The Top 10 Games of Christmas 2014

04. Assassin's Creed: Unity

ESRB Rating: M (for Mature)

Price: $59.99

Developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft on 11 November 2014 - the same day that its brother game, AC: Rogue was published - Unity was created specifically for the new and current generation of game consoles, Microsoft's Xbox One, and Sony's PlayStation 4 (as well as Windows PC).

Set in both the modern era (for the game) and the past (using genetic memory that has been commercially packaged as a game) Unity is a departure from the established point-of-view in the series in that rather than illustrating the role of a researcher at games company Abstergo (which is a cover for the Templar Order), the protagonist in Unity is a gamer who is playing “the game” on a gaming device created by Abstergo that allows for the experience of different genetic memories as game levels.

Despite the change in approach, Unity remains a historical action-adventure video game with stealth overtones and RPG elements. The game is the seventh installment in the main Assassin's Creed series, and is the direct successor to 2013's Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.

Bearing in mind that the approach to depicting game play in Unity is an intentionally altered one, it is no accident that Unity was released on the same day as Assassin's Creed Rogue, or that there are some definite connections between the two, though Rogue follows the established pov of an Abstergo Code Rat working inside the Templar strucutre.

The events that are depicted in Unity are set in Paris, France, during the French Revolution. In fact veterans of the series and in particular Black Flag will recall hearing and reading about the development of Unity by Abstergo!

Its single-player campaign and story mode follows the principal figure of Arno Dorian and his efforts to expose the truth behind the French Revolution. That truth is a major element in the plot of the story, so we are going to avoid addressing that head-on in order to avoid guilt by spoiler.

That said, new players - and returning veterans - will be pleased to learn that Unity retains the well established third-person mechanics as well as the unique take on parkour-style game play that the AC series embraced and pretty much made its own. It also retains much of the exploration motif and its stealth play focus.

The revised focus for the protagonist is not the only change in the game, and despite its major alteration of the underlying plot, it is also not the most significant new alteration to the game. That would be the newly-introduced co-operative multi-player mode that was created to allow (and encourage) gamers to grab three of their best mates and play the game together.

One of the most attractive features of the AC series has always been the unique weapons and philosophical structure of the Assassin Brotherhood. Returning vets who worried that the new focus and pov would naturally alter that given will be pleased to learn that this is not the case. That is not to say that the combat system in the game did not change - it did - as it is now more blade-focused with period fencing being the operative personal combat art.

Even though much of the public combat does take the form of traditional rapier-based honorable battle, the specialized weapons of the Assassin's Brotherhood still play a major role in the game.

Interestingly enough even the briefest of game play in Unity communicates clearly that this new entry in the AC series is also something of a balm to long-time players. A lot of the faults (both real and imagined) of the previous titles have been addressed in Unity - particularly the navigation ones, and we cannot say that those were not legitimate concerns because they were!

Probably the most consistent complaint in the AC series was the manner in which above-ground navigation was impacted by a seeming incompatibility with its controls. In simple terms when jumping from building to building or from a high point to another point, the character would often end up plummeting to their death simply because the controls were not all that accurate in that situation...

To address that the wizards behind the game have created a new nav system, whose most outstanding feature is its 'Parkour Up' and 'Parkour Down' mechanics that really do help to alleviate many of the former complaints in that respect.

Another new feature - and one we expect will be retained in future games - is the overt customization of the player-character. In Unity the player gets to directly influence the abilities and skills of their character - not just their appearance - with this new approach directly impacting everything from melee combat to their ranged and stealth capabilities. This is all good news by the way.

Assassin's Creed Unity could have turned into a compromise in terms of all the new elements that could very easily have changed the game so much that it lost its way. That did not happen. In almost every instance of a new feature being introduced, effort was made to make that process more organic to the story and play.

Even as the players are being introduced to new elements, it feels like they are activities that fit in properly, which is very important as it prevents the feelings of culture-shock that could easily have resulted when the player already knows what the game play mechanics are supposed to be!

The elephant in the room for Unity is the multi-player co-operative play. This is a very new element to the AC series but it is not a surprising one, largely due to the efforts of the wizards behind the game to see to it that this new and surprising focus was properly communicated early in the development phase of the game.

The co-op side was a feature of the promotional efforts, and the first subject that we saw at E3 as the game was presented. In fact the efforts that went into sharing this new approach to the series were both popular, and explained why the initial briefings were mostly narrated presentations of actual game footage rather than the hands-on approach that games journos were used to for this series.

As with Assassin's Creed: Rogue, the elephant in the room for this one is the platforms for which it was created. Where Rogue was aimed squarely at the previous gen consoles, Unity is aimed at the current gen, and it nicely makes use of the expanded capabilities of those platforms!

With that in mind, the operative concern in terms of its suitability as a gift this holiday season largely depends upon whether or not your gamer has made the move to the new gen consoles or not. If they have not, Rogue would be the choice but, if they have, then Unity is the perfect choice for any fan of the AC series, and not just due to its clear presence as the harbinger of change for that series.