Pre-Word

So it seems like (for me at least) the general consensus about Assassin's Creed Unity is that it was a major hit and miss. All the reviews and message boards Iv'e read through have said similar things ranging from moderate praise to downright hatred. Iv'e even tried talking to people who haven't even played the game themselves and I hear a lot of complaints. As I was blessed with a seemingly perfect copy of the game and never experienced any graphical issues or game play issues whatsoever (Playing on PS4) I think I can give a pretty good summary of the game as a whole!

BRIEF BACKSTORY-

Assassin's Creed Unity is the latest game in the Assassin's Creed series and is set in Paris during the French Revolution. This is a bloody and dark time period, full of strange characters that were really alive during the time period. The main character Arno Dorian is a handsome, young man who after the death of his father was raised by the Grandmaster of the french Templars. Thirteen years after his fathers death, Arno is framed for the murder of the Grandmaster and sent to prison in the Bastile. Arno is accepted into the Assassin's order after being trained by the assassin Pierre Bellec in prison and the plot of the game begins.

INITIAL ANALYSIS-

What sticks out like a sore thumb immediately is the similarity's between Unity and AC:2. Arno and Ezio are very similar, both womanisers, masters of romance and quick to get into a fight. But as the story progresses they become more mature and focused. These similarity's aren't a terrible thing, AC:2 is considered by many to be the best in the series, and I really appreciate Ubisoft's efforts to bring the series back to it's roots. With the introduction of ship battles in AC:3 and then the pirate simulator that was Assassin's Creed Black Flag, the series seemed to get off course (pun intended). Black Flag barely had anything to do with Assassin's and Templars! The side missions are all interesting and hold a lot of content, the Characters you meet are all really cool to look at and have their own identities. It brings the series home and does it well!

THE WORLD-

The world looks beautiful. The colours are all very vibrant and everything is textured well.

 Broad open cities with so much going on in them. Side missions and collectibles that will keep you entertained between story missions. They've introduced random encounters throughout the city. People getting extorted for money, fights between citizens and royalists. These seem to pop up whenever you start to get bored and makes for some interesting scenarios. It's so easy to just zone out and run around Paris, getting into fights and doing side missions.

COMBAT-

The combat in Unity is personally the best it has ever been. Moving away from the one hit kills and chained combos in favour of a brutal, sophisticated combat system. Three buttons are utilised: Roll, Parry and Attack. A bar above the enemies heads represents the timing at which to either roll or to parry (depending on the enemy type). Getting into fights with large groups of enemies can be devastating and only gets harder. Enemies can throw flash bangs, knock you to the ground, shoot at you and parry your attacks. Combat becomes a wild dance as you dart around enemies, picking your targets and desperately trying to hold your ground. Button mashing is a thing of the past.

CUSTOMISATION-

A really neat addition, and the game is better for it. You can customise Arno to look however suits you (using the possible combinations). By adding in this customisation, it's much easier to feel like you're progressing through the game and getting stronger. Weaponry is varied and interesting, and allows for many different styles of play.

MULTIPLAYER-

Multiplayer is excellent when you are playing with your friends or with expierenced players. I advise to avoid the Multiplayer until you are pretty far through the game, as I encountered many players who simply wouldn't cooperate and had little experience with the new elements of the combat. There is no real way of communicating with other players without a mic, except for a Portal 2 style 'Go Here' marker. The Multiplayer missions are really interesting and add alot to the game, definitely play through them all if you have a couple of friends on Skype to play with.

FREE RUNNING-

Not much to say on this topic other than it's been improved simply by adding a 'free run down' feature. This new feature allows you to vertically climb down buildings, giving a lot more control to the player

MICRO TRANSACTIONS-

I have little complaints about the micro transactions. Micro transactions are really only used as a way of getting to content before you have enough in game currency to do so. I personally never felt like they were being shoved in my face or that I needed to spend money to play the game, the option is just there for people who might not have enough time to get all the in game currency required for items.

COMPLAINTS-

- The story goes on for a little too long, and it became a drag to play story missions towards the end.

- Some of the 'Legendary; equipment in the game is locked. You can only unlock it by participating in big multi player events which are confusing and often difficult to complete. 

-Towards the end of the game, almost every enemy can shoot at you and this is a major issue. When you try to run they will never miss, and the only way to dodge is to roll when in a combat situation. Getting shot will take major chunks out of your health.

