Ever since the start of the franchise, I've had a real unwavering love for Assassin's Creed. Even when the games took a turn for the less interesting I still enjoyed my time. Listening to people talk about the franchise has always been interesting to me because there always seem to be two distinct camps; people that think the franchise is walking in circles and people that want to see the franchise find it's end point. I suppose I land somewhere in between. Because on one hand I think the potential story (or my "head canon") from the start could have a potential really interesting end point. But on the other hand, I don't necessarily believe it needs to be concluded to work as an ongoing framework.
There have been moments with these games where I've had the same fascination with the unknown as people had dissecting Lost episodes. Which is often why I refer to the potential of Assassin's Creed. Because the potential meta-narrative of these games and the potential historical events are broad enough to keep it going for quite a while.
But when Unity came out and people were disappointed and critical of both it's narrative content and at it's mechanical (and technical) issues, I feared the worst and I put the idea of buying the game aside for other games instead. But as I worked myself through my PS4 collection and started looking for something else to play, Unity was back on the table. And to my surprise, I didn't hate it.
Going from Black Flag into Unity there are noticeable changes to the core gameplay. There are obvious ones from a thematic and settings point of view (such as lack of boats), but there are a ton of other changes that add and subtract certain elements from the franchise. When it comes to the story beats, the game feels a lot more laid back and at worse somewhat thin. I could see where some would find it boring, but I somehow find it relaxing. I'll elaborate a bit more on these things later. First I would like to talk about language.
Language is a part of human interaction. It is what communicates ideas between people and it's part of a cultural identity. When I started playing Unity I found it surprisingly off putting that everyone was speaking English. Much like when I was playing previous titles starring Altaïr or Ezio. While in those games they explain that away in the fiction, I've always wished they could have figured out a way to add a more customizable way to handle languages. For example, playing Ezio, I wished he would have been speaking Italian but that anything outside of the Animus would have been in English. But if you make it so Ezio speak Italian, everyone speaks Italian, even Desmond. And that just didn't feel right either. And since the voice actor for English Ezio was actually pretty decent, it didn't hurt to have it be set to English.
Playing Unity though, aside from the early introduction and some brief messages (so far, I am not done with the game), there haven't been that much meta-stuff in the game. As such, since most of my time is spent with Arno and on the streets of Paris, I have the game set to French and it adds so much to the overall tone of the game. And I'll admit, I don't speak French so I don't necessarily reap the full benefits of it other than as cultural window dressing, but I appreciate it nonetheless. Games don't need to adopt the Hollywood "let's use English and pretend they speak a different language" mentality, we have the technology to allow for more options.
I have always admired Ubisoft for their city building craft, both technically and artistically. Paris is a wonderful place to roam around. Different parts of the city come with distinct feelings of differing status and wealth. Making the boiling nature of the social structure at the time of the game even more emphasized. But beyond just the nature of the place, there's a sense of scale and detail to the architecture that is beyond what's been done previously. Naturally with more architecture of the new consoles there's bound to be more stuff, but what I found the most intriguing was the detail work on statues, columns and other details on bigger landmark buildings. All of those things together has made some of the bigger synch point buildings in this game feel bigger than a lot of the older game's just by the nature of the added fidelity and scale.
As Arno was sitting at the top of Notre Dame it dawned on me why Assassin's Creed III and Black Flag didn't do it for me the way the previous games had; I love exploring well crafted takes on big historically important cities with impressive architecture. Because as much as I loved listening to my shipmates sing as we went full speed into Davy Jones locker cannons blazing or come flying down from a tree with my tomahawk ready to taste templar blood, those places weren't as interesting long-term however much I appreciated the love taken to craft those places.
One thing I've really enjoyed with the later AC titles is the level of customization you get for your character. It's been limited to a special outfit or a couple of them. In Unity though, they went all out and not only added different parts that you can mix and match to your heart's content, but added stats for your specific play style if you want. I found this super welcomed (as a bit of a customization enthusiast, whatever that means), even if I wish they would be a bit more liberal in how to unlock them.
Another part that changed is the combat and weapons department. No longer do you run around with a big arsenal of weapons hanging on every free area of your belt. At first this bugged me since I wish you could mix and match at least two weapon types. But what I realized was I didn't actually miss it, and since switching weapons in the menu is so quick and can be done pretty much anywhere anytime, it probably lessened that urge to carry everything I might need all the time. And when it comes to engaging in the combat, it was a bit of a roller coaster turn. At first it felt clunky and unresponsive. But after a couple of hours I realized it hadn't actually changed that much, other than in tempo and weight.
There's certainly some issues in the combat though. At times it seems as though the game isn't fast enough for it's own combat. But the bigger issue I take with the combat is the camera angle and the new notification of incoming attackers as it leads to moments when you're unable to tell someone is attacking until it's too late. Also, it seems as though they completely removed the ability to dodge gunshots by grabbing an enemy. But even with those issues, when the combat flows and you're being careful not to just push buttons whenever, it still feels great and I find myself engaging in more combat than necessary just for fun. Which is a great thing for me since around every corner there's a chance some civilians need the assistance of the prowler of Paris; Arno.
So about that story and Arno. The overall meta conceit of the game feels, for now, to be pretty forgettable. It doesn't have the sense of mystery as the previous games or the crazy rabbit hole that was Black Flag's first person sequences. But it's not in my way or overtly distracting either. Arno's story though I do find a little bit interesting, if only because it's continuing on from Black Flag's introduction of slightly blurring the lines between Templars and Assassins and showing cracks in both of their organizations.
As a main character I find Arno very functional as he reminds me a lot of how Altaïr was positioned in the original Assassin's Creed. It's a character that doesn't stand out as much in their own personality other than their own convictions. It's a lot easier to project yourself onto Arno or Altaïr than Ezio, Connor and Kenway. The latter felt like they had established personalities (though Ezio had the benefit of 3 games of growth) that had nothing to do with you. But while Arno has his aspirations and his own demeanor, he has enough spaces for you as a player to fill those in with your own ideas. Though those spaces are also probably why a lot of people dislike Arno, as he's not a character that's entirely entertaining on his own.
In a way I find Unity to be a trimmed down Assassin's Creed. And in other ways the game feels as bloated as ever with collectibles, chests, side missions and random street events. But I can't get over the fact that I just unapologetically really like the game despite it's shortcomings and I really hope the franchise continues to be a bright spot on my radar for some time to come.
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