Ubisoft’s lets gamers experience Notre Dame with free PC copy of Assassin’s Creed Unity

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On Monday, the heart of Paris, nay, the heart of France, the exquisite Notre Dame Cathedral went up in flames. It’ll be a long time before it gets restored to its prior glory, if at all, so in the meantime, Ubisoft has stepped up to let you experience the majesty of Notre Dame inside the Assassin’s Creed game, Unity. The PC version of the game is currently free to download and keep, and you’ve got until April 25 to claim your copy.

It’s a nice gesture from the game publisher, who has its global headquarters in a Paris suburb that’s only a stone’s throw from the cathedral. While developing Unity, the company spent a huge amount of time in Paris, and inside Notre Dame in particular, which is recreated in painstaking detail. While a few minor tweaks were made to ensure the playability, the cathedral is more-or-less accurate inside the game. The artist in charge of the in-game design spent two full years working on just the cathedral, to ensure it not just looked right but also felt like the real thing.

Those two years looks well-spent now, with the digital reconstruction likely to be a boon to the French government once they start the restoration effort

Ubisoft has also pledged half-a-million Euros to the reconstruction fund, joining the list of billionaires, world governments and other notables that want to ensure the cathedral is restored to its past glory.

We stand in solidarité with our fellow Parisians and everyone around the world moved by the devastation the fire caused

With that reconstruction effort likely to take years, if not decades, the virtual representation of Paris in the French Revolution inside Unity might be the closest anyone gets to stepping foot inside the Notre Dame cathedral. Almost a millennium worth of history went up in smoke on Monday, mitigated only slightly by the fact that major artworks had already been moved out for safekeeping while the prior restoration efforts were underway.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.