I liked the Assassins Creed games from the beginning. If I made a list bigger than a Top 10, Assassin's Creed 2 might be on it because I played it with my mother when I had a school vacation and she wasn't at her job because of an operation she had. But after two bad (Revelations, 3) and one mediocre (Black Flag) games, the Assassin's Creed series lost me. But the E3 showing of Origin made me interested in the series again and I picked up Unity in a sale despite its reception.
So far it is almost a return to form for me though there are quite a few things that annoy me.
One of the things I didn't like about 3 and Black Flag was that there were no big buildings. At least not many that I remember. What I liked about older AC games was climbing a large stone tower, church or another famous building and having the eagle cam over the part of the city.
Also I was never a fan of the boat stuff which eleminates all of my interest in Rogue. I haven't encountered it yet in Unity and hope it stays that way.
The climbing in this game I'm a bit torn on. I like that they went back to hitting a third button to climb walls because in the two games there were instances where I wanted to run along a street but the system thought I wanted to climb so I climbed. At least how I remebered it. But it is janky in Unity. There was always criticism about climbing in the series not doing what the player wants. I understood the criticism but never had a problem with it. This time I often feel it because Arno more than I would like does things I don't want to do.
Combat is fine I guess. It's similar to Batman which is playable for me. Sometimes the camera is fucked up indoors where I can't see the healthbar changing color for the button prompt to counter. Controls alright with mouse and keyboard and mapping actions to additional buttons on my mouse is great. And I remain not a fan of the pistols in combat.
Playing on PC, Paris looks great. Having I don't know how many NPCs on screen and still getting 60FPS is cool. Only place where it takes a hit is sometimes indoor and at Club Theatre, your base. Given that I didn't live at the time but was every roof in Paris blue? That's the only thing graphically that annoys me.
Storywise I don't know what to think of it. It starts out good with Arno's father giving him the iconic watch. The the father gets killed and someone takes you in who later turns out to be a Templar. But then things just seem to happen. The guy who helps you out of the Bastille turns out to be a traitor with "good" intentions Comes out of nowhere and seems pretty videogame-y with rain falling suddenly. Thunder and lightning and falling through windows in Notre Dame. Would've maybe be a good (although kind of generic) end fight but here it seems halfway/two-thirds through the game and with videogames always with the tendency to one up what came before.
Also can't take the characters saying "Templars" and "Assassins" seriously anymore. Just seems cringey. For similar reasons I haven'T picked up Mankind Divided yet because if Adam Jensen said "The illuminati" I couldn't hold back laughing.
The helix missions are weird. Getting into PAris of other timelines is cool. The one I did last had me climbing the Eiffel tower which is given the time period Unity takes place is sadly missing in the game. But okay.
Bugs I only encountered one where if Arno gets shot he is caught in his falling animation with out falling down: https://twitter.com/BlueOdin183/status/933071810609995782
Otherwise sometimes strange long loading times when I start a lockpicking minigame. Everything else works fine.
The skill system I don't really like. There are things like double assassination which the protagonists in other games in the series could do once you had the double hidden-blade and here you have to buy it with skill points which many are locked behind coop missions. Also locking some skills behind "finish this story mission" is also a thing that I don't like.
Buying equipment is alright. Walking around Paris with a katana and a golden pistol for quite a few missions and it is fun.
After BotW I thought I couldn't play an Ubi- open world game again. Playing Arkham Origins earlier I felt proven right. But I'm really enjoying Unity so far. In my personal AC ranking it is on 4 behind 2, Brotherhood, 1.
Looking forward to picking up Syndicate next year and probably Origins when I buy a new GPU next year.
P.S.: I didn't mention it but there are a few missions (mostly the ones where you have to kill a story target) with different options of fullfilling the mission. These missions make me want Ubi teaming up with IO and making an Assassin's Creed in the vein of Hitman.
P.S.S.: Wrote this text without going over it so please forgive me for grammar and I probably forgot a few things that I wanted to say.
So far it is almost a return to form for me though there are quite a few things that annoy me.
One of the things I didn't like about 3 and Black Flag was that there were no big buildings. At least not many that I remember. What I liked about older AC games was climbing a large stone tower, church or another famous building and having the eagle cam over the part of the city.
Also I was never a fan of the boat stuff which eleminates all of my interest in Rogue. I haven't encountered it yet in Unity and hope it stays that way.
The climbing in this game I'm a bit torn on. I like that they went back to hitting a third button to climb walls because in the two games there were instances where I wanted to run along a street but the system thought I wanted to climb so I climbed. At least how I remebered it. But it is janky in Unity. There was always criticism about climbing in the series not doing what the player wants. I understood the criticism but never had a problem with it. This time I often feel it because Arno more than I would like does things I don't want to do.
Combat is fine I guess. It's similar to Batman which is playable for me. Sometimes the camera is fucked up indoors where I can't see the healthbar changing color for the button prompt to counter. Controls alright with mouse and keyboard and mapping actions to additional buttons on my mouse is great. And I remain not a fan of the pistols in combat.
Playing on PC, Paris looks great. Having I don't know how many NPCs on screen and still getting 60FPS is cool. Only place where it takes a hit is sometimes indoor and at Club Theatre, your base. Given that I didn't live at the time but was every roof in Paris blue? That's the only thing graphically that annoys me.
Storywise I don't know what to think of it. It starts out good with Arno's father giving him the iconic watch. The the father gets killed and someone takes you in who later turns out to be a Templar. But then things just seem to happen. The guy who helps you out of the Bastille turns out to be a traitor with "good" intentions Comes out of nowhere and seems pretty videogame-y with rain falling suddenly. Thunder and lightning and falling through windows in Notre Dame. Would've maybe be a good (although kind of generic) end fight but here it seems halfway/two-thirds through the game and with videogames always with the tendency to one up what came before.
Also can't take the characters saying "Templars" and "Assassins" seriously anymore. Just seems cringey. For similar reasons I haven'T picked up Mankind Divided yet because if Adam Jensen said "The illuminati" I couldn't hold back laughing.
The helix missions are weird. Getting into PAris of other timelines is cool. The one I did last had me climbing the Eiffel tower which is given the time period Unity takes place is sadly missing in the game. But okay.
Bugs I only encountered one where if Arno gets shot he is caught in his falling animation with out falling down: https://twitter.com/BlueOdin183/status/933071810609995782
Otherwise sometimes strange long loading times when I start a lockpicking minigame. Everything else works fine.
The skill system I don't really like. There are things like double assassination which the protagonists in other games in the series could do once you had the double hidden-blade and here you have to buy it with skill points which many are locked behind coop missions. Also locking some skills behind "finish this story mission" is also a thing that I don't like.
Buying equipment is alright. Walking around Paris with a katana and a golden pistol for quite a few missions and it is fun.
After BotW I thought I couldn't play an Ubi- open world game again. Playing Arkham Origins earlier I felt proven right. But I'm really enjoying Unity so far. In my personal AC ranking it is on 4 behind 2, Brotherhood, 1.
Looking forward to picking up Syndicate next year and probably Origins when I buy a new GPU next year.
P.S.: I didn't mention it but there are a few missions (mostly the ones where you have to kill a story target) with different options of fullfilling the mission. These missions make me want Ubi teaming up with IO and making an Assassin's Creed in the vein of Hitman.
P.S.S.: Wrote this text without going over it so please forgive me for grammar and I probably forgot a few things that I wanted to say.