-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
AC Valhalla Has Me Longing For the Old Days with this Series
- Thread starter striderno9
- Start date
So I'm totally onboard with people revisiting Unity and realizing that when everything clicks, it's a pretty fun time. However, man...I just cannot get onboard with this sudden, bizarre revisionism of Unity retroactively being the best game in the franchise, or even one of the better games at all. Seriously, I think I was kicked in the head by a horse or something, because I feel like I woke up one day and suddenly Unity went from being widely regarded as a 6 or 7/10 game to being the pinnacle of the franchise. I really feel like in the wake of folks being disappointed by the reboot trilogy, we're now over-correcting and heaping praise on Unity that it doesn't really deserve.
It's not like, outside of the bugs, the problems people had with Unity upon its release suddenly went away.
- Arno is still a character made of plywood, and is possibly the most forgettable protag in the franchise
- The combat is as brain-dead and clunky as it gets
- The story isn't particularly noteworthy or memorable
- The parkour looks great when it works, which is exactly 65% of the time.
- The game is still pretty damn buggy, especially when it comes to those fancy animations.
- The new stealth mechanics, while certainly welcome, were not brilliantly implemented - especially when you compare it to actual stealth-focused games like Disohonored, MGS or Splinter Cell.
- A lot of Paris (and its citizens) feels completely copy + paste
- ^^ Which is especially jarring when you compare Unity's open world to its contemporaries at the time of release - GTAV and The WItcher 3 - which really felt hand-crafted and alive.
- The game's map is packed to the brim with Ubi's usual avalanche of icons and meaningless collectibles.
I would describe Unity today exactly as I did when it was released, a "beautiful mess". I agree that when everything clicks, it's a fun time, and artistically speaking it absolutely is one of the best looking games in the series (especially when it comes to interiors). And hey, if it's your favorite game in the series, then power to ya. But for me, there really is no one- game in the franchise that just knocked everything out of the park. Brotherhood, Black Flag, and Syndicate were, for me at least, the best examples of the "old" style of AC design - despite their own flaws.
It's not like, outside of the bugs, the problems people had with Unity upon its release suddenly went away.
- Arno is still a character made of plywood, and is possibly the most forgettable protag in the franchise
- The combat is as brain-dead and clunky as it gets
- The story isn't particularly noteworthy or memorable
- The parkour looks great when it works, which is exactly 65% of the time.
- The game is still pretty damn buggy, especially when it comes to those fancy animations.
- The new stealth mechanics, while certainly welcome, were not brilliantly implemented - especially when you compare it to actual stealth-focused games like Disohonored, MGS or Splinter Cell.
- A lot of Paris (and its citizens) feels completely copy + paste
- ^^ Which is especially jarring when you compare Unity's open world to its contemporaries at the time of release - GTAV and The WItcher 3 - which really felt hand-crafted and alive.
- The game's map is packed to the brim with Ubi's usual avalanche of icons and meaningless collectibles.
I would describe Unity today exactly as I did when it was released, a "beautiful mess". I agree that when everything clicks, it's a fun time, and artistically speaking it absolutely is one of the best looking games in the series (especially when it comes to interiors). And hey, if it's your favorite game in the series, then power to ya. But for me, there really is no one- game in the franchise that just knocked everything out of the park. Brotherhood, Black Flag, and Syndicate were, for me at least, the best examples of the "old" style of AC design - despite their own flaws.
Yeah, I agree with this.
I still really enjoyed my time with Unity because when it really clicks, it's brilliant. It's also the game that screamed "next gen" the most to me, with Paris being pack full of crowds while looking stupidly gorgeous. Objectively I think it's a 7/10 game, but it's better than the sum of it's parts to me (on PC at least).
Nowhere near the best in the franchise, but not the absolute worst either. I would put it right in the middle.
OP play Unity because it has the best parkour and the city is a beautiful depiction of Paris that needed better hardware than we had at the time to do it justice.
Also this - play it in French
tbh I've always felt Era could do with a solid dose of learning to appreciate things as more than the sum of their parts. I know we are enthusiasts and care more about the details, but there's something to be said about losing sight of the forest for the trees that in the nitpicking that happens in a lot of threads.
Unity is the culmination of the classic AC formula and gets alot of undeserved hate mostly because of how buggy it was at launch.
Unity is awful but looks amazing for an older game
Syndicate is not too bad, but doesn't look as good as unity
play syndicate
Syndicate is not too bad, but doesn't look as good as unity
play syndicate
Syndicate is slept on. Amazing setting, great mobility and stealth, fun characters and punchy combat. It's my favorite in the series.
I'd love to see them return to a mostly city-bound experience. I think Syndicate offers that in the best way out of the games you've listed.
Yes? But this is the first game you play as a Viking? You know, the rapey, slave taking kind?
Yeah 10 hours in and I'm burning out of Valhalla. They really need to debloatify these games. I get some people love massive bang for your buck timesinks but even then there should be a right way to do it where i'm not considering listening to a podcast on the side cause I'm bored out of my mind.
Unity is probably my favourite since the Ezio trilogy. Liked Syndicate but the layout of London and the grapple hook took points off for me.
Played through Origins and half of Odyssey before calling it quits on the franchise which I'm kinda bummed out on. It's just an action RPG now with Assassins Creed painted on. I was all about the stealth assassin stuff that I loved even back to 1 with the crowd blending etc.
Played through Origins and half of Odyssey before calling it quits on the franchise which I'm kinda bummed out on. It's just an action RPG now with Assassins Creed painted on. I was all about the stealth assassin stuff that I loved even back to 1 with the crowd blending etc.
