Assassin's Creed: Unity (PS4/XBone/PC)

[Marek]

I haven't seen anywhere that it states that a mobile app is required.

Yeah, there is a mobile app that you can use to unlock more optional stuff, but I don't think you need the Unity Companion to play the game.

There are in game chests you can't open without it or so I read

Idk about you but if I got an in game prompt from trying to open a fucking treasure chest that said download some bullshit to your phone I'd be so pissed

 

[Taiso]

There are in game chests you can't open without it or so I read

Idk about you but if I got an in game prompt from trying to open a fucking treasure chest that said download some bullshit to your phone I'd be so pissed

Yeah, I think it's annoying but I also recognize that such a chest isn't necessary to play the game so I'll just past it for now and if I care enough later, I'll do the whole mobile app thing.

I mean, it's frustrating social gaming getting mixed into my $60 purchase and I feel you brother. But I'd consider it a negative point of the game and not enough to say 'I ain't playing it.'

I'm more likely to draw that line when the mobile app is required to finish the game at all.

 

[Magician]

Ugh, not the greatest of first impressions. I started playing after getting home from work. Instead of running around gathering all the collectibles I played through the campaign first. I get to mission 1-3 and I can't start the mission. The game says, "missions can't be played until the game is installed."

What?

My download status says that the download is complete, so there's nothing to install. So in my haste I deleted Unity and restarted the download. Turns out that was probably a bad move because my download may not have been finished afterall. I was checking the download progress under notifications, not under system storage, where I should've checked first.

So I spent my evening waiting for everything to download again.

Anywho, I experienced glitches in just the third cutscene of the game. With Ano and Anabelle (Isabelle?) running around as children. After I stole an apple my avatar, Ano, disappeared. Only an apple was floating in the air where Ano moved, lol.

I get into the game and it's a mixed bag. The animations, both facial and movement, are improved. However, the controls and combat in Unity feel sluggish compared to Black Flag. Climbing structures feels late to respond to where I actually want to go.

Hopefully my experience will improve today.

Maybe tighter controls have been locked behind that skill system somewhere?

 

[zaneiken]

It's irritating that almost everyone in this game speaks with a British accent.

The game takes place in France and all of the characters are French.

For a series like Assassin's Creed, which likes to use history as the backbone of its narrative concepts, this seems like a strangely incongruous choice.

Especially considering Ubisoft is a French company.

Movies do this all the time. Have you tried playing the game in French with English subs?

 

[Taiso]

Movies do this all the time. Have you tried playing the game in French with English subs?

All due respect, I'm aware that movies do this all the time.

Accepting it and enjoying it are two different things.

 

[subcons]

Even though I'm a fan of the series, I'm fairly jaded about new installments of this any more with the yearly iterations. With that said, I was interested in Unity for the co-op. The idea of going through the game with a couple of my friends sounded good to me. On top of that, I was actually impressed with Black Flag. I never had any intention of getting it, but for $25 new and the fact that Unity wasn't going to have multi (which I like), I went ahead and got it. I was pleasantly surprised that it was a really great game.

With the the lackluster reviews Untiy is getting, plus the fact that only about a quarter of the missions are co-op, I doubt I'll ever play this one. From what I've read, it sounds like its just the same old formula with really great graphics and animations. I feel like Black Flag diverged enough from that formula and took enough chances to make it interesting again. Luckily, that game is so huge, I still have plenty left to do in it.

 

[Taiso]

Even though I'm a fan of the series, I'm fairly jaded about new installments of this any more with the yearly iterations. With that said, I was interested in Unity for the co-op. The idea of going through the game with a couple of my friends sounded good to me. On top of that, I was actually impressed with Black Flag. I never had any intention of getting it, but for $25 new and the fact that Unity wasn't going to have multi (which I like), I went ahead and got it. I was pleasantly surprised that it was a really great game.

