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[Stafford]

Decided to fire up Unity on my XSX yesterday, even though it's 900p it still looks quite good, hail to Sony A95K's upscale tech! And thanks to fps boost on XSX it's 60fps.

What I noticed is how impressive the interior lighting especially looks compared to all the other entries that followed. For some reason they never managed to make interiors look this good again after Unity.

The same with walking and running animations, this puts AC Origins to shame. I hate how it looks like you're skating over the ground in Origins, there is zero weight to the movement and animations and this looks just great in Unity. Same with the free running, it just looks way better.

The same can be said about faces and facial expressions, it absolutely rivals something like Valhalla, not sure about Shadows since I haven't played that a lot. It's something I've been noticing in other Ubi games too like Far Cry. Why change something good into something worse?

But that's not all. Also the city that feels very alive, huge amounts of people, of which many are all doing cool different things. Haven't played much of Syndicate (should I?)but I don't remember seeing it this well done in Origins or Valhalla. Have not played much of Odyssey.

 

[The_Observer]

Shadows is a clear leap technical-wise over the last-gen games, you should try it. The gameplay animations are finally as good or even better than in Unity. Though the cutscenes are terrible and nowhere close to Unity.

 

[KyoZz]

Animations are amazing, yes. Parkour in general is super cool and beautiful to look at. Rest of the visuals... not so much. It's an ok title that was looking amazing for it's time (and still does for like you said, interiors) but the way the NPCs are bugged is totally disconcerting.

And the story is shit, I'm saying this as being French so I have a soft spot for this game but yeah... it's just not that good.

 

[Zuzu]

I think the lighting got downgraded in the later games (except Shadows) because they moved to a dynamic lighting system to allow real-time day and night cycles. Unity on the other hand has static times of day (four of them - morning, afternoon, evening & night) which allowed its lighting to be fully baked and to reach a higher fidelity.

Thankfully with Assassin's Creed Shadows we have the best of both worlds because of RTGI.

 

[The Cockatrice]

Not against Shadows.

 

[Gonzito]

I've been saying this over and over

Not against Shadows.

In terms of cutscenes and fighting animations it demolishes Shadows

 

[Baemono]

Shadows is a clear leap technical-wise over the last-gen games, you should try it. The gameplay animations are finally as good or even better than in Unity. Though the cutscenes are terrible and nowhere close to Unity.

Yeah I really don't understand how cutscenes can be this bad when the environment is that gorgeous

 

[Stafford]

I've been saying this over and over



In terms of cutscenes and fighting animations it demolishes Shadows

Which is just insane, da fuck?

 

[Gonzito]

Which is just insane, da fuck?

Ubisoft seems to put all the effort into making huge open worlds and to be honest, in that sense they are doing a great job. Japan in Shadows looks absolutely stunning, or Egypt in Origins is extremely well done. The problem is that they dont put the same effort into the rest of the game. Character animation is much worse. Cutscenes are terrible, super stiff and lifeless. And then the combat, because they went the rpg route, lacks weight and realism when it comes to animations.

It seems to me that Ubisoft just care about time period representation and the rest is just basically the bare minimum. That being said I must admit that the gameplay in Shadows, in particular the stealth is very much improved and well done. But the story, the cutscenes, and character animations is an absolute joke.

Unity is just in another level, hell even Syndicate has better cutscene presentation

 

[icecold1983]

Shadows is a clear leap technical-wise over the last-gen games, you should try it. The gameplay animations are finally as good or even better than in Unity. Though the cutscenes are terrible and nowhere close to Unity.

The gameplay animation is nowhere near as good as Unity.

 

[Gaiff]

I think the lighting got downgraded in the later games (except Shadows) because they moved to a dynamic lighting system to allow real-time day and night cycles. Unity on the other hand has static times of day (four of them - morning, afternoon, evening & night) which allowed its lighting to be fully baked and to reach a higher fidelity.

Thankfully with Assassin's Creed Shadows we have the best of both worlds because of RTGI.

