So I'm watching a video comparing AC: Valhalla's stealth to AC: Unity's stealth, and...

[SuzanoSho]

Unity vs Valhalla: Parkour - Combat & Stealth Comparison

Welcome to another Vs video. This time I'm showcasing Assassin's Creed Unity vs Assassin's Creed Valhalla. In this video, I'll be showing a few short clips f...

www.youtube.com

...my GOD, is THIS what I missed out on?! I don't know if I was just watching some AC expert or god-level gameplay extraordinaire, but the parkour and stealth and assassinations all look so fluid and responsive. It actually looks COOL, like something I would be inspired to engage in over normal combat.

Some background- I've only played AC:2, AC: Brotherhood, AC: Black Flag, AC: Origins, AC: Odyssey, and AC: Valhalla. Loved the hell out of Ezio's games for the main character and the story. Hated Black Flag and quit maybe a fourth of the way through once I got fed up with the sailing. Only played a little of Origins because I was late to the party, but what I did play was absolutely great. Put a LOT of time into Odyssey, and tbh, there were alot of times when it just felt like a chore. And now I'm playing the latest, maintaining a mild interest in the game because I'm still going through my Viking phase (thanks to The Last Kingdom). I wouldn't consider myself an AssCreed enthusiast, but from what I do remember playing the earlier games, open combat was discouraged, for good reason.

With that being said, I've been playing Odyssey for so long. And now Valhalla. And the movement, even when you AREN'T doing parkour, feels super clunky and an uninteresting attempt at "realism". Scaling things feels like you're forcing a tank with legs to climb. Watching that AC: Unity video made it seem a LOT more stylish and made the character at least look like he was an actual assassin, from the gait used to walk normally, to the comparably sleek and efficient way obstacles were bypassed (even moreso, imo, than Brotherhood), down to even the assassinations themselves.

I know there are reasons for this, such as the chronologically earlier games having protagonists that aren't fully committed to the idea of being an assassin, or having particular builds/backgrounds that would suggest a clunkier run, less huge cities with a dense concentration of structures, etc. And I KNOW this probably gets brought up or complained about quite frequently in AC discussions. But man, I would have LOVED for Ubisoft to double-down on the whole "cool ass stylish fluid parkour-with-his/her-eyes-closed and knife you in the neck before anybody notices" aspect of Assassin's Creed...

 

[t0rment]

It's crazy how unity was ahead of its time. I'm definitely playing it again on my PS5 with a locked frame rate.

 

[2CL4Mars]

Look, I liked Unity but I never saw what a lot of others did, I didn't find the parkour or stealth particularly noteworthy in the sense that I didn't miss any of it in Origins and Odyssey.

 

[Trace]

Unity had an amazing world, and great parkour, but a boring story and it ran like ass. Unfortunately Ubisoft decided they'd rather go in the more "Open World" direction after that and it seems like it mostly has paid off for them in terms of sales.

 

[K' Dash]

The game is not only a beautiful representation of Paris, but also pretty awesome.

I remember people saying it looked like an iphone game at the time.

 

[rpm]

I want another city focused AC so bad. Unity was a good game held back by being a technical mess

 

[ghostcrew]

Unity had an amazing world, and great parkour, but a boring story and it ran like ass.

Click to shrink...

I can agree with this take.

Ive got a lot of time for Unity and I'd probably go as far as to say I'm an AC Unity defender. There's a lot that I love about it. Mainly the city... it's a great environment that is proper Assassins Creed (ie not The Witcher inspired open world).

But the story is indeed pretty meh (it pales in comparison to the Ezio games) and it was in terrible shape at launch on the 2013 consoles. Still a looker though.

 

[Odesu]

The stealth in Unity was really bad . Pretty Sure that was back when there wasnt even a crouch button (edit: no, I was wrong, Unity was actually the first game with a crouch button)? The "cover" System was broken and clunky, the AI janky and often Borderline broken. Pair that with delayed, imprecise controls making you hold about 3 different Buttons to do any 1 thing and youve got a recipe for disaster.