With the the lackluster reviews Untiy is getting, plus the fact that only about a quarter of the missions are co-op, I doubt I'll ever play this one. From what I've read, it sounds like its just the same old formula with really great graphics and animations. I feel like Black Flag diverged enough from that formula and took enough chances to make it interesting again. Luckily, that game is so huge, I still have plenty left to do in it.

It's interesting that you bring this up because even though I own Unity, I've had little inclination to really pursue it.

It's Assassin's Creed and I really enjoy the series so I'm sure I'll find things to love about it in time but right now, I'm really a lot more invested in AC: Rogue.

It's basically a hybrid between 3 and Black Flag, taking the best elements of both and combining them while at the same time adding a bunch of new game play elements. A few years ago, this game probably would have been considered Assassin's Creed V.

In Rogue they've added a bunch of neat things like enemy ships being able to board you and attack, finding abandoned wrecks burning in the sea that you have a limited time to loot before they sink, assassins that don't show up in Eagle Vision that are hunting and trying to kill you (looks like they took the stealth killing element of multiplayer and made it a single player threat to overcome) and a whole host of other small changes that add up to an experience that feels similar to previous entries but feels new enough to warrant the purchase for me.

The most interesting thing to me is the story itself. It takes place between Black Flag and III chronologically, filling in a lot of the gaps between the two games and taking the AC storyline formula and turning it on its ear. You play as Shay Cormac, an Assassin that becomes disillusioned with the Brotherhood and decides to turn his coat over to the Templars. It's a fun deviation from the storyline because it uses all of the mythology built up over the years of AC games and does something different with it. I'm really engaged with the game so far.

 

[jro]

It's interesting that you bring this up because even though I own Unity, I've had little inclination to really pursue it.


The most interesting thing to me is the story itself. It takes place between Black Flag and III chronologically, filling in a lot of the gaps between the two games and taking the AC storyline formula and turning it on its ear. You play as Shay Cormac, an Assassin that becomes disillusioned with the Brotherhood and decides to turn his coat over to the Templars. It's a fun deviation from the storyline because it uses all of the mythology built up over the years of AC games and does something different with it. I'm really engaged with the game so far.

I am fully on board with this- I cancelled my original preorder for Unity buy still bought Rogue, and then only ended up still getting Unity because there wasn't a third game to add to my Buy 2 Get 1 at Target. I started up Unity last night on the PS4 but I'm planning to play through Rogue before I touch it again.

Initial reviews for Rogue have been quite positive, as well.

 

[Taiso]

I am fully on board with this- I cancelled my original preorder for Unity buy still bought Rogue, and then only ended up still getting Unity because there wasn't a third game to add to my Buy 2 Get 1 at Target. I started up Unity last night on the PS4 but I'm planning to play through Rogue before I touch it again.

Initial reviews for Rogue have been quite positive, as well.

Another thing to note about Rogue is that it's not centered around a major historical event. Obviously, being AC, you can expect a good dose of history as the characters exist in a world where real things happened, but the narrative focus is entirely on the characters, the AC mythology and the resulting conflict.

It's good to see them focus on this. The AC mythology is rich in and of itself at this point and they've added so many different elements over the years that there is plenty of fun to be had with it over just making another game where they said 'Okay, this is when event X took place in human history and you are playing an assassin during that time period.'

 

[Dr Shroom]

How are you guys enjoying your sub-30 fps, 3rd world console experience?

Stop sucking this black guy's dick so hard you little queer.

 

[CORY]

Rogue is the better game but Unity is the one that got the next gen treatment, go figure

I won't buy any of these games anyway. Watch Dogs pretty much killed any confidence I still had in Ubisoft. What a fucking rip off. I can't believe they actually released that shit. Far Cry 4 better be the best game of the freaking decade.

 

[Stuart989]

Stop sucking this black guy's dick so hard you little queer.

He tells it like it is and he exposes fraudulent companies and individuals. Good dude.

 

[Dr Shroom]

Who the fuck cares.

 

[Magician]

Spent most of the evening enjoying the game. There are quite a few changes from the past AC games.

