I started Unity a few days ago, and… wow. I have a lot of mixed feelings about this game already. This is a wildly ambitious rework of not just how the series looks, but how about every aspect of it plays. And when it actually decides to work, it can be pretty neat. But obviously the launch was buggy as shit, and I can confirm not everything’s been squashed. Had some weird issues with vanishing textures, sometimes when trying to climb downwards I start hopping like a fucking spider between bits of wall and suddenly just fall 15 feet down while the game tries to figure out where to put me. In addition to that. Holy shit, only ubisoft or EA would think it was cool to make common collectibles and a shitload of gameplay helping items be locked behind not one, but two companion services. Thank god they bailed on that. The online is also a nightmare, crash or disconnect regularly on it, which is particularly annoying when the best way to get skill points, is those online missions.
But as far as specific thoughts.
The parkour is, obviously wildly different. In addition to totally new controls that make it much easier to move sideways in particular, movement speed is down, jump length and safe fall distance each get a MASSIVE hike. I assume the lower speed is following the theme of greater control to make less accidents, and it works okay for a game mostly set within one city, though it obviously wouldn’t be as well suited for one of the more exploration-based games like 3 or black flag. Whiiiiich is probably why they seem to have scrapped a lot of this for the rpg trilogy. While the city is also well designed for traversal, unfortunately that makes the issues even more annoying. The most common I’ve found is some climbable route halfway up a building, before I realize I can’t move up, down, or to either side from this little bit I was climbing. But they made it climbable anyway. While more an annoyance than an actual issue, it’s also pretty aggravating how they put a ring of snipers around some viewpoint sites, seemingly just to slow you down. And while I love the downward parkour option and think it’s smooth as fuck, the existence of an up version that actually affects jump length makes the “default” parkour setting something you basically never wanna use, which is a bit annoying after a while.
The combat. It’s pretty annoying if you’re underleveled as you basically unlock all the tools to handle superior enemies later in game. You don’t even get the chance to unlock heavy attacks until chapter 9, and you have to unlock the ability for basic things like double assassination (and aerial double assassination which is separate and locked for longer), and just having a gun. But I’m starting to work out patterns and strategies, which makes it seem like I’ll like it. Once I can, ya know. Actually play it properly.
The story, I’m a bit torn on, though obviously I’m still early on. The cast have a natural charisma that has me immediately fond of Arno, Bellec and Elise, despite not yet knowing much about them. That’s a credit to both the actors and the writers. The idea of an assassin-templar truce is also pretty cool, but we hardly get to see it before it’s just… gone. I’m also fairly disappointed in their choice to more or less skip the start of the revolution and relegate it to a codex entry, and even more by them essentially skipping the TWO YEARS of the constitutional monarchy era. You spend all of it either in the Bastille or training… with the brotherhood that you arbitrarily decide to join because your girlfriend’s mad at you and you heard your real dad was in it. That reasoning just wasn’t fleshed out. Similar deal with the theater club. You’re told the brotherhood owns it but it’s run down, and that you should check it out. Next thing you know, the manager girl’s telling you that you get all the profits and are expected to do all the renovations too. Nobody gives this place to you, it’s just… suddenly yours. Also while I enjoyed the Far Cry-esque hallucination mission for joining the brotherhood, it’s a bit weird this has never been a thing in previous games. And the entrance to the massive brotherhood sanctuary being an absurd mechanical device rigged to move all the chandeliers and open the floor of a massively popular public church… fun as that was, shit like it in this game is so goofy, despite it being the most self-serious title in a while. That said, I just did the first main story target mission, the dude who ambushes Le Serre. That was a lot of fun, and I hadn’t realized that the missions in Valhalla’s Paris dlc were essentially a copy paste of that idea, with the optional special entrances and cutscene kills.
I’m also a bit curious. A lot of the classicists who hate the rpg trilogy praise unity. But I’ve heard the concept of skill points and unlocks and the existence of a sneak button both as common critiques of the rpgs? Are these just two different camps, the classicists and the even-more-classicists?