In actuality, the poor matchmaking (which allows any player to tackle any mission, regardless of the level of their gear) turns potentially elegantly designed levels into irritating displays of brute force. When the connection is stable and everybody’s using microphones, there’s a thrill to be had from a quartet of synchronized kills. Similar concerns extend to co-op missions, which inexplicably replace the stealth-based multiplayer and survival modes from previous installments. (See, for instance, anything to do with Madame Tussaud.)
In fact, the majority of scenes with them occur within the optional Paris Stories side missions, and there it seems as if developers are merely dropping names in order to season otherwise bland missions. And while you’ll briefly meet characters like Napoleon and the Marquis de Sade in the main campaign, they’re tangential to the plot.
The consequences of Arno’s brash actions are glossed over, and the last three sequences of the game feel redundant, with back-to-back assassinations occurring first at public guillotines and then private dinner parties.
Arno Dorian’s quest to redeem his name and avenge his father is a one-note affair, and even his pursuit of the lovely Élise de la Serre (a rival Templar, but inexplicably not an evil one) is tangled up in that. There are even time-trial events in rift portals, clearly inspired by BioShock Infinite, that take you to alternate versions of Paris: a Nazi-occupied Eiffel Tower, a besieged medieval Bastille, and the Metro tunnels.īut the main content isn’t nearly as well conceived. Deciphering Nostradamus’s enigmatic quatrains is a fitting evolution of the glyph hunting from Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and Vidocq’s deductive murder mysteries value motives and a keen eye far more than Unity itself. The most enjoyable parts of the game, ironically, are those that don’t involve piss-pot assassinations, but instead focus on exploration.
#Unity heads will roll free
It’s also never been easier to move about, as the Free Run function (i.e., parkour) has been split across two buttons, to allow for more versatile vertical ascents (and now, descents). Where Unity succeeds-at least when it’s not suffering from game-breaking glitches to do with poor collision detection and spastic frame rates-is in fulfilling Helix’s slogan: “The Past Is Your Playground.” Thanks to the power of next-generation systems, the streets and landmarks of 1790s Paris are not only crisply rendered (right down to the glint of light off Notre Dame’s stained glass), but each district is populated with distinct mobs of angry, revolting citizens and intelligent, reactive guards.
#Unity heads will roll software
Adding another needless, overarching goal for the franchise (Project Phoenix, which uses the Animus-replacing Helix software to locate individuals with traces of a Precursor’s triple-helix DNA) is poor compensation for this. The result can’t help but feel reductive, especially when the very first thing the game shows you is a teaser for all the genetic memories and locations you won’t be accessing. Gone are the ambitious improvements to your base, competitive multiplayer, the platforms-and-puzzles exploration of tombs, and the ability to move about the “real” modern-day world. However, that’s no excuse for the one-step-forward, two-steps-back approach it takes, in which the graphics appear to have been enhanced at the expense of everything else familiar to the series.
Assassin’s Creed: Unity has the unenviable task of rebooting the somewhat stale Assassin’s Creed franchise (only the sailing sections salvaged Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag).
0 kommentar(er)
