I feel like the core appeal of a given Assassin's Creed game is its blend of power fantasy and what my friends once called "history tourism." These games thrive on you visiting Bunker Hill or the Bonfire of the Vanities and leaving bodies in your wake.
Assassin's Creed Unity manages both of these traits, but with a bold asterisk. You leap between buildings and cut through guards like a master assassin, but some choppiness on the part of the game means there's never a guarantee your sword will swing as you want it to or your feet will land on the desired edge. That Unity is never consistent with its rules about how far Arno, your titular assassin, can jump and stick his landings only makes traversing revolutionary Paris more frustrating.
When it comes to whisking its players into history, Assassin's Creed Unity's setting should be one of the series' best. The French Revolution is a dynamic moment in history, perfect for the kinds of conspiracies driving the Assassin's Creed narrative. Paris, meanwhile, could make for an ideal urban playground for parkouring killers, complete with towering churches, tightly packed neighborhoods and globally famous centerpieces like the Notre Dame cathedral. Particularly for Francophiles like me, this should be the Assassin's Creed game.
However, Unity's plot never really feels centered in the happenings of the revolution, making its key turning points feel like background dressings that can be hard to make sense of. It's never really clear where Unity's cast stands in the revolution, which is an issue when the French Revolution colors every nook and cranny of this game. A smattering of co-op missions readily accessible from the game's beginning further muddy the waters, teleporting the player forward and backward in time.
However, with a growing suite of weapons and tools at hand, Unity feels more like a sandbox than many other classic Assassin's Creed games. The co-operative missions especially open the door for players to experiment, making for some of the series' best examples of the "infiltrate A, murder B" game loop. As a game about sneaking around and stabbing dudes, Unity might be my favorite in this series.
Assassin's Creed Unity manages both of these traits, but with a bold asterisk. You leap between buildings and cut through guards like a master assassin, but some choppiness on the part of the game means there's never a guarantee your sword will swing as you want it to or your feet will land on the desired edge. That Unity is never consistent with its rules about how far Arno, your titular assassin, can jump and stick his landings only makes traversing revolutionary Paris more frustrating.
When it comes to whisking its players into history, Assassin's Creed Unity's setting should be one of the series' best. The French Revolution is a dynamic moment in history, perfect for the kinds of conspiracies driving the Assassin's Creed narrative. Paris, meanwhile, could make for an ideal urban playground for parkouring killers, complete with towering churches, tightly packed neighborhoods and globally famous centerpieces like the Notre Dame cathedral. Particularly for Francophiles like me, this should be the Assassin's Creed game.
However, Unity's plot never really feels centered in the happenings of the revolution, making its key turning points feel like background dressings that can be hard to make sense of. It's never really clear where Unity's cast stands in the revolution, which is an issue when the French Revolution colors every nook and cranny of this game. A smattering of co-op missions readily accessible from the game's beginning further muddy the waters, teleporting the player forward and backward in time.
However, with a growing suite of weapons and tools at hand, Unity feels more like a sandbox than many other classic Assassin's Creed games. The co-operative missions especially open the door for players to experiment, making for some of the series' best examples of the "infiltrate A, murder B" game loop. As a game about sneaking around and stabbing dudes, Unity might be my favorite in this series.