Assassin's Creed Unity in 2023 (PS5)

[AK-1138]

 

Oh wow, behold the motley fool of  Schopenhauerian legend, engaging in the oh-so-original usage of the nepotastic clappage of Charles Foster Kane's in GIFtacular form... indefensibly and artlessly excised from its original intended context with that special brand of self-indulgent carelessness only ever mustered by a denizen of the internet, residing as they do at the lowest rung of the karmic ladder of life, with nary a hope of ascension. Ain't I just the picture of individuality and personal freedom here? At least I went the extra mile and got one that weren't compressed to within six shades of shit.

 

Yeah, so... this was a great fucking read. Life contains few joys as vociferously affirming as an eloquent and erudite takedown of an unforgivably cruddy game borne of bormless goobs, and if you hadn't guessed it, this is one. I was robbed of my own chance to have a crack at this jeux de la merde due to not yet having been made cognizant of certain aspects of this site, and so to have my own points of crimatism vicariously given voice through your nous for distinctly spicy salience was nothing short of catharsis.

 

Your work speaks for itself and deconstructing it would be doing it a disservice, so I'll forego the practice... mostly. I especially liked the part about Arno being an implied necrophile. Not only does it actually add the slightest bit of interest to his character, this is just what happens when your city is built upon oodles and oodles of catacombs. Never trust a Parisian around a corpse. Freud would agree. I was lucky enough to be about done with the whole sordid affair once the medicine started reaching Martin Shkreli prices; truly one of the most half-assed mechanics in any AssassCreed, even in a game that lives and died by its objective half-assedness.

 

On a more personal note, you have my respect for taking a stand at your workplace. That's some true ass fucking real person stuff right there. As one for whom the slightly-but-not-quite-tangential preamble is a favourite writing tool, you pulled it off beautifully, and without burying the lead. So my point in all this is... when it comes to writing, you've got a certain Jenny Sauquoit, as the French say. Do more of it. Readingness on my part will swiftly follow, likely as not. Thank you for lessening the drudgery of my interminable bus stop waitery.

[poetic_justice_]

Orson Welles, Arthur Schopenhauer, Martin Shkrelik, classic cinema, philosophy, AIDS pharmaceuticals, economic manipulation, and necrophilia are all topics I did not previously associate with Assassin’s Creed. Thank you for such an interesting, thought-provoking response, AK-1138.

 

You used the phrase, “a denizen of the internet, residing as they do at the lowest rung of the karmic ladder of life, with nary a hope of ascension”.  The nihilism of that statement is brutally depressing, largely because it is accurate. Were he alive, Nietzsche might give your statement a like.

 

Referring to Unity as “jeux de la merde” (French, literally “a game of sh-t”) was an unexpected comedic moment. Unity is crap, but using French to summarize what is essentially an English game set during the French Revolution is humorously ironic. To compound the irony, Unity was developed by Ubisoft Montpellier, a French studio in Castelnau-le-Fez, France. Why didn’t Ubisoft Entertainment allow Ubisoft Montpellier to fully utilize both the French setting and readily available French resources, like French voice actors? Why didn’t Ubisoft Entertainment have Arno and Elise actually BE FRENCH? Arno and Elise sound like college-aged English expatriates on holiday having a romantic spat, not native French speakers fighting for their lives against a corrupt French government and warring professional assassins. Coupled with Unity’s other issues, summarizing the “French Revolution (now in English)” as a “jeux de la merde” was too much. Brevity is the soul of wit, and that was perfectly witty.

 

“Arno as an implied necrophile”. It was not my intent to imply Arno experienced necrophilia urges. However, once I got over the surprise of reading your statement, it made me think. An Assassin with strong feelings for the dead isn’t much of a stretch. Given the amoral nature of the Creed, the “nothing is true, everything is permitted” philosophy could be twisted into a justification for the unthinkable (as if committing genocide in a European city isn’t already unthinkable). Assassins have complicated relationships with the dead, soon-to-be-dead, and death itself; their existence revolves around all three. Given the troubling places Creed lore has already gone (particularly Syndicate’s Jack the Ripper DLC), your implication is not unreasonable. An Assassin troubled by the death of a romantic partner (such as Arno with Elise) might be unable to recover and instead seek comfort in the familiar. What is more familiar to an Assassin than death? Combining physical touch and death to ease emotional pain might seem rational to a grieving man with an amoral code. 

