The Greatness of Assassins Creed Unity

 

"The Creed of the Assassin Brotherhood teaches us that nothing is forbidden to us. Once, I thought that meant we were free to do as we would. To pursue our ideals, no matter the cost. I understand now. Not a grant of permission. The Creed is a warning. Ideals too easily give way to dogma. Dogma becomes fanaticism. No higher power sits in judgment of us. No supreme being watches to punish us for our sins. In the end, only we ourselves can guard against our obsessions. Only we can decide whether the road we walk carries too high a toll. We believe ourselves redeemers, avengers, saviors. We make war on those who oppose us, and they, in turn, make war on us. We dream of leaving our stamp upon the world... even as we give our lives in a conflict that will be recorded in no history book. All that we do, all that we are, begins and ends with ourselves." ~ Arno Dorian

I was a huge fan of Assassin's Creed back in the Ezio days. Not that I didn't like the original; if it wasn't for Altair, the series would have gone nowhere, but there was something about Ezio that everyone fell in love with. His character and watching him grow into one of the greatest assassins—the story itself was phenomenal and taken right out of the history books. So why do I think Assassins Creed Unity excels? It has become one of my favorite AC games and one of the best. 

Being a history buff, AC was always my go-to game, and I loved how they brought history to a new audience, even though some of it was stretching the truth. When they introduced AC Unity and the world surrounding the French Revolution, my excitement level reached a new height, and it was phenomenal in every detail. Sadly, they didn't get a chance to expand or even evolve it further because of a few cheap shots by gaming magazines like IGN and others. 

The French Revolution was a period of uprisings, lies, deceit, and propoganda. Arno was born in 1768 to Charles and Marie Dorian. Marie abandoned the family, leaving Charles to raise his son on his own. After Charles was assassinated, he was adapted by François de la Serre (Templar). Arno was not aware of this or his father's history, so he was simply a boy who fell in love with a girl (Elise), the daughter of Francois, the father figure who raised Arno.

Arno later becomes an Assassin as his father, but he joined to find out who and why Francois was killed in an effort to clear his own name and to rekindle his friendship as he was still in love with Elise. The game itself becomes a murder mystery for Arno; while unknown to him, he was about to walk the shadow line, finding out not only about his birth father but also about Francious and Elise.

The game also contains side missions relevant to that period of time during the class struggles throughout France. It also has co-op for up to 4 players and helix mode, which allows you to play and view genetic memories with the help of Bishop (an unknown identity) and Shaun Hastings, known from previous games. The stealth is fluid and probably the best seen in any of the AC games, as is the combat and movement of Arno as he makes his way through the streets, climbing and entering buildings. The city is rich in characters known from that period of time, and the mission sequences are on point, as is the music for the game.

Assassins Creed Unity did everything right, and if it weren't for a few bugs, it would have been remembered for what it was: truly great. IGN did what they always do: play a game for 5 minutes and destroy it in one. That's why I never trust anything that comes out of their mouth. The most annoying of all was comparing it to Black Flag. AC Black Flag may be a phenomenal game in its own right, but it was a pirate game running under the umbrella of Assassins Creed. It didn't even touch the greatness of Ezio Auditore. 

In their conclusion or verdict, they claimed the character was not strong or interesting enough for THEM (Typical rush-through review) Then there were some control issues that they claimed ruined the game; yes, there was one mission I myself had trouble with, but I soon realized it was more of a player issue, not fully understanding what the game was asking me to do. I played the game on release and didn't see any of the bugs others claimed to have had, maybe because I wasn't playing on a PC. I don't know, but I do know that PC gamers buy games without considering or factoring in their rigs capabilities of running the game the way it is meant to run. 

Then we had people posting bugs in Unity with their caked dusty consoles and wondering why the game doesn't run or having their console trapped in an oven and complaining when the console shuts down but still blaming the game they were playing. I'm not saying that's the main reason for the bugs, but you can rule out a lot of issues simply by looking at some of the pictures being posted. Yes, Unity had bugs like most other games on release day, but let's leave it up to the gamers to decide. No one wants to spend dollars on a game that is unplayable, and there are some that may have been, but Unity was not one of them.

Now a days, most people watch others play demos before they buy a game, like the RadBrad, so they can see how the game runs or looks, or play the demo themselves before making a decision to buy. IGN may be the go-to place for some gamers, but for me, it's an opinionated preference. Ubisoft gave up too quick on Unity, so it never evolved the way it should have, and so they abandoned the franchise as it was and started pushing out games like Odessy, which for me is not an AC game in any shape or form.

Unity was the last AC game that felt like an AC game and even followed the greatness of Ezio, and it was the last of its kind. Mirage was Ubisoft's latest attempt at restoring what was known as an AC game, and it did go back to some roots that made AC great, but for me personally, it was still missing that click of being an assassin. AC Unity will always be remembered as an unfinished game because of IGN and Ubisoft's stone-stepping response to one of their greatest AC games. Unity still holds up today on new generation consoles and is still playable in its current form, but I hope they will one day do a remaster of the game and reintroduce what made it great for younger audiences. So for now lets reminace with this music video from AC Unity.