And dont even get me started on the climbing in that game. Even ignoring how glitchy it is.. its so. fucking. slow. Everything takes forever. Its such a borefest .

Syndicate does everything Unity tried to achieve and does it better.

 

[Damien1928]

Unity gets unnecessary hate, one of my favourite AC games..I don't like origins, odyssey and I'll keep away from Valhalla

 

[Deleted member 79058]

Unity still looks great, and parkour is really fun and stylish, but it is really hard to be stealthy. You need to buy expensive new clothing to have a chance of not being seen, and you can only get it later in the game, if you invested on buildings to make enough money.

I recommend a playthrough on XSS|X and PS5 anyway. I would bite a remaster with fixes as well.

 

[ciddative]

You compared a stealth game to one that isn't, et voila

 

[VanWinkle]

Stunning animations, stunning visuals, but honestly not really a good game. I didn't enjoy it.

 

[Jaaake]

I'm glad Unity seems to be getting more love as the years go on.

Never agreed with the blind hate it got at launch because of technical issues. Very ambitious game and overall one of the best Assassin Creed's.

 

[Era Uma Vez]

Yes and no.
AC Unity looks and plays amazing, WHEN it's actually doing what you want it to do. Which is a lot trickier than it looks.
But yeah, Unity was the last good AC for me.
Syndicate was so fucking vanilla, they played it so safe, no joy in that game... Odyssey and Origins don't even count as AC games, to me. It just says AC in it to sell.
But yeah, Unity was wonderful, when you weren't fighting the controls.

 

[Exist 2 Inspire]

I honestly prefer the climbing they introduced in Origins to the parkour in the older games by a lot.

 

[Manu]

Why even bother with stealth in Unity when you can do this?

 

[Deleted member 13328]

I've played every AC game to date, and I miss the older format so much.

I just want the games to be AC again instead of what we're getting now. I don't know if they want to be The Witcher or what they're aiming for anymore.

But I really doubt they're going to go back to the old games again.

 

[Zaied]

The stealth in Unity was really bad . Pretty Sure that was back when there wasnt even a crouch button? The "cover" System was broken and clunky, the AI janky and often Borderline broken. Pair that with delayed, imprecise controls making you hold about 3 different Buttons to do any 1 thing and youve got a recipe for disaster.

And dont even get me started on the climbing in that game. Even ignoring how glitchy it is.. its so. fucking. slow. Everything takes forever. Its such a borefest .

Syndicate does everything Unity tried to achieve and does it better.

Click to shrink...

Unity introduced the crouch button, although it was reportedly very difficult to implement and code, which may explain why it took until Origins for them to really nail the stealth.

 

[Alienous]

Assassin's Creed Unity heavily leans into the pillars of the franchise - parkour, crowds, assassination.

It really comes together in its 'Black Box' missions, which skew just a bit closer to Hitman. They fit in like a boss battle, as a finale to a target's arc. You're given a target, open-ended level design and can encounter 'opportunities' - side objectives that can aid the assassination.

Stalking rooftops to pick an entrance. Stealthing through to reach the target. Finding a cell key to release prisoners for a distraction. Assassinating the target, running, weaving through a crowd or through an open building to avoid gunfire.

It has its faults, but I enjoyed it. It's distinctly an Assassin's Creed game.

 

[CaptainK]

AC Unity was one of the first games that made me think "this is next gen" thanks to the large, dense NPC crowds. It felt like Ubisoft had taken a huge step closer to the original vision of a social stealth game. But now they've turned into generic third-person action games. I enjoyed AC Origins and AC Odyssey, but I don't even feel like an assassin anymore.

