That said, it's not the crowds that give this game its unusual quality - it's the tiny, intricate, nuanced details of the individuals. The streets here are filled almost to bursting with hundreds of people, protesting, demonstrating and generally revolting against the ruling nobility and church. It didn't take me long before I stopped actually playing Unity in the sense of collecting things or driving the plot forward, and would find myself just standing, staring at individual Parisians who seemed to be living their lives in the virtual space around me. I didn't expect to be swept up with revolutionary zeal, either - and of a far more topical nature than anything that pertains to rich king Louis and his spoiled family.
What I didn't for a second count on was finding a level of detail in the animations of the citizens of this embattled city that verges on beautiful lunacy. Yes, there are lots of fabulous buildings to crawl all over in Ubisoft's condensed and hectic Paris, and there are plenty of powder-wigged heads to lop from shoulders, but none of that is a surprise. Instead of gaping, skinless nobility and Benny Hill chases, I found a game that is utterly astonishing in other ways - if not quite for the reasons that games often astonish. My winter was assassin-free however, so, by chance, I came to Unity fresh, long after the game had been blessed with over 300 bug fixes. I suspect a lot of Unity disks ended up as coasters as a result. Ubisoft's swing at revolutionary Paris felt half-finished on release, less Les Miserables and more just plain miserable. If you played Assassin's Creed Unity at launch, you'll probably know what I'm talking about, just as you'll know about highly-trained killers who like to run on the spot for no good reason and Nobles of the Robe who are apt to collapse on the floor in rubbery puddles mid-conversation, like discarded Halloween costumes. You can also do this without the smoke bomb but I found it extremely annoying when you would try to charge up your sweep only to have the guards continuosly hit you and break your attack.There's something about playing a character whose face consists of nothing more than floating eyes and teeth that will pull you right out of your immersion. When you release it you will do a 360 degree sweep and should take out all the guards around you and get you the achievement. Hold down x until you lift the spear above your head. Hit down on your D-pad to switch to unarmed and hit B to pick up the spear again. When you change your weapon status to smoke bomb, you may drop your long weapon so make sure not to move. Once five or more guards are trying to attack you drop a smoke bomb when they are in close to you. If you can get both groups to engage you that is ideal as you need more than the typical sized group for this achievement. Ideally you can find a group guarding a door with another group walking around nearby. Now start a fight with a group of guards. (Down on the D-pad) and hit the B button to pick up his weapon.
Once he drops his weapon switch your weapon stats to unarmed.
Go to any city and find a guard with a spear (pike?) and kill him. Once you get trained in Monteriggioni by the highlighted trainer by your villa (the man down the stairs from your estate), go to the blacksmith and fill up your smoke bombs.