Extremely pretty game. Performance is sluggish in return though. Combat is harder this time around, and has more progression to it. The enemies actually have a difficulty level based on what part of the city you're in, as opposed to just being the same throughout. You can kill a single max level guy at the start if you're very quick and a bit lucky. But you'll want to get better weapon/armor and upgrade them. Even escaping from guards can be more difficult as many are not shy about shooting you for a lot of damage the second you get some distance on them.

The world is more detailed and has a lot more people in it than the games have had before. There really are crowds of hundreds if not thousands of people.

Anyway, those are my impressions thus far. Can't really speak to the story or anything like that yet since I'm not too far in.

Also looks like this is the next game to have around to test pc upgrades. Haven't really had a definitive one of those for a while!

Might be interesting for PC gamers:

nVidia's graphics & performance guide to AC Unity

Figured it would turn out to be one of the weak ones. At least I got it for free.

Looking forward to playing this when I get home, but glad I didn't let myself get too hyped. I am such a fan I made it through Liberations and didn't hate it, but this is definitely sounding like one of the duds so far.

Orogogus wrote on Nov 11, 2014, 16:18:
I think someone on this board mentioned how they purposely tone down accents in cases like this -- I think it was Ubisoft in particular. Like some voice actor or the other would use a much more American voice than his normal speaking voice, since people had trouble understanding and switched to subtitles (skipping all the spoken text). I'm sure this is something that's been thoroughly focus tested.

You want your voice actors to be understood, for sure, but the few cutscenes that I've seen feature exactly zero French accents. It shouldn't be that hard to get a guy to speak understandable English while at the same time having them sound as if they're at least from the country they're pretending to be.

They managed this just fine with Ezio, and the guy who did the VO was born in California.

Bundy wrote on Nov 11, 2014, 16:11:

Task wrote on Nov 11, 2014, 16:05:
The review from Conan on COCO was hilarious. I wonder why they couldn't hire french voice acters (that know english) for the game for authentic accents. I can understand native French that speak English just fine. Probably too much to ask I guess, considering most ancient docudramas have english actors for some reason.

For sure, plus, Ubisoft is a French company, you'd figure they'd take extra care here. I know it was developed by studios all over the place, but the marching orders come from France, do they not?

I think someone on this board mentioned how they purposely tone down accents in cases like this -- I think it was Ubisoft in particular. Like some voice actor or the other would use a much more American voice than his normal speaking voice, since people had trouble understanding and switched to subtitles (skipping all the spoken text). I'm sure this is something that's been thoroughly focus tested.

It's kind of funny, though. Back when Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries came out some BattleTech fans got pretty huffy when some of the characters spoke English with a Slavic accent. Star League English is spoken with an American or maybe British accent, I was told with no irony whatsoever. Just like in the movies!

Task wrote on Nov 11, 2014, 16:05:
The review from Conan on COCO was hilarious. I wonder why they couldn't hire french voice acters (that know english) for the game for authentic accents. I can understand native French that speak English just fine. Probably too much to ask I guess, considering most ancient docudramas have english actors for some reason.

For sure, plus, Ubisoft is a French company, you'd figure they'd take extra care here. I know it was developed by studios all over the place, but the marching orders come from France, do they not?

The review from Conan on COCO was hilarious. I wonder why they couldn't hire french voice acters (that know english) for the game for authentic accents. I can understand native French that speak English just fine. Probably too much to ask I guess, considering most ancient docudramas have english actors for some reason.

NetHead wrote on Nov 11, 2014, 12:00:

Cutter wrote on Nov 11, 2014, 11:35:
$70? Suck my balls. See you on a deep sale next year in that case.

There isn't a game in the world I would pay that kind of money to play, let alone yet another Assassin's Creed game.

Maybe if it was some complete collectors edition of an entire series like all The Witcher games or Elder Scrolls games with boxes, maps, manuals etc, DRM free, then maybe, otherwise they can take their $70 micro-transaction sucking P.O.S and shove it.

Where can they shove it specifically?

Seems reviews of this game are all over the board. Steam reviews are leaning on the negative as well.

Woo, you can get the Remastered Last of Us for $26.

Dammit! There was a sale! So I grabbed it for $40. Me and my stupid lack of willpower.

Fion wrote on Nov 11, 2014, 10:59:
I've had a sneaking suspicion this sequel would be a blatent cash-grab and knowing Ubi's record lately, I'm avoiding it.

what exactly is "blatant cash-grab" about this game? cash grabs are usually when someone does next to nothing, and charges an arm and a leg. not a developer making a fucking HUGE open world, with a staggering amount of detail, and charging roughly the same amount as all AAA games have cost in the last 20 years.

my only complaint is the control scheme, i figured that with a new engine somehow they'd finally fix all those annoyances, but i'm sorry to say they're even more prominent because this is the first title on this version of the engine, it's "throw controller through screen" frustrating at times, pressing left and "jump down" and you guy just stands there, or jumps right, or climbs instead, all while you're being fired upon, or some other time-sensitive mission is happening. it's just maddening.

11/10 for world building, graphics, the new animations look SO much better, very fluid and real-time, there's weight behind the hits now. and not to mention the character count it literally 200+ on screen at one time, which is really insane.

but -1000000 points for the same old hit and miss control scheme. i'm sure someone's put up a youtube video of someone screaming bloody murder on twitch while trying to get through a second story window.

Can't say I'm shocked about these performance reports, given how poorly Watch Dogs ran on my rather impressive rig. I was planning on getting this one on console instead but I'm hearing that it's kinda iffy on their too. Will have to wait for more reports. If it's not a disaster, I'm balling this one up in the Xmas game package I usually assemble for my boys.

I was interested in this title but after playing SoM, I can't imagine the combat gameplay being as exciting and fun. It looks pretty though. Hell, I still have to finish AC3.

Cutter wrote on Nov 11, 2014, 11:35:
$70? Suck my balls. See you on a deep sale next year in that case.

There isn't a game in the world I would pay that kind of money to play, let alone yet another Assassin's Creed game.

Maybe if it was some complete collectors edition of an entire series like all The Witcher games or Elder Scrolls games with boxes, maps, manuals etc, DRM free, then maybe, otherwise they can take their $70 micro-transaction sucking P.O.S and shove it.

I never really like the AC series and all hear is how shit it runs even on high end systems.

Assassin's Creed Unity NOW with co-op collectibles! also runs like shit.

Cutter wrote on Nov 11, 2014, 11:35:
$70? Suck my balls. See you on a deep sale next year in that case.

Next Gen graphics, Next Gen frame rate, Next Gen prices !!
Buy Season Pass now! While supplies last!

Ship is such a subjective term. It is technically "available" but not really cause they can only give broadband users enough bandwidth to be equivalent to dialup. 4.3MB/s connection is now only giving out 6KB/s. Good job Ubisoft I applaud your effort to make the ACU release a true time travel reenactment by giving me flashbacks to the 90's and my dialup modem.