Well, guys... The wait is finally over. I expected this game to be unveiled a little earlier this year like Assassin's Creed Black Flag was last year in February, but they had waited a little longer until E3 and now we have the first details about the seventh major installment in the franchise, Assassin's Creed Unity, which oddly is not an spin-off following any character in particular, but still its own standalone game without being numbered. So anyways let's get to the details

A bankrupted nation because of incompetent rulers and a deadly decadent noble court. The commoners are so poverty stricken and the immense gap between social classes enforced by a severely rigid social system, suffering an famine so terrible that makes bread too expensive for the average person to buy. When the queen casually quips they should eat cake instead, common people decide they had enough, they declare rebellion against their government and after forcing them out of control, they decide to take the reins for themselves, only for them to turn out to be so great at ruling either - you can even make the argument they were worse too - Yep, that is the French Revolution right here.

Its a interesting albeit a little predictable choice (c'mon, you know they would sooner or later) to set an Assassin's Creed game. The French Revolution is regarded as a somewhat cynical chapter in human history; the public can come up with some idealized fantasy versions of other time periods such as the Renaissance, the American Independency and the Golden Age of Piracy. But no matter how, in here it will always be assholes against bigger ones. Take your pick: the extravagant, foppish and corrupt nobles that leave their country being run to the ground while focusing into partying or the bloodthirsty, thuggish rebels who commit several acts of violence in the name of revolution and once they get into power, prove to be more cruel tyrants than their predecessors?

Okay that is an almost gross exaggeration of course, the revolutionaries started out with some pretty liberal and progressive ideas, which developed much later into what today are considered basic human rights. So you can see, it was pretty important turning point for our history. Its just this 15-year long event is better remembered by its more infamous part, the Reign of Terror (which lasted less than an year) when the rebels decided that fear was more effective way of governing than justice and oversaw the executions of thousands of people. And true to this general dark idea, the tone of the game itself was established in the first gameplay demo, which showed an nobleman being throw to an angry mob, who proceeds to decapitate him and place his head on spike along with several other unlucky bastards... And all of that from his point of view. I don't think I ever seen something that gruesome and graphic before in this series - I mean, I saw guys being stabbed a lot, one poor soul having his legs crushed, one being poisoned but to see a guy's head still alive for some moments before life fades out from his eyes... ? Ew.

Now lets take a look at our protagonist. His name is Arno Dorian, born in 1768, he is French with some Austrian heritage. He joined the Order in 1789 after being hurt by an loss he suffered in his past, and desires to expose the true powers behind the revolution. You know judging from what I am looking, he seems to be cross between Ezio and Connor, having the former's style and the latter's motivations and both tragic back stories. I have to wonder what type of role he will play since much like Connor, his monologues do sound a awful like Connor's speeches about freedom, and I imagine he will probably sympathize with the the rebels's plight and support them, but when he sees them turning into oppressors themselves, he will try to oppose them as well, regardless of their previous alliance and try to always do the right thing - a possible change from the initially self-serving anti-hero that was Edward Kenway.

I completely dig his outfit, I love that they have done away with the white scheme clothing despite being the code dress for all Assassins, the fact is I always dyed my clothes to a darker color once I got the chance, and its so great his default color will be my favorite black and blue, sparing me the trouble of dyeing it. I also like his fighting style wielding a single rapier since I disliked using two at the same time on Black Flag. The only thing I really dislike about him is his Hidden Crossbow - its by far the stupidest weapon design I've seen in this series. I'd imagine it fits him better than an bow and arrow or an blow pipe, but I still dislike it due to being so impractical.

As for other historical figures, it has being confirmed by developers we will see Comte de Meribeau, the doomed Royal Family, Marquis de Sade, the Jacobine leader Maximilien Robespiere and a certain Corsigan captain called Napoleon before his ascension to Emperor of France. I am certain some of them will play an important part and more importantly, what roles the Assassins and the Templars will fit in the story. I'd feel really hard pressed to think the Assassins (at least the time the game is set) would have started the Revolution since they try to preserve order and customs, though it do believe it would have being more in line with the Templars manipulating the revolution to fit their own ends.

