If there is any series of game that feels like it has a template for trophy list reviews, it is almost certainly Assassin's Creed. I see you FIFA, but this is my 7th Assassin's Creed Platinum trophy, and the only thing that ever really seems to change is the era of time the game is set in.
Speaking of which, Assassin's Creed Unity sees you assume control of Arno Dorian, a member of the French Brotherhood of Assassin's, and is set during the height of the French Revolution.
Arno meets Elise De La Serre, whose father takes in Arno after his own father is murdered. After failing to deliver an important message that pre-empts the death of the Templar Grand Master De La Serre, Arno is not only accidentally complicit to his murder as a consequence of not delivering the letter, but also mistaken for being the killer at the scene of the death, which is witnessed by some powerful and influential Templars.
This will take the player through a story of revenge and redemption as Arno is inducted into the Brotherhood in an attempt to clear his own name and take revenge on the group of Templars responsible for killing De La Serre.
The trophy list is large in size, containing 51 trophies in total including the Platinum, and follows a formula very typical of Assassin's Creed trophy lists.
The "Curtain Call" trophy, awarded for Completing Memory Sequence 12, is the final trophy upon conclusion of the main story. As is always the case with Assassin's Creed Platinums, there isn't a pre-set difficulty level, which naturally means there's also no pressure from anywhere else on the trophy list relating to difficulty based challenges.
The combat still moves in the traditional Assassin's Creed way. They have slightly tweaked it here, because you can no longer take advantage of certain mechanics that made the combat overly-simplistic in previous titles, such as chaining combos and human shields. You still fight with a stance, and instead, react to your opponents actions, with parrying playing a huge role in killing enemies. You can be more aggressive and fight on the front foot with the "attack" action, but you'll find it easier to parry or dodge enemy attacks and fight when you've broken their guard. I have personally always found this one of the easiest combat mechanics in any game, and this is no different this time round. It makes the experience very casual, on the whole, and completing the story was a breeze. You'll also unlock alot of progression-based trophies, for completing each sequence leading up to, and including Sequence 12.
The "I Want It All" trophy, awarded for Completing all Single Player mission challenges in Paris, is directly linked to the main story sequences, most of which include specified challenges within the memory the player must complete in order to obtain this trophy.
Again, this has been replicated numerous times across the Assassin's Creed franchise, and it's best to fulfil as many of these challenges as possible as you go through each memory, in order to minimise the need to replay memories again once you've completed the game. Most of these challenges are fairly easy, and if by any chance you miss them, you can always reload the last checkpoint within a memory to reset your progress and make sure you finish them before you complete that particular memory.
Understanding this from previous Assassin's Creed games allowed me to consciously go through these challenges in conjunction with playing through the game normally, which increased efficiency when handling this list, and I only needed to go back and replay 4 memories across all 12 sequences in order to fulfil this task at the end of the game. The fact I had managed to clear the vast majority of them first time round is a strong testament to how easy they generally are to complete though, and this shouldn't really require much rework.
The "I Got Skills" trophy, awarded for Unlocking all Skills, incorporates the big new feature to Assassin's Creed Unity - Co-op mode.
Co-op mode is effectively a series of missions separate to the main story which, despite containing guidance on a recommended maximum number of allies up to the total of 4, can be completed on a solo basis. In order to unlock all skills, which grant you new manoeuvres, weapons and equipment, you'll need to earn all Sync points to unlock every single skill available, leaving no margin for error.
The vast majority of these Sync points come from completing Co-op missions, as well as finding them within the Co-op levels, which is where the association comes. Whilst the Co-op missions are designed for 2-4 players, you still have the option to run them solo, but this will become overwhelming in certain scenarios, especially for the missions that recommend high numbers, so it is best advised to use the matchmaking tool or grab a partner.
If you complete them with at least one other player, you'll find this relatively straight-forward, and although the fact you can run them solo means this is still technically a Single Player Platinum, it is strongly advised you finish these missions with others in order to minimise any issues you may run into difficulty-wise trying to complete them alone. The list does also contain an additional 5 trophies specifically for Co-op mode, which you should earn as you go through unlocking the skill points, but the new mode is shown some reasonable support within the list.
Assassin's Creed titles are also well known for their tendency to include collectible trophies within their lists, and not only is Unity another fine example of that, it also turns this standard up a couple of notches along the way.
The "Curiosity" trophy, awarded for Opening every chest in Paris, requires you to locate all 294 chests scattered on the map. They're located both above and below ground, and will only appear visible on the map when you run past one. You can purchase a map within the in-game menus via the E-Store, which will reveal the locations of every chest instantly, which I would strongly recommend as a good counter to the sheer volume alone.
Even then, this is still a pretty monotonous exercise, and most of the red chests you'll spot across the map are guarded by soldiers that you'll either need to fight or bypass in order to get to the chest, which ultimately adds more time onto an already time-consuming task.
There isn't much more to add than that, but a large portion of the overall completion time will go towards this trophy alone so it's certainly worth mentioning, and it is an extremely boring exercise, especially given the fact that there are no other real rewards attached to opening chests other than purely for the fact there is an associated trophy within the list.
It is also important to note that are also 128 Cockades to collect as part of another trophy on this list, and whilst this is less than half the amount of chests required, this does still combine to total 422 collectible items across the entire game. It's not a light activity at all.
As is usually the case, this is another Assassin's Creed game that sits towards the lower end of the difficulty spectrum. The combat, despite some subtle changes that were probably designed to make it slightly more challenging, is still relatively easy to adjust to, and the fact the game has a pre-set difficulty level that offers up a fairly casual challenge, is the main reason why Unity joins on at the lower end of the scale.
The collectibles are a pain though, and deserve an entire point on the rating completely by themselves. It isn't necessary to have so many collectibles when there are no other reasons to hunt them down other than the fact the trophy requirements dictate that you need to unlock them all. Money eventually becomes inconsequential because you earn so much of it, as you progress through the game, and the chests yield nothing else other than currency, so it does feel like a pointless exercise that is there to purely pad completion time.
The game does parlay you on the fact that you do not need to achieve full 100% synchronisation and therefore does neglect alot of the side content from the trophy list, though even with this accounted for, I would still say this is around a 40-50 hour experience.
The majority of the other trophies within the list shouldn't really require any specific focus, and as long as you complete both the main and Co-op story, you should have most of it done by the time you turn your attention to the collectibles, with any clean up necessary at the end of these. If you can stomach the inevitable tedium of all those collectibles, this shouldn't give you too many problems at all, and does still come in as one of the easiest Assassin's Creed Platinum trophies to date.
Notable Trophies -
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| Curtain Call - Complete Memory Sequence 12. I Want It All - Complete all Single Player mission challenges in Paris. I Got Skills - Unlock all Skills. Curiosity - Open every chest in Paris. |
Hardest Trophy -
Curiosity Open every chest in Paris.
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