At least Assassin's Creed: Unity looks beautiful. The fifth instalment of the history-spanning series renders revolutionary Paris in intricate detail. Its streets fizz with action: angry protesters burn effigies, street vendors hawk sub-standard wares, rubber-necking crowds stand around guillotines, beggars reach out and aristocrats turn up their noses. Famous landmarks are accurate down to their roof tiling, with about 5000 hours of design work going into Notre Dame alone. If you haven't seen the city of love and abrasive tourist scams in person, this is a good way to visit without having to pass through half the world's airports.
The problem is almost everything else. Unity offers a beautiful version of Paris, but the city is about the only place you'll see. Last year's enjoyable Assassin's Creed Black Flag got away from the series' over-reliance on sprinting, sneaking, climbing and stabbing by adding pirate ships, sea forts and the chance to own your own Caribbean beach bar empire. Though Unity throws up mind-bending, time travel-themed side missions, it's mostly a throwback to the city-slicking, pavement-treading days of the first two Creed games.
That would be excusable if the lead character had more charisma than a pineapple. Black Flag's protagonist Edward Kenway was a carousing, drink-soaked former deckhand who cared little whether he lived or died. He started from the bottom and ended up a better pirate captain than Blackbeard. It was hard not to like him, despite his romantic indiscretions and regular mass-stabbings.
Unity's lead character, Arno, is a toffee-mouthed aristocrat whose tragic past doesn't really help you forgive his taste for stealing things and complaining about chores. He gets more bearable as the game goes on, mainly thanks to a romantic entanglement with the game's only likeable character, Elise. But the problem with giving a jerk a redemption narrative is that it's hard to be happy for him when he sees the error of his ways. You suspect some vestige of the earlier Arno is lurking inside, sporting a carefully unkempt beard and wondering what he should wear to the par-ty.
The positives? Assassination missions are better thought-out than in previous games, with chances to rain cinematic death from sewer walls, haystacks and confessional booths. The much-heralded co-operative play is fun, allowing friends to orchestrate attacks in a host of different ways. Fights are more difficult to survive than in previous Creed titles and the addition of a button signifying that you want to climb down now, please, means much less accidental leaping to your death.