First and foremost counter-killing (god mode) has been removed. In it's place, timing the parry perfectly grants you an automatic enemy stagger, opening that target up for a free hit (or more depending on enemy difficulty). The "grab an enemy to use as a human shield against ranged weapons" has also been removed. In it's place...a pretty OP dodge mechanic. You can avoid all ballistic attacks by spamming the jump button, but you're forced to remove all enemies in the area or risk dying by being shot in the back (2 shots is enough to kill you).

I've got a love/hate relationship with the gear system. I love that I can wield a long staff. It's very thrilling to twirl that bad bitch around and take enemies out Donatello style (TMNT). And having that long staff as a permanently equipped item makes my assassin feel even more boss.

One bad part is I know something better will be available down the line. My tier three (out of five) spiked long staff looks gnarly and honestly...the top tier long staffs don't look quite as nasty. The other bad part is the grindwall. The final two tiers of equipment cost a crazy amount of money. It took me a couple hours to earn enough money to purchase my spiked long staff. The next upgrade costs five times as much and the final tier costs five times more than the fourth tier.

I hope the higher difficulties hand out substantially better rewards, otherwise gearing up will take awhile.

I also wonder how viable a melee loadout will be near the endgame? My tier three weapon does as well against level four enemies as my tier one weapon did against level two enemies. Will I be forced to go stealth-heavy at the end of things? Or maybe the system has made ranged weapons more important? I still haven't bought the skill to use firearms (another basic ability they've locked away in the skill system).

In any case, I like Unity just as much as previous AC games.

Sure I feel less like a god with most of my skills stripped away, but the game looks and sounds great.

 

[Renmauzo]

So far, Unity is feeling like a game that came out 9 months ago as a launch window game. So much has been stripped out of the game: picking up bodies, human shield, shops like blacksmiths and tailors to buy gear at (all in menu instead, except items), the entire naval aspect present in the 'american saga' (setting used as a device to omit this), etc.
It feels as though many short cuts were taken to get this game out this fall with the hopes that a new graphics engine would make up for all these cuts. Add to that the fact that there is the Initiates website and Unity companion app and it feels like this game is the 32X of software. I don't like the idea of half the gear being locked unless I do these mundane tertiary tasks, or only being able to see quest descriptions that have been filed to do later within the app and not in the game's own menu...and that's when the app works; of course most of the Initiates website is still 'coming soon'.
Then there are things that I find supremely irritating, like the clue tracking for the Nostradamus pieces. It's not hunting the clues themselves that's the problem, it the fact that even if you find the symbol before finding all the clues, you don't get the piece unless you get all the clues. That's like the math teacher telling you you get zero even though you got the right answer because you didn't show your work.
It's not all bad: the battle system feels more realistic and natural without the instant kill counter attack from previous games, and Arno feels more planted and natural in his movement while scaling structures. Being able to parkour down things is a nice way to make it look seamless and natural, and to avoid stupid deaths as would happen in previous games. Crowd density is great and makes the city feel more alive, as does the addition of more fleshed out indoor environments.

All in all, the game is decent, but it still feels like a shallow experience so far and has too much taken out or been left as an add on to make the game feel like anything other than a test/game made to fill the yearly quota. I hope it can win me over farther in as I enjoy the mythos of AC over all.

 

[lantus360]

Anywho, I experienced glitches in just the third cutscene of the game. With Ano and Anabelle (Isabelle?) running around as children. After I stole an apple my avatar, Ano, disappeared. Only an apple was floating in the air where Ano moved, lol.

this happened to me also. Bone version. So far, its a beautiful looking game, but the game-play is typical AC. I also picked up Rogue which i will get into after this one.

 

[Magician]

Well my concerns over monies has been alleviated. I got the Cafe up and running. After a few Cafe missions I'm now earning 1000F every twenty mintues. It shouldn't take as long to max out gear as I thought it would.

 

[Taiso]

Everyone knows I really love the AC franchise and am still a huge fan of Prince of Persia, but Ubisoft really needs to learn something about how to talk to their customer base.

