The producers force-fed the developers more than they could chew, but decided that choking on their pride was preferable to discretely spitting their mouthful of half-chewed product into a napkin.

You'd think that Ubisoft had learned from the Watch_Dogs debacle not to let the marketing department promise more than they could deliver. Unfortunately, the execs learned the wrong lesson. Rather than tempering expectations to more reasonable levels, they have demanded that every feature announced must be delivered regardless of whether it's technically feasible to do so.

As a consumer, I had done my due diligence and waited for this title to go on deep discount before even considering it. I was fully aware of the game-breaking issues experienced by many during launch. I expected little, yet still got even less.

The biggest selling point of the new graphics engine when Unity was announced was the size and density of NPC crowds that the game could display. I was about to say "...that the game could handle" but that is clearly not the case. Any time there is a large crowd on screen, the game engine buckles under its own overambition.

Other people have been remarking about framerate drops due to the large crowds. I couldn't honestly say if I noticed this myself, because I was more more concerned with an issue that had a far larger impact on my enjoyment of the gameplay. In certain areas of the game with large mobs and busy architecture (the street along the north side of Notre Dame being the most consistent location for me) the game engine seems to put a far higher priority on rendering these visual elements than on reacting to player input.

The end result is that while running through a crowd, the camera may start drifting on its own accord as though it were locking onto a point of interest. Nudging the camera stick briefly to correct this drift will be met with no response at all, a response delayed by over one second, or a 270-degree swivel[thedoghousediaries.com].

Character movement is similarly impacted. Attempting to run around hostiles ends up with the character either faceplanting into a wall or, more commonly, veering directly into the enemy to trigger combat. All the while, the game engine itself is not displaying any signs of graphical slowdown. So I end up watching my character being pummeled to death at 60fps because because he walked down the wrong street and had an aneurysm.

Unless your game's primary gimmick is all about intentionally janky controls (Surgeon Simulator, Octodad, etc.), this blatant disregard for the basic principle of usability is completely unacceptable.

Again, the poor performance happens around large crowds and busy architecture. Guess where a majority of the story missions take place? The end result is tailing missions where Arno heedlessly beelines to the person he's tracking, chases where Arno decides he'd much rather make love to a wall instead of run down an alley, and combat where the only solution is to drop a smoke bomb (after being told seven times) because the engine might not be paying any attention to your time-sensitive parry command.

In previous games, learning the streets and staying on the ground was often a faster and safer means of traversal through a city. Rooftops took ages to climb to and there were snipers everywhere yelling at you to get down. In Unity, the roofs are far preferable to the quicksand at street level.

It's been two years since release and I'm running a rig with modern parts:
i5-6600K @ 3.50 GHz
16 GB RAM
GTX 1080 (8 GB VRAM)

These are far more than the recommended specs and significantly better than the minimum, so it should run at least adequately, right?

There's a difference between slow code and bad code. Slow code can eventually be overcome with more powerful equipment. But if it's been coded to run like ♥♥♥♥, faster gear just means it'll be fast ♥♥♥♥.

Like most Assassin's Creed games, 80% of the game's content is based around collectibles and optional side-missions. Unlike most Assassin's Creed games I've played, I've actually opted out of 100% completion because it's so incredibly pointless.

In the early game, you're introduced to your home base. Investing a bit of money to buy improvements and running a handful of missions guarantees that you'll be making roughly 10,000 in cash every 20 minutes. By the late game, you finally get the ability to open the highest difficulty of locked chests. Those chests typically return 250-1000 units of currency. A mere pittance compared to the fortune you've amassed by then.

Actual assassination missions start off with a fly-through of the zone featuring points of entry and side-objectives like freeing prisoners to create distractions. Most of the time you can just ignore all that, climb over a wall, run up to the target, stab them in the face, drop a smoke bomb, and run away.

Combat is -- I wouldn't exactly say "dumbed down" compared to its predecessors, but it is significantly less enjoyable than AC IV: Black Flag or the AC II trilogy. Parries are still in, but one-hit kill counter attacks are gone. So, too, are chain kills.

The combat camera stays at the same distance as the navigation camera instead of pulling back. So in a 6-man fight, the camera is so close to Arno that two or three enemies will be attacking you from offscreen (usually with firearms.)

You end up wasting time fishing for parries and clumsily flailing in retaliation. Defeating one enemy produces zero momentum to turn the tide of battle. The end result is that combat feels more like an annoying chore than an enjoyable distraction.

If you've been following the series you know it's about the Assassins and the Templars getting involved in historical events and influencing politics from behind the scenes. This is tied together with a series-spanning B-story about the modern-age organizations digging up magical relics of unspeakable power.

The French Revolution makes for a nice backdrop, but it is often little more than a backdrop. Arno has next to no direct impact on the events of the French Revolution. Napoleon doesn't show up until near the end of the main game, has you do one or two errands for him, and then promptly disappears (only to make a cutscene cameo in the DLC.)

The main plot boils down to Arno's quest for personal revenge and some intra-office politics on the side. Seems there's a traitor in the midst of the Assassins, when you find out who it is and confront them it pretty much plays out like it did in Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory -- a game published by Ubisoft nearly 10 years earlier. Then Arno goes rogue and his love interest he had been trying to protect dies, just like in Splinter Cell: Double Agent released the following year.

And as far as the MacGuffin that the modern Assassins want to find? You find out where it ends up, then everyone just shrugs and goes "eh, it's not worth going after," thus invalidating the 16-20 hours it takes to plow through the game.

• Engine's still broken
  
• Combat sucks
  
• Story's pointless

At least AC: Rogue was okay. Good job, B team.

