I already spoke about the weirdness this release had in the Rouge review: This game came out the same date as Rogue and got the community divided between both games, which was a really bad choice that Ubisoft did. Fortunately, most people chose to go with the new Engine and opted for Unity.
Unity continues the story line that gets set in motion by the actions of Shay in Rogue, only this time we see them in the eyes of a small boy: Our protagonist Arno Dorian, who grows up adopted by François de la Serre, Grand Master of the French Templars. When de la Serre gets killed, Arno blames himself as he might have been able to prevent it, but rather pursued Élise de la Serre as an love interest. He gets blamed for the murder and thrown into the Bastille and by chance is broken free during the storm of the Bastille - together with Pierre Bellec, an Assassin. Pierre takes Arno in, and Arno in turn rises the ranks of the Assassin Brotherhood and tries to find the real killer and avenge de la Serre, while also continuing to pursue Élise who has finally become a Templar herself, leading to a problematic situation as Arno is an Assassin - and this all takes place in the midst of the French Revolution were both, Templar and Assassins have a role to play.
Unity is a packed and dense game; there is so much happening in this really vibrant city, you can walk through the different areas and feel all the turmoil. The poverty and sickness, the people revolting, beheadings, the Roi des Thunes, the Marquis de Sade, the Jacobins, Napoléon, Robespierre, Louis XIV, the Catacombs, the Reign of Terror - everything is happening, and you can feel all of it, by just running around through the city. Every AC was rooted in history and historical events, some stronger, some more loose; but - at least to me - none in that detail as Unity. And I don't mean it in the sense of how it is intertwined with the main story, but just how you can see things happening in the environment you move around. Besides that, the city is modeled quite astonishing. A year after playing Unity we went to Paris for vacation, and it was really uncanny how good we were able to navigate the city from memory, just because I played Unity before. This amount of detail in the map making is insane. And with Le Louvre, Île de la Cité, Versailles, Les Invalides, Quartier Latin and the Catacombs, there are so many different and interesting locations to be playing in.
Character-wise I had a lot of fun playing Arno. I would characterize him like a french version of Ezio, but while I had problems identifying myself with Ezio, I could much more sympathize with Arno, who was a bit more tuned down in certain aspects. His personal story ark is also really nice - it's actually a mixture of Altair (rising ranks in an established Assassin's brotherhood, and trying to redeem oneself for an error one made) and Connor (the inner conflict and question of belonging), together with an hint of Ezio (family drama) and a Romeo and Juliette type of love story. But it's also much more - where Rogue fails, Unity manages to find the perfect balance between different philosophies that are neither good nor evil - just different; and goes even further and shows that there are also philosophy clashes inside each of the factions. There are those Templars who are more extremist than others, and there are Assassins that even try to find common ground with the Templars while others will try to prevent this at all cost.
As to the game play: Both, fighting and parkour have been overhauled and worked better than with any previous AC (except for when there where bugs, and it was surprisingly little bugs - but they where present as well - would it still be an AC game without bugs). Especially the fencing sword fights where a lot of fun and worked great. You also get your typical mini-game in the game; this time its building up the Café Théâtre, which serves as Arnos private headquarters while also housing the secret Assassin's Headquarter just underneath. By upgrading it and doing missions for the owner one can generate a stream of income and unlock new rooms and functions, as well as items. There is the usual amount of different additional items to collect to gain additional gear (chests, cockades, artifacts), and there is a range of side-missions that are new (but typical for AC): on of those are the "Nostradamus Enigmas" puzzle riddles, others are anomalies that this time lead to two different other timelines: the Belle Époque and the Occupation by Nazi Germany. There are also your typical Assassination contracts, but this time they are marketed as "Paris stories" and evolve around famous historical figures. But the most noteworthy additions are the "Murder Mysteries" which I had a ton of fun with: Someone got murdered and Arno gets to collect clues and interrogate witnesses to find out who the murder is. You can accuse anyone you like, but only when accusing the right person do you get to solve the Murder Mystery. These where a lot of fun to play. All these elements allow for an already quite diverse and versatile gameplay. But Unity goes even further: For the first time we get a skill tree, so we can individualize Arnos abilities to match our game play: melee, health, ranged and stealth are the four categories these improvements fall into. And then there is the last improvement that - unfortunately also got dropped in later titles: The main missions are actually not guided anymore, but you get to explore the area to find different infiltration and assassination opportunities. There might be secret entry points, or disguised entries, or distractions you could create with the help of people or crowds nearby - or you could just fight your way in. Then there are different ways of assassinating your targets; sometimes by disguise, sometimes by poisoning something, sometimes by sneaking in a certain way - or if you want: Just fight your way in. Exploring the opportunities always rewards the player with additional more interesting killing animations, or additional dialogue, so it's always the most fun to do.
For me, this is one of the best Assassin's Creed ever made; I would rate it the highest of the old Assassin's Creed parts, and probably among the top 3 over all. And I'd highly recommend it to anyone, even as a start in this series.
This includes the DLC "Dead Kings"
PS: Just to complete the review: There is a modern-day story; as with the previous games the modern-day protagonist now speak directly to you as a player, so the modern-day protagonist does not have a name. However it is clear that this time - again (as with Black Flag and Rogue) you are regarded as a new character, unassociated with the last two. This time you are "The Initiate", someone joining the modern-day Assassins. However the interaction is limited to just story telling and not much more.
