So a couple of weeks back, I finished playing (or rather rushed through the last couple of missions) AC: Unity. I'm usually very lenient when it comes to Assassin's creed games (i.e I'm a fan) and don't bash them for releasing an installment every year since they manage to create good experiences every time.
As you might've read, I LOVED ACIV : Black Flag (and it did receive a lot of praise), and was therefore pretty excited for the next installment - Unity. A return in many ways to the origins of the series, more fleshed out assassination sequences, a love story, a new setting, and some "next-gen" gameplay changes were enough to make me believe this experience would be as memorable as it was with AC IV.
Unfortunately, for some reason, it wasn't. I will admit, the gameplay and free running was largely improved. It was a lot of fun to run around the city, and the combat wasn't too bad either.
The graphics too, obviously, were amazing. I say obviously because that was one of the most talked about features of the game. The lighting, the shadows, when they weren't making my machine bleed, were a joy to behold. Which brings me to the point that probably overshadowed everything else about the game upon release - its performance.
It was really, really terrible when I first started the game. It wouldn't touch 20fps, and was actually unplayable. Surprisingly, a patch and a couple of settings in the nVidia control panel took care of that beautifully. It ran consistently above 30fps, and for all the negativity surrounding the game's performance, plus the fact that I played it on a two year old laptop, I was (eventually) quite happy with its performance.
So now the game looked great, and it played great. What was the problem then?
- Too many pointless things to do: I'm what you could call the opposite of a completionist - I always only do those things which I feel would add to the experience. Many times I've ignored collectibles right in front of my character because I don't see a reason to go picking it up.
This game, in this regard, was a nightmare. The map is enough to induce a headache. Why do open world games need so many things "to do"? Take bethesda games for example, instead. The "to do" in those games is discovery. You explore, you learn some things, stumble upon characters and loot, and kill some enemies. Here, though, they do nothing to help the story or character progress. The only tasks I did do was prevent the innocent citizens from being attacked. It added to the atmosphere, and it also led to some good rewards (which are useful in the early stages) Everything else was ignored.
(SPOILERS) - The story is a missed opportunity: The setup was great, and I loved the way that game started - with Arno's childhood. It gives a great chance to understand and get attached to the character ( loved it in Fable 1 as well)
It was great all the way up until Arno gets arrested. But then what went wrong? - The Assassin - templar conflict, and the forgettable middle: Well this is what happened to the story - the "game" began. Were it not imprisoned by the name of its franchise, it could've been an actual good game. It's funny that the most forgettable part about the game is its core - the design that dictates that the protagonist must start killing a list of targets until he reaches the final victim. Thinking back, all I remember about the game is the beginning (till he joins the Assassins) , and the very end (the final assassination)
Elise's death made me realize what a great chance the game had to be a memorable experience, which was sacrificed for the sake of making it an Assassin's Creed game. - Boring antagonists, underused Elise: First of, all the antagonists and the targets were dreadfully boring and uninspiring. Hell, even Arno wasn't interested in killing them! He was more interested in Elise, and so was I! So then why was 80% of the game about taking down these boring targets and only the remainder about Elise?
I followed the main missions one by one, killing the targets as required, and I would often forget why I was killing them, and why I was killing anyone in the first place. The trigger event is the death of Elise's father, but we were never given a chance to care for him. Elise did, and Arno cared about Elise, and she wanted them dead, so he somewhat wanted them dead too. But he'd still prefer if he and Elise chucked the whole thing and started a new life somewhere. She didn't even really blame him for what happened (eventually) and it didn't feel like Arno wanted to prove anything. So why were we killing these unknown people?
As for the under use of Elise, I felt they didn't have enough "positive" moments to complement the "necessary" moments together. Sure, it was nice how Elise was involved in the last couple of missions, but the game needed some instances of them purely enjoying each others company. You could say that they didn't have the time for that, but the thing is, you don't need much time to put these moments in.
For example, the moment the two were together in the hot air balloon was a good one. But the night that followed (as suggested by Arno waking up alone in the balloon's basket) should have been shown as well. Where they were not together by circumstance or need, but actually wanted to be together. (The kiss in the balloon is seriously underwhelming as well, thanks to there being zero music during the scene)
So ideally, less of missions involving meaningless "bad guys", more missions that involved Elise earlier on during the game, and then a couple more of cutscenes that helped create an attachment to Elise would have helped make the game a LOT more memorable. Just look at how Black Flag does that with its characters, for instance. They are involved.
Still, Elise shone through as a good character (and a really beautifully modeled one!), and the clash of her convictions with Arno's was interesting as well. Only, it could've been so much more.
Here's a video tribute I made to the story between the two characters. Hopefully, I've been able to capture the bit of emotion that the game does have-
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