Assassin's Creed: Unity; the worst release ever?

[MRL]

 

Intro

• I got this from Pick Your Path bundle so I pretty much has nothing to lose when I grab the copy. Not really a fan of FarCry even though I admit FC series is actually very good. Not gonna say anything about The Crew. Knowing that it is a bug fest when it was released, I did think a lot before actually redeeming this code. But I kind of glad I did, even if it's not the best thing ever.

Story

• Not the best story, but acceptable by my standard. Reminds me a lot of young Ezio in AC2. But modern story is pretty much non-existent is pissing me off a lot. Especially when they went "Ok, templars won't find the sage so let's do nothing". Seriously, it feels like the writers went lazy or the devs simply doesn't want to make the modern time story.
• Voice acting is good, but the missing accent really bothers me. The excuse given to us is that because everywhere we go in the game the feel of Paris and French Revolution won't make us forget that the characters are Frenchmen. The problem is, Assassin's Creed 2 pretty much Italian Renaissance wherever I go so why there's accent there? The lack of accent really throws the feel of the character off that I can't enjoy the story as much as I enjoy Ezio's. I tried to change the language to French and the animation is not in sync with the speech, again the feel is lost. Probably just a pet peeves but this kind of details what makes me miss Assassin's Creed 2 and Brotherhood.

Gameplay

• You now have 2 options while free-running; free run up and down. This is supposed to tell Arno to climb up or down while free running with the safest and fastest route. But the problem of random climb is still not solved as the game still allow and guess random climb on low items, and you will also jumps of the cliffs as well. Nothing is solved with the improvement given.
• Combat controls is clunky as well, but at least it is well animated and most of the time doesn't really punish me too much for each mistakes. Combat does feel better and improved compared to previous games but targeting system will probably need some works, or perhaps I'm the one who need to works my combat.
• Stealth mechanics feels great. Makes a little more sense compared to any other Assassin's Creed I've played. Blending in crowd to be stealthy in open; chairs, table, walls, closets are useful indoors. The only thing that bugs me is that wearing yellow attire while blending in dark colored clothed crowd isn't attracting any attention.
• Main story missions felt too much like the original Assassin's Creed. Briefed by council, investigate, and assassinate. Good thing they modify the assassination mission a little bit by adding in opportunities. These are secondary optional objectives that will really helps you with the mission, but completing them isn't a piece of cake either. Good challenge and helps with the assassination.
• Crowd missions introduced taking advantage of the crowd number in the game. The missions is basically giving helps to the citizens against thieves or harassing extremist, but the frequency of the citizens being harassed is too much that I get confused whether I'm in Gotham or Paris. Not to mention they can actually fight, some of them actually carry swords but doesn't fight when harassed until you act. Borderline logical for me, but that's probably because I've never lived in a revolution era.
• Co-op missions are fun, it's just that I keep on asking myself how many Arno is there in this world. I kind of missed the PvP multiplayer. It's not in the game, if you need them you had to go back to previous installation.
• Animations are cool! I like the high-profile assassination, low-profile assassination and the parkour animations.
• Nostradamus Enigma is fun investigation too. Deciphering clues requires good knowledge of the in game area, usually pretty obvious if you know Paris well enough. These enigma will lead you to the artifacts that will unlock unique armor.
• Side missions are good too. 2 kind of side missions, local stories and investigation. Playing detectives in investigation missions are fun, problem is the most of the time the clues sometimes direct you right to the person who did the crime. Without much effort you can solve the crime. As for the local stories, my main gripe with it is that the need to either re-load the game or fast travel to get to the next part of the story after you complete one part of it. If you are the kind of completing one story in one go, you'll find that the way they do it is giving you extra works.
• Because of the co-op, the devs implement some sort of RPG elements in the game. You can modify the stats of your Arno to be stealthy or to be a tank. Problem is, the stats are not well explained. Example; High-Profile Noise and Low-Profile Noise. In game they have positive values, so you'll get confused whether the equipment is adding more noise or actually reducing noise? Some of the stats that improve your stats has negative values. So, you decide to seek your answer on the web. And there you go, the value on the AC:Unity page is upside down from the in-game (positive in-game, negative in the web). It felt like the stats modifier is an afterthought rather than planned from beginning and poorly executed. Though the function remains the same.

• I would say that Ubisoft is right on making the crowd as their selling point. The crowd is pretty lively, has their own agenda  and the number is simply enormous. The problem is with the protesters. It's like they don't have anything else to do other than protesting. They don't need to eat, they don't need to rest, they don't have other business to attend, they just protest. Good thing is that they still know how to react to their surrounds, one guy release a shot every one will start running away saving themselves.

Graphics

• I'm running the game at 1080p with graphic presets High with additional HBAO+. The problem is, it felt very much like being rendered by potato rather than my GTX970. Some objects that is imitating bokeh (out of focus object) is not out of focus but rather rendered with very low res textures and polygon. Faraway buildings are having seriously low res textures that you start to wonder if you actually owns GTX970 or GeForce 2 MX400. This might not bother much if you are simply running around but when I'm stopping investigating enigmas, this really bothers me. As for the framerate, yes it struggles to maintain 60fps. But at least it can maintain above 40fps. No weird framerate issues that I experience.
  • ​Dem low poly and textures​

​

• Dem low textures

• If you really want to maintain 60fps, probably you'll need SLI. Problem is, SLI is broken as of my review was done so it's pretty much not an option right now.

