Skip to main content
GamesRadar+ GamesRadar+ The Games, Movies, TV & Comics You Love
UK EditionUK US EditionUS CA EditionCanada AU EditionAustralia
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Games
    • Game Insights
      • Games News
      • Games Features
      • Games Reviews
      • Games Guides
      • The Big Preview
      • On The Radar
      • Indie Spotlight
      • Future Games Show
      • Golden Joystick Awards
    • Genres
      • Action Games
      • RPGs
      • Action RPGs
      • Adventure Games
      • Third Person Shooters
      • FPS Games
    • Platforms
      • PS5
      • Xbox Series X
      • PC
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Nintendo Switch 2
      • Tabletop Gaming
    • Franchises
      • Grand Theft Auto
      • Pokemon
      • Assassin's Creed
      • Monster Hunter
      • Fortnite
      • Cyberpunk
      • Red Dead
      • The Elder Scrolls
      • The Sims
  • Entertainment
    • TV Shows
      • TV News
      • TV Reviews
      • Anime Shows
      • Sci-Fi Shows
      • Superhero Shows
      • Animated Shows
      • Marvel TV Shows
      • Star Wars TV Shows
      • DC TV Shows
    • Movies
      • Movie News
      • Movie Reviews
      • Big Screen Spotlight
      • Superhero Movies
      • Action Movies
      • Anime Movies
      • Sci-Fi Movies
      • Horror Movies
      • Marvel Movies
      • DC Movies
    • Streaming
      • Apple TV Plus
      • Disney Plus
      • Netflix
      • HBO
      • Amazon Prime Video
      • Hulu
    • Comics
      • Marvel Comics
      • DC Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • Lego
    • Dungeons and Dragons
    • Merch
  • Hardware
    • Insights
      • Hardware News
      • Hardware Reviews
      • Hardware Features
    • Computing
      • Desktop PCs
      • Laptops
      • Handhelds
    • Peripherals
      • Headsets & Headphones
      • TVs & Monitors
      • Gaming Mice
      • Gaming Keyboards
      • Gaming Chairs
      • Speakers & Audio
    • Accessories & Tech
      • Gaming Controllers
      • Tech
      • SSDs & Hard Drives
      • VR
      • Accessories
      • Retro
  • Deals
    • Game Deals
    • Tech Deals
    • TV Deals
    • Buying Guides
  • Video
  • Newsletters
    • Quizzes
    • About Us
    • How to pitch to us
    • How we score
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Total Film
Total Film
  • home
  • Games
    • View Games
      • Games News
      • Games Features
      • Games Reviews
      • Games Guides
      • The Big Preview
      • On The Radar
      • Indie Spotlight
      • Future Games Show
      • Golden Joystick Awards
      • Action Games
      • RPGs
      • Action RPGs
      • Adventure Games
      • Third Person Shooters
      • FPS Games
    • Platforms
      • View Platforms
      • PS5
      • Xbox Series X
      • PC
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Nintendo Switch 2
      • Tabletop Gaming
      • Grand Theft Auto
      • Pokemon
      • Assassin's Creed
      • Monster Hunter
      • Fortnite
      • Cyberpunk
      • Red Dead
      • The Elder Scrolls
      • The Sims
  • Entertainment
    • View Entertainment
    • TV Shows
      • View TV Shows
      • TV News
      • TV Reviews
      • Anime Shows
      • Sci-Fi Shows
      • Superhero Shows
      • Animated Shows
      • Marvel TV Shows
      • Star Wars TV Shows
      • DC TV Shows
    • Movies
      • View Movies
      • Movie News
      • Movie Reviews
      • Big Screen Spotlight
      • Superhero Movies
      • Action Movies
      • Anime Movies
      • Sci-Fi Movies
      • Horror Movies
      • Marvel Movies
      • DC Movies
    • Streaming
      • View Streaming
      • Apple TV Plus
      • Disney Plus
      • Netflix
      • HBO
      • Amazon Prime Video
      • Hulu
    • Comics
      • View Comics