This. Not only are later games larger, but they feature full day and night cycles. Shadows even has seasons. Unity looks so good because the times of day are fixed to specific moments in the game. No need for much dynamism.

 

[The Cockatrice]

I've been saying this over and over



In terms of cutscenes and fighting animations it demolishes Shadows

Cutscenes are just different directing, not better quality per say. Fighting animations better? Hell no lol. Yasuke is a bit rough but Naoe has amazing animations for parkour and fighting, the best in the series.

 

[digimaster7]

oh yeah, that interior lighting looks photorealistic even by today standard

 

[Majormaxxx]

Decided to fire up Unity on my XSX yesterday, even though it's 900p it still looks quite good, hail to Sony A95K's upscale tech! And thanks to fps boost on XSX it's 60fps.

What I noticed is how impressive the interior lighting especially looks compared to all the other entries that followed. For some reason they never managed to make interiors look this good again after Unity.

The same with walking and running animations, this puts AC Origins to shame. I hate how it looks like you're skating over the ground in Origins, there is zero weight to the movement and animations and this looks just great in Unity. Same with the free running, it just looks way better.

The same can be said about faces and facial expressions, it absolutely rivals something like Valhalla, not sure about Shadows since I haven't played that a lot. It's something I've been noticing in other Ubi games too like Far Cry. Why change something good into something worse?

But that's not all. Also the city that feels very alive, huge amounts of people, of which many are all doing cool different things. Haven't played much of Syndicate (should I?)but I don't remember seeing it this well done in Origins or Valhalla. Have not played much of Odyssey.

Are you running the box in 1080p? Because otherwise it's not your TV that does the upscaling. It's the Xbox.

 

[Gonzito]

Cutscenes are just different directing, not better quality per say. Fighting animations better? Hell no lol. Yasuke is a bit rough but Naoe has amazing animations for parkour and fighting, the best in the series.

The combat animations can be more subjective but cutscene just animation different directing?

Nah man, it's a huge downgrade period

 

[icecold1983]

That about sums up this silly debate. If you polled gamers who hadn't played either one and asked them which one they think is for the newer generation of console, I suspect most people would not pick Shadows.

 

[Gonzito]

That about sums up this silly debate. If you polled gamers who hadn't played either one and asked them which one they think is for the newer generation of console, I suspect most people would not pick Shadows.

Yeah, the difference is big, I dont understand how someone can deny this

 

[Roman Empire]

Animation work in Unity is superb. I'm still baffled parkour went to the backburner with Origins and onwards. Such immaculate work gone to the trash.

 

[The Cockatrice]

The combat animations can be more subjective but cutscene just animation different directing?

Nah man, it's a huge downgrade period

Nah. Shiny pretty faces doesnt equal better. The skin deforms as it should when they talk, the facial details in shadows are modern standard. Theres a lot more going on behind than Unity.

 

[Gonzito]

Nah. Shiny pretty faces doesnt equal better. The skin deforms as it should when they talk, the facial details in shadows are modern standard. Theres a lot more going on behind than Unity.

 

[The Cockatrice]

A simpler explanation: I like the way characters look, the cutscenes in Mass Effect trilogy than Shadows, but just because I like the way it looks, doesnt mean it's better, tech-wise. Realistic doesnt always equal to good looking, after all we're all ugly as fuck irl and the more we reach those levels the more uncanny character models look in games.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

The animations aren't better. Arno has a lot of flourishes and spins and that's because it's just straight up modern french parkour turned up to eleven as he applies it with superhuman speed; it always felt a bit odd to me, though running around in origins does indeed feel floaty, but shadows' animations are better overall than unity's.

 

[Von Hugh]

 

[The_Observer]

Yeah I really don't understand how cutscenes can be this bad when the environment is that gorgeous

I guess they don't want to spend their budget on it.

The gameplay animation is nowhere near as good as Unity.

