Assassin's Creed Unity

Info

Assassin's Creed Unity is an action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It was released in February 2014 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, and in December 2020 for Stadia. It is the eighth major installment in the Assassin's Creed series, and the successor to 2013's Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. It also has ties to Assassin's Creed Rogue, which was released for the previous generation consoles on the same day as Unity.

Assassin's Creed Unity received mixed reviews upon release. It was praised for its visuals, customization options, setting, and characterization. Critics were more polarized on its narrative, mission design, multiplayer-oriented format, and gameplay, with the latter in particular complimented for its improvements, but criticized for a lack of innovation and for feeling unrefined. The game was also widely panned for its numerous graphical issues and bugs, prompting Ubisoft to issue an apology and offer compensation in the form of a free story expansion, Dead Kings, set after the events of the main campaign. Those who had already bought the game's season pass (which was cancelled in response to the controversy) received a free copy of another Ubisoft title of their choice. In the years since Unity's release, after most of the technical issues were resolved, the game has undergone positive critical re-evaluations, and is retrospectively considered to be an underrated and under-appreciated title in the Assassin's Creed series. Despite the initial critical backlash, the game was a favorable commercial success, selling over 10 million copies worldwide, and saw a resurgence in sales in the early 2020s. Unity was followed in October 2015 by Assassin's Creed Syndicate, which continues the modern-day narrative, but has its main plot set in Victorian era London.

Plot

The plot is set in a fictional history of real-world events and follows the millennia-old struggle between the Assassins, who fight to preserve peace and free will, and the Templars, who desire peace through control. The framing story is set in the 21st century and features an unidentified and unseen protagonist, who joins the Assassins as an initiate to help them locate the corpse of an 18th century Templar Grand Master. The main story is set in Paris during the French Revolution from 1789 to 1794, and follows Assassin Arno Dorian and his efforts to expose the true powers behind the Revolution, while seeking revenge against those responsible for his adoptive father's murder. Unity retains the series' third-person open world exploration as well as introducing a revamped combat, parkour, and stealth systems. The game also introduces cooperative multiplayer to the Assassin's Creed series, letting up to four players engage in narrative-driven missions and explore the open world map.

Gameplay

Assassin's Creed Unity is an action-adventure stealth game set in an open world environment. The game's combat system was greatly refined over previous entries in the series, with fencing being used as an inspiration for the new system. In addition to returning weapons from previous games, Assassin's Creed Unity introduces the Phantom Blade. The Phantom Blade uses the mechanics of a crossbow to fire a silent projectile at a great distance, while still serving the same role as the Hidden Blade in previous Assassin's Creed games. In-game navigation was also overhauled: new "Free-run up" and

"Free-run down" commands were added to make it easier for the player to scale buildings in either direction, allowing players to make controlled ascents and descents at will. Additionally, Arno learns new moves throughout the game, but the player can also purchase new skills as well. With the updated, larger crowds, new interactions with them are also available. The crowd regularly presents many activities, appearing organically, that the player can then choose to engage in at their leisure. Examples include scaring a group of bullies by pulling out a weapon, "settling" a disagreement between two civilians by killing one of them, which is usually a Templar, or chasing down a thief who has just pick pocketed somebody. Completing a set of these crowd events gives you either a monetary reward or a piece of armor. For the first time, the series allows players to customize the characters' abilities, adopting a skill tree that enables players to assign points earned through gameplay to improve their skills in stealth, melee, and ranged combat, and health. Players are also able to customise their weapons, armour and equipment to further complement their individual style of play. These weapons and armour have a level out of 5 and a few legendary pieces of armor. The higher quality your weapons and gear are the higher your level is. Players also have a wider selection of weapons available, including swords, axes, spears, rifles, pistols and throwable items, such as smoke bombs. The Dead Kings expansion introduces an additional weapon: the guillotine gun. Assassin's Creed Unity also introduces cooperative multiplayer to the series. Players can enter taverns, which act as social hubs in the game, where you can see if any friends are playing the game at the current time. If they are currently in a mission, they will appear as a "ghost" version of their player, allowing you to approach it to request to join their mission. If accepted, you are transitioned to their game and both of you reset to the most recent checkpoint, and continue on from there. Up to four players can join together in this fashion. The player will take on the role of Arno, customized within their own game, with other players appearing as their own customized version of Arno in their own sets of equipment, weapons, and armor. Many missions and activities will be available for cooperative play (which the player can also complete on their own), but there are some story missions that are single player only. Unity also brought back a steady source of income like the ones in the Ezio games. Arno is introduced to the Cafe Theatre and is given the opportunity to renovate it and receive its profits. The starting income of the Cafe is 20 francs in 20 minutes and you can store 80 francs. After doing all the renovations and Cafe missions your income will be at around 5000 francs and a storage of 15000 francs. Renovating all Social clubs and collecting all mementos will bring your income to around 10,000 francs and a storage of 40,000 francs. The Cafe has Arno's room which after looking from the balcony of it will give you an achievement. Renovating more rooms will unlock secret rooms and ultimately a secret passage to the Assassin's hideout. There are significant tie-ins with the game's Companion App, a "freemium" click app with limited "direct ties to the overall story of Unity". There are a significant number of chests, assassination targets, and other collectibles that are visible to all players but only accessible to those who have completed certain goals within the app. Following an update in February 2015, this requirement is no longer necessary, meaning players who have downloaded the update, can now collect all the chests in the game without having to play the companion app.