Review: Assassin’s Creed: Unity’s “Dead Kings” DLC

Launch problems aside, Assassin’s Creed: Unity was fantastic. Even though I didn’t experience most of the problems that were reported, I can’t gloss over Unity‘s shaky start; it’s for that very reason that most of you are getting access to the game’s first piece of DLC, “Dead Kings”, for free.

Let me repeat that: “Dead Kings”– for those that bought Unity, at least — will be free to play. Apart from the 8GB download size, most of you really have nothing to lose by giving it a go.

A story-based bit of downloadable content, “Dead Kings” takes place after Unity, and without spoiling, touches upon how Arno is dealing with the fallout of the game’s main storyline. There’s also the possibility that Arno’s main quest will lead into future Creed games. If you couldn’t tell, it’s best to play “Dead Kings” after you’ve finished up with Unity proper. That’s easy enough to do, with all of the DLC taking place a short carriage ride away in the city of Franciade.

“Dead Kings” is of a decent length (especially at the low, low cost of free) with a handful of memory sequences and single-player missions, a new co-op mission and heist, a new weapon called the guillotine gun, new outfits and collectibles. New to the game is the concept of underground creatures (I’ll get to them), as well as Raider leaders and outposts.

As much as I loved Unity and its mechanics — and you can read all about that here — most of the new additions to “Dead Kings” seemed a little forced. The underground creatures seem included mostly to show off what Ubisoft’s current-gen Anvil engine can handle, with hundreds of cockroaches, rats or bats being thrown on-screen. They exist primarily to be shooed away using a handheld lantern. The lantern runs out of oil at times, and Arno is forced to refill it when that happens. The thing is, there seems to be an oil station about every ten feet, so the whole thing is just ridiculous.

Raiders are the game’s main enemy type; think pirates-crossed-with-Templars and you’re mostly there. In “Dead Kings”, one Raider is assigned a group’s leader; take him out first, and the rest of the Raiders flee away in terror. It’s an alright concept, but one that’s got my scratching my head. With Unity‘s combat vastly improved over past games, why is Ubisoft Montpellier essentially designing an easy-out? Clearing a room is as simple as a smoke bomb, a couple heavy hits on the leader, and ta-da. It’s weird. Even easier, the game’s new weapon, the guillotine gun, is a half-sword, half-gun beast that lets you take out baddies from near or far. As cool as it was, as soon as I got the game’s Achievement for killing five guys at once with a mortar, I switched back to my five-star sword.

Lastly, Outposts are a neat idea, but a bit undercooked. Arno is tasked to kill three officers at each of “Dead Kings” three outposts; again, it’s a simple matter of smoke bomb, kill and run. Clearing them out helps to liberate Franciade… and give you an Achievement. There’s not much else to ’em.

Overall, “Dead Kings” is a nice little addition to Assassin’s Creed: Unity. It’s well worth a play if it’s sitting on your console as a freebie, but I’d almost think twice about laying down cash for the content unless you’re as head-over-heels about Unity as I was. It’s more of the same… but when the same is that good, the statement’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Assassin’s Creed: Unity‘s “Dead Kings” DLC was reviewed using a promotional code of the content on Xbox One, as provided by the publisher. The content is available for download now.