Reddit reviews Assassin's Creed Unity: Abstergo Entertainment: Employee Handbook

Recently I see Unity rightfully get a lot of praise on this sub for things such as its superior graphics, beautiful and detailed setting, character customization, fulfilling stealth gameplay, variety in parkour and combat animations etc. But at the same time I see a lot of people discount Unity for its story.

As someone who actually liked Unity's story, let me just say a few things:

• The tie-in between Rogue and Unity is a graceful storytelling move. If you have played Rogue, the most natural step would be to continue to Unity. Rogue ends exactly where Unity begins.
  
  
• The motivation for Unity's protagonist, Arno Dorian, is unique in the sense that it's internally driven, instead of externally driven. While other protagonists are urged on to complete their goals by external factors like revenge, seeking wealth, and fighting oppression, Arno is motivated entirely by a desire to better himself and make up for past mistakes. That made him the most relatable out of all the protagonists to me, because I've never desired revenge or sought to save humanity, but I understand what it's like to make irreversible mistakes and want to make up for them.
  
  
• The characters in Unity are very subtly portrayed, and a lot of their characteristics and traits aren't immediately obvious unless you really explore the game world. For example, interacting with bookshelves in the de la Serre estate reveals that Arno and Elise were avid readers, something that's not obvious in direct gameplay. If you really want to get to know the characters beyond surface level, don't rush through the game and take the time to listen to ambient conversations, interact with the environment, and, for the love of all that's holy, read Elise's letters to Arno.
  
  
• Ubisoft made a deliberate narrative decision to make the main questline about Arno's personal story of redemption, and separate the narrative of the French Revolution into the side missions. While a number of the main missions take place during key events of the French Revolution (the Storming of the Bastille, the Storming of the Tuileries, the execution of King Louis XVI, etc), they served only as a backdrop to Arno's personal story, which was happening in the forefront. If you really want to feel like you are part of the Revolution and are making history, play the co-op missions and the Paris Stories.
  
  
• The ending might feel a little hollow. No spoilers, but it can get a bit depressing with no satisfactory sense of closure. The DLC, 'Dead Kings' (which is absolutely free), is a direct sequel after the story of the main game, and helps with this. Play Dead Kings after completing the main missions in Unity, and it might help give a sense of closure.
  
  
• There are minimal Modern Day elements in Unity, which is something that upsets those invested in the MD narrative. But Unity supplements the "Phoenix Project" story arc that begun in Black Flag, and sets up Abstergo's motivations in the Modern Day.
  
  
• The 'Abstergo Employee Handbook' is great supplementary reading material for Unity. It details what's happening in the Modern Day during the events of Unity, and offers way more insight into Arno's character.

I have the The Art of Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Assassin's Creed: The Complete Visual History, and the Assassin's Creed Unity: Abstergo Entertainment: Employee Handbook. The Complete Visual History is probably the best of them, but I believe that it cuts off after Unity.

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