      • Marvel Comics
      • DC Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • Lego
    • Dungeons and Dragons
    • Merch
  • Hardware
    • View Hardware
      • Hardware News
      • Hardware Reviews
      • Hardware Features
      • Desktop PCs
      • Laptops
      • Handhelds
    • Peripherals
      • View Peripherals
      • Headsets & Headphones
      • TVs & Monitors
      • Gaming Mice
      • Gaming Keyboards
      • Gaming Chairs
      • Speakers & Audio
      • Gaming Controllers
      • Tech
      • SSDs & Hard Drives
      • VR
      • Accessories
      • Retro
  • Deals
    • View Deals
    • Game Deals
    • Tech Deals
    • TV Deals
    • Buying Guides
  • Video
  • Newsletters
    • Quizzes
    • About Us
    • How to pitch to us
    • How we score
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Total Film
Total Film
Gaming Magazines
Gaming Magazines
Why subscribe?
  • Subscribe from just £3
  • Takes you closer to the games, movies and TV you love
  • Try a single issue or save on a subscription
  • Issues delivered straight to your door or device
From$12
Subscribe now
Don't miss these
Best of 2025: Assassin's Creed Shadows
Assassin's Creed "We are hard to beat": 9 months since Assassin's Creed Shadows, its associate director looks back on what makes this RPG the best in series history
Red Dead Redemption 2
Red Dead Red Dead Redemption 2 fan tests historical accuracy, finds it's "a pretty amazing representation" of the era
Assassin's Creed Shadows cinematic screenshot
Assassin's Creed Best Assassin's Creed games, ranked from worst to best
Ghost of Yotei gameplay showing Atsu sitting on her horse between bright pink cherry blossoms, looking at a distant fortification built against a mountain
Open World Games Best open world games to play right now and completely forget real life exists
Assassin's Creed Shadows review gameplay showing Yasuke overlooking the sea and lush green scenery
Assassin's Creed Assassin's Creed Shadows lead teases "things that are set up" in the open-world RPG "should keep happening in other projects and evolve" thanks to the Animus Hub
Assassin's Creed Shadows
Assassin's Creed Assassin's Creed Shadows associate director has a hot tip for the next Ubisoft studio taking on the franchise: "Pay more attention to parkour as its own pillar"
Best PC games: Screenshots of Baldur's Gate 3, Helldivers 2, Split Fiction and the Resident Evil 4 Remake
PC Gaming Best PC games: The 25 greatest PC games to play right now
Assassin's Creed Codename Hexe
Action RPGs Upcoming Assassin's Creed games: Every new Assassin's Creed game in development
Watching a whale from a pirate's ship in Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag
Assassin's Creed Assassin's Creed: Black Flag remake appears to be all but confirmed
Assassin's Creed Assassin's Creed: Black Flag remake reveal could be imminent, fan theory suggests, as Steam updates could point to Ubisoft being up to something following recent release window rumors
best Xbox One games
Games The best Xbox One games of all time to play now
Assassin's Creed Codename Hexe
Assassin's Creed Assassin's Creed Hexe: Everything we know about the new flagship AC game
Cities Skylines screenshot of a cityscape showing buildings framing roads, with skyscrapers opposite a river in the background
Strategy Games The 15 best city building games to play today
Mass Effect Legendary Edition screenshot of femme Shep outside the normandy space ship
Adventure Games 25 Best sci-fi games to travel into the future with
Beyond good and Evil 2
Action Games Upcoming Ubisoft games: Every new Ubisoft game in development
Trending
  • Best Games of 2025
  • The Future of Total War
  • Fallout Season 2
  • Gift Guides
  • New Games for 2025
  1. Games
  2. Action
  3. Assassin's Creed
  4. Assassin's Creed Unity