 

For cultural and ethical reasons, Ubisoft wouldn’t be able to market an AC game with a necrophile protagonist. However, a rogue, mentally unstable antagonist with implied necrophilia tendencies could be marketed as a uniquely unsettling villain. I don’t know that I would want to play that game, as necrophilia disturbs me. SPOILER: However, after Naughty Dog brutally bludgeoned Joel to death in The Last of Us Part II, I realized the gaming industry is willing to cross more lines than I am. 

 

Very little is sacred in modern gaming. Perhaps that is a good thing. I don’t know. For example, the white phosphorous event in Spec Ops: The Line addressed the troubling reality of “good guy” American soldiers causing excruciating civilian deaths in war.  I wouldn’t have included that event in a game. In retrospect, though, the gaming industry is better for Yager Development including the white phosphorous event in Spec Ops: The Line. Yager Development challenged the whole idea of commercializing war as harmless entertainment, particularly in video games. However - and this is critical - Yager handled the subject matter professionally and humanely. It was not gore porn (looking at you, Treyarch), or a cheap shock simply for the sake of free marketing. Yager did not revel in the subject matter; they included it, but the main focus was on how the event traumatized individual soldiers within the group. Ultimately, this individual guilt tore the soldiers apart, both collectively and individually. The white phosphorous event was shown only once, but its effects were present for the rest of the game. Even though it was never seen again, players could see the guilt of the event affecting the soldiers' ability to trust each other or know what is real. Ultimately, the trauma caused a dissociative identity disorder in the group’s leader. Unable to accept what he did, the protagonist went insane. The game has multiple endings, but all involve the protagonist, Captain Martin Walker, hallucinating and having conversations with Lieutenant Colonel John Konrad, the man Walker believes is responsible for the entire tragedy. In one of the four endings, Captain Walker takes on a dead man’s identity to exorcise himself of his own existence. “Captain Martin Walker killed those civilians, not me. I am not Captain Martin Walker. I am [insert dead soldier’s name].” The other three endings all show Walker responding to the same guilt in different ways. None of the endings are happy.

 

The four endings are open to interpretation, and other people have different conclusions. Regardless, the game’s title, Spec Ops: The Line, implies once certain lines are crossed, the protagonists can never go back. The effects (death and insanity) are permanent. SPOILERS: In the end, I find a child being burned to death by white phosphorous from friendly American soldiers far more disturbing than a lone, mentally ill assassin engaged in sexual contact with a corpse. While both images are deeply disturbing, if disturbing subject matter is handled humanely, professionally, and with compassion for those involved, I don’t see why it couldn’t (or shouldn’t) be included in a video game. 

 

However, given studio and publisher actions over the last ten years, most of the gaming industry lacks the emotional maturity to address disturbing topics in a meaningful way. Few developers could tell the story of friendly American soldiers causing civilian deaths the way Yager Development did. Most studios would bring their own baggage into the narrative, making the story about themselves in some way. Yager did not do this, instead posing an ethical question that was bigger than themselves: Is it right for the gaming industry to commercialize war for entertainment and profit? Innocent people die horribly in war, sometimes killed by the friendly forces. That fact is not a game, and we cannot afford to ignore its existence.

 

But no, overall, I found non-necrophile Arno boring until the end of the game. As soon as his hero’s journey began, Unity ended. The wasted opportunity could have taken the IP in an entirely new and exciting direction. A partnership between Arno and Shane McCormack of AC Rogue could have formed. The creation of a third brotherhood to counterbalance the monotonous, two-dimensional Assassin/Templar conflict was possible but never explored. Arno and Shane could have become “grey Jedi”, so to speak, having history with both Assassins & Templars yet pledging allegiance to neither. Owing to Shane’s assassinations in Paris, Arno and Shane shared a conflicted history with each other. This dynamic tension could have created its own narrative across multiple games. Between Arno and Shane’s murderous pasts, abandonment by the Assassins, their shared goals, individual personal conflicts, and differing understandings of the Creed and Templar Order, the series could have expanded exponentially. If both men fathered children who followed in the “Gray Assassin” path and possessed the special DNA in their bloodline, who knows where the series could have gone? All of this was unaddressed as Ubisoft put its energy into Syndicate, then Origins.

