Assassin's Creed: Unity

Liberty Will Be Written In Blood.

At this point in time, it is safe to say that everyone knows what Assassin's Creed is, if not played one of them. Assassin's Creed: Unity is the 8th major installment in the series (can't believe that there's that many) and as of the time of writing, the newest.

AC:U takes place during the French Revolution and centers around Arno Victor Dorian, an up and coming Assassin brother out for revenge. Arno must learn how to become an assassin, then use those skills to bring to justice the people responsible for killing his father.

Arno using the Phantom Blade

In terms of gameplay mechanics, much has changed from previous titles, but at the same time, it still has the inherent feel of an Assassin's Creed game. You can still climb tall buildings and leap off them like a crazy person. You can still go absolutely crazy on the baddies with your superior combat skills. New additions like the Phantom Blade (a hidden blade with crossbow-like capabilities) make combat all that more interesting.

As far as the story goes, the writer's really know their stuff. They take historical events and intertwine them with this fictional story in such a way that at times, you may have a hard time determining what's real and what isn't. In a way, this is the case with all AC titles, and for that, I'm grateful. Too many games these days have horrible story lines.

Coupled with this, the attention to detail is insane. With the obvious exception of the Assassins and Templars being involved, the historical events are spot on. But then again, how do we know that Assassins and Templars aren't still out in force today?

One thing I didn't like was the long loading screens. While I wish I could say that there weren't that many (there were fewer than some games I've played), there were just too many for my taste. Not only that, but some were excessively long. To go from the start menu into the game itself routinely took 5 minutes or more. And some of the loading screens after cut scenes took just as long. As one of the first games I played on a Next-Gen console, I was quite disappointed in this.

Another thing that plagued many an Assassin was the high amount of bugs. While I only encountered one, albeit in two different situations, it was severe enough that I had to hard reset my console before I could continue my mission. Not ideal in the least, though it appears that Ubisoft has fixed the majority of them.

AC:U gets a respectable 8 stars

Overall, Assassin's Creed: Unity was pretty damn good. In fact, it holds the distinction of being the only AC game that I've actually finished. And the replayability is pretty good as well, as many of the main missions hold alternate, special assassinations and challenges to try out. I'd say if you have a next-gen console (sans Wii U) or PC and are looking for a good game, pick this one up. Ubisoft even released the first DLC for free in apology for the problems that the game had after launch.

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