Today is November 11th, 2014, and it is without a doubt the most significant Assassin’s Creed launch day in gaming history, with two AC games (Assassin’s Creed Unity and Assassin’s Creed Rogue) releasing for both current-generation and last-generation consoles respectively.
Interestingly enough, reviews for either game (more specifically, Unity, as stated above) are nowhere to be found at the time of this writing.
On the other hand, BioWare’s Dragon Age: Inquisition, which doesn’t release for another full week, has been receiving consistently high scores across the board today, due to its review embargo lift.
Naturally, many gamers may be asking, “Where are the Assassin’s Creed Unity reviews?”
Read more details and find some possible answers after the break.
Assassin’s Creed Unity Review Embargo Speculation
No doubt, there will be reviews for Unity today, however they will release after the game’s launch – with the Assassin’s Creed Unity review embargo not lifting until 12PM EST, which is approximately 2 hours after the time of this article and 12 hours after the official launch of the game.
The real question many gamers should be asking is, “Why have the Assassin’s Creed Unity review embargo last until after the game’s official release?”
Well, prominent PC gaming YouTuber, TotalBiscuit had something quite intriguing to say on the topic of the Assassin’s Creed Unity review embargo, which can be seen in his tweet below.
I have absolutely no doubt that the review embargo for Unity was set after launch because of what a technical mess the game is
— TotalBiscuit (@Totalbiscuit) November 11, 2014
Seeing as how the general performance of Assassin’s Creed Unity has been less than phenomenal (to say the least) across all available platforms – PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. It appears that TotalBiscuit’s statement above may have some weight behind it.
Previous Assassin’s Creed games also had review embargoes.
However, due to the fact that Assassin’s Creed Unity is Ubisoft’s first foray into current-generation hardware, it seems plausible that the company (which has seen a hefty share of negative feedback over the past 2 months) may have commissioned a review embargo in order to keep gamers unaware of its technical issues…and technical issues, it definitely has.
In closing, the following comes from TotalBiscuit regarding Assassin’s Creed Unity in general, as well as its overall performance (on PC):
Regarding the game’s PC performance:
Texture quality is awful, even on characters clothing, huge popin, incorrect lighting, faulty texture streaming
— TotalBiscuit (@Totalbiscuit) November 11, 2014
A TwitLonger elaborating upon Assassin’s Creed Unity in general:
“Can’t sleep and Unity is out so lemme tell you about my experience so far. I only got access to code yesterday so I’m not that far in but there’s a promised Day 1 patch that by the looks of it is SORELY needed. Getting that game to run on max settings is a nightmare, it’s a huge resource hog. My 2 980s barely keep up. In the small tutorial area I was looking at some nasty drops one 1 980, prior to Nvidia putting in an SLI profile.
As it stands I can JUST keep it at 60, though it has some drops below at times. The game doesn’t really look like it justifies that. It has some killer popin, just like Watchdogs did, actors very obviously and inconspicuously switch between detail levels depending on your distance to them and often just appear out of nowhere and disappear at random.
Lighting is glitchy as hell and overall texture quality is poor. I will say the faces and mo-cap quality is excellent, it actually has a kiss that doesn’t look like 2 robots rubbing their faces together, so there’s that. The problem that I had yesterday was just the MASS of bugs. Guards spawning in from the sky, NPC actors wandering through terrain and clipping through objects, scripted sequences breaking at random and stealth seems like it’s just busted.
I had a guy spot me in a stealth section, run up to me as I was standing and then “lose track” of me. I was right in front of his face, he just wandered off. Thus far the game seems like quite the step backwards. Combat feels much more sluggish than Black Flag, but I admit I have yet to unlock a lot of the weapons and gadgets, I’m not that far in. So I don’t have much to say about the gameplay up to this point (its been super standard Asscreed stuff) but this Day 1 patch is sorely needed, because the game without it is a buggy mess.”
What are your thoughts on Assassin’s Creed Unity? Would you put it past Ubisoft to put an embargo on the game in order to keep gamers in the dark about its general performance on both PC and consoles?
What do you think of TotalBiscuit’s stance on the Assassin’s Creed Unity review embargo?
Let us know in the comments section below! As always, stay tuned to GamerHeadlines.com for the latest in video game and technology news.