 

While Syndicate was “meh”, Orgins saved the AC IP from collapsing on itself. However, Origins also demonstrated Ubisoft’s tendency to throw the baby out with the bathwater. “Oh no, the last AC game underperformed in sales! To increase sales, let’s create a NEW Assassin in a NEW historical era in a NEW city with NEW weapons and NEW mechanics.” All this “newness” is unnecessary. If Ubisoft stopped trying to make bigger sandboxes and instead focused on developing interesting, interlocking narratives for existing characters, Assassin’s Creed wouldn’t require constant rebuilding each time a new titles launches. Instead of developing protagonists gamers already know and like, Ubisoft tries to introduce new characters with new relationships and manipulate gamers into caring. New protagonists, new eras, new countries, new weapons, and new, new, new does not make an AC game “better.” People don’t engage with “new” as much as they engage with “interesting”. Ubisoft forgets that Ezio was the main protagonist for three AC games, and many players regard those three games as the best in the entire series. Desmond and Lucy were also principal characters in multiple games, and the dynamic tension and unanswered questions of their stories grabbed the attention of many players. Desmond went from being an average bartender to an Assassin badass. 

 

Why not repeat this strategy, developing protagonists over multiple games instead of having different protagonists for each new release? Old man Ezio was wiser and more interesting than young, brash, self-centered Ezio, yet his development could not be shown in a single game. If all we got was young, brash Ezio, he would be forgettable. If young Ezio was omitted and our first introduction to Ezio was as a middle-aged Assassin, his observant nature, tactical planning, blade hook, and self-restraint would have no greater meaning. Paired together, the two narratives interlock into a single story of growing emotional maturity and increasingly deadly skill. Ezio transitioned from an improvising, careless playboy (who treated his hidden blade almost like a toy) into a seasoned, tactical veteran who used the environment as effectively as his blades. It was clear that old Ezio, while not as youthful, had become a far more dangerous predator. The two parts of this story could not have been told in one game and had the same impact.

 

Thank you for the compliment. I am happy you enjoyed the read. Hopefully, your bus bench is in the shade during these summer days. Out of curiosity, are you Norwegian or an expatriate from another country? The use of complex vocabulary, multiple languages, and references to classic cinema, philosophers, and pharmaceutical fraud are uncommon in PSNP posts. 

[Lowlliet]

So I just started this game again on PS5 since release when I played it through on PC. I'm playing the disc, unpatched version so I have 60FPS. And I just have to say... I have no idea what you're talking about.

 

This game is one of the best AC games ever made. I'd put it right behind ACII.

Playing as Connor in AC3 felt like shit - 2 huge tutorials, half of the game just play as his father, just boring overall. AC Black Flag was horrible with it's repetitive tail missions (it was like every 3rd mission seriously) and I didn't really like Syndicate with 2 characters.

 

The parkour is smooth, fast and looks great with Arno's little twists and "ninja" jumps. Controls are okay and I like how they basically made it to 3 movements - up, down and straight.

The city is greatly designed, atmospheric and I just love the architecture. You can move through like 90% of houses, Notre Dame, basilicas and chapels look awesome with their portals and stained glass. Loved going through the sewers.

Side missions are fun and who doesn't like murder mysteries? You interact with madame Tussaud, Lenormand and others.

Combat is completely fine. It is basically like in the first 2 games, just improved, so you can't just parry everything. 

Various entrances to missions through locked windows/doors, which you can lockpick and open new ways. 

Huge variety of weapons/armor, which look awesome on Arno. Maybe I'd just add more color variations or just put color picker there completely.

 

What I especially like in this game, it feels like I'm really playing as an assassin. I have a hood like Altair, Ezio, brotherhood has the codex from the first game and it's about the conflict between assassins and templars, how it should be. In the newest games, it doesn't feel like that at all. I platinumed Origins and Odyssey and, even though I kinda enjoyed them, they don't have that feeling anymore. Main characters just don't look like assassins anymore and I know it's way behind Altair in the timeline but still... 

