I shelved this, because of Ubisoft didn't bother to finish their game, why should I ? I honestly thought that this game's reputation was undeserved, that with a few patches, the bugs had been ironed out... Well that's technically true, the game not being finished is about way more than bugs.
Simply put, the game's systems just do not work. Nothing feels cohesive, nothing feels tested. The game uses the newfound power of the PS4 to have crowded streets, which is super cool as crowds have always been a key aspect to assassin's creed, but moving through said crowds feel clunky. I don't mean that as "it feels slow" as that would be an interesting implicit encouragement to the player to use the more statisfying and developped parkour system rather than just running through streets, I mean it as if you run through a crowd, Arno's running animation will be the same as it always is, with the crowd awkwardly sliding out of the way.
As for the stealth, the game really encourages it, but you get detected so quickly that using stealth perfectly is actually impossible. Now, lots of games do this: Uncharted's stealth was always about thinning out enemy numbers rather than clearing a whole encounter for example. The problem is, Ubisoft clearly wanted this to be a stealth game, as the penalty for detection is having 20 guards running at you. Rapid detection times aren't a problem, but your tools are so few and useless that you don't have any way of working around being detected. This game has no whistle button. A stealth game, the 6th mainline entry into a series that has had whistle button since the second game in the series and that wants to be a stealth game more than any of its predecessors, doesn't have whistle button. How is this possible. Instead, you have cherry bombs, that can lure enemies away from your position, or you can use the new "last known position mechanic" which sucks. Basically, if an enemy sees you and you then move out of his sight, the enemy will come and investigate your last known position... sometimes. The system doesn't work because either A/ the enemy just straight up detects you (because they have cat-like abilities to see in the dark) and pulls you out of stealth mode or B/ he doesn't see you, but because he's not sure that he's seen something, he doesn't come to investigate. So you have no way of luring an enemy to you. Cherry bombs are made to be thrown away from you, as they bring attention from multiple enemies, so they aren't an option.
Last rushed element: the story. Despite enjoyable characters (a charming man who becomes an Assasin out of self-interest in a romance with a childhood Templar friend) and an interesting pitch (the rupture of a period of truce between Assassins and Templars which many on both sides disagree with), the story beats just do not hit as they should. I won't spoil anything, but I wanted to care about some plot points so much, but couldn't. Also, there was a really interesting theme of two people putting each other before their respective creeds that goes massively underdevelopped as Arno doesn't really care about the creed. You can see how rushed the game was with the main missions: you could probably rush through the game, without any speedrun strats, in under 7 hours. A lot (if not most) story sequences have only two missions: scout a target, kill the target.
On other negatives, the monetization. This was the start of something ugly. Sure, the defenders of this game will point out that anything you can buy with real money is stuff you can buy with in-game money. Out of principle, I object with the very idea of a 60€ game (or any game that isn't free, and even then, whaling is litteraly made to trick you) having paid unlockables (paid extra content is different). But also, in this case, the main missions don't give you money. How weird, Assassin's Creed games often had you swimming in cash by the end of them because missions paid well, and passive income was often completely broken, but suddenly, when there is real money to be made, the main missions don't pay anything anymore and the passive income isn't anything substantial. Oh and also, consummables are suddenly really expensive (a full refill is often around 1500 livres) and you really need them if you want to (try to) be stealthy. What a weird coincidence. How then, does one earn money ? By doing terrible side-quests or by looting chests of course. The best equipment in the game will require you to do 3-4 side quests per piece of equipment by the way, so enjoy your mindless content.
Also, final developped piece of criticism I have against the game, it lacks music. So often I found myself exploring Paris to the sound of my two feet stomping the paving stones or dirt.
It's such a shame, because this game gets so much right. I'm not against the idea of more RPG elements being introduced in the series, even though in this particular case the skill tree doesn't have anything interesting in it and the equipment is the gate to passive-agressive monetization. The idea of the game being more stealth-based is also a good one, especially the assassinations which aim to give you more free will by presenting you with "opportunites" highlighted during a very well done intro package (even though in reality, these missions are more puzzleboxes than a sandboxes). The animations are also really well done (when they don't glitch out), the characters are well presented and seem to have depth but the game's story is so half-baked that they never really feel like they're used to their fullest extent, the parkour is really fluid once mastered (even though in tight areas or indoors, Arno has a tendency to climb on stuff you don't want him to)... See my problem with this game ? Every positive isn't fully fleshed out, except one.
Wow, Paris is so cool. It's probably the best world Ubisoft has ever put together, a faithful recreation that really makes this game.
I just had too much fun exploring the city to give this game anything under 2 stars, and there was so much that was promissing about this game that I would've loved to give it 3.5 or maybe even 4 stars. With more time in development, this would've been a classic, instead it serves as a cautionnary tale and the first in a long list of recent examples of a game being rushed out of the doors to be on sale for the holidays.
