Added: 06.10.2014 17:00 | 1 views | 0 comments

Have you heard of Arno the Bold? He was one of the greatest figures of the French Revolution before his name was lost to the passage of time. An eccentric man, Arno was known to wear a garish purple hood best described as "wizardly." He also wielded a rather large and imposing pickaxe, or la Pioche de la Justice as he referred to it. But when Arno wasn't going for dips in the Seine, he was devoted to bringing liberty to all his fellow Parisians. No Templar was safe from Arno the Bold. Nor was anyone who looked at him funny. And I suppose anyone who got caught in one of those smoke bombs he was always throwing around. Arno was a bit sloppy about that.

Okay, so maybe my version of Arno wasn't all that great of a hero. But Assassin's Creed Unity, with its newfound dedication to customization and open-ended mission design, has this way of making you feel like you're building your own story. Yes, it's definitely still an Assassin's Creed game, but after four hours of scaling Parisian rooftops, I like where this game is going.

Then there's the return of tailing missions. Ubisoft has talked a big game about its adaptive mission design for Unity, promising that when you're asked to tail a target and you get caught, it's capable of turning into a chase mission on the spot instead of simply throwing a "mission failed" screen at you. I like that idea a lot. I'd like to try one of those missions. I did not get to try one of those missions.

Instead, I was asked to tail a target--a twisted doctor named LaTouche--in order to find his little hospital of horror. I was happy to see that when I let him get too far away, the game didn't make me start over; it merely asked me to go find him again. A nice change of pace from the way these missions worked in earlier games. But when he caught me outright, it was mission over.

Talking to one of the designers, he assured me that these missions are now extremely rare and this particular one was a necessary evil because you had to know where his hideout was in order to advance the story. Be that as it may, these instant-fail tailing missions have long been one of the most frustrating parts of the series and I'm sad to see they're still in Unity at all. They're at such odds with the new focus on customization and open-endedness that they now look even more out place than ever.

Those issues aside, I enjoyed the four hours I spent playing Assassin's Creed Unity. I definitely like what's been done to broaden the potential for emergent gameplay and player customization, and the way you move about the world feels smoother than ever.

I should probably rethink that purple outfit, though.

Added: 06.10.2014 17:00 | 0 views | 0 comments

Have you heard of Arno the Bold? He was one of the greatest figures of the French Revolution before his name was lost to the passage of time. An eccentric man, Arno was known to wear a garish purple hood best described as "wizardly." He also wielded a rather large and imposing pickaxe, or la Pioche de la Justice as he referred to it. But when Arno wasn't going for dips in the Seine, he was devoted to bringing liberty to all his fellow Parisians. No Templar was safe from Arno the Bold. Nor was anyone who looked at him funny. And I suppose anyone who got caught in one of those smoke bombs he was always throwing around. Arno was a bit sloppy about that.

Okay, so maybe my version of Arno wasn't all that great of a hero. But Assassin's Creed Unity, with its newfound dedication to customization and open-ended mission design, has this way of making you feel like you're building your own story. Yes, it's definitely still an Assassin's Creed game, but after four hours of scaling Parisian rooftops, I like where this game is going.

Then there's the return of tailing missions. Ubisoft has talked a big game about its adaptive mission design for Unity, promising that when you're asked to tail a target and you get caught, it's capable of turning into a chase mission on the spot instead of simply throwing a "mission failed" screen at you. I like that idea a lot. I'd like to try one of those missions. I did not get to try one of those missions.

Instead, I was asked to tail a target--a twisted doctor named LaTouche--in order to find his little hospital of horror. I was happy to see that when I let him get too far away, the game didn't make me start over; it merely asked me to go find him again. A nice change of pace from the way these missions worked in earlier games. But when he caught me outright, it was mission over.

Talking to one of the designers, he assured me that these missions are now extremely rare and this particular one was a necessary evil because you had to know where his hideout was in order to advance the story. Be that as it may, these instant-fail tailing missions have long been one of the most frustrating parts of the series and I'm sad to see they're still in Unity at all. They're at such odds with the new focus on customization and open-endedness that they now look even more out place than ever.

Those issues aside, I enjoyed the four hours I spent playing Assassin's Creed Unity. I definitely like what's been done to broaden the potential for emergent gameplay and player customization, and the way you move about the world feels smoother than ever.

I should probably rethink that purple outfit, though.