The catalog of Ubisoft games is a far-reaching archive of household names.Assassin’s Creed,Far Cry, andGhost Reconare all staples of the games industry and pop culture in general. But this doesnot excuse it from scrutinyfor some of its more questionable practices and development procedures. In fact, quite to the contrary, Ubisoft games often raise the ire of longtime players for a variety of development decisions that seem rooted in padding out titles rather than creating fulfilling gameplay.
But, many of Ubisoft’s series, including the aforementionedFar Cryor the open-worldhacktivist simulator,Watch Dogs,continue to be fan favorites. Is there some merit to be found in Ubisoft’s more controversial mechanics? Here are some of the most polarizing features found within Ubisoft games.
Ghost Recon Breakpointis anexemplar of gunplay in Ubisoft titles, and part of what grants that status is the attention to detail with injuries that alter the way players engage in combat. The introduction of the injury system was praised by some players by adding to the realism and survival aspects of the title.
But for others, the injury system, while a good idea in theory, was poorly implemented and did not give the desired effect. Health kits were too easy to come by and could solve critical injuries in seconds, and players could carry an infinite amount of them in their inventory. It was a step in the right direction, but the presence of the injury system inBreakpointleft players divided.
While otherAssassin’s Creedtitles have toyed with managing a building or location, such asAC2’s Villa,Assassin’s Creed Valhallawas the first title to bring with it a bona-fide settlement that needed to be raised and built from the ground up. Ravensthrope intends to act as a hub for the player, a place where they can trade for goods and swap out their boats or mounts. It also has an interesting layer worked into the historical premise of the game, showing vikings as both raiders and settlers.
But Ravensthorpe’s implementation has left a debate in the community. The settlement tends to get lost in the mix of other towns and villages available to Eivor. While some praise was given for the range of customization options in Ravensthorpe, many features lack mechanical presence and don’t amount to much. Valhalla, precedingMirage’s return to more traditional AC gameplay (though it should be notedValhallastill contains stealth), featured a broad array of features like Ravensthorpe that changed the series but lacked much substance.
The level system inAssassin’s Creed Originscompletely changed where the stealth action monolith would sit in the gaming industry. As more open-world games leaned toward RPG systems, Ubisoft decided to hop on the bandwagon with a title that sought torenew the flagging interestin theAssassin’s Creedseries. For many, the introduction of a leveling system that applied to both the protagonist, Bayek, and his gear, offered a newfound level of customization in the series.
However, the gating of quests and areas behind levels dragged the pacing of the game to a halt, and players often found themselves encumbered with a slew of equipment all sharing similar names and incrementally better stat boosts, making the building of a loadout less about designing a preferred playstyle and more about sifting through the discards to find the best percentile boost to critical hit chance. As the leveling system continues to persist all the way through to newer titles, theAssassin’s Creedfanbase is still divided on the quality of this mechanic.
Far Cry 6boasts an incrediblyexpansive and intricate worldto explore as players fight the good fight in Yara. One element that was met with split reception, however, is the distribution of enemies and their power throughout the isle. The leveling system that has slowly drawn Far Cry away from its pure FPS roots into a sort of FPS/RPG hybrid places enemies in a strange position with the player, mechanically.
The leveling system in Far Cry, as well as leveled gear that grants benefits and bonuses, means that players have a level of kit-building simply not available in more hardline pure FPS games. While parts of the fanbase appreciate this, there is also an uproar about the way that level scaling affects damage. Many players feel that the RPG-influenced combat, in which higher leveled enemies are simply able to soak up bullets, is a far cry (heh) from the older titles in the series, where a headshot was reliably lethal, and smart play — rather than grinding to increase levels — was needed to surpass the game’s grunts.
In a unique change to form,Watch Dogs Legiondid away with a central protagonist to tie together its story. Instead, almost all the citizens of London can be recruited for Dedsec and join the collective fight against an increasingly authoritarian force bearing down on the United Kingdom. The recruitment mechanic is impressive in its scope, with any random passerby on the street possessing their own unique benefits and drawbacks that change how missions and general gameplay operate. Playing as a 54-year-old starving musician will provide an altogether different experience than, say, playing as a professional hitman.
But while some players applauded this novel change in mechanics — and the procedural storytelling it offered — there was a severe detachment to the story that came with no main character to tie all the threads. The execution of the recruitment mechanic leftWatch Dogs Legionwitha lacklustre main storythat seemed all the more contrived in a narrative that had no moments of character development or growth.
