First Impressions: Assassin's Creed Unity (PS4)
Well, I caved. I wasn’t going to buy this game right away but I’ve had a rough couple of days (a rough couple of months, actually, as you can see from this neglected blog) and wanted to distract myself. I’ve only played for maybe two hours so I’m not very far into the game, but thought I’d share my initial thoughts about it. I’m playing on PS4.
First, I’ve seen a lot of people talking about how buggy the game is, and my brother said he experienced lots of glitches, but I really haven’t noticed it too much? Maybe some things have been patched since release but the only things I saw were slight drops in frame rate a couple of times when the graphics got particularly intense. Definitely haven’t had any issues with missing textures, etc.
The environment is absolutely beautiful. A friend came over to do some work and hang out while I played and he ended up just watching the game most of the time because it’s just stunning. Beautifully detailed. We both said “Wow” out loud during a couple of scenes.
I was prepared to be annoyed with Arno because I had really been hoping for a female assassin. But honestly I don’t mind him. Sometimes he reminds me a bit of Ezio, but that’s a bit dull because how many games have we played as Ezio? Would still have been nice for them to have a bigger departure. Élise is a badass and I hope they make a standalone game for her because DLC is not enough.
I read a review that found the side missions being boring, which surprised me because I thought they were more varied in this game than ever before. In the short time I played, I had to figure out an urban legend behind “satanic” drinking fountains, recover severed heads for Madame Tussaud, and stop the Templars from stealing art from Notre Dame. That’s… way more varied than older games in the series.
Maybe it’s because I haven’t really been playing any games for the last few months but I found the controls to be annoying at times. There were definitely situations where Arno wasn’t doing what I wanted him to do. Some of the controls have shifted from previous games but they aren’t explained well initially and even afterwards they don’t always work the way you’d expect. The inability to remain in cover around corners, for example, has been driving me crazy since one of the first story missions.
The difficulty level of the game is significantly harder than previous installments, at least at the very beginning. I kept getting shot from a distance, which does a lot of damage, and haven’t yet found away to use a human shield skill or anything like that.
The customization is pretty cool, if a bit confusing. There are several “currencies” to use to buy/upgrade skills, weapons and customization options. I just briefly looked at this while I was playing, so I’m not totally sure what currency buys what or how you get more of it. I did see any option to pay real world money for customization options which is just… lol.
There are certain annoying parts of the game that require other types of participation - some stuff you need to play an app to unlock, and some stuff requires Assassin’s Creed Initiates (I don’t know what that is honestly). As a completionist, not a fan of this - I want to work on the game and not have to interact with 5 other things in order to hit 100% completion someday. I’m about to download the app to play around with on breaks at work, so I’ll write more about that later.
Have not played co-op yet. I’m a bit ~meh on it because I like to play games solo. Do wish there was a local co-op option though.
Have you played this game yet? Do you agree with the negative reviews & comments out there, or are you enjoying it as well?
I originally wrote this post so long ago, I’m no longer sure of the original source of this image. I think it’s from this Kotaku article, but if it’s yours, please let me know.