 

[Matzpxl]

To be fair, Unity's coolest movement set are kinda difficult to pay off, you've to be very precise and to know exactly what are you doing. But when it shines, it shines:

 

[AstronaughtE]

I had a lot of fun with Unity. I have my fair share of gripes, but I really enjoyed perfecting an infiltration and assassination. By the time I had the mission puzzled out I moved through the level like a master assassin.

I'm debating between Rogue and Syndicate for next year, but from the discourse, I'm a bit nervous origins and odyssey isn't what I'm looking for.

 

[SuzanoSho]

The stealth in Unity was really bad . Pretty Sure that was back when there wasnt even a crouch button? The "cover" System was broken and clunky, the AI janky and often Borderline broken. Pair that with delayed, imprecise controls making you hold about 3 different Buttons to do any 1 thing and youve got a recipe for disaster.

And dont even get me started on the climbing in that game. Even ignoring how glitchy it is.. its so. fucking. slow. Everything takes forever. Its such a borefest .

Syndicate does everything Unity tried to achieve and does it better.

Click to shrink...

I didn't play Syndicate either and completely forgot it was even released, so I definitely believe what you're saying here, since it would seen likely that it was a game that built upon our improved on what was in Unity...

 

[The Shape]

AC Unity will be one of the first games I install on my PS5 later this weekend. Having finished Syndicate, Origins and Odyssey, I've been saving Unity for PS5 ever since I knew it would run on it. I can't wait!

 

[Stat]

Ive been saying this for years. Unity/Syndicate >>>>>> the new AC games.

The new AC Games are in name only. Its like people forget that AC used to mean parkour, & crowd stealth. And they took away all of that. Like they literally took out features in the game.

AC was my favourite series. What a shame they killed it and re-skinned it.

 

[Manu]

I didn't play Syndicate either and completely forgot it was even released, so I definitely believe what you're saying here, since it would seen likely that it was a game that built upon our improved on what was in Unity...

Click to shrink...

Syndicate is super underrated. Not as densely packed as Unity (they dialed back on the crowds and the lighting) but a much better game overall.

Also Arno is like the worst protagonist in the whole series, the Frye siblings are so much better it's not even funny.

 

[Stooge]

Yeah, the AC games are just open world historical setting games with climbing at this point. There is very little stealth left in them, assassinations are hard, parkour died completely.

They went with too much a sandbox formula and its made most encounters less scripted and more mundane, and the world is so fucking huge that none of the encounters feel like special places anymore, they just feel like "procedurally generated city A" - and the missions/plot now that the game has to last 100 hours feel more like MMO fetch quests than advancing a particular story. So there is little left in the way of stalking a target through busy streets or rooftops and at this point its much simpler to just murder everyone.

Origins had *more* stealth possibilities. Valhalla with your crew basically asks you just to full assault everything. Ive tried to treat some missions as assassination and once they go wrong they just turn into bloodbaths with no chance at getting it back to a stealth mission.

Oh, also Unity is a dope fucking setting with great controls and shitty performance. It's my favorite of the "old" AC formula pre Origins reboot.

 

[Pyro]

I wouldn't consider myself an AssCreed enthusiast

Click to shrink...

 

[Era Uma Vez]

AC Unity will be one of the first games I install on my PS5 later this weekend. Having finished Syndicate, Origins and Odyssey, I've been saving Unity for PS5 ever since I knew it would run on it. I can't wait!

Click to shrink...

Shame the only way to play it at 60fps is to run it in that infernal 1.0 build.

 

[Ocarina_117]

Yo Paris looks HUGE.

As someone missing these environments in AC games, I might need to go back and play Unity.

 

[Vic_Viper]

I do miss the huge cities filled people that the old games had before Origins. But they did all start to feel the same after awhile, at least until Black Flag and the one set in London. I think the combat and stealth is much better nowadays, they just havent really had the right world yet for it to work as well as it could. But they are barely even making Assassins Creed games now lol. Valhalla might as well just be a Viking game.

