I've never been into the whole 'Assasin's Creed' scene to be honest. Whether it’s been due to a lack of time or whether it’s generally not really appealed to me. It's one of the few bigger series in gaming which I've generally never bothered with. However, I've had three days off work and with not much to do, I’ve spent a good chunk of that time watching a complete walkthrough of the game (again, I don't have a PS4 yet). I thought "Why not...? Lets see what the fuss is all about...".
Obviously, without any prior experience of previous Assisin's Creed titles, I can't compare them to previous games. I can only give my view and thoughts of this game, Unity, as a stand-alone game. Please bear this in mind.
Okay, firstly the positives without actually spoiling it for those who haven't seen it or played it yet. I found the story generally very good indeed. It does improve the further you get into it and the mutual love interest between two main characters is something I grew to care about. It's nicely written and I feel the writers could have done more with it. As it is though - still very good. The final few sequences are brilliant. There are also several impressive cut scenes.
There also seems quite a bit you can do without resorting to just the main story, but my walkthrough barely went into any so I'm not really able to comment on them. I'm sure this could add in some further enjoyment.
Again, I must stress that graphics aren't the 'be all and end all' in gaming, unlike many younger people seem to think it is. However if graphics are your main priority, on this front it looks pretty too too. The interior shots of this game are genuinely impressive and as things stand, I'm struggling to think of anything that looks as neat as this. The work here is exceptional. It seems to be toned back ever so slightly for the exterior but still very impressive indeed. Given the amount of people and buildings crammed into just about any shot, the developers have done a great job all round in my opinion. Very little in the way of pop-ups to. The odd French flag here and there (held by a random person in the street crowds) was about all I witnessed popping up during the entire course of the game.
Again, I haven't seen any previous Assasin's Creed games to compare Unity to, but I feel some people have been overly harsh about it - and I'm generally harsh when it comes to my reviews. It has it's faults for sure, but it's nowhere near as horrendous as some of the comments and reviews I’ve read online.
The downsides?
It does seem rather short. I was surprised when the commentator on the walkthrough was saying we were about two thirds of the way through when I was just settling down into the story... For a few seconds I thought I may have accidentally skipped a part or two but I hadn't... It feels it needs to be about a quarter as long again.
Whilst I know I said graphics don't hold a great importance to me. However, for a new game there are a few glitches in it which even took me by surprise. Arno's face 'warping' through one of his big collars in a cut scene being one of them. I've not seen basic errors like that in a long time. Another one was seeing half a dead enemies body disappearing into a wall as he fell... Unlike younger gamers, I'm from an era where I can overlook most glitches providing the game itself is decent, but these really are basic errors which I thought we'd left behind - probably as far back as the PS2!
Lastly, the combat looks a little stiff and clunky. However, without having played it for myself this is purely how it looks to me as a viewer.
So, would I consider buying this myself? Well, it seems a bit pointless now that I've just sat through a whole walkthrough as, barring uncompleted side missions/general exploring, I've basically spoiled it for myself. However if it was part of a decently priced PS4 bundle or the game alone was going at a discounted price, I'd certainly consider it, yes. It certainly isn't at the top of my wanted list, but it's not something I'd say 'no' to. I've enjoyed it more than I thought I would have.
Purely as a viewer of this game, I'd probably rate it as a 7.5/10. Remember folks, I'm usually on the harsher side when I come to marking games, so that isn't a bad effort at all.