AC Unity's stunning Paris - how does it compare to 8 totally unrelated things?

Features
By Chet Manly published 19 November 2014

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Attention to detail

Attention to detail

Throughout the last few months, Ubisoft has been keen to point out just how realistic its version of 18th century 'revolutionary' Paris really is. Streets, people, and landmarks have been recreated in painstaking detail, and would undoubtedly be instantly recognisable to players who were alive back in 1789.

This has already prompted many of our competitors to run fascinating features that compare AC Unity's Paris to modern-day Paris, which - given that the two exist roughly 225 years apart - is a bit like comparing a grape to a raisin. Seeing how we were beaten to the punch on the whole game / real-life Paris comparison, we've instead decided to compare Assassin's Creed Unity's stunning rendition of Paris to eight totally random things. Enjoy! And learn.

Page 1 of 10
Page 1 of 10
Ile de la Citie vs A child's tricycle

Ile de la Citie vs A child's tricycle

Hmm, not a great start. Despite recreating the famous cathedral at Notre Dame in eye-breaking detail, the AC Unity team has totally failed to make it look anything like a child's trike. Poor show.

Page 2 of 10
Page 2 of 10
Notre Dame vs John Keats

Notre Dame vs John Keats

Let's take a closer look at that in-game version of Notre Dame. After squinting at it for several minutes, there's no way we can see a visual link between Paris' most famous religious monument, and 19th century romantic poet, John Keats. Very disappointing. It might be time to revisit our review score for Unity.

Page 3 of 10
Page 3 of 10
Les Halles vs a DVD copy of Body Heat

Les Halles vs a DVD copy of Body Heat

Ah the bustling market-heart of 18th century Paris. It looks positively alive in Assassin's Creed Unity, but frustratingly, it bears little resemblance to a DVD of Body Heat. Note how not even a single French peasant looks anything like William Hurt, or a plastic DVD box with a sleeve insert. Are you even trying, Ubi?

Page 4 of 10
Page 4 of 10
Versailles vs Cillit Bang

Versailles vs Cillit Bang

The palace at Versailles is the beating heart of French royal life, and in AC Unity, it's wonderfully detailed inside and out. We explored it for several minutes before realising that it in no way resembles a bottle of Cillit Bang. NO amount of opulent curtains and gold chandeliers can disguise the fact that it looks nothing like cheap floor cleaner.

Page 5 of 10
Page 5 of 10
Bievres vs a bag of crisps

Bievres vs a bag of crisps

Ah Bievres - the merchant district of Paris on the left bank of the river Seine. In Unity it's stuffed full of traders and and shipping equipment, quite unlike this bag of Walkers cheese and onion crisps, which contains only fried potato snacks. Such a wasted opportunity.

Page 6 of 10
Page 6 of 10
Louvre vs Mise En Scene

Louvre vs Mise En Scene

Ah-ha! Got a good feeling about this one, because both of these things have French names. And, after spending some time wandering around the famous artistic district of Paris, we did start to notice some similarities to the cinematic device of mise en scene. Well done, AC team!

Page 7 of 10
Page 7 of 10
The Bastille vs Lou Diamond Phillips

The Bastille vs Lou Diamond Phillips

After the success with 'Mise En Scene', we had high hopes for this one. However, after running around it for half an hour, we just couldn't see any similarities between Paris' notorious prison, and '90s bit-part actor Lou Diamond Phillips. Shame - we'd love to see the bastille starring alongside Emilio Esteves in Young Guns.

Page 8 of 10
Page 8 of 10
Versailles vs the 1991 Chicago Bulls

Versailles vs the 1991 Chicago Bulls

No. Even after scouring the inside of the French palace, we have to concede that it looks absolutely nothing like the hugely successful 1991 Chicago Bulls franchise. At one point, we thought we saw Scottie Pippen hiding behind a chaise-lounge, but it wasn't him.

Page 9 of 10
Page 9 of 10
Wait - didn't you use this outro slide before?

Wait - didn't you use this outro slide before?

Here are some things. 8 zero-point achievements that will make you cry, and winners of the 32nd annual Golden Joystick Awards.

Page 10 of 10
Page 10 of 10
CATEGORIES
PC Gaming PS4 Xbox One Platforms PlayStation Xbox
Chet Manly
Chet Manly
Chet cut his gaming teeth on PSone, then advocated multi-console love before it was cool to do so. He still claims Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 is the best game ever made, and swears he can "do all the tricks for real".
Read more
Assassin's Creed Shadows cinematic screenshot
Best Assassin's Creed games, ranked from worst to best
 
 
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's Gustave in a French-inspired outfit
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 lead says "it would be harder to embrace our Frenchness even more" unless Sandfall "put snails and frogs everywhere in the next game"
 
 
Best of 2025: Assassin's Creed Shadows
"We are hard to beat": 9 months since Assassin's Creed Shadows, its associate director looks back on what makes this RPG the best in series history
 
 
Promotional image for Assassin's Creed Shadows Attack on Titan crossover.
Assassin's Creed Shadows' Attack on Titan crossover gets a kicking over lack of Titan fights, "atrocious" cutscenes, and an ending pop-up "telling you to go to the store and buy the outfit instead"
 
 
Assassin's Creed Shadows x Attack on Titan
Assassin's Creed Shadows' Attack on Titan crossover is downright "whacky," says stun-locked Origins actor: "I thought the FF and Origins mashup was borderline mad"
 
 
Assassins Creed Mirage
Assassin's Creed Mirage's free Valley of Memory DLC has "more than six hours of gameplay," and Ubisoft says making it was a challenge because most of the setting's historical record has been "lost to time"
 
 
Latest in Assassin's Creed
Watching a whale from a pirate's ship in Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag
Assassin's Creed: Black Flag remake appears to be all but confirmed
 