Okay now story, setting and characters were discussed, lets move on to gameplay aspects. After the fleeting dalliance that was the naval battles in AC IV: Black Flag, we are back to a more grounded experience like in previous. Though one might point out that things look the same as they ever were, developers had gone to great length to improve everything else and make good use of next-gen's capacities like they possibly couldn't in last gen. Parkour will be more fluid, specially while navigating down from an building. Instead of performing leaps of fate everywhere with conveniently placed haystacks, you will be able to navigate down a building with well placed grapples downwards in a more controlled manner.

The game will take place entirely in the city of Paris, which might be seen as a step down since other games allowed you to visit multiple locations with a massive landscape hub connecting them, devs assured this will be the largest location to date, dwarfing the landmasses of all islands and cities from the Caribbean in Black Flag. A initially rather dubious honor, since Black Flag's map was so ridiculously large that it sounds ludicrous when they desire to make a city bigger than that, though it has being stated that there are moments you will see crowds up to 5000 NPCs in one place, indicating that the location must be that huge to accommodate such number.

As for stealth aspects, which after all is the most important aspect in AC games, have being slightly reworked, now possible for you crouch like in the Batman Arkham games which will alter the way that Arno acts. I just hope however there are not too many eavesdropping and tailing missions, where you are forced to follow an target without him noticing you to a certain location, which were by far the WORST part in Black Flag. Its like Ubisoft had forgot how to do stealth missions right. Combat seems largely unchaged from previous games, despite the developers insistance that you you need to go easy on approaching targets, its not advisable to go guns blazing (swords blazing?) into approaching a situation, but of the little I've seen appears to be just as the same thing introduced in AC III (counter buttons and kill streaks) so it's largely not worth mentioning. Not that I expected some different now at this point...

Mission structure has also changed. Or, to put it more directly: missions no longer have a set structure. In previous games, you’d be given a defined set of goals. You’d achieve them, or you’d start over – either at the beginning of the mission or at an appropriate checkpoint. Assassin’s Creed Unity introduces something called Adaptive Mission Mechanic (AMM) – which is exactly what it sounds like. To explain AMM, let’s say you’re tailing a Templar target; if you get spotted, the mission might be over. That’s no longer the case. “We’ve opted for a different philosophy where we won’t tell you Tail this guy. We’ll just maybe tell you Figure out where he’s going.” That means you can tail him if you like – and if you get spotted, the tail could turn into a chase. If you lose him altogether, your goal switches to locating your target. If a riot happens to break out and your target is killed, then you can loot his body to, say, find a letter that tells you where he’s going. “So it’s really up to the player to figure out how he’s going to do this.” Of course, there’s much more to AMM than this. It’ll never be as simple as choosing the easiest path (i.e., killing every target and looting their bodies) because that could have serious repercussions in the world. “If a guy is missing, maybe they’re going to double up patrols in your next mission. So there’s a risk. It evens itself out.”

The main selling point is Co-Op, allowing up to four players join up and take story driven missions within their own world. “Each mission is a self-contained story, which means that we picked different really cool elements of the French Revolution and built a huge systemic mission around it,” according to devs. And each of these missions can be played multiple times, tackled in multiple ways, offering a different experience depending on how many of your Brotherhood join, and how they’re customizing. Though despite what the cinematic trailer and the cover art would imply, the other Assassins are not their own separate characters, not even generic assassins. You are always playing as Arno, and when other people join up to "From everybody’s perspective, they’re playing Arno, When you look at your friends, you’ll still see their unique gear and their unique weapons – but when you look at their faces, you’ll see generic Assassin faces. That way each player can still “peacock”… strutting their stuff and showing off their uniquely customized setups."

