Ubisoft is giving away Assassin’s Creed Unity for free today, in the hopes that players will get to experience a somewhat scaled-down yet still intact Notre Dame.
The whole world watched in shock last Monday as the historical cathedral of Notre Dame burned down, its centuries of history and culture going up in flames. After the despair and mourning, efforts to rebuild were raised, and one of the key figures to raise up to the challenge was also one of the unlikeliest: French video game company Ubisoft.
The city of Paris was featured as the extensive setting to one of Ubisoft’s key titles five years ago, Assassin’s Creed Unity, which is also the eighth major installment in their highly successful Assassin’s Creed series. It featured one of the best model works in the series, and a large number of real world landmarks like the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral and the Statue of Liberty can be found within the game. The Notre Dame itself, in particular, took Ubisoft artist Caroline Miousse two years to complete.
The detail that went into the recreation of the Notre Dame cathedral leads some people to believe that it may help with the cathedral’s rebuilding process. The idea is that the artists and architects involved in the restoration process might use the game’s painstakingly detailed 3D model as a guide, which does make some sense. However, it’s up for debate how much of the model could work, seeing as it’s not a perfect replica and is more or less scaled down for obvious graphical limitations.
Ubisoft goes on to state the following in a post:
When we created Assassin's Creed Unity, we developed an even closer connection with this incredible city and its landmarks – one of the most notable elements of the game was the extraordinary recreation of Notre-Dame.
Video games can enable us to explore places in ways we never could have otherwise imagined. We hope, with this small gesture, we can provide everyone an opportunity to appreciate our virtual homage to this monumental piece of architecture.
Assassin’s Creed Unity will be free to download and play for PC on the Uplay store until April 25. Ubisoft has also donated €500,000 towards the cathedral’s restoration efforts, and encourages everyone who is interested to donate as well.
