Assassin’s Creed: Unity – Is Arno really the deadliest killer in the Assassin’s Creed series?

Ubisoft is marketing the new assassin Arno Dorian from the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Unity game as the deadliest assassins yet. Is this rooted in reality gameplay wise, or are his skills being exaggerated as a sales pitch?

While I’m all for the new introduction of new Assassins that all bring something bigger and better to the table in terms of combat, parkour and stealth skills, I’m not all convinced that Arno is any better or deadlier than his playable ancestors. Arno reminds us what it means to be hidden in plain sight, becoming a hidden blade in the crowd that’s very reminiscent of the old days with Altair. But does that make him any better than ANY assassin that predates the French Revolution as Ubisoft suggests?

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Sure Arno’s a force to be reckoned with, introducing a new fencing fighting style that cuts down foes in a flashy, classy and efficient manner, but what about Ezio? For every stab that finds it’s mark from Arno’s rapier, Ezio delivered an equally impressive and calculative killing blow from his hidden pistol. Also Ezio could horse assassinate people and pretty much introduced the double air assault. We haven’t even seen Arno pull of the iconic air assassination yet, but somehow he’s deadlier.

How can Arno be a deadlier match than the brutal animal that was Connor? In an interview with the lead game designer Alex Pedneault, which is posted on the Ubisoft website, he stated that if Arno went up against more than 3 enemies, his skills would be pushed to the limit and often running and hiding turns out to be the best option. Also the overpowered “counter kill” has been removed, rendering one hit kills much harder for Arno to accomplish. While I love the more focused emphasis on stealth, these tweaks to combat do not make Arno’s combat skills superior to those of Altair, Ezio, Edward and most certainly Connor.

“It is much harder to kill NPC’s right away,” said Pedneault. “Gone are the days where you can take on an entire army!”

I remember killing troves of British Templars with Connor’s tomahawk and rope-dart, filling the streets and lining the trees with bodies. Then there’s Arno, who judging by the co-op gameplay, needs three of his buddies to help him accomplish half of the savagery that Connor was able to pull off alone.

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But wait! Arno sports a new weapon, the Phantom Blade, the likes of which are allegedly brand new in the Assassin’s Creed Universe. Wrong again. So Arno has a long range stealth weapon in the form of a wrist mounted crossbow. How is that better than Ezio crossbow, or Edward’s blow-dart? Heck, Altair could silently kills a guard with a knife thrown from a rooftop away. And that’s with his bare hands, un-aided by some fancy wrist mechanism.

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Arno is also being described as more clever, brash and charismatic than anybody before. What were Ezio and Edward then, socially inept half-wits? I’m pretty sure Edwards puzzle solving skills and Ezio’s womanizing personality would give Arno a run for his money. Maybe if Arno actually had a French accent he could swoon as many women as the smooth Italian drawl of Ezio.

The only area and skill set I foresee Arno excelling at is his parkour. Hailing from France, the perfectors of the acrobatic point a-to-b traversal style, Arno seems to be the most agile assassin yet. Arno’s climbing abilities don’t seem to be plagued by moments I had with Ezio that included missing a leap of faith and falling to my death. Capable of wall jumps and an athletically mind-blowing method of controlled descent, Arno might have been able to outrun our previous assassins, but certainly not kill them without a long struggle that might end in failure. Keep your smoke bombs handy assassins, playing as Arno, you might actually need them.

So what do you guys think? Judging by the most recent E3 trailers and demos, is Arno really our deadliest assassin yet, or is this just an exaggerated sales pitch from Ubisoft, intending to increase hype for the upcoming game? Let us know in the comments below, or on Twitter @FrancisFlisiuk and @Fanbolt.

Responses

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  1. “I remember killing troves of British Templars with Connor’s tomahawk ”

    True , but was Connor truly an assassin , an hidden blade , or wasnt he mostly just butchering those in plain sight ?
    He wasnt really the most stealthy of the bunch , and that’s ok , he didnt need to be … and outside of trees , the landscape didnt offer much in that art .

    Ezio now was a master assassin , even without the gadgets , and so was Altair . But it’s early to judge the hype positively or negatively , based on simple demo of the coop

  2. You can’t judge the characters based on game-play mechanics. For example, you can’t claim Arno is not as talented in combat because he no longer has the counter ability. This was a feature revamped because it provided stale gameplay – a feature that would probably not exist in the past titles as well if they were designed today. Ezio’s double assassin was an introduction of a gameplay feature – not something Ezio invented.

    The only valid way of judging whether Arno is the deadliest assassin is by analyzing the story surrounding him as well as his character. Connor lacked finesse in his combat abilities as he did not receive the proper training as the other assassins. Ezio’s ability was of similar fashion if we compare the assassin’s by age groups (of course he later became a master through years of being an assassin – which is not something we can compare to Arno at this time). Altair was a born and breed assassin who can very well contest Arno for the title of the deadliest Assassin.

    We should also bear in mind that combat skills does not define deadly. In the trailer, Arno is introduced as an assassin with multiple ways of causing death. He is known for his cleverness and stealth both of which opens up his horizon to kill a person. A deadly assassin isn’t somebody fights well but somebody who can strike death in the most effective manner.

  3. ‘Deadly’ is judged by how effectively one can strike an enemy.In this case,it’s Arno-he has the disguise skill to blend among guards,do previous assassins have that? Plus,his ways of kill are stealthy,clean and effective like agent 47 making kills look like accidents-doesn’t that qualify him as deadlier than any assassin before?

    1. yeah, after playing the game, I find myself cursing Arno for his incompetence. I can’t control when to use the hidden blade, he can’t dive when swimming, reckless parkour which I usually end up where I’m not supposed to, need two poison smoke bomb to just take down single target, limited time eagle vision, he can’t survive without tools in a fight. And the list goes on…

  4. Are you the one who made the game. No I didn’t think so. So you can have your opinion but Arno is awesome. For a matter of fact he can do an air assassination

  5. I don’t think he’s the deadliest in combat, but I think he is the most effective. His superior stealth and parkour make him more of a force that is felt but not seen.

  6. Well, Arno is like Ezio+Altair in one, and this is like Assassin’s Creed 2, Remember when Ezio started to become an Assassin when he was at his young adult years? Well Arno might even surpass those two. Arno is clever, superiority in stealth and parkour makes him even more deadlier. Its not all about the kills, its about on “How to Kill efficiently”

  7. I have played all the games of assassin’s creed and I think that Arno Dorian is much much better than any other assassin. He can control his emotions whereas Connor just can’t control his anger. If we compare the story of Arno with the stories of other assassins, everything was reality in Arno’s story but if you see connor’s story, nobody can have animal spirits and with altair & ezio, there is nothing called the apple of eden!!!

    Now You See!!!!

  8. Connor is more pure anger, he kills with his brutallity and tomohawk and archer skills.

    Edward is like detective pirate with two swords and many pistols he can kill like 4 people with only pistols skilled man.

    Ezio is a assassin legend and master with stealth aprouch and charisma with hidden pistol and stealth.

    Altair is grand master and a legend kills with knifes from a distance and uses stealth master of sword.

    Arno is with parkour skills and good thinking good with swords and other weapons and his phantom blade and smoke bombs.

    So there is almost nothing much to say they all have there own skill and battle aprouch for someone it maybe Arno,Edward, or Ezio the best assassin so everyone has there opinion.