Speaking for myself, I am not a co-op fan and I dislike multiplayer as a whole, I'd rather play by myself since I am a extremely introverted person on top of being pretty terrible in teamwork. I already dread the feeling that if I somehow manage to play the game by myself, review it without touching on co-op, I already know what some people would say: "You are missing the entire point of the game", "you are not having fun with it" or "you are not playing the game right".

Though I am pretty indifferent about the co-op thing, I also will have to address the some controversy over the lack of female characters in the game. After it was aid that characters would have being fully customizable, but you wouldn't have the option to play as an female because apparently they would have to double their efforts to make the character models different from male. "A female character means that you have to redo a lot of animation," Therien said, defending the exclusion by saying it was "not a question of philosophy or choice." About this incident, in all honesty I feel kind conflicted: I mean, Assassin's Creed had featured so many strong female characters in the past on top of being racially diversive cast; among the playable protagonists were an Arab, an Italian, an Mohawk indian, an former black slave, an French and curiously an female protagonist as well ( which is more than I can say about other yearly franchises *cough* Call of Duty *cough*), since every co-op character will be Arno anyway, it would have being pretty senseless to have an female version of him. Hoooooooooowever...

I will have to call bs on the reasoning that they would have to double their efforts just to have female characters. Despite what Ubisoft would led you to believe, you wouldn't have to add 8,000 new animations recreated on a new skeletal structure or something too complicated for its own sake just to exarcebate their budget. Some games that featured both playable males and female managed to find some balancing to the point they were practically interchangeable (except for the obvious physical changes). Take the Saints Row series for example, that featured a very deep character costumization and the only visible difference between male and female models was that the women swinged their hips whenever they walked by in the slowest speed - they all fought the same way. You wouldn't have to make the female model different or more complex than Arno, if you only made it a little smaller and curvier. Hell Assassin's Creed already done this before with female recruits that were practically interchangeable from male characters. If they didn't had to make the co-op characters Arno clones, and just have them be generic Assassins, you wouldn't have that much trouble having female characters too. In all honesty, if it really did took that much effort, I'd be perfectly fine if they had pushed release for next year just so they have enough time. I could honestly go on about it, but I figure this blog is already too long and I would have rambled too much, so here is a link to a site I agree about their opinion. http://www.gameskinny.com/jjui8/five-reasons-why-ubisofts-statement-about-the-lack-of-female-assassins-in-unity-is-bogus

My closing thoughts, Unity looks like a pretty solid installment however its showing the series is already past its prime. Even someone like me who loves the hell out of this franchise knows when its time to take a time to rest or just give the series a close, specially when we are already at the seventh main installment of the series. Its uncertain if I will be able to review it since the Piss4/Xbone are costing an arm and an leg over here in Brazil and I haven't PCgamed in a long while due to some recent problems I had with my computer. I'd like to give it a chance anyway, I don't want to give up on this game and a lot can change until its actually released.

Thank you guys for reading it, I hoped you enjoyed this previous blog. What are your personal thoughts about Assassin's Creed Unity? Don't forget to comment and let me know. See ya all next time =P

One last thing I'd like to point out: there were some rumors that surfaced around the time Unity was announced that there would have being an PS3/Xbox 360 exclusive game called AC: Project Comet, that would feature some more naval battles and have an Templar as the player character, or anything else that was planned for last gen. I would being interested in this title as well, since its the one available to my consoles in possession and I would have written about it here too. Though some outlets had confirmed that such game was in development, at the time of writing this blog, no updates, no mentions or official confirmations were made, not even from E3. Most people I spoke to believe they will announce it eventually, but personally, I don't think they will. They are focusing their attention more on the current gen than anything else, If in the fortunate case I am incorrect and something is announced much later, I promise to cover about that particular game if he turns out to be real.

UPDATE: http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/08/05/assassins-creed-rogue-trailer-leaks-revealing-release-date

Well it seems like such game does exists, albeit with an different title. An preview blog is sure to come up soon after this news.