Microtransactions

• Oh yes, you don't want to play the game yet wants to unlock every single equipments in this game? You got the money, Ubisoft got the answer for you. I see it as pay-to-win since basically it just jumps you forward with more powerful equipments, but it won't upset any balancing in the game so you might argue it's not pay-to-win and I'm willing to accept that. A mobile game level of microtransaction in full fledged triple A game that cost you $60 isn't bad enough for you?
• You can throw your money to Ubisoft another extra $2 for premium access in the companion apps. This will give you "full experience" with the companion apps when the companion app is useless without you buying the game.
• Companion app is primarily for you to throw more money at Ubisoft.

 

 
Companion App

• I like the idea of 2nd screen experience and extra things you can do in it. Introduction of Glyph Puzzles to unlock missions and send your assassins to complete the missions for you and unlocking extra chest in the game is an idea that I actually like, just that you'll need to make sure that you collect the rewards in game as soon as possible, else you'll lose access to one of your assassin for 24 hours as they were automatically assigned to collect your rewards for 24 hours.

Conclusion

• Assassin's Creed: Unity isn't a bad game. But the inconsistencies, microtransactions and textures in certain area really bugs me. I like the story, I like the stealth mechanics, I like the animations, I like the co-op multiplayer, but the game itself is released in such conditions that makes everything becomes bad and leave sour taste in my mouth. If you're hoping to run this game on SLI to boost performance, hold your horses. But if you really can look past the bad pc port graphic quality, microtransactions and inconsistencies, I'd say it is passable as an entertainment. The game itself is fun though nothing excellent, but all the bragging points buried by the bad stuff in the game.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdSk6vJmW5M

[IMPERIUS]

Probally. I think it's good on the ps4

[Tim Drake]

If this game ran better, I would like it 24x better.

 

This is basically a tech demo that doesn't even demo anything. They made the game looks prettier than they should of.

[Guest]

That 2nd screenshot is disgusting... ugh.

[Crt]

That 2nd screenshot makes Five Nights at Freddy's look like a superior game. Was this really on High? Yikes, I think I'll stick with playing Batman Arkham City or Arkham Asylum.

[s3ns3]

yes the worst

[Pugs501]

That 2nd screenshot is disgusting... ugh.

Assassins Creed 64?

[MRL]

That 2nd screenshot is disgusting... ugh.

 

 

That 2nd screenshot makes Five Nights at Freddy's look like a superior game. Was this really on High? Yikes, I think I'll stick with playing Batman Arkham City or Arkham Asylum.

 

 

Assassins Creed 64?

 

I just hoped that you guys don't go compare PS4 versions with PC versions because as I find out, PS4 textures was far superior and you will start rage against Ubisoft. But those are at the cost of resolution and framerate of the game. I'm guessing PS4 versions is running at least "very high" presets and of course at lower resolution. I'm planning to run the game with another 2 upper presets @900p and see if we can get anything similar with console setups.

 

But overall, the rendering engine for this game is indeed a potato

[ErickS89]

I think you had a glitch, I've never seen the focused so low....   For me, it ran really well even at ultra 1440p!  I was using a 680, again like watch_dogs it didn't run smoothly at first but it just magically fixed itself one day and have had no problems since.

 

I have used Titan Blacks, and 980s to play the game and both of those cards handle it better than the 680, but even so the 680 gave me a smooth experience which was fine for me. 

[chutia]

Nice review, pretty sure this is an alpha build they wanted to test on the general public to help them find bugs etc before they release the real game this year based in England and designed for Directx 12!!

[MRL]

I think you had a glitch, I've never seen the focused so low....   For me, it ran really well even at ultra 1440p!  I was using a 680, again like watch_dogs it didn't run smoothly at first but it just magically fixed itself one day and have had no problems since.

 

I have used Titan Blacks, and 980s to play the game and both of those cards handle it better than the 680, but even so the 680 gave me a smooth experience which was fine for me. 

 

Knowing that even TotalBiscuits is having hard time maintaining high enough framerate without making the game looks horrible, I don't want to accept "fine". Not because your "fine" is a bad thing, but rather more on my expectation on "fine" is way higher than this. Sure, if I'm expecting the game run only at 30fps max Ultra settings is way within reach. But when I bought GTX970 I would expect it to be able to run at minimum High while maintaining 60fps at 1080p. And that "High" means proper rendering instead of potato like what Unity has.

 

I'm not debating 60fps vs 30fps. If you think 30fps is good enough for you, go ahead... world still won't get destroyed. But I always prefer 60fps above anything else.

 

If it's the texture, no it's not a glitch. When I do comparison, I don't do on that specific Arno scene but at the Jacques De Molay breaching the gate scene and I'm pretty confident it is not a glitch but the level of details of the game is just simply low even with High presets. I didn't notice the low texture as well when I first play, even the one in the screenshot mostly because I do not know what to look for. But when I replay the recordings I made, it immediately become obvious that the texture and polygon counts for some out of focus objects are very bad that it looks like it is rushed out of productions rather than a glitch.

 

Even if it is a glitch, I can't accept that excuse for $60 full fledged AAA game.

 

 

Notice the chain sleeve on Jacques De Molay that looks like fabric? Yes, that's on PC (ignore the hillarious face bug please)

 

 

And this is the kind of chain sleeve that I get on a PS4 video recording on Youtube.

 

Comparing those, the 2nd screenshot in my OP totally makes sense to say it's not a graphical glitch but rather an intended rendering at that quality presets.

 

TL;DR, I'm with TotalBiscuits on the graphical fidelity department of this game. I can't get high enough framerate to my liking in this game without making the game looks so horrible in one area or another.

But do mind all of my written piece of opinion is based on NVidia GeForce 344.75 driver and 347.09 and the game is running on Patch 4. If the driver update or subsequent patches somehow fix many things it will not get included in my review.