Story is fine too. Arno is kinda sympathethic and I know he seems like a prick in the beginning but that's just part of his character development and I think he matures through the game. It's the same as Ezio tbh. 

 

Also I already played like 10 hours already and so far 0 bugs and, as I said, I'm playing the unpatched version, which should be the most broken one. Smoke bombs work, no glitches, no artifacts, everything runs fine even with those huge crowds and in 60FPS. But the main thing is, there are no agendas, political stuff put in there, no LGBT propagations, no quotas. It's just a game created to be fun and as more GaaS games come out and new games in general, the more I appreciate games like this without all that bullsh*t. I know there are some mtxs for the co-op boosts I think? But at least the game isn't plagued by other nonsense like season passes, lootboxes, rainbow sci-fi cosmetics, skins etc. 

 

I really wish this game got remaster treatment. All they have to do is make the resolution higher, unlock FPS, put settings to Ultra and release it. It would be free money for Ubisoft. But even in 900p it looks and plays awesome on PS5.

Edited September 4, 2023 by Lowlliet

[poetic_justice_]

On 9/4/2023 at 5:05 AM, Lowlliet said:

So I just started this game again on PS5 since release when I played it through on PC. I'm playing the disc, unpatched version so I have 60FPS. And I just have to say... I have no idea what you're talking about.

 

This game is one of the best AC games ever made. I'd put it right behind ACII.

 

Also I already played like 10 hours already and so far 0 bugs and, as I said, I'm playing the unpatched version, which should be the most broken one.  But the main thing is, there are no agendas, political stuff put in there, no LGBT propagations, no quotas. 

 

 

The following are Yes/No statements for evaluating AC Unity. If a player agrees, the answer is Yes. If a player disagrees, the answer is No.

 

GAMEPLAY MECHANICS

• I find the three-tiered lockpicking skill in Unity preferable to piloting the Aquila in AC III or piloting the Jackdaw in AC IV: Black Flag.
• Lockpicking hundreds of chests and doors brings me enjoyment.
• Designing four-player co-op missions with no downscaling option for one to three players is an ideal game design.

 

COMBAT

• For stealth, I prefer carrying two poison darts to carrying five.
• In previous AC titles, poisoning an enemy to death required a single dart. Weakening poison to only partially damage an enemy’s health (thus breaking stealth and alerting enemies to the player’s presence) improves combat.
• AC II, III, and IV included the option of parrying melee combat. However, I think nerfing the parry mechanic in Unity improves combat.
• AC II and IV included the option of disarming enemies. However, I think removing the disarm mechanic improves combat.
• In AC II, III, and IV, players could pick up dropped enemy weapons. I think prohibiting players from using dropped enemy weapons improves combat.
• Unity’s combat is superior to the eight Assassin’s Creed titles that preceded it.

 

SIDE ACTIVITIES/COLLECTABLES

• I find running around Paris to decipher Nostradamus Enigmas an enjoyable, mentally stimulating activity.
• The eighteen Nostradamus Enigmas are so engaging that I deciphered them myself without a guide.
• Repeating this process eighteen times is exactly how I want to spend my gaming time.
• Gathering 500 separate collectibles scattered throughout Unity’s open world adds value to my gameplay experience.
• Running to a collectible highlighted on the minimap only to find it trapped behind a high-tier lock is fine. If this happens dozens of times, I am fine with it. Ubisoft does not need to refine the mini-map icons.

 

CO-OP MISSIONS

• I completed The Tournament solo without using a guide.
• I enjoyed completing The Tournament solo.
• I enjoyed completing timed objectives designed for four separate players by myself.
• Since co-op missions are designed only for four players, I enjoy resolving chronic crossfire and flanking attacks from multiple angles. 

 

LORE

• In terms of character development, Arno Victor Dorian is as well-developed a character as Ezio Auditore da Firenze.
• The love story of Arno Dorian and Elise de la Serre is a memorable part of AC lore.
• As a whole, Unity elevates the narrative of the Assassins Creed series by significantly contributing to the player’s overall understanding of the Assassins Brotherhood.

 

TECHNICAL

• Other players reporting bugs while playing Unity on a PS5 do not concern me.
• Other players reporting stuttering framerate while playing Unity on a PS5 do not concern me.

