Preview: Assassin’s Creed: Unity

Recently Stevivor had the chance to attend a preview event hosted at Ubisoft’s Sydney-based offices. While there we were able to get some hands-on with the latest instalment in the Assassin’s Creed franchise, Unity.

With Unity just a matter of weeks away, I put it upon myself to complete Assassin’s Creed Black Flag the weekend prior (and I did). As a gamer who has gone through and completed all but one of the previous titles in the franchise, I came at Unity expecting to pick it up and be a master assassin from the get-go.

I was wrong. Very wrong.

With every new sequel — regardless of the franchise — developers always make comments that they’ve ‘re-invented’ the series with new gameplay mechanics and elements. Usually though this means a minor tweak or two but it’s pretty much the same from year to year. With Assassin’s Creed Unity, Ubisoft wasn’t lying.

Perhaps one of the most noticeable changes with this game is with its free-running. While you’re still able to climb buildings and run along rooftops, you can no longer simply hold the sprint button while your character does all the work. Instead, Unity now features both climb up and climb down buttons that you need to hold in conjunction with the sprint button to scale buildings. While there’s no denying that it does allow for greater precision, I wasn’t entirely sold during the preview. There was one particular instance of this where I was reaching the top of a tower to synchronize with a viewpoint, but because I was still holding ‘A’ (to climb up) when I jumped across the top, Arno (the main protagonist) fell right over the edge rather than to the other end of the tower. Is it a mistake on my part for holding the button down when I needn’t have? Sure. Does it still complicate the climbing mechanics? Yes.

Further to this, there are times when holding the climb-up button isn’t necessary to scale some obstacles (such as ladders), so there’s a little bit of confusion as to when it’s needed and when it isn’t.

The second most noticeable difference to Assassin’s Creed: Unity comes with its combat. One of the criticisms regarding the previous titles was how easy combat often was – enemies attacked one by one, shooters could be avoided by using opponents as human shields and smoke bombs were always the easy-out of a difficult situation. Well, consider Assassin’s Creed’s combat easy no more. The option to counter an enemy is still available, but rather than having the two second window Black Flag and previous titles provided you, the sweet spot to unsettle an attacker and strike back is represented by a yellow flash above your target as they try to strike. Unless you parry at the exact right moment, your ability to strike those around you is reduced and you’re much more vulnerable to being hit.

As a result of these changes, combat is much more organic, but with it comes a serious increase in difficulty. As health is no longer automatically regenerative (like Assassin’s Creed 2, you’ll need to purchase potions from street merchants) and smoke bombs will only allow you to one-button kill your targets only if they’re used prior to your attackers spotting you, strategy really is key in surviving here. On numerous occasions I found myself just resorting to running away from a fight with one bar of health left just to continue playing – although I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to dying many more times throughout the preview.

Character customization also plays a big part in the game, and almost annoyingly so. Synchronization points (earned by syncing with viewpoints) can be spent to unlock weapons and skills, such as increased health, improved strength and even the ability to pick locks. Much like crafting in previous games, it seems to detract away from the whole purpose of Assassin’s Creed in my opinion – becoming an assassin, welding two hidden blades and then running from rooftop to rooftop taking down your foes. For example, scattered throughout the preview were a number of chests that could only be unlocked through lock-picking. Problem was, my lock-picking skill wasn’t high enough, and as a result it was borderline impossible to actually open most of them. Awesome.

Strategy also plays an important part in how you approach missions too. Where in previous titles you would have your single objective and ways to achieve it, Unity offers players the ability to really plan how they’ll reach and complete their goal. In one part during the preview I needed to enter a cathedral and assassinate one of the Templars inside. In this mission you could enter through the catacombs and emerge from the underground, or you could walk straight through the front-door killing guards along the way or alternatively you could choose to steal keys from a guard in the crowd, return it to a clergyman atop the cathedral and enter through a stairwell from above.

There were a few moments in the preview where techniques such as air-assassinations failed to work properly, but I was unable to determine whether it was a fault with the build or just another skill I hadn’t unlocked yet. There’s no denying that Unity looks much better and the world is much more explorable than previous games (you can enter a large number of buildings throughout the city), but it’s certainly going to take time to get used to the new parkour and combat mechanics. Gamers, you wanted a more difficult Assassin’s Creed experience, and you’re now going to get it.