[h1]TL;DR[/h1] The producers force-fed the developers more than they could chew, but decided that choking on their pride was preferable to discretely spitting their mouthful of half-chewed product into a napkin. You'd think that Ubisoft had learned from the Watch_Dogs debacle not to let the marketing department promise more than they could deliver. Unfortunately, the execs learned the wrong lesson. Rather than tempering expectations to more reasonable levels, they have demanded that every feature announced must be delivered regardless of whether it's technically feasible to do so. As a consumer, I had done my due diligence and waited for this title to go on deep discount before even considering it. I was fully aware of the game-breaking issues experienced by many during launch. I expected little, yet still got even less. [h1]Performance[/h1] The biggest selling point of the new graphics engine when Unity was announced was the size and density of NPC crowds that the game could display. I was about to say "...that the game could handle" but that is clearly not the case. Any time there is a large crowd on screen, the game engine buckles under its own overambition. Other people have been remarking about framerate drops due to the large crowds. I couldn't honestly say if I noticed this myself, because I was more more concerned with an issue that had a far larger impact on my enjoyment of the gameplay. In certain areas of the game with large mobs and busy architecture (the street along the north side of Notre Dame being the most consistent location for me) the game engine seems to put a far higher priority on rendering these visual elements than on reacting to player input. The end result is that while running through a crowd, the camera may start drifting on its own accord as though it were locking onto a point of interest. Nudging the camera stick briefly to correct this drift will be met with [url=http://thedoghousediaries.com/3211]no response at all, a response delayed by over one second, or a 270-degree swivel[/url]. Character movement is similarly impacted. Attempting to run around hostiles ends up with the character either faceplanting into a wall or, more commonly, veering directly into the enemy to trigger combat. All the while, the game engine itself is not displaying any signs of graphical slowdown. So I end up watching my character being pummeled to death at 60fps because because he walked down the wrong street and had an aneurysm. Unless your game's primary gimmick is all about intentionally janky controls (Surgeon Simulator, Octodad, etc.), this blatant disregard for the basic principle of usability is completely unacceptable. Again, the poor performance happens around large crowds and busy architecture. Guess where a majority of the story missions take place? The end result is tailing missions where Arno heedlessly beelines to the person he's tracking, chases where Arno decides he'd much rather make love to a wall instead of run down an alley, and combat where the only solution is to drop a smoke bomb (after being told seven times) because the engine might not be paying any attention to your time-sensitive parry command. In previous games, learning the streets and staying on the ground was often a faster and safer means of traversal through a city. Rooftops took ages to climb to and there were snipers everywhere yelling at you to get down. In Unity, the roofs are far preferable to the quicksand at street level. It's been two years since release and I'm running a rig with modern parts: i5-6600K @ 3.50 GHz 16 GB RAM GTX 1080 (8 GB VRAM) These are far more than the recommended specs and significantly better than the minimum, so it should run at least adequately, right? There's a difference between slow code and bad code. Slow code can eventually be overcome with more powerful equipment. But if it's been coded to run like shit, faster gear just means it'll be fast shit. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] Like most Assassin's Creed games, 80% of the game's content is based around collectibles and optional side-missions. Unlike most Assassin's Creed games I've played, I've actually opted out of 100% completion because it's so incredibly pointless. In the early game, you're introduced to your home base. Investing a bit of money to buy improvements and running a handful of missions guarantees that you'll be making roughly 10,000 in cash every 20 minutes. By the late game, you finally get the ability to open the highest difficulty of locked chests. Those chests typically return 250-1000 units of currency. A mere pittance compared to the fortune you've amassed by then. Actual assassination missions start off with a fly-through of the zone featuring points of entry and side-objectives like freeing prisoners to create distractions. Most of the time you can just ignore all that, climb over a wall, run up to the target, stab them in the face, drop a smoke bomb, and run away. [h1]Combat[/h1] Combat is -- I wouldn't exactly say "dumbed down" compared to its predecessors, but it is significantly less enjoyable than AC IV: Black Flag or the AC II trilogy. Parries are still in, but one-hit kill counter attacks are gone. So, too, are chain kills. The combat camera stays at the same distance as the navigation camera instead of pulling back. So in a 6-man fight, the camera is so close to Arno that two or three enemies will be attacking you from offscreen (usually with firearms.) You end up wasting time fishing for parries and clumsily flailing in retaliation. Defeating one enemy produces zero momentum to turn the tide of battle. The end result is that combat feels more like an annoying chore than an enjoyable distraction. [h1]Story[/h1] If you've been following the series you know it's about the Assassins and the Templars getting involved in historical events and influencing politics from behind the scenes. This is tied together with a series-spanning B-story about the modern-age organizations digging up magical relics of unspeakable power. The French Revolution makes for a nice backdrop, but it is often little more than a backdrop. Arno has next to no direct impact on the events of the French Revolution. Napoleon doesn't show up until near the end of the main game, has you do one or two errands for him, and then promptly disappears (only to make a cutscene cameo in the DLC.) The main plot boils down to Arno's quest for personal revenge and some intra-office politics on the side. Seems there's a traitor in the midst of the Assassins, when you find out who it is and confront them it pretty much plays out like it did in Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory -- a game published by Ubisoft nearly 10 years earlier. Then Arno goes rogue [spoiler]and his love interest he had been trying to protect dies,[/spoiler] just like in Splinter Cell: Double Agent released the following year. And as far as the MacGuffin that the modern Assassins want to find? You find out where it ends up, then everyone just shrugs and goes "eh, it's not worth going after," thus invalidating the 16-20 hours it takes to plow through the game. [h1]Final Verdict[/h1] [list] [*]Engine's still broken [*]Combat sucks [*]Story's pointless [/list] At least AC: Rogue was okay. Good job, B team.