 

FINAL TALLY

• To how many questions did you respond Yes?
• To how many questions did you respond No?

 

If 50% of a player's answers are No, why would that player defend Unity? 

 

CONFIRMATION BIAS

There is a difference between genuinely being unaware of problems and not wanting to admit problems exist. Your evaluation cherry-picks a few parts of Unity you like (graphics and parkour), selectively minimizes and downplays a few parts you disagree with (combat) and ignores everything else. This is not an objective evaluation; it is confirmation bias. 

 

Obtaining Unity’s trophies requires spending dozens of hours interacting with the factors you ignored. When you say with dramatic surprise, “I have no idea what you are talking about! I’ve played the game for ten hours on PS5 and it’s one of the best AC games ever!.“ it comes across as disingenuine. New players might be misled by such a statement. Ten hours is perhaps 20% of the time required for the approximately 50-hour platinum. It is wonderful that you enjoyed Unity for ten hours, but without finishing the platinum on PS5, such claims are premature. 

 

You posted your comment on September 4th. Today is November 1st. Completing a 50-hour platinum in two months is a reasonable expectation. However, if “Unity is one of the [two] best AC games ever made” and playing it on the PS5 is so amazing, why did you stop playing it before completing the platinum? 

 

Putting graphics and parkour to one side, there are many other factors to consider:

 

• Inferior Combat
• “Sticky Hands” Parkour
• Parkour getting stuck on buggy environmental assets
• NPCs getting stuck in buggy environmental assets
• Non-scaling Co-op Missions
• Awful Co-op Mission Design
• Removal of Interesting Ship Mechanics, Replaced with Boring Lockpicking (and hundreds of locks)
• Collectible Bloat (over 500 collectibles, the most for a single game in the entire AC series)
• Eighteen confusing Nostradamus Enigmas
• The Horror that is completing The Tournament co-op mission solo
• Limp Storytelling
• Bland Protagonist
• No Relevant Lore
• Ubisoft’s Manipulation and Embargo of Pre-launch Reviews
• Disastrous Launch
• Ubisoft giving Gold Edition and Season Pass Owners a Free Game to Prevent Lawsuits
• Ubisoft Eventually Giving All Customers All DLC for Free Because Unity Was a Failure

 

All of these are relevant topics Unity fans neglect to mention, minimize, or outright ignore.

 

@Lowliet wrote, "But the main thing is, there are no agendas, political stuff put in there, no LGBT propagations, no quotas." I agree it is nice to play a video game that is just a video game. However, there are better choices for that than Unity. Sadly, there are always quotas. Ubisoft's manipulative attempts to meet sales quotas for Unity backfired (review embargos), creating the largest legal scandal in Ubisoft's game launch history.

 

I agree with you regarding the architecture and environment of Revolutionary Paris; it is gorgeous. However, beautiful graphics on the PS5 don’t repair a broken PS4 game. Ubisoft knows this; it is why they abandoned Unity. Ubisoft has released no patches for Unity since 2015; Ubisoft left the game for dead eight years ago because they knew it couldn’t be fixed. Ubisoft is more honest about that fact than Unity fanboys. Unity is the largest legal and financial failure in Ubisoft’s history, and Ubisoft would rather everyone forget it happened.

 

Eight years later, can the superior processing power of the PS5 salvage AC Unity? No. While a small percentage of Unity’s problems can be aided by faster processors, an overwhelming percentage of Unity’s problems are not software-related. The problems are game design-related, mission-related, combat mechanic-related, collectible-related, tedious design choices, and gutting gameplay by removing previously established features. Even if EVERY bug were resolved, Unity would still be substandard. All these factors combine to make Unity a boring, bland slog regardless of what platform it is played on. The PS5 can’t save Unity from itself. Unity’s platinum is not worth the time it takes to obtain it. After enthusiastically endorsing the game yet abandoning it without obtaining the platinum, your actions inadvertently confirm this. 

Edited November 13, 2023 by poetic_justice_

[ValkyrBlack]

I agree with OP in every aspect except the berserk darts. I got like 8 due to a belt. 

Just replaying ac unity for plat and dead king. 

 

The parkour is so ass. I actually like the Odyssey parkour, combat, everything more that ever because of this shit. 

The only thing I like is Paris in the game.