Graphics
A lot has been made over the last few weeks about Assassin’s Creed: Unity not running at 60 frames-per-second at 1080p, but guess what? It hardly matters.
Once you’ve reached your first high spot and the camera pans around you, revealing the sprawling city below, you’ll soon forget about resolutions and frame-rates; the game is a beauty.
The inner-city of Paris has been built on a 1:1 scale, if Ubisoft are to be believed. I’m not sure on the accuracy of that statement but I can tell you that the city is huge. Whilst it’s not the entirety of Paris, it’s the part of Paris that matters the most.
Walking through the dirty cobbled streets teeming with NPC’s all going about their business looks fantastic. The amount of detail is phenomenal. Characters trot along side you on their way to wherever they’re going, muttering to themselves or their buddies. The streets truly feel alive with the flavour of France with street vendors peddling their gear, though they end up sounding more like East-End marketeers flogging cheap handbags, thanks to some of their English accents.
Characters are well designed and move with the grace of a real person, at times tricking the eye into believing you’re looking at a moving picture of a real person, though as with all games and their fancy graphics it’s apparent that there’s something not quite real about them.
To truly take in the grandeur of Paris you must take to higher ground. From above the smoking streets filled with scum, peasants, soldiers and the few decent folk, you’ll be greeted with a view that not many games can boast. The draw distance is impressive as you look out over the city, landmarks clearly visible even though they are a fair way away.
The upgraded Anvil engine really does shine on the next-gen consoles (PS4 tested, wasn’t going to spend over £100 on two of the same game, sorry folks!) This is what Ubisoft envisioned for the Anvil engine when it was first used in Assassin’s Creed III and now their vision is here for us to enjoy.
To put it simply, Assassin’s Creed: Unity is not just the best looking Assassin’s Creed game to date, but it is definitely a strong contender for the best looking PS4 (possibly Xbox One?) game available at this time. The visual fidelity is remarkable and the attention to the small details in re-creating Paris circa 1700’s is astonishing to say the least.
There are a few imperfections that you’ll find if you look hard enough, trees in particular, but you really have to look hard to find fault in the games design. If you’re a stickler for frame-rates and resolutions then you’ll probably be sad to hear that the frame-rate is a little inconsistent, often dropping down when all hell breaks loose on screen. It’s not a game breaker and it’s nowhere near as bad as Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation’s issues on the PS Vita, but they are there and do have a slight detrimental effect on the game. The small details are what personally stood out for me, even the indoor sections are littered with time-relevant arts, crafts and decorations that you’ll probably never appreciate as you’re too busy running down the hall to stab some poor fell in the back, but it’s there and the effort is appreciated.
After many hours of gameplay, I’m left satisfied, impressed and for once in a long time, eager for the sequel. If Ubisoft can keep up the current form, albeit with a decent present-day connecting story, then I for one will keep on throwing money at them, even if it has to be every year.
Assassin’s Creed: Unity is available from November 11th on PS4, Xbox One and PC. You can pre-order your copy from Amazon and get some exclusive DLC. Sweet!
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