The advertising team behind Assassin's Creed Unity has frequently made reference to the game's enormous reproduction of Paris' iconic Notre Dame cathedral. The in-game model is certainly detailed, but the details aren't necessarily accurate. Copyright and gameplay concerns have turned the in-game reproduction into its own unique version of the cathedral.
Get To Know Three Of The Districts That Unity's Paris Will Have To Offer
The UbiBlog went behind the scenes of the in-game cathedral and talked to its chief designer, Senior Level Artist Caroline Miousse. In the interview, she notes the handful of places where the in-game model isn't exactly historically accurate.
One of these areas is the cathedral's spire. Though the building is better known for its two rectangular towers, the spire forms the highest point of Notre Dame. In the time of the French Revolution, the spire was wooden. The stone and metal construction that can be seen in the game was added to the top of the cathedral later.
Edge Shaving Gel Is Offering Exclusive Unity Gear For People Who Buy Their Shaving Gel
Rather than reproducing the boring wooden spire, the level designers cheated a little bit and put in the stone spire during the revolution, a few decades before it was actually constructed. This not only gave the cathedral a better aesthetic but also gave players something fun to climb, a central aspect of Assassin's Creed gameplay.
Gameplay is the reason behind a bunch of not-quite-accurate additions the level designers threw into Notre Dame. For the sake of letting the player get around efficiently, the exterior needed to be covered with plenty of handholds and areas that could be utilized for quick climbing. On the interior, cables and incense burners were added so that Arno could safely traverse the inside of the cathedral without touching the ground.
Interestingly enough, copyright issues also prevented the exact reproduction of Notre Dame. Miousse gives the example of the cathedral's pipe organ, whose image is copyrighted. So instead of a perfect reproduction, we get a close lookalike that is heavily inspired by the real thing.
Assassin's Creed Unity and its almost accurate Notre Dame will hit PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC systems on November 11.
