Assassin's Creed: Unity is a game that can feel amazing when it works. I'm not necessarily referring to the glitches and bugs when I say that since most of that was fixed with me playing the game 8 years after the initial release. The parkour system can be fantastic and has a lot of depth. It feels great once you get better at doing side hops and transitioning in and out of buildings. Then there are times when Arno gets stuck on something or keeps aiming for the wrong thing. Some of that could may just be me not using the controls properly but it can be very frustrating when it happens.
Likewise, the stealth can absolutely feel great. There's a sort of fast stealth system which can make you feel like an amazing assassin when you nail someone with a phantom blade, throw a quick smoke bomb to take out a group with your hidden blade before slinking back into a crowd. It works well until it doesn't. The detection can feel unpredictable and annoying and later missions can have way too many guards in one area. There are some decent "black box" assassination missions but there's also plenty of boring rote mission design.
Paris is an absolutely gorgeous world map with some of the wonderful landmarks practically being 1:1 scale. There's an impressive amount of interiors that can run into and out of seamlessly. It's also filled with a ton of markers, most of which are an endless supply of chests to open for meagre sums of money. I know some people are allergic to that sort of icon bloat but for some reason, I'm not sick of it yet.
The story is a complete waste of time. They don't take advantage of the French Revolution setting and Arno doesn't really accomplish anything of note. He feels like a side character in his own game and he is as dull as dishwater. Very few of the charcaters stand out. Elise probably would have been protagonist but I'm not sure that would have saved the narrative. The modern day part of the story basically ends with one of the characters admitting that everything they did was completely pointless.
I am pretty conflicted on this game but I do wish it became the template for the series going forward to build off of. I suppose Syndicate is that but they pivoted fairly quickly into RPG Assassin's Creed after that. I did enjoy the game but it comes with a ton of caveats.
Likewise, the stealth can absolutely feel great. There's a sort of fast stealth system which can make you feel like an amazing assassin when you nail someone with a phantom blade, throw a quick smoke bomb to take out a group with your hidden blade before slinking back into a crowd. It works well until it doesn't. The detection can feel unpredictable and annoying and later missions can have way too many guards in one area. There are some decent "black box" assassination missions but there's also plenty of boring rote mission design.
Paris is an absolutely gorgeous world map with some of the wonderful landmarks practically being 1:1 scale. There's an impressive amount of interiors that can run into and out of seamlessly. It's also filled with a ton of markers, most of which are an endless supply of chests to open for meagre sums of money. I know some people are allergic to that sort of icon bloat but for some reason, I'm not sick of it yet.
The story is a complete waste of time. They don't take advantage of the French Revolution setting and Arno doesn't really accomplish anything of note. He feels like a side character in his own game and he is as dull as dishwater. Very few of the charcaters stand out. Elise probably would have been protagonist but I'm not sure that would have saved the narrative. The modern day part of the story basically ends with one of the characters admitting that everything they did was completely pointless.
I am pretty conflicted on this game but I do wish it became the template for the series going forward to build off of. I suppose Syndicate is that but they pivoted fairly quickly into RPG Assassin's Creed after that. I did enjoy the game but it comes with a ton of caveats.