Unity continues the story line that gets set in motion by the actions of Shay in Rogue, only this time we see them in the eyes of a small boy: Our protagonist Arno Dorian, who grows up adopted by François de la Serre, Grand Master of the French Templars. When de la Serre gets killed, Arno blames himself as he might have been able to prevent it, but rather pursued Élise de la Serre as an love interest. He gets blamed for the murder and thrown into the Bastille and by chance is broken free during the storm of the Bastille - together with Pierre Bellec, an Assassin. Pierre takes Arno in, and Arno in turn rises the ranks of the Assassin Brotherhood and tries to find the real killer and avenge de la Serre, while also continuing to pursue Élise who has finally become a Templar herself, leading to a problematic situation as Arno is an Assassin - and this all takes place in the midst of the French Revolution were both, Templar and Assassins have a role to play.
Unity is a packed and dense game; there is so much happening in this really vibrant city, you can walk through the different areas and feel all the turmoil. The poverty and sickness, the people revolting, beheadings, the Roi des Thunes, the Marquis de Sade, the Jacobins, Napoléon, Robespierre, Louis XIV, the Catacombs, the Reign of Terror - everything is happening, and you can feel all of it, by just running around through the city. Every AC was rooted in history and historical events, some stronger, some more loose; but - at least to me - none in that detail as Unity. And I don't mean it in the sense of how it is intertwined with the main story, but just how you can see things happening in the environment you move around. Besides that, the city is modeled quite astonishing. A year after playing Unity we went to Paris for vacation, and it was really uncanny how good we were able to navigate the city from memory, just because I played Unity before. This amount of detail in the map making is insane. And with Le Louvre, Île de la Cité, Versailles, Les Invalides, Quartier Latin and the Catacombs, there are so many different and interesting locations to be playing in.
Character-wise I had a lot of fun playing Arno. I would characterize him like a french version of Ezio, but while I had problems identifying myself with Ezio, I could much more sympathize with Arno, who was a bit more tuned down in certain aspects. His personal story ark is also really nice - it's actually a mixture of Altair (rising ranks in an established Assassin's brotherhood, and trying to redeem oneself for an error one made) and Connor (the inner conflict and question of belonging), together with an hint of Ezio (family drama) and a Romeo and Juliette type of love story. But it's also much more - where Rogue fails, Unity manages to find the perfect balance between different philosophies that are neither good nor evil - just different; and goes even further and shows that there are also philosophy clashes inside each of the factions. There are those Templars who are more extremist than others, and there are Assassins that even try to find common ground with the Templars while others will try to prevent this at all cost.
As to the game play: Both, fighting and parkour have been overhauled and worked better than with any previous AC (except for when there where bugs, and it was surprisingly little bugs - but they where present as well - would it still be an AC game without bugs). Especially the fencing sword fights where a lot of fun and worked great. You also get your typical mini-game in the game; this time its building up the Café Théâtre, which serves as Arnos private headquarters while also housing the secret Assassin's Headquarter just underneath. By upgrading it and doing missions for the owner one can generate a stream of income and unlock new rooms and functions, as well as items. There is the usual amount of different additional items to collect to gain additional gear (chests, cockades, artifacts), and there is a range of side-missions that are new (but typical for AC): on of those are the "Nostradamus Enigmas" puzzle riddles, others are anomalies that this time lead to two different other timelines: the Belle Époque and the Occupation by Nazi Germany. There are also your typical Assassination contracts, but this time they are marketed as "Paris stories" and evolve around famous historical figures. But the most noteworthy additions are the "Murder Mysteries" which I had a ton of fun with: Someone got murdered and Arno gets to collect clues and interrogate witnesses to find out who the murder is. You can accuse anyone you like, but only when accusing the right person do you get to solve the Murder Mystery. These where a lot of fun to play. All these elements allow for an already quite diverse and versatile gameplay. But Unity goes even further: For the first time we get a skill tree, so we can individualize Arnos abilities to match our game play: melee, health, ranged and stealth are the four categories these improvements fall into. And then there is the last improvement that - unfortunately also got dropped in later titles: The main missions are actually not guided anymore, but you get to explore the area to find different infiltration and assassination opportunities. There might be secret entry points, or disguised entries, or distractions you could create with the help of people or crowds nearby - or you could just fight your way in. Then there are different ways of assassinating your targets; sometimes by disguise, sometimes by poisoning something, sometimes by sneaking in a certain way - or if you want: Just fight your way in. Exploring the opportunities always rewards the player with additional more interesting killing animations, or additional dialogue, so it's always the most fun to do.
For me, this is one of the best Assassin's Creed ever made; I would rate it the highest of the old Assassin's Creed parts, and probably among the top 3 over all. And I'd highly recommend it to anyone, even as a start in this series.
This includes the DLC "Dead Kings"
PS: Just to complete the review: There is a modern-day story; as with the previous games the modern-day protagonist now speak directly to you as a player, so the modern-day protagonist does not have a name. However it is clear that this time - again (as with Black Flag and Rogue) you are regarded as a new character, unassociated with the last two. This time you are "The Initiate", someone joining the modern-day Assassins. However the interaction is limited to just story telling and not much more.