples include scaring a group of bullies by pulling out a weapon, "settling" a fight between two civilians by killing one of them, or chasing down a thief who has just pick pocketed somebody.
For the first time in the series, the player character, Arno Dorian, presents a unique set of abilities that can be upgraded through a skill tree system, enabling the player to assign points earned through gameplay to improve Arno's skills in stealth, melee, and ranged combat, as well as his health. Players are also able to customise Arno's weapons, armor and equipment to further complement their individual style of play. The quality of these items is indicated by their level, which can be a maximum of 5 (in the case of legendary gear). Players also have a wider selection of weapons available, including swords, axes, spears, rifles, pistols and throwable items, such as smoke bombs. The Dead Kings expansion introduces an additional weapon: the Guillotine Gun—an axe which has been converted into a grenade launcher.
Like most previous Assassin's Creed titles, the game features an in-game economy system, which primarily revolves around the Café Théâtre, a former intelligence gathering front for the Assassins which has fallen into ruin and serves as Arno's main headquarters during the story. The player can renovate the Café by investing in upgrades, which change the building's interior and unlock new rooms, including a secret passage to the Assassins' underground hideout. The Café also functions as a passive business, producing revenue in the background which is deposited in a chest for Arno to collect; the more renovated the Café is, the more money it earns. Players can further increase their income by completing Café-related missions and purchasing additional taverns around Paris.
Unity also introduces cooperative multiplayer to the series. Players can enter taverns, which act as social hubs in the game, where they can see if any of their online friends are playing the game at the current time. If they are currently in a mission, they will appear as a "ghost" version of their character, allowing the player to approach them to request to join their mission. If their request is accepted, both players enter the same game session, where they can continue the mission from the last checkpoint. Up to four players can play together at the same time. Each player takes on the role of Arno, customized within their own game, with other players appearing as their own customized version of Arno and retaining their gear. Many missions and activities are available for cooperative play (all of which can also be attempted solo), but all of the main story missions are single-player only.
There are significant tie-ins with the game's Companion App, a "freemium" click app with limited "direct ties to the overall story of Unity". There are a significant number of treasure chests, assassination targets, and other collectibles that are visible to all players but only accessible to those who have completed certain goals within the app. Following an update in February 2015, this requirement is no longer necessary, meaning players who have downloaded the update, can now collect all the chests in the game without having to play the companion app.
Bad Qualities
- Rushed Development: The game was given a three-year development cycle but the team at Ubisoft was more concerned about the technology instead of the actual content. This leads to a large number of bugs at launch, including an infamous one where the faces of the characters disappear and all that's left is their eyes and teeth. The game was so buggy that they ended up releasing a patch that weighs 6.7GB!
- Despite the first Assassin's Creed game that was released natively to the 8th generation consoles (such as the PS4 and Xbox One in 2014), the game is locked at 30 FPS because the game developers wanted the game to be cinematic. Despite this, the game suffers from poor framerate dropping from 28 to 22 FPS on both consoles.
- Some of the main missions are very boring and repetitive as they can be very frustrating to go through.
- The story is also bland full of mostly forgettable characters (except for Arno).
- Poor combat system which has been downgraded from previous games, and several key features were removed from it.
- As mentioned earlier, several key features from the franchise have been removed like hand-to-hand melee, picking up weapons from the ground, and crouching.
- The game features an upgrade system, and while that isn't bad, the only way you can upgrade your skills is with upgrade points which are hidden throughout the game's world.
- The Present Day story is very barebones, and it has nothing to do with the storyline from the previous entries in the series.
- Because of the reasons above, it's an embarrassment for Ubisoft's reputation.
Good Qualities
- Arno Dorian is a likable protagonist, and by far the only character in the whole game who is considered tolerable compared to others.
- Good voice acting, even though not a lot of the voice actors are recognizable.
- The parkour animations are very fluent and are a major improvement from the previous games.
- Unlike the past installments, you can find alternate costumes based on Ezio from the Ezio trilogy, or Connor from III without having to buy them via DLC.
- Lots of cool weapons to choose from, and a lot of them are unique.
- You can now fully customize your character and change each part of his outfit to your liking.
- The world map now has a 3D environment, making it a lot easier to tell where you are and where you should go.
- Unlike the last few games, there is no console-exclusive content, not even on PlayStation, on any of the platforms, meaning that all of the content, including DLC, is available on every single platform it is available on.
- Arno’s love interest, Elise de la Serre’s death scene was emotional.
- The graphics are very good and still hold up to this day.
Reception
Critical reception
Assassin's Creed Unity received "mixed or average" reviews from critics upon release, according to review aggregator Metacritic.
Matt Miller from Game Informer gave the game 8/10, praising the detailed environment and architecture, decent voice acting, strategy-required missions, challenging gameplay and well-paced story missions, but criticizing the controls and balance, as well as game-breaking technical issues. He also stated that both the navigation system and the combat system still needed to be improved. Louise Blain from GamesRadar gave the game 4/5, praising the dense and atmospheric game world, character-focused mission design, overhauled free-running mechanics, in-depth character customization and satisfying combat. However, she criticized the game's framerate and poor enemy AI design.