Let's agree to disagree then, I guess
I think it's debatable at the minimum and Shadows" animations are definitely much better than previous entries'

 

[TheInfamousKira]

Unity looked great. They nailed Paris. Visually was just a beauty at the time of release. I mean, we all know the story about the cathedral fire by now.

Animations were good, but I did find the controls to be a bit buggy in comparison to like...the 17 other Assassin's Creeds' that came put before it.

I really liked the main mission, big target instances where you first have to scope out a spot - figure out entrances and exits and patrol routes and trying to cause some distraction that will make your mark easier to claim.

And I thought the story was...pretty good for AC, honestly. I like Arno's introduction and his (unknowing) ties to Shay Cormack. The Romeo and Juliet element of Elise's story is a bit contrived, but for a commonly recycled story trope, it wasn't handled terribly. With AC games, the story never wows too much, regardless.

With all that said, game is a buggy mess and I almost never go back to it because of said fact.

 

[Evolved1]

Shadows is a clear leap technical-wise over the last-gen games, you should try it. The gameplay animations are finally as good or even better than in Unity. Though the cutscenes are terrible and nowhere close to Unity.

The animation in shadows is not good. Gross, dude.

 

[CowboyLou]

Never touched this series back in the day, but decided to start going through em more recently. Can't believe this series ever got big. AC1 is quite cool, albiet flawed, but it was never iterated on. AC2 onward are something else entirely. Ubisoft map marker bloat instead of AC1's lean, focused design, where everything you could do was helping you with your main target in one way or another. AC2 and 3 feel terrible to play even by the standards of 2009 console action-adventure games, and their narratives are poorly-paced and nothing special. The present-day meta-plot is a joke. I just don't see how this franchise became as big as it is.

 

[ClosBSAS]

its still peak AC even to this day. no other AC game has been better at graphics and details. the fact that you have a ridiculous amount of interiors with fine detail that you can go in and walk around is amazing. shadows is a trash AC game.

 

[icecold1983]

I guess they don't want to spend their budget on it.


Let's agree to disagree then, I guess
I think it's debatable at the minimum and Shadows" animations are definitely much better than previous entries'

I don't see how anyone could disagree with the video evidence I posted. Shadows animation is slightly less trash than the prior 4 entries. Not at all brag worthy.

 

[Braag]

Animation quality during gameplay and cutscenes have gotten worse since Unity. Maybe they don't have the time to create high quality animations anymore because new AC games needs to be 10 times the size of Unity now, with color coded loot system, 300 hours worth of copy pasted collectathons and a dozen other side mechanics no one ever asked for.

 

[Xtib81]

From a technical standpoint, the game was ahead of its time. Unfortunately, it was a bit too ambitious for the hardware and the game was plagued with the worst pop in I've ever seen.
I really hope we get a remaster someday.

 

[Illyria]

I played this for the 1st time on Series X a few years ago. It looked amazing.

 

[xanaum]

This isn't just about AC Unity and the games that came after, even stuff like Far Cry 2 had more detail and technical polish, like better physics and even smarter enemy AI, than games released two generations later. It's like Ubisoft turned downgrades into a core company philosophy.

 

[Danny22]

It's a bit unfair comparison. After Syndicate, all AC games are basically RPGs including Shadows. That means increased interactivity while game worlds go big and movement gets less cinematic.

Out of the non RPG ass creeds, unity is the most ambitious one. (Syndicate had to step back to avoid the technical issues that Unity was plagued with). So ofcourse, Unity is going to be the best looking one when it comes to parkour, 'cinematicness' even though i get its a decade old game atp.

Funny, I still remember how the mob would get you if you even called Unity even passable back when it released. It was HATED.

I myself played it on an Intel non-gaming GPU at about 12 FPS, I 100 percent it after like 50 hours. Yes, the FPS remained at 12 till the end. Playing it on a new laptop was like a whole new game.

 

[Laptop1991]

I enjoyed Unity when i played the game, that was 4 years after it came out after all the problems at launch were fixed, a really good looking game in the end and the animations are done well.