Unity allows you to use the jump button at any time while running / climbing making the parkour the most fluid, flexible and creative. This omission is sorely felt in all following games.
Unity is a weird game, but imo mostly underrated.
I went back and played Unity for the first time after finishing Origins, which I enjoyed but also got me wanting to contrast it against the old formula. Glad I did - beautiful city and interesting historical period, smooth animations and parkour, doesn't shy away from the assassin stuff. Not a perfect game but it scratched the itch I was looking for.
That's good to know! I'm enjoying Valhalla for what it is, but I'm glad to know there are some classic elements. I'm about 20 hours in and haven't reached any of the major cities yet. How big and parkour friendly are they compared to previous games (including Origins and Odyssey)?
this is a good post but don't forget the multiplayer co-op assassin missions, a big part of the game's marketing thrust, were basically a huge clusterfuck and were never really expanded on in future entries.
I'm biased as I worked on AC: Syndicate- so i'd say go for that. Unity is really enjoyable after all the patches.
I hopped out of the franchise after Black Flag until Origins brought me back.
I can reasonably assume either of the other two would be better than III though. III is the worst I've played with Unity and Syndicate being the only two of the mainline games I haven't played. Though I did play a few hours of Unity when it launched.
I can reasonably assume either of the other two would be better than III though. III is the worst I've played with Unity and Syndicate being the only two of the mainline games I haven't played. Though I did play a few hours of Unity when it launched.
The yankee in me still enjoys running through 18th century Boston but you're better off playing Unity next. For as many bugs as it had starting off, I really enjoyed the subplot and environment in Unity.
Syndicate is missable IMO. It's almost too modern for an AC title and the story isn't interesting either.
Syndicate is missable IMO. It's almost too modern for an AC title and the story isn't interesting either.
I'd love if they went back to the idea that you're an assassin and not a warrior. Even if they keep the RPG parts, the atmosphere felt so much morena intriguing.
Yes, Unity and Syndicate both have the same parkour system. Hold RT/R2 to run, hold A/X to ascend, hold B/O to descend. "Descending" while running on flat terrain will have you automatically vault over obstacles (up to chest height) without stopping. Descending while on a building will have you find the smoothest and fastest route downwards automatically. Ascending is basically the same as it's always been.
Unpatched Unity I would say. It had actual ambition behind it and you can see that ambition realized with current gen hardware. Origins mixed it up but the formula grew stale after just 2 games IMO. Now its just a bloated mess with little to no relation to the earlier games.
I haven't seen any of that in the clan you play as in the game?? We're playing fictional story of a Viking clan.
Edit: sorry for being OT. I'll drop this
They're not quite the same. Syndicate holds your hand more when it comes to jumps, and will actively stop you from attempting ones you won't make. Unity also has several more parkour moves, such as side mounts/dismounts, which were removed from Syndicate for some reason. The parkour blending is much better in Unity.
Huge step down from how friendly they were in origins and odyssey. The towns are small, and basically all single floor building with the odd church or longhouse. You will traverse most of them either on horse or in the bushes.
I REALLY didn't like syndicate. The London streets were too wide to have particularly smooth flowing traversal. And I honestly had most bugs in that game than I experienced playing Unity. Unity, despite its flaws is kind of the pinnacle of the old style AC games imo and it looks so good even now. If you can play it on a next gen system even better.
Unity feels like completely dogshit to play. Like my character is actually running through dogshit while I'm holding my controller under liquid dogshit. And when it comes to presentation and production values it feels like the jankiest thing, barely holding together.
Seems like the question should be, which one makes you feel like a badass assassin most consistently? Ignoring the narrative. I own Syndicate but now I'm curious about Unity on PC
Protagonist is pretty forgettable, but Unity is much better than these last three AC outings. You're not an Assassin anymore.
I'd also have to go with none of the above. Syndicate was the jankiest AC I can remember playing (being the first old-style one I played since Brotherhood). I'm trying Black Flag now instead and I think I'm realizing that I don't think I ever actually enjoyed playing an Assassin's Creed game until they switched to the new style of gameplay. (I do remember enjoying AC2 at the time, though.)
I mean the big cities like London and York. Haven't reached those yet.
I picked up both the AC3 and 4 collections on Switch and have really be enjoying them. Well, I really don't like 3 at all, but I replayed it just to see if my feelings on it changed (they had not, haha), but at least it has the Vita one I haven't played yet.
And it was my first time through Rouge and I enjoyed it quite a bit.
The Ezio Trilogy is my favorite of the entire series (that I've played, haven't done much of them from the last generation) and I wish they'd get that on Switch eventually.
I'd love it if they did reduce the scope of the series back to focusing on 1-3 large cities rather than the gigantic open worlds of the last 3 games.
And it was my first time through Rouge and I enjoyed it quite a bit.
The Ezio Trilogy is my favorite of the entire series (that I've played, haven't done much of them from the last generation) and I wish they'd get that on Switch eventually.
I'd love it if they did reduce the scope of the series back to focusing on 1-3 large cities rather than the gigantic open worlds of the last 3 games.
I agree and I enjoyed both Odyssey and Origins; both those two and Valhalla seem like different games with the assassins creed name slapped on. AC peaked at the ezio trilogy.
It really depends on what is the main draw of the series for you. If it is the gameplay and the story, go with Syndicate. If it is the world and the uncanny feeling of being in a historical setting, go with Unity. I am the latter type and while I understand why people like Syndicate so much it failed in the "historical sim" department. It feels more like a satire then a faithful recreation and the aesthetics have a steampunk vibe which I disliked.
London is far from big in this game. York hopefully, haven't been there yet.
