A lot of comments and reviews for Assassin’s Creed: Unity tend to complain about the same things.

The franchise is getting fatigued.  Yup.  This has been a known quantity since Assassin’s Creed III and Ubisoft doesn’t give a fuck.  They just doubled down after the well-received Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag with two games.  Assassin’s Creed: Unity and Assassin’s Creed: Rogue.

Assassin’s Creed: Unity is a little different than most Assassin’s Creed games but still relies heavily on everything you know about the series.  Assassin’s Creed: Rogue is a reskinned Assassin’s Creed IV that really changes nothing about the series other than putting you in the shoes of an Assassin hunting Templar.  Rogue is a total conversion mod for Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag done really well (so far in my playthrough at least).

I don’t have any problems with the reviews up for Assassin’s Creed: Unity at all.  I do however think this game is being reviewed based on the reviewers expectations rather than simply judging the game that was put in front of them.   Unity seems to be judged based on what it is not rather than what it is.  What it is… is yet another competent Assassin’s Creed game, warts and all.   What it does not seem to be is the game people expected.

Unity addresses a lot of the complaints gamers had with the series.  Tailing suspects and listening on conversations is not annoying like it was in previous games. Moving through the environment is a lot more thrilling and the combat is much more sturdy.  It is regrettable that the crowd control seems to be less interactive than Assassin’s Creed: Revelations but for the first time ever the player actually looks, feels and is lost in the crowd.

With better combat, controls and less of the mission types people hated, you have nowhere to go but up right?  Wrong.  Apparently the story is dull.  I can’t confirm or deny that but that was a symptom since ACIII for me, so, keep going.  Apparently the protagonist is dull. Translation: The protagonist is not Ezio.  Can we stop punishing protagonists in the series for not being Ezio? Edward Kenway was the closest anybody got to liking a protagonist. Time to let Ezio go.

There are complaints about mission types being dull.   They are the exact same types of missions you’ve always undertook.  They have different motivations but most of them are glorified fetch quests. It is true that the mission types do not have much innovation but carrying them out is much more up to the player than they ever were before.

There are complaints of there being too much to do.  Oh man, you know what I hate about my open world games? Having options. I like to be able to clear most of my content out on my first run and then have absolutely nothing to do post-credits. Ain’t that right, Destiny?

What I’m trying to say is, even though I’m going to post “first impressions” a little later and reviews a little after that, you already know whether you want to play Assassin’s Creed: Unity or Assassin’s Creed: Rogue.  Look inside yourself right now and answer some questions.  I’ll help you as best I can.

  1. Are you sick of the franchise? – If not, pick either one of these games and go nuts.
  2. Are you waiting for the series to reinvent itself? – Keep waiting.  This still ain’t it.
  3. Have you been disappointed by any of the previous games? (3 & 4? Try Unity.  Loved 3 or 4? Try Rogue.)
  4. Do you just want more Assassin’s Creed? – (Unity and/or Rogue will fill you up)

The bottom line is, neither one of these games, especially Rogue switches things up so much that it innovates or revolutionizes the genre.  I think people may have been reading too deep into the game being set during the French Revolution.

You’re playing either one of these games because you like Assassin’s Creed.  Unity/Rogue are terrible times to jump in expecting anything supremely innovative.  So far, both of these games are shaping up to be great iterations of a swell franchise.  Nothing more.

Jeez.

The Jaded Gamer (IamFN2K@gmail.com)
(@IamFN2K)