-Glitches. I didn't encounter any but many people did. Frame rate drops and graphical glitches are all possible while playing.

- One of the major selling points of the game was its massive crowds, but the game doesn't really really pop them into existence until you get really close, which creates a really distracting effect. Major complaint, has been slowly getting better each patch but is still an issue.

OVERALL VERDICT-

I love Assassin's Creed Unity, it is by far my favourite in the series. It does everything AC:2 did and better. I personally don't believe in putting a number to something but I would absolutely recommend at least borrowing it from a friend, if not buying it yourself. With the amount of people trading it in, it will probably be really cheap, really soon!

First review ever really so,tell me if I should never write anything again?

The game is still in development, with no release date set. But for those who enjoy the kind of games where the action is mad quick, the pain is real and the points don't matter. Then you should keep your eye on this one.

Now compared to the first Splatoon, the gameplay is virtually unchanged. There are still many of the same main weapons making a return from the previous iteration, but in this game, two new weapon types make their first appearance: The Dualies, dual wielded pistols that give you the ability to perform a dodge-roll; and the Brella, a combination scattergun and shield which can be launched forward trailing ink behind it. In addition to this some new sub weapons were introduced, but that is nothing when you find out that EVERY special attack from the first game has been replaced with one of many brand new ones. These new specials force the player to think of brand new strategies that were not possible in the first game, and I for one welcome them.

Now when playing online, the stage rotation now updates every 2 hours instead of every 4 allowing for more varied arenas more often. Some stages are updated ones that have returned from the previous game, but most of them are brand new with some special exclusive stages that are only available to play during the game's occasional Spatfests, which are time exclusive parties to see which of 2 selectable teams is better in a themed competition.

When online you can play your normal Turf Wars and Ranked Battles like in the previous installment, but now you have 3 ranks for ranked battles; one for each mode. In addition to this, some elements from the battles have been updated. For instance: In Tower Control, you now have to pass by a certain number of check points before the tower can reach its final destination; and in Rainmaker, the rainmaker itself has been upgraded from being a chargable inkzooka to something more like a grenade launcher. Plus now if you want to play Squad Battles, you now have to have a minimum rank of B- to play them as it has been renamed to League Battles and now has its own unique stage rotation separate from the normal ranked battles.

The real star of the show here though is the game's new hoard mode: Salmon Run. In this game mode you and 3 other players will play cooperatively with a random set of loaned weapons to collect golden power eggs from the mutated salmonids living in the toxic waters just off the coast of Inkopolis. Now unfortunately this game mode can't be played whenever you want as it is on this bafflingly asinine clock where it is only open for about 12 to 24 hours every other day, but when it CAN be played I think I can safely say that this is probably my favorite of the game modes available and the unique rewards that come with it certainly more than make up for it.

Now like the previous game, there is a single-player story campaign. In this story we find out that Splatoon 2 takes place 2 years after the events of the first game. You have been chosen by Marie of the Squid Sisters to help her recover the once again stolen Great Zapfish and rescue her missing cousin Callie, the other half of the Squid Sisters. You will learn the game's basics in this mode and it will progressively become more difficult the further you get into the game, but now you can unlock and use any of the nine main weapon types found in online multiplayer and will also have more than double the number collectibles to find with some of them only found in the hub world.

And finally, the dojo from the previous game (which is was the local multiplayer game mode) has been completely removed in favor of a new local multiplayer mode called The Shoal. Instead of it being where you and one other person compete to see who can pop the most balloons before the time expires, it now is just a simple local wireless or LAN mode where 4-8 players can compete against each other in either a regular combat match, or a game of Salmon Run.

Overall, I love all the new content that was introduced and little improvements that were made here and there. You can now customize your hairstyle and leg-wear, the amiibo make a return as a way to save you loadout preferences, you can now assign specific abilities to equipment (assuming you have enough ability chunks), and I especially like that you can now have the ability to buy bonuses like double money or XP from the newly added food truck in the square. To some, the online mode, AKA the main focus of the game, may feel like "more of the same" but that isn't always bad thing. This game did everything right when it comes to sequels: Fix what was broken, and build upon what was already good. I just hope that some day in the future they remove the limitations from Salmon Run, but until then, I'll be seeing you.

Score