 

[SuzanoSho]

But now they've turned into generic third-person action games. I enjoyed AC Origins and AC Odyssey, but I don't even feel like an assassin anymore.

Click to shrink...

This sums my feelings up nicely...

I've played every AC game to date, and I miss the older format so much.

I just want the games to be AC again instead of what we're getting now. I don't know if they want to be The Witcher or what they're aiming for anymore.

But I really doubt they're going to go back to the old games again.

Click to shrink...

I feel like there was no reason for them to even veer this far left. I still enjoy the games now, but the old framework worked much better for having those enjoyable, short, get-in-get-out bursts of stealth gameplay that I vastly prefer to the "sit and creep around so nobody sees me" style I get locked into with the current games...

 

[The Shape]

Shame the only way to play it at 60fps is to run it in that infernal 1.0 build.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I'd love to play it at 60fps, but I'm not enduring that cursed version of the game. I rather play a bug-free version at locked 30fps.

 

[Deleted member 13328]

This sums my feelings up nicely...


I feel like there was no reason for them to even veer this far left. I still enjoy the games now, but the old framework worked much better for having those enjoyable, short, get-in-get-out bursts of stealth gameplay that I vastly prefer to the "sit and creep around so nobody sees me" style I get locked into with the current games...

Click to shrink...

I agree, I think it has something to do with the popularity of games that are open world, people love them haha.

 

[Dmax3901]

It's crazy how unity was ahead of its time. I'm definitely playing it again on my PS5 with a locked frame rate.

Click to shrink...

If by ahead of its time you mean released before it was done, then sure.

 

[Karak]

Syndicate is super underrated. Not as densely packed as Unity (they dialed back on the crowds and the lighting) but a much better game overall.

Click to shrink...

Agreed wholeheartedly.
Also Rogue.
Ya I said it.
That being said I have no issues with the style of the current games at all either.

 

[Afrikan]

To be fair, Unity's coolest movement set are kinda difficult to pay off, you've to be very precise and to know exactly what are you doing. But when it shines, it shines:

Click to shrink...

That looks fun as shit.

 

[Astandahl]

Unity with a competent writing team and another year to polish the game (plus removing useless content to boost the quality of the important parts ) would have been a masterpiece.

Ubisoft gonna Ubisoft though.

 

[TheWorthyEdge]

Unity still looks better than any other Assassin's Creed to come after it.

 

[Unicorn]

I laughed that it started with jumping into hay. I watched a few minutes but wasn't that impressed?

 

[gimbles123]

Is this a stealth hate on new AC games thread?

I'm all for praising what Unity did well, animation blending and world design, but lets not pretend that we traded out for worse games. I say that as someone who loves Unity, and has played through it several times.

 

[Asriel]

Unity still looks better than any other Assassin's Creed to come after it.

Click to shrink...

It's beautiful, but I can't agree with this at all. Origins and Odyssey are just beautiful; not just graphics-wise but in art direction as well.

 

[Zoph]

Unity was an extremely ambitious game in a lot of ways, both technically and mechanically, but I can also see why Ubisoft walked back a lot of that as soon as with Syndicate. Anvil can clearly do a lot more than the XB1/PS4 could handle, and people didn't really go for the gameplay back then -- the formula wasn't as compelling any more, and even I thought the game played like walking through molasses, and I enjoyed it more than most I think.

For what it's worth I think NuCreed is a dramatic improvement for the series but I do kind of miss the more nuanced, thoughtful assassination design that hit their peak in Unity/Syndicate.

 

[KORNdog]

The traversal in Valhalla definitely feels like they took a few strides backwards. It's really not a whole lot different to the very first game in that sense. Unity, for better or worse, pushed all that stuff really far but it resulted in a game that ran like dog shit.

As for combat. I definitely prefer where the series is now though. up until origin it relied way too heavily on counters and enemies taking turns to attack and frankly I was tired of it by AC2 lol. It does however result in a lot flashier LOOKING combat.