Chris Carter from Destructoid gave the game 7/10, praising the new movement system, likable lead characters, iconic setting, smooth animation and improved draw distance. New additions such as character customization and huge crowds were also praised. However, he criticized the predictable story, technical issues, and the mission design of co-op multiplayer, as it is impossible to play some missions solo. He stated that "Unity feels like a step back. ... It lacks that grand sense of roaming the uncharted seas in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, or even the open-ended feel of the wilderness in Assassin's Creed III, but it's a journey worth taking if you're already into the series." Tom Bramwell from Eurogamer gave the game 7/10, praised the setting, rich content, inspiring story and interesting side-missions. However, he criticized the over-familiar and unimaginative mission-design, overzealous auto-correct system in the free-running mechanics and the lack of weapon customization. He described the game as a "missed opportunity".
Marty Sliva from IGN gave the game 7.8/10, praising the recreation of Paris and ambitious ideas presented in the multiplayer, but criticizing the unrefined stealth, weak story and lack of a strong lead character. He stated that "the true new-gen Assassin's Creed game is a gorgeous, entertaining, and successful proof of concept for what lies ahead for the series, though it isn't what I'd call revolutionary."
Tom Senior from PC Gamer gave the game 65/100, saying that "Unity could become a perfectly enjoyable part of the Assassin's Creed canon. It's a solid campaign elevated by quality assassination missions and an extraordinary setting that might just push the big number at the bottom of this review into the 80s, but with a big selling point out of operation, a raft of technical issues, performance problems, microtransactions and stilted combat and free-running systems, Unity—in its current state—can only be considered a failed revolution." Sam Prell from Joystiq gave the game 2.5/5, saying that "It's hard not to appreciate everything that it [Unity] gets right, and you'll have a good time if you can wrangle some friends for co-op, but it's impossible to ignore where Unity falls tragically short." PC World stated that the game "is a new low for the Assassin's Creed series." The review also criticized Assassin's Creed Unity for its small scale, poor gameplay, and high minimum system requirements. Similarly, CNET stated that "[w]hile it will likely suffice for Assassin's Creed core fans, Unity stumbles throughout and never really finds its footing."
During the 18th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated Assassin's Creed Unity for outstanding achievement in "Animation", "Art Direction", and "Sound Design".
Technical issues and developer response
Upon release, Assassin's Creed Unity was subject to widespread bugs and glitches, as well as performance and online connectivity issues. Ubisoft Montreal CEO Yannis Mallat apologized on behalf of the studio with regard to the poor launch of Unity, stating that the "overall quality of the game was diminished by bugs and unexpected technical issues", and prevented users from "experiencing the game at its fullest potential". In response to the issues, Ubisoft announced that it would halt sales of the game's season pass and Gold Edition, and offer the first downloadable content (DLC) pack, Dead Kings, for free. As compensation, those who bought the season pass received a free digital download of one of six Ubisoft games (Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, The Crew, Far Cry 4, Just Dance 2015, Rayman Legends, or Watch Dogs), and would also "continue to have access to a variety of additional content [for Unity], including Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China". To claim the game, however, users had to forfeit their right to sue Ubisoft with regard to the game and the devaluation of the season pass.
In February 2016, Ubisoft announced that it would not be announcing any additional Assassin's Creed games for the rest of the year, citing the many issues of Unity and stating that, "we've learned a lot based on your feedback." In this statement, Ubisoft pledged its commitment to evolve the game's mechanics in order to create "more enjoyable games". This news has possible connections to Ubisoft's third quarter financial report, which was released on the same day, and states that Assassin's Creed Syndicate had a "slower launch than expected."
Criticism by French Left Party
The French Left Party and its frontman Jean-Luc Mélenchon criticized the historical interpretation the game was conveying about the French Revolution, depicting Robespierre as "a blood-thirsty monster" and Marie Antoinette as "a poor little girl". He has described Ubisoft's version of the historical period as "propaganda" that builds upon the growing sense of self-hatred spreading throughout France. Mélenchon has expressed his criticisms in multiple media appearances, telling the New York Times that, "Smearing the great revolution is dirty work that aims to instill the French with even more self-loathing and talk of decline. If we continue like this, no common identity will remain possible for the French besides religion and skin color."
Alexis Corbière, national secretary of the Left Party, said that "the game was conveying all the counter-revolutionary clichés that have been forged for two centuries". He added "To everyone who's gonna buy Assassin's Creed Unity, I wish you a nice time. But I also tell you that having fun doesn't prevent you from thinking. Just play it, but don't let yourself be manipulated by the propaganda."
Without mentioning the criticism specifically, in an interview published on October 6, 2014, by Time, the game's creative director Alex Amancio said "What we actually try to do, and I think this is just a personal belief that we have, is to avoid reducing history... We try very hard to portray things as factually as possible." Despite this, game producer Antoine Vimal du Monteil answered that, ultimately, "Assassin's Creed Unity is a mainstream video game, not a history lesson."
