Preface
Ok, so I’m a fan of the Assassin’s Creed series, I’ve played and finished them almost religiously. Until…..I got tired of the franchise. No major changes for years, and the same old clunky controls, in an era of open-world games that have fluid fight systems (Batman Arkham series) and fluid movement, it started to become a bit of a dinosaur.
So I didn’t finish Black Flag (which is really good, I just had so many other games to play instead), and then the release of Unity and Syndicate barely interested me at all. Reading reviews of Unity, you would think it wise to never play it. Marred with issues, it wasn’t selling itself to me.
Luckily, I have a pretty awesome fiance who bought me it not so long ago, and it’s been on my “give it a go” list for a couple of months.
Talking to friends about an alternative online co-op game, we realised the there is co-op in Unity, and so we began to sink a few hours into it to get to the point where we can do co-op.
Initial thoughts
Straight off the bat, this game looks fantastic. Visually and audibly excellent, no doubt about it, and the new movement animations for free-running are wonderful, some lovely “clambering” up roof tiles and some twists and turns. Some really really nice, subtle but stunning changes.
Then…..well it’s just another Assassin’s Creed. Prettier, bigger, but the same. The controls have taken me quite some time to get used to, and the fights still seem so awkward.
I love the amount of internal spaces that have been created, and that are accessible throughout the world. Climbing into someone’s house is always a joy. Something so seemingly small, makes the game that much better. Also, the spaces look fantastic, I really like being inside places in this game!
I’m settling into the story, and enjoying re-kindling my love of the franchise. It’s not the best open-world game, it’s not even the best Assassin’s Creed (having to change weapons etc in a customisation window, with no quick-select wheel? What?!), but it’s beautiful and familiar.
With all the beauty and scale, the game really does suffer from framerate issues. It’s obviously rendering a great deal at once, but man, even just walking around can see the rate drop considerably. I had expected issues like this to have been ironed out by now (it’s been out a fair while!!).
Not had the chance to play co-op yet, but I’ll get footage up shortly, all being well.
Major gripe
Why on earth is it taking several minutes to just start the damn game? I can only assume it’s logging into the Uplay service, but seriously, I have found myself wondering if it’s crashed because it takes so long.
Can it not connect in the background whilst playing? I really don’t mind if it just doesn’t connect to be honest.