Simply put, the game's systems just do not work. Nothing feels cohesive, nothing feels tested. The game uses the newfound power of the PS4 to have crowded streets, which is super cool as crowds have always been a key aspect to assassin's creed, but moving through said crowds feel clunky. I don't mean that as "it feels slow" as that would be an interesting implicit encouragement to the player to use the more statisfying and developped parkour system rather than just running through streets, I mean it as if you run through a crowd, Arno's running animation will be the same as it always is, with the crowd awkwardly sliding out of the way.
As for the stealth, the game really encourages it, but you get detected so quickly that using stealth perfectly is actually impossible. Now, lots of games do this: Uncharted's stealth was always about thinning out enemy numbers rather than clearing a whole encounter for example. The problem is, Ubisoft clearly wanted this to be a stealth game, as the penalty for detection is having 20 guards running at you. Rapid detection times aren't a problem, but your tools are so few and useless that you don't have any way of working around being detected. This game has no whistle button. A stealth game, the 6th mainline entry into a series that has had whistle button since the second game in the series and that wants to be a stealth game more than any of its predecessors, doesn't have whistle button. How is this possible. Instead, you have cherry bombs, that can lure enemies away from your position, or you can use the new "last known position mechanic" which sucks. Basically, if an enemy sees you and you then move out of his sight, the enemy will come and investigate your last known position... sometimes. The system doesn't work because either A/ the enemy just straight up detects you (because they have cat-like abilities to see in the dark) and pulls you out of stealth mode or B/ he doesn't see you, but because he's not sure that he's seen something, he doesn't come to investigate. So you have no way of luring an enemy to you. Cherry bombs are made to be thrown away from you, as they bring attention from multiple enemies, so they aren't an option.
Last rushed element: the story. Despite enjoyable characters (a charming man who becomes an Assasin out of self-interest in a romance with a childhood Templar friend) and an interesting pitch (the rupture of a period of truce between Assassins and Templars which many on both sides disagree with), the story beats just do not hit as they should. I won't spoil anything, but I wanted to care about some plot points so much, but couldn't. Also, there was a really interesting theme of two people putting each other before their respective creeds that goes massively underdevelopped as Arno doesn't really care about the creed. You can see how rushed the game was with the main missions: you could probably rush through the game, without any speedrun strats, in under 7 hours. A lot (if not most) story sequences have only two missions: scout a target, kill the target.
On other negatives, the monetization. This was the start of something ugly. Sure, the defenders of this game will point out that anything you can buy with real money is stuff you can buy with in-game money. Out of principle, I object with the very idea of a 60€ game (or any game that isn't free, and even then, whaling is litteraly made to trick you) having paid unlockables (paid extra content is different). But also, in this case, the main missions don't give you money. How weird, Assassin's Creed games often had you swimming in cash by the end of them because missions paid well, and passive income was often completely broken, but suddenly, when there is real money to be made, the main missions don't pay anything anymore and the passive income isn't anything substantial. Oh and also, consummables are suddenly really expensive (a full refill is often around 1500 livres) and you really need them if you want to (try to) be stealthy. What a weird coincidence. How then, does one earn money ? By doing terrible side-quests or by looting chests of course. The best equipment in the game will require you to do 3-4 side quests per piece of equipment by the way, so enjoy your mindless content.
Also, final developped piece of criticism I have against the game, it lacks music. So often I found myself exploring Paris to the sound of my two feet stomping the paving stones or dirt.
It's such a shame, because this game gets so much right. I'm not against the idea of more RPG elements being introduced in the series, even though in this particular case the skill tree doesn't have anything interesting in it and the equipment is the gate to passive-agressive monetization. The idea of the game being more stealth-based is also a good one, especially the assassinations which aim to give you more free will by presenting you with "opportunites" highlighted during a very well done intro package (even though in reality, these missions are more puzzleboxes than a sandboxes). The animations are also really well done (when they don't glitch out), the characters are well presented and seem to have depth but the game's story is so half-baked that they never really feel like they're used to their fullest extent, the parkour is really fluid once mastered (even though in tight areas or indoors, Arno has a tendency to climb on stuff you don't want him to)... See my problem with this game ? Every positive isn't fully fleshed out, except one.
Wow, Paris is so cool. It's probably the best world Ubisoft has ever put together, a faithful recreation that really makes this game.
I just had too much fun exploring the city to give this game anything under 2 stars, and there was so much that was promissing about this game that I would've loved to give it 3.5 or maybe even 4 stars. With more time in development, this would've been a classic, instead it serves as a cautionnary tale and the first in a long list of recent examples of a game being rushed out of the doors to be on sale for the holidays.