Sales
As of December 31, 2014, Ubisoft has shipped a combined 10 million units of Assassin's Creed Unity and Assassin's Creed Rogue. From April 17 to 25, 2019, Ubisoft made the PC version available free of charge with a message encouraging donations to restore Notre Dame de Paris following the fire there on April 15, 2019. Thanks to this, Ubisoft donated €500,000 to help with the restoration and reconstruction of Paris' historic landmark. In May 2020, Ubisoft revealed that Assassin's Creed Unity (and ten other games published by them in the eighth console generation) had sold over ten million units by March 2020.
Controversies
Gender options in cooperative mode
After the cooperative multiplayer mode was revealed at E3 2014, additional information about the mode was revealed by creative director Alex Amancio and technical director James Therien. Amancio stated that the mode did not include the ability to play as a female avatar, due to "the reality of production". Amancio added by saying, "It's double the animations, it's double the voices, all that stuff and double the visual assets. Especially because we have customizable assassins. It was really a lot of extra production work," which was echoed by Therien. Level designer Bruno St-André expanded on this by stating that an estimated 8,000 additional animations would have had to be recreated for a female avatar.
This caused dissatisfaction in some video game community outlets. Brenna Hillier of VG247 noted how there were nine development teams working on the game, and said "Ubisoft has here trotted out a tired, stupid, constantly refuted excuse for why it has perpetuated the cycle of sexism and under-representation in the games industry." Tim Clark of PC Gamer made note "that previous Assassin's Creed games have had playable women as part of the multiplayer component, and that Brotherhood had you supported by on-call assassins, many of whom were female, so it's hardly like it can't be done." Clark also looked to the way Amancio and Therien answered the question and felt how they referenced "how much the team wanted to include playable female characters suggests... that this is probably a decision which hasn't gone down well internally." Former Assassin's Creed designer Jonathan Cooper responded by saying, "In my educated opinion, I would estimate this to be a day or two's work. Not a replacement of 8,000 animations." He also revealed that Aveline de Grandpré, the female protagonist of Assassin's Creed III: Liberation, "shares more of Connor Kenway's animations than Edward Kenway does." Fans also created petitions urging Ubisoft to change their stance. Additionally, former Assassin's Creed game designer Patrice Désilets commented that Amancio's reasoning was valid, but that Ubisoft should put in the effort to let players have gender options.
Amidst the community response, Insomniac Games published a video of their then-upcoming game Sunset Overdrive. Taking a community question "Can you play as a female character?", the presenter answers positively while the player character is shown as a female dressed up to resemble Ezio Auditore.
Amancio attempted to clear up any confusion, by stating, "I understand the issue, I understand the cause, and it is a noble one, but I don't think it's relevant in the case of Unity. In Unity you play this character called Arno, and when you're playing co-op you're also playing Arno – everybody is. It's like Aiden Pearce in Watch Dogs... Arno has different skills - you select skill points in the game, there are gear elements that have an impact and all these weapons that make the character you make your own. But you're always playing Arno... The reason we're just changing the face and keeping the bodies is we want people to show off the gear that they pick up in the game through exploration. That's why we kept that."
On July 5, 2020 Tommy François the Vice President for Editorial & Creative Services was put on disciplinary leave and later let go amid allegations of sexual misconduct. He was the right hand man of Chief Creative Officer Serge Hascoët. The next day Maxime Béland Vice President Editorial resigned. Both had been accused of sexual misconduct but were promoted after complaints to HR. Béland had been accused of choking a female employee in 2014 a week after Unity was launched.
A week later, in a press release, Ubisoft stated that three more of the top executives had chosen to resign from the company. This included Hascoët, Yannis Mallat Managing Director of Ubisoft Canada and Cécile Cornet the head of Global HR. The allegations from current and former staffers claimed that complaints to the HR had been ignored for several years. It allegedly described Ubisoft as a boy's club with the business meetings happening at strip clubs. The staff openly made misogynist comments and were encouraged by the senior leaders through their behavior.
In a report by Jason Schreier in Bloomberg News the issues with Hascoët had gone back several years and had affected the creative development on the Assassin's Creed series and the use of female protagonists. Per the report later games that did feature female protagonists at the release, were later altered to diminish the female protagonists in online play. This was due to an ingrained belief by Hascoët that female characters did not sell video games.
Platform parity
In October 2014, Ubisoft's senior producer Vincent Pontbriand made a statement that all console versions of the game would be locked at the same resolution of 900p. This was done "... to avoid all the debates and stuff." Many readers took this in reference to how the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are constantly compared in the media for raw power, presuming that the PlayStation 4 version of the game's resolution was lowered to reach parity with the Xbox One's, but Ubisoft later denied that this was the reason.
Instead, Pontbriand stated that the decision for parity came from the limitations of the consoles' CPUs. The number of NPCs and general amount of AI was paramount to keeping the game locked at 30 frames per second.
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