Unity still looks unbelievably nice though, it has to be said. Ubisoft should patch it for current gen. Give us bug fixes and unlocked framerates and go higher res!

 

[Frostinferno]

Unity gets unnecessary hate, one of my favourite AC games..I don't like origins, odyssey and I'll keep away from Valhalla

Click to shrink...

I dunno, the story becoming forgettable along with the English accents really put a damper on the whole package me. Also some of the contextual animations (possibly because the game was guessing what you'd do next?) made traversal oddly frustrating more often than I remember from any previous games. Didn't love how Paris (outdoors) looked either. Their interior design was incredible though.

 

[Sparks]

Never understood the lack of backlash with how the AC series turned out. You adjust anything in a game series and people throw a shit party, they completely scrapped the essence of Assassins Creed and made it into an overly bloated RPG and it was business as normal.

My biggest disappointment of this generation. I don't mind them having a RPG spinoff version of AC but it is such a bummer they completely scrapped the original formula.

And it's incredible the achievement Unity was, people dog on it because it does have a lot of issues, but keep in mind it was the first of this new refresh and still beholden to the old yearly formula with a smaller budget. Imagine them having the Origins/Odyssey time to really flesh out the systems and polish it up, with that beautiful animation engine.

Sigh, have to let it go though.

 

[Red5]

The stealth in Unity was really bad . Pretty Sure that was back when there wasnt even a crouch button (edit: no, I was wrong, Unity was actually the first game with a crouch button)? The "cover" System was broken and clunky, the AI janky and often Borderline broken. Pair that with delayed, imprecise controls making you hold about 3 different Buttons to do any 1 thing and youve got a recipe for disaster.

And dont even get me started on the climbing in that game. Even ignoring how glitchy it is.. its so. fucking. slow. Everything takes forever. Its such a borefest .

Syndicate does everything Unity tried to achieve and does it better.

Click to shrink...

This is how I feel too. Syndicate smoothed out a lot of the quirks and jank that Unity had. Also, I thought it iterated on the assassination missions pretty well and made them little sandboxes, almost like a lite version of Hitman.

I will say the combat still wasn't great and the graphics took a bit of a step down, but I did love Evie as a character and the rope launcher was a great addition.

 

[Castamere]

Why even bother with stealth in Unity when you can do this?

Click to shrink...

Or the even easier option of throwing a smoke down and chain killing everything inside of it.

 

[Karak]

This is how I feel too. Syndicate smoothed out a lot of the quirks and jank that Unity had. Also, I thought it iterated on the assassination missions pretty well and made them little sandboxes, almost like a lite version of Hitman.

I will say the combat still wasn't great and the graphics took a bit of a step down, but I did love Evie as a character and the rope launcher was a great addition.

Click to shrink...

I feel pretty much like this as well. THOUGH I am in the minority liking Jacob. Evie was just singsong through the entire thing. I am not sure why that grated on me so damned heavily in that game. It reminds me of Miles Spiderman and the moment Troy shows up and...its Troy. My brain just nopes the fuck out.

 

[Spacejaws]

I feel like one of the few that actually enjoyed Unity's story. I liked the characters. Arno and Elise being from differebt factions an angle I liked and I think both did well.
I think after Black Flag I appreciated it was an actual Assassins story that made sense.
Characters were embroiled with the Assassins/Templara properly and we got a good look at actual Assassin hierarchy/leadership rather than painting them as fringe groups always on the run etc. Unity made me feel they were a proper organisation with depth. I loved the Bellec moment too on Notre Dame.

That said the story as a whole is so so, but I liked quite alot of the beats in it.

I really enjoyed AC4 but call me wierd I always despised that he gets the hidden blades off a random assassin then he instantly becomes the perfect assassin. No training or nothing right at the start your charactet can perfectly do jump assassinations with hiddeb blades just by luxury of finding them. It felt soooo lazy.