Lucas Versantvoort / October 20, 2014
I recently
saw gameplay footage of the upcoming game in the Assassin’s Creed franchise: Assassin’s
Creed Unity. Though I stopped playing after the first and second games, I
occasionally watched gameplay videos of more recent games in the series to see
if it could recapture my interest. Sadly, this never happened, but since Unity will be the first game released on
next gen consoles, I went ahead to see if Ubisoft was willing to make a bolder
step forward. What I’m going to do is present something like a live commentary
of a few gameplay videos and explain the thoughts that popped into my head.
I have to
say, the game looks quite good. What I like most about it is the soft lighting
that I feel captures the dusty streets of revolutionary Paris quite well. So,
no complaints graphic-wise. Gameplay-wise however… The first important part of
the above clip is a new feature called ‘Controlled Descent’. You can now parkour
your way down a building quickly without relying on a haystack. What I find absolutely
hilarious is that after about 20(!) games in this ongoing series, it only now occurred
to the developers that descending tall buildings could require something other
than a conveniently placed haystack (a feature that doesn’t make any sense
anyway). That’s what you call innovation…
A bit later in the clip, side quests
are introduced. During a riot, you can choose to save the clergy, thus making
people aware of your presence or let them be killed an remain undetected. There’s
also random occurrences like street muggings. Someone will get robbed and you
can choose to hunt down the robber and presumably return what’s been stolen to
the original owner. The commentary doesn’t explain why you should do this
though. What’s the incentive for chasing down the robber? This feels like one
of those useless minute-long missions which are shoehorned in to lend some
vibrancy to the city, but will become boring after one or two tries, because it
just gets repetitive.
A key element appears to be using
the current gen engines to make the city feel alive. A new feature that’s being
touted in the clip is being able to enter buildings seamlessly, i.e. without
loading times. It’s nice to see that after 20 games of climbing and running
over buildings, it’s finally possible to actually enter them…though how many buildings can be entered and what the
point will be are questions that remain yet unanswered…
Combat takes place at 2:40. The
commentator explains how combat is supposed to be more challenging. Previous
games were indeed way too easy, boiling down to pressing the counter button
over and over again, making it more challenging to win a 1v20 fight without
taking a single hit rather than stressing out trying to survive. Disappointingly
however, while he’s saying how combat is more difficult, he takes down a guard
without taking a single hit, so we’ll have to say whether combat is indeed more
challenging.
And…like most modern games these
days, x-ray vision – or should I say, Eagle Pulse – rears its head, allowing you to see enemy
formations and plan your attack accordingly. Why you can use this in the 18th
Century is beyond me, though it will likely be explained through some sci-fi
nonsense regarding the Animus. Let me tell you, nothing makes me feel like an
18th century assassin more than the ability to see through walls…
And then…stealth is finally
showcased. You enter a building and have to move past a handful of guards
undetected. What bugs me is the fact that there’s a dedicated stealth button
that makes you harder to detect. You press the button and you’re in stealth.
This would mean that if I’m crouching somewhere while not in stealth I would be
more easily detected than if I were crouching while in stealth. It doesn’t make
any sense and neither does 3:43 when our main character, bathed in daylight,
moves forward while a guard mere meters away is facing his general direction
and yet doesn’t see him. A real stealth game wouldn’t allow you to pull stunts
like that.
At 4:36, the commentator explains
how, when you’re on high ground, you can have multiple icons fill the screen,
showing you where you can start side quests. This is a pretty good addition as
it allows you to remain in-game without having to scour a map in the menu. I
just hope you can disable it…
Alas, at 5:22 more nonsense rears
its ugly head. Our main character goes down a street, but there are guards
blocking his path. So, in typical Assassin’s
Creed fashion, he scales a building to get past them. The same problem I
mentioned with stealth applies here. What I don’t get is how the guards don’t
see you scaling a building, even though they’re facing your way and are quite
close. If you think this is nitpicking, then you have to realize that it’s
little things like this that are part of the core gameplay. Remaining
undetected is a key element of Assassin’s
Creed, so obviously I’m going to notice it if remaining hidden is too easy
and/or broken. Little things like this are immersion breaking. When part of the
thrill is to remain undetected whilst approaching a target, it becomes more
grating when gameplay surrounding that feature feels off.
Just like
the first clip, at 3:12 and 3:59 the main characters behaves in a way that
should alarm guards etc. He’s within meters of characters looking straight at
him and yet nobody moves an inch. Is this supposed to be the ‘improved’ stealth
system the commentator speaks of?
At 4:22, the main character uses a
smoke bomb to stealthily assassinate someone. This is fine in and of itself,
but how can two nearby guards walking toward the now dissipating smoke not be
suspicious of the hooded man walking out of the smoke?
At 6:10 stealth and stealing are
showcased, but it appears stealing in Unity
is about as difficult as putting your left foot in front of your right foot. It
all boils down to pushing a button to activate stealth mode and then simply
standing next to the character in question and holding a button for a second or
two to steal the item. Again I have to wonder why stealth mode is even an issue
here when nothing really changes visually. You’re still standing right next to
the guy regardless of whether you pushed the stealth button or not. How does it
automatically make you ‘blend in with the crowd’ more?
The leap of faith is still present
at 7:30. Also wondering why a haystack has been placed inside the Notre Dame… 8:18 is even more ridiculous. A
large crowd is gathered in the Notre Dame. Meanwhile you jump into a haystack just a few meters away and kill a nearby
guard by pulling him inside the haystack using your knife. Does absolutely nobody
see this? Does nobody hear the guard’s scream? And again: what is a haystack
doing in the Notre Dame?
All in all, my various complaints all boil down
to problems regarding gameplay. It increasingly seems that Unity is being presented as The Next Big Step in the franchise and
yet all I’m seeing are gameplay issues, both big and small, that still plague this
series after all these years.I'll keep my eye on it
Stray
observations:
How can it
be that the first game in the series did a better job of animating the main character’s
movements when walking through a crowd than Unity?
Why does
almost everyone in Paris speak English with a British accent…?
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