 

[Stafford]

Are you running the box in 1080p? Because otherwise it's not your TV that does the upscaling. It's the Xbox.

The Xbox is set to 4K of that's what you mean. I dont believe 1080p is checked. And the Sony tv is known for damn good upscaling for lower resolution games. Definitely noticed that with Switch games.

It's a bit unfair comparison. After Syndicate, all AC games are basically RPGs including Shadows. That means increased interactivity while game worlds go big and movement gets less cinematic.

Out of the non RPG ass creeds, unity is the most ambitious one. (Syndicate had to step back to avoid the technical issues that Unity was plagued with). So ofcourse, Unity is going to be the best looking one when it comes to parkour, 'cinematicness' even though i get its a decade old game atp.

Funny, I still remember how the mob would get you if you even called Unity even passable back when it released. It was HATED.

I myself played it on an Intel non-gaming GPU at about 12 FPS, I 100 percent it after like 50 hours. Yes, the FPS remained at 12 till the end. Playing it on a new laptop was like a whole new game.

The game for Unity was real, but rightfully so when it launched. It was kinda crazy how buggy it was. I personally never really got far with it even though I bought it at launch. Maybe AC fatigue for me back then?

I'm gonna continue on with it and see how I like it, and certainly not get distracted by any pointless collectables.

 

[Chuck Berry]

Finally played it after it got all patched up and it ended up being one of my favorite AC's. Definitely the last breath before they went full bore action adventure RPG.

Wouldn't mind a remaster of this or for someone other than Ubi to do a remake of the original (which is still my #1).

 

[xanaum]

It's a bit unfair comparison. After Syndicate, all AC games are basically RPGs including Shadows. That means increased interactivity while game worlds go big and movement gets less cinematic.

Out of the non RPG ass creeds, unity is the most ambitious one. (Syndicate had to step back to avoid the technical issues that Unity was plagued with). So ofcourse, Unity is going to be the best looking one when it comes to parkour, 'cinematicness' even though i get its a decade old game atp.

Funny, I still remember how the mob would get you if you even called Unity even passable back when it released. It was HATED.

I myself played it on an Intel non-gaming GPU at about 12 FPS, I 100 percent it after like 50 hours. Yes, the FPS remained at 12 till the end. Playing it on a new laptop was like a whole new game.

But we got Assassin's Creed Mirage in 2023, which basically brought back a style similar to Unity and Syndicate, a whole generation later and somehow, some things still feel worse, not just compared to Unity but even to the earlier RPG-style games.

 

[Teh Chosen Juan]

Shadows is a clear leap technical-wise over the last-gen games, you should try it. The gameplay animations are finally as good or even better than in Unity. Though the cutscenes are terrible and nowhere close to Unity.

through on Shadows the other day after getting bored during my first go at it. on a pro with an LG G4. was kind of shocked how shitty and flat everything looked. sure lots of particle effects, but in performance mode (and the others), just looks half ass. not to mention the boring gameplay loop. back to the delete folder.

 

[Loope]

I've been saying this over and over



In terms of cutscenes and fighting animations it demolishes Shadows

Me too. Unity is a beauty of a game and the parkour is insane. The architecture helps a lot, sure, but it is a very well realized city.

 

[Danny22]

But we got Assassin's Creed Mirage in 2023, which basically brought back a style similar to Unity and Syndicate, a whole generation later and somehow, some things still feel worse, not just compared to Unity but even to the earlier RPG-style games.

isn't Mirage a cheap Valhalla Dlc that they sold as a full game? Makes sense why Unity is better.

 

[archangelmorph]

I've been saying this over and over



In terms of cutscenes and fighting animations it demolishes Shadows

It really doesn't.

 

[The_Observer]

isn't Mirage a cheap Valhalla Dlc that they sold as a full game? Makes sense why Unity is better.

No, it started as DLC but became one of the best entries in the franchise, especially for those who liked the first game.