Gamescom 2014: Assassin's Creed: Unity Hands-on Preview – Vive La Revolution!
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It's easy to forget that Assassin's Creed has already made its debut on new-gen consoles with last year's Black Flag, but as the first game purely for Xbox One and PS4, Assassin's Creed: Unity could be the shot in the arm the series has been crying out for. Putting choice back into the players' hands, Unity dispenses with frustrating fail states and introduces a whole array of customisation options that go beyond the simply cosmetic. “You can tailor your experience,” Ubisoft Montreal tells us, as we're handed the controller and taken on a guided tour of Assassin's Creed: Unity.
Right off the bat we're shown the selection of hoods, cowls, chest pieces, weapons like axes, spears, swords, flintlock pistols and other gear that you'll be able to deck Arno out in, granting him various buffs. Each item of clothing will have its own unique properties that feed into Arno's assassin skills, be it making him more deadly, agile, resilient or stealthy. Certain boots might reduce the noise he makes when crouched and shuffling along, while other footwear will increase the speed of Arno's parkour abilities, enabling him to scale buildings quicker than usual. Certain items will extend your Eagle Vision range and provide other useful boosts, makign dressing Arno up something to carefully consider.
There'll be over 200 clothing items and weapons for kitting out Arno, all in a variety of colours, which is just as well, given that you'll be able to play online with three other versions of Arno in Assassin's Creed: Unity's much-vaunted co-op Brotherhood missions. The idea is to mix and match gear to complement your play style or adapt to a specific mission by changing up Arno's equipped apparel on the fly. Some skills will pertain specifically to the game's co-op, whereas other light RPG elements have been implemented, such as skill trees where you can choose whatever path suits you best.
Want to be able to execute a double assassination? You'll have to acquire the skill first. Does lockpicking sound like a useful talent to have? Then save up some XP and unlock it. In addition to your standard skills, you can also have four perks active at any one time, granting you abilities like healing, seeing enemies through walls or blending in with a crowd of NPCs using a disguise, much like the perks you'd have previously found in Assassin's Creed's nixed multiplayer mode.
Going hands-on with Unity, the game immediately feels fresher, from the nimble climbing acrobatics, to the new controlled descent that enables Arno to gracefully clamber down the side of a building at speed. Playing a two-player game with one of the Ubisoft Montreal devs, we find ourselves free-running across the Parisian rooftops, surveying the baying proletariat on the streets below. The vistas are incredible. Shimmying down to a cemetery, we embark upon a co-op Heist mission that tasks us with stealing an artifact housed deep within catacombs beneath the city.
Whether you're playing alone or in co-op, you and your allies will always be playing as a version of Arno, and you'll be able to find co-op partners through public matchmaking, or you can enjoy a private game inviting your friends to the party. There's no difficulty scaling, however, so should you choose to face certain missions alone, you may find things a little more challenging. We're teamed up with a fellow assassin during our hands-on session, however.
Holding the left trigger down causes Arno to crouch and enter stealth mode, giving you a chance to sneak up on enemies and silently take them down. Stealth is a far more viable option in Assassin's Creed: Unity, as we quickly find having tiptoed through the cemetery and down into the subterranean tunnels.
Some co-ordinated navigation and aerial assassinations are required to progress, until we eventually track down the artifact in a guarded chest. On the count of three, we drop on the two guards simultaneously and snatch away the valuable item, before mounting an escape. Only some missions like these will be playable co-operatively for up to four players, with the rest of the game focused upon Arno's single-player story.
The mission completed, we can't resist running off and causing some mayhem in the streets, tackling a thief before getting into a tussle with the local law enforcement. Unity's combat mechanics are essentially the same as before, albeit with a greater emphasis on timing counters, parries and dodges, while mistakes and slow reactions are duly punished. Like the rest of what we've seen of Unity, it feels like a positive step in the right direction.
And that's Assassin's Creed: Unity in a nutshell. It's a chance for Ubisoft to have a clean slate on new platforms, and while the baby isn't being thrown out with the bathwater, it's clear that things are being shaken up for the franchise's first dedicated release on Xbox One and PS4. We're feeling good about what we've seen of Assassin's Creed: Unity thus far, and we can't wait to fully immerse ourselves in Ubi's realisation of French Revolution era Paris.
Assassin's Creed: Unity will be prowling the Parisian streets on October 28th, 2014 worldwide.