Assassin's Creed Unity: Is This the Future of Gaming

Ok so most people know that Assassin's Creed Unity was released just recently. For Assassin's Creed fans this was a long awaited game. It was going to be the first in next gen gaming that would usher in the age of great game play and beautiful graphics. Well I have to say the game does fall short. I am a huge fan of the Assassin's Creed games and have played almost all of them. The only ones that I have not played is the new Rogue which is only on Xbox 360 and PS3, and mobile versions of the game.

The game is presented in a manner that is taken straight from Black Flag. It pits you as the main protagonist that is going into the Animus to relive the past. I do have to admit that I do like this approach to the game more then I did when they had Desmond as the main protagonist of the game. It gives more of a feeling of immersion into the game that the others to me didn't. It even has a throw back to the original Assassin's Creed in the beginning. I won't say what exactly that is as I don't want to ruin anything for anyone that has yet to play the game.

As far as the game itself. It is riddled with bugs and glitches. For example I would be running a mission and all of a sudden Arno, the main hero of the game, would all of a sudden fall through the map like I just jumped off of a cliff. Also there are numerous areas where you can see major frame rate drops in the animation and the game gets very choppy. Also when playing the PS4 version there is a glitch that would literally remove the heads from characters and leave only the eyes and teeth. Image shown below.

The co-op is not without it's problems as well. When playing co-op you will encounter a number of ongoing issues. I am unsure as to why Ubisoft decided to drop the multiplayer part of the game as that used to be one of my favorite parts of Assassin's Creed as they approached multiplayer in a whole new way that was a nice change of pace from the typical multiplayer that we see in games like Call of Duty and Halo. The co-op which has massive potential disappointed me mainly because what was advertised to me felt like I could go through the story either alone in single player or with friends in co-op. This is by far not the case. Strewn about the map are various co-op missions which require you to do various different things which can vary from saving someone to finding a book. There are also heists that you can do in co-op which is a simple break in a steal this item and get out. Needless to say I was very disappointed in this aspect as it is a far cry from what I thought it was and what it could be.

Assassin's Creed Unity just feels majorly unfinished. It has been reported that the game is to be 900p with a frame rate of 30 fps and there are times where it feels like that isn't the case. Graphically the game shows off a lot of what the new gen systems can do. Just the number of individual people that are just walking around the game is something to see. But I do have to admit the game doesn't feel polished. It feels very buggy and with the number of glitches that people are experiencing makes it feel like the game was just pushed out so they could make their money. As of the last few years it seems that a lot of companies are pushing out games that feel unfinished or complete. The game Battlefield was also riddled with bugs and issues on release, and a day one patch is starting to become more common in the game industry. Destiny from Bungie also felt incomplete upon release and had the gaming community in an uproar over supposed dlc already being on the disc that should have been in the game.

Is this the future of our beloved industry? Are we now doomed to purchase games that are broken with our hard earned money? I for one am very disappointed that this is starting to become a trend that is more likely to continue? It's a sad state of affairs when I look back in the history of games and see just how many companies are starting to go down this dark road. Of course some companies have a history of releasing games in this manner such as Bethesda. But companies like Bungie who created the Halo series going to this dark place shows me that this is starting to become a trend that is just not acceptable. While I love Assassin's Creed and Unity brings some nice new elements to the game, it is my opinion that until these issues are corrected you should just save your money. The game is fun, but it does have it's issues that can hamper game play and frustrate you. Here's to hoping that 2015 ushers in some great games that don't have these same issues. I do understand that there are some issues that just can't be caught before a game is released, but please devs, don't put a game out until you feel like it's complete. I for one can wait a couple of extra months for a game that delivers.