 
Assassin's Creed Shadows x Attack on Titan
Assassin's Creed Shadows' Attack on Titan crossover is downright "whacky," says stun-locked Origins actor: "I thought the FF and Origins mashup was borderline mad"
 
 
Assassin's Creed: Black Flag remake reveal could be imminent, fan theory suggests, as Steam updates could point to Ubisoft being up to something following recent release window rumors
 
 
Assassin's Creed Shadows screenshot showing Yasuke kneeling and praying while wearing a traditional purple robe
Assassin's Creed Shadows backlash won't stop Ubisoft from going down the dual-protagonist route in the future "if we have a good reason to do it"
 
 
Assassin's Creed Shadows review gameplay showing Yasuke overlooking the sea and lush green scenery
Assassin's Creed Shadows lead teases "things that are set up" in the open-world RPG "should keep happening in other projects and evolve" thanks to the Animus Hub
 
 
Assassin's Creed Shadows
Assassin's Creed Shadows associate director has a hot tip for the next Ubisoft studio taking on the franchise: "Pay more attention to parkour as its own pillar"
 
 
Latest in Features
A medieval town with a cathedral and thatched houses in Total War: Medieval 3 concept art
Total War's new engine will power Medieval 3, put the series on console, and let mods thrive: "We're playing long-term"
 
 
Arrow keys of Endgame Gear keyboard with keycaps and switches removed
2025 may have been the year the Hall effect keyboard went mainstream, but 2026 will be the year it flourishes
 
 
Photo of the Legend of Zelda Sidon amiibo sitting in the branches of a Christmas tree.
Amiibo make the perfect stocking presents, here's where to get every Switch 2 figure
 
 
Despelote screenshot featuring a kid kicking a ball with GamesRadar+ Best of 2025 badge in upper right
From Despelote to Ooo, the best games under 2 hours of 2025 are truly timely
 
 
Arian S Cartaya, Clara Stack and Amanda Christine on their bikes in It: Welcome to Derry
I've fallen in love with It: Welcome to Derry's new Losers, so it sucks that season 2 will be set before they were born
 
 
Gaming books stacked on a wooden desk with Fallout and Pokemon figures on top
These are the gaming books you need to read this holiday season, from my shelf to yours
 
 
  1. Key art for Skate Story showing the glass skater boarding through a dark underworld filled with spikes towards a door of light
    1
    Skate Story review: "A beautiful and unique skateboarding game with great, stylized visuals set in a grungy underworld"
  2. 2
    Octopath Traveler 0 review: "The strongest entry in this retro-styled JRPG series yet, I love the greater focus on tactical battles"
  3. 3
    Sleep Awake review: "An all-timer horror premise is let down by tired stealth that I feel like I'm sleepwalking through"
  4. 4
    Metroid Prime 4: Beyond review: "The series' atmosphere has never been better, while being dragged down by a boring overworld and clunky psychic powers"
  5. 5
    Routine review: "This imperfect but wonderfully atmospheric moon-based horror leaves a strong impression"
  1. Freddy Fazbear in Five Nights at Freddy's 2
    1
    Five Nights at Freddy's 2 review: "We have waited two years for a Five Nights at Freddy's 1.5"
  2. 2
    Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery review: "Brings Knives Out back to its roots for a sequel that's almost on a par with the original"
  3. 3
    Wicked: For Good review: "Builds to an incredibly cathartic conclusion, but isn't quite as captivating as Part 1"
  4. 4
    The Running Man review: "Some fun action and Glen Powell's star power aren't enough to energize this disappointing Stephen King adaptation"
  5. 5
    Predator: Badlands review: "Die-hard fans may be disappointed, but as a blockbuster action-adventure, Badlands kills it"
  1. Noah Schnapp as Will Byers and Jamie Campbell Bower as Vecna in Stranger Things season 5
    1
    Stranger Things season 5 volume 1 review: “Can the Duffer brothers stick the landing? It’s sure looking like they will”
  2. 2
    Pluribus season 1 review: "Easily one of the year's best dramas"
  3. 3
    The Witcher season 4 review: "The Henry Cavill-less fourth season is the best yet"
  4. 4
    IT: Welcome to Derry review: "A supremely confident step back into the history of Stephen King's cursed town and killer clown"
  5. 5
    Splinter Cell: Deathwatch review: "A pale imitation of the long-dormant stealth franchise"

GamesRadar+ is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

Add as a preferred source on Google
  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Review guidelines
  • Write for us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...