EDIT: I'm glad I'm playing Rogue first to give Ubi a little time to fix Unity (and the fact that I even said this is pretty sad.)

 

[CORY]

but Ubisoft really needs to learn something about how to talk to their customer base

What about that 12 hours after the relaese review embargo? That shit is even worse. They can patch their games all they want but people need to know how crappy their games are on release day. Plus, they didn't ship Rogue to the press in time and most of the major websites have yet to publish their review of the game, 3 days after the release. This is bullshit.

 

[Taiso]

What about that 12 hours after the relaese review embargo? That shit is even worse. They can patch their games all they want but people need to know how crappy their games are on release day. Plus, they didn't ship Rogue to the press in time and most of the major websites have yet to publish their review of the game, 3 days after the release. This is bullshit.

I'm not surprised that Rogue isn't getting coverage.

They don't want everyone to say what us Rogue players have known since launch day:

It's the more fun and interesting AC title.

Also, there are no micro transactions and cross device social gaming elements involved.

Ubisoft allowing any kind of promotion for Rogue before Unity gets its hype time would just make Unity look worse because the youtubers would tell everyone what I'm about to tell you:

Rogue is a complete game for $60. Yes, some of the inherent flaws with the parkour control are still there, but it gives us more of what we love about AC: plenty of environments to explore, lots of ship combat, good stealth missions and hours upon hours of collectible based activity. They've tweaked the system with Assassin Interceptions (stopping Assassins from killing targets within a certain time limit) and the stalker system where assassins are hunting you, they've improved on the elements of III that were worth bringing over and implemented them nicely and have given it to you without any of the cynical marketing and development strategies that plague Unity's troubled existence. It fills in the gaps between Black Flag and III and is more fun than either of those games at the same time because the story is about the characters and their place in the AC mythos, not about the historical events and how your character fits into them.

Rogue is Black Flag Turbo Edition. Ubisoft probably put their B squad on it, gave them all of the code for the previous games and said 'Make something for last gen owners who haven't come over yet so we can get money from them, too.' And boy, did they ever. They took the existing elements and improved the game in every way.

I still hope they fix Unity's many problems. A while ago, I said that the problem with open world gaming is that there is no way that the devs can account for every single problem that might develop as a result of packing so many options in. There are too many moving parts, too many elements trying to fit together like clockwork and it's just not possible. And I bet Ubisoft didn't even bother trying to fully debug because they don't have to. They can just look for the most common problems and patch as they go. The idea of AC from a mechanics standpoint is bigger than the talent that works on it.

EDIT: All of the last gen games also have open world issues, but by now the devs have mastered the hardware and have been able to work with the code to the point where it's a lot better. With Unity and the PS4/XBone, there is clearly still a lot for them to learn.

EDIT #2: Reducing the framerate to provide a 'cinematic experience' is bullshit. If the game CAN'T do 60 FPS, just admit it. But to say that they intentionally reduced it in order to focus on the cinematic/narrative presentation is just a disingenuous tactic. Ubisoft knows that they said something stupid, but they're now caught up in the hubris that has consumed companies like Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Activision, Electronic Arts and Square-Enix in the past. The mighty will always fall when they get too proud and they need to stop taking the consumer for granted.

 

[CORY]

Interesting. At least you know you're getting fucked. I won't support any of this shit personnaly. I used to like Ubisoft but they've been quite retarded lately.

 

[brentsg]

They're now suggesting to unplug your console from the Internet if you're playing single player, and it'll improve framerate.

Basically they must have choked it with a bit too much UPlay.

 

[Dr Shroom]

I knew it....

 

[zaneiken]

I'm finding that I'm not enjoying combat very much, especially coming straight over from Bayonetta 2.

 

[Taiso]

I'm finding that I'm not enjoying combat very much, especially coming straight over from Bayonetta 2.

LOL yeah, that's like having a $150 steak and then going for McDonald's the next night.