Ubisoft launched “Live Updates” today, a blog on the Assassins Creed corner of Ubisoft’s website that plans to “touch on the fixes to the game” that they’re working on for Assassins Creed: Unity.
The game has been completely slammed in the press since the passing of it’s mid-launch-day press embargo lifted–yes, you read that correctly–for having some of the worst performance issues seen in any AAA title this year. The above pictured monstrosity is only a small example of the performance issues seen in the game so far, with reviews calling out Unity for not only having the usual collision glitches and graphical issues, but having frame rate performance that borders on unplayable.
The first blog post states that the Day 1 patch fixes a number of issues and that another update is on the way that will address common issues such as:
- Arno falling through the ground
- Game crashing when joining a co-op session
- Arno getting caught inside of hay carts
- Delay in reaching the main menu
The post goes on to say that the developers are also looking into other widely reported issues that focuses on, but is not limited to:
- Frame rate issues
- Graphical and collision issues
- Matchmaking co-op issues
- Helix Credits issues
It’s safe to assume that the “Helix Credits issues” isn’t referring to the mere existence of the in-game currency, but instead some other sort of problem with the process of players paying more than $60 to get the most out of their game–whatever that could be.
We’ve all come to expect some major bugs in Assassin’s Creed releases because, let’s face it, every single one has had some pretty nasty Day 1 issues, but both the technical issues in Assassin’s Creed: Unity and the developers seemingly shady efforts to sell as many copies as possible before reviews hit, is a real disappointment.
As a big fan of the series, I was excited to see a return to the real foundations of the Assassin’s Creed formula; isolated assassinations, social stealth, parkour-inspired traversal and exploration of historically accurate environments. It’s a shame to see Ubisoft put such a firm focus on bringing the series back to it’s origins, and then failing so intensely in what should always be it’s core strengths. Notably lacking in Ubisoft’s blog post is any semblance of explanation or apology for the state Unity shipped in–as if it’s become the norm to purchase a game in this condition and wait for repairs.
With reviews coming out largely positive, apart from the glaring technical issues, I can’t help but wonder if these efforts to fix the game are too little too late–and even more concerning, what state will the next Assassin’s Creed game be in at launch?
