Assassin's Creed Unity's stunning version of Paris in 1789, which boasted landmarks such as Notre-Dame that were so faithfully recreated it was later used to assist in the real-world restoration of the iconic cathedral following a fire in 2019.
Unfortunately, when Assassin's Creed Unity was ultimately released in 2014, it was full of bugs. These ranged from cosmetic nightmare fuel, such as protagonist Arno and love-interest Élise losing their faces during cutscenes, to gameplay-breaking issues such as Arno getting stuck in buildings, falling through the map, and sometimes gaining the ability to walk on air. Understandably fans and critics pointed out these flaws, some of which resurfaced to a lesser degree in Assassin's Creed Valhalla's patched bugs, and with further controversies surrounding refunds - and lack thereof - many deemed the game essentially unplayable before opting to never return to it.
Ubisoft later apologized for Assassin's Creed Unity's state at launch, releasing three patches including more than 300 bug fixes over the weeks that followed. The developer then went on to make the first able content pack for the game, Dead Kings, completely free for all s, and offered Season holders a free copy of another then-recent Ubisoft title - The Crew, Far Cry 4, Rayman Legends, Just Dance 2015, Watch Dogs, or Assassin's Creed's previous, highly praised series entry Black Flag, which has the series' best story. Although Assassin's Creed Unity still had its flaws - with the lack of regional dialect or accents spoiling the immersion for some - these patches and the ones that followed mostly redeemed the game. Unfortunately in the eyes of a lot of players, the damage was already done.
Those Who Abandoned Unity Missed Some Great Gameplay
Sadly, those who abandoned the game prior to the patches didn't get a chance to experience many of the features Ubisoft got right in the game. From a mechanical standpoint, once the game got to a more stable state, it boasted impressively dense crowds for Arno to disappear into, with population numbers far larger than those seen in the series' earlier installments thanks to the improvements in the then new-generation hardware. Assassin's Creed Unity's parkour was also incredibly well done with the simple addition of holding one button to go up quickly and another to go down quickly, but safely being a huge improvement from the previous entries, and one that resulted in fewer frustrating fall-damage-related Desynchronizations once players got used to it.
Assassin's Creed Unity was also notable for being one of the last games made with the series' older, stealth-based mechanics, with only Assassin's Creed Syndicate sharing them before the series moved to a more RPG focus with Assassin's Creed Origins. With its co-op multiplayer mode, Assassin's Creed Unity could’ve been a staple of social stealth had the series not moved away from such mechanics, though Assassin's Creed Mirage's setting is expected to be the catalyst for social stealth's return.
Although it had server issues upon launch, when its multiplayer worked, Unity was a fairly strong cooperative experience that allowed up to four players to approach assassinations from a variety of angles. One such example would be having some players using ranged attacks and the counter-heavy combat that the franchise was known for at the time to clear out guards and cause distractions while another member of the team used stealth to get close to the main target as they tried to flee and isolated themselves from their guards. Once Assassin's Creed Unity players learned to play to their teammates' particular strengths it formed a well-oiled machine that led to some impressively smooth assassinations. Hopefully, with future titles such as returning to the franchise's roots, this kind of cooperative experience could also make a return.
