Assassin's Creed Unity PS5 Update
Image: Push Square

Assassin's Creed Unity was a weird one, wasn't it? Arguably the most ambitious instalment in the series up until that point, Unity was panned at launch — primarily because it was an absolute shambles in terms of technical performance.

Our own review of the game, which was first published all the way back in November 2014 — has it really been that long?! — was rather damning. We gave Unity a 5/10, concluding: "There's a great game buried somewhere beneath an unforgivable amount of technical issues, from annoying glitches to frustrating crashes."

Which neatly brings us to the present day, and the recently released 60 frames-per-second performance patch. It might have taken over a decade to get here, but Assassin's Creed Unity is finally the game that we wanted to play back when we wrote that (now infamous) review.

Yes, playing the PS4 version on PS5 gives you smooth 60fps gameplay, and a boosted 4K resolution. What a time to be alive.

This kind of support is nothing new for Ubisoft's last-gen titles; it's delivered similar updates for Assassin's Creed Origins, Odyssey, and even Syndicate. The effort's always been appreciated.

And the good news is that Unity is another success story on that front. The patch does what it says on the tin, although we have noticed a handful of minor issues.

For one, pop-in is abundantly apparent when you're out on the streets of Paris, as environmental details and NPC features snap into existence around the middle distance of the screen. You get used to it, but it does look a bit wonky at first.

More jarring is the fact that several cutscenes still run at 30fps for some reason. These scenes are rendered in-game, so we're not exactly sure what the problem is, but obviously, flipping from 60 to 30 is always going to feel off.

Thankfully, that jump to 4K resolution is glorious. Now, granted, Unity's draw distance isn't great by today's standards — look down from a tall enough building and you'll see nothing but a suspiciously empty city below — but it's still much easier to appreciate the game's overall artistry.

Interiors, for example, are lavishly designed, with aristocratic manors sporting incredibly well modelled assets like paintings and antique clocks. The lighting has also stood the test of time, as gorgeous rays pierce hallways and rooms through open windows.

Unity was always a feast for the eyes in terms of detail, and we'd dare say that Paris itself remains one of the franchise's best-realised maps. It's a bustling hub of activity that'll make you wonder where all of the NPCs have disappeared to in more modern Assassin's Creed games.

Indeed, at the time, Unity was framed as a serious step forward for Ubisoft's open world engineering. In particular, its dense crowd system was paraded for all to see, and it still feels like a technical accomplishment — although it's much easier to say that when the game's frame rate isn't tumbling down into single digits.

But with great crowds comes great irresponsibility, as buggy NPCs are still rampant. You'll see poor Parisians clipping through walls, clipping through each other, standing in midair, falling from midair, sinking into the ground... Ubisoft never quite managed to clean this stuff up.

We think Unity does still deserve a second chance, though — especially if you yearn for the days of traditional Assassin's Creed gameplay.

An unshaken focus on stealth and parkour make Unity feel weirdly refreshing in this day and age. Hell, the parkour system — now 11 years old, remember — is still best-in-class when it comes to Assassin's Creed, or thereabouts.

This is partially because Paris' cramped housing is practically parkour-perfect, but we're on about how it feels more than anything. Protagonist Arno remains impressively fluid in his animations, and his underlying agility and soft-footedness is something that's been sorely missed in many recent outings.

Assassin's Creed Unity PS5 Update
Image: Push Square

However, we should note that you do have to turn a blind eye to some prime Ubisoft bullsh*t in order to fully enjoy Unity. The map, for example, is a parody-level mess of open world icons.

And, this being one of the publisher's first true forays into questionable live service practices, you'll need to stomach menu pop-ups for 'boosts' — temporary damage and health increases that you can still buy with real money. Egregious doesn't even begin to cover it.

But before we start thinking that our original 5/10 review score should stay in place, we'll quickly reiterate: we had fun playing Unity again.

As we said all those years ago, there are sparks of a genuinely great Assassin's Creed game here — and they're worth rekindling on PS5.

Have you given Assassin's Creed Unity a go on PS5? Sprint through some poor peasant's home in the comments section below.

Are you playing Assassin's Creed Unity on PS5?