Assassin's Creed: Unity - 8 Unforgivable Issues That Insult The Fans

7. Forced Companion Apps

As another way of tacking on an additional revenue stream, we're seeing everything from Destiny to Call of Duty and now Assassin's Creed all ship with 'companion apps' for mobile devices, giving you access to additional content on the go that in theory should remain optional to the game itself. And before, that was true. All Destiny and COD's apps do is give you a look into your online character, letting you tweak ancillary things like weapon loadouts for your next online mission, review achievements and goals or just have a flick through some information on the game itself. Like we said, optional. With Unity though, you have to sign up for Ubisoft's companion app tie-in to access a huge amount of treasure chests strewn throughout the world, as well as previously-included features like sending your assassins on missions across the map that worked so well in AC: Brotherhood. Upon trying to grab one of these chests you'll be greeted with a nice big message prompting you to dive out of the game experience and into some other program. Did Ubi forget one of the core tenets of good game design is a sense of immersion? With both this and the micro-transaction elements, they couldn't be doing a better job at simply erecting insurmountable barriers between the player and the experience they've paid a considerable chunk of money for. The feeling that your love for the series is being taken advantage of for the sake of sales is a very disturbing one, to say the least.