Assassin�s Creed Syndicate is arriving this fall as the ninth major installment in the
historical action adventure series, and promises to be among the best.
Syndicate looks like it's taking the action from the best games of the franchise.
Combining the open world stealth aspects we love from the series and adding some interesting
new gameplay aspects.
New weapons, new traversal, and new characters.
Let's look at the top 10 reasons why you should be excited about Assassin�s Creed Syndicate.
Dual characters Every Assassin�s Creed protagonist has been
a bad ass killing machine, but with Syndicate Ubisoft decided to give us two for the price
of one.
Jacob and Evie are not your typical pair of arguing siblings, instead they are a potent
team working together to bring down the Templars� nefarious plot to control Victorian London.
This brother and sister team can be used throughout the game, with players able to switch between
characters at will.
Some missions are specifically tailored to either Jacob or Evie, which is just as well,
because these two have very different ways of going about their roles.
Jacob likes to get up close and personal; a seasoned brawler who prefers to melee attack
and get things done with brute force.
Evie on the other hand is stealthy, using subtle tactics and sometimes even avoiding
getting into direct fights during gameplay.
Make no mistake, while Jacob and Evie have their preferred methods, both are capable
of changing things up� Jacob can operate in the shadows and Evie can take out a band
of bad guys with ease, not to mention a touch of brutal flair.
What better than two new protagonists that can be used at any time?
Both Jacob and Evie have the potential to match some of the best protagonists in the
series, joining the likes of Ezio Auditore and Connor Kenway as classic characters.
Brawling While the bulk of gameplay demos we have seen
so far have showed off the open world, stealth kills, and new travel systems, we have also
been treated to extensive glimpses of combat within Syndicate.
Ubisoft has revamped the combat mechanics and brought everything up close, which means
fist to fist brawling.
Melee combat is definitely a major part of Assassin�s Creed Syndicate, with Jacob engaging
in hand to hand brawls on the streets of London.
Because combat is much closer you can pull off some spectacular skirmishes with players
able to engage in really brutal confrontations.
Brawling plays a role in combat like never before in the series, with multiple enemies
able to engage Jacob at once.
This means you have to be far more tactical in your approach, even if you are just using
hand to hand combat.
You can use stun maneuvers to slow one enemy down while you focus on another, or even employ
weapons such as throwing knives and a small pistol to take out a foe.
This new brawling dynamic promises to bring a new challenging level to simple combat,
giving players a real sense of reward even for the most casual of enemies.
Brass Knuckles The streets of 1868 London are fairly gritty,
so you will often have to play dirty if you are to survive in this sometimes hostile city.
Luckily Ubisoft has equipped Jacob with an array of deadly weapons, and not all of them
are the elegant instruments we have come to expect from the Assassin�s Creed franchise.
Enter the brass knuckles, Jacob�s extra bite for laying that added hurt on an enemy.
As the weapons demo so eloquently put, when a punch to the face just isn�t enough.
Not something you may say to yourself too often, but in Jacob�s world it is perfectly
normal.
The knuckles can be used up close in brawls and melee fights, or can be utilized from
range for a slow-mo kill.
Those types of take downs are a part of the Assassin�s Creed fame, but Jacob replaces
a blade with brass knuckles, showing once again that he is more of a dirty fighter than
previous protagonists.
Mobile Hiding Spots If you have played in the open worlds of previous
Assassin�s Creed titles, you probably know the urge to go full Grand Theft Auto is often
there.
In Syndicate, Ubisoft has upped that desire a notch or two by including fully useable
horse drawn carriages.
Sure, there are no cars here, this is 19th century London after-all, but you can use
carriages in a myriad of useful ways.
The cool factor is really added to, with players able to steal a horse drawn carriage to tear
around the streets of the city, either for no apparent reason or for missions.
The carriages are far more than just an amusing distraction though, they play a big part in
gameplay.
Exciting chases unfold in the story where you will have to hop from carriage to carriage
along busy streets in pursuit of a villain.
You can also engage in combat on top of the carriages and the action loses none of the
dynamics you encounter while fighting it out on ground level.
Lastly, while slugging it out on a carriage or joy riding around London certainly have
their benefits, it is also possible to travel around in carriages, making mission points
easier to reach.
Hallucination Darts We have seen poison darts used in the Assassin�s
Creed series before, but Syndicate will introduce a new weapon to the arsenal.
Hallucinogenic darts are a definite upgrade over anything we have seen before in this
department and do pretty much what their name suggests.
The darts can be used to fire into a crowd of miscreants, dispersing the hallucinogenic
agent around the enemies, causing them to attack each other in the confusion.
While your opponents are slaying each other, you can step in and wipe them out with greater
ease� all thanks to a single dart.
30% bigger world Easily one of the most exciting features about
Assassin�s Creed Syndicate is the environment itself.
Ubisoft has recreated London at the height of the Industrial Revolution and it is a marvel
to behold.
Gritty and beautiful, this is the most realized open world in the franchise so far, while
also being comfortably the biggest.
Syndicate�s London is 30% bigger than Paris in Assassins Creed Unity and during the game
you can explore six boroughs within this vast sprawl.
As a fully realized and functioning city, you will be able to navigate through different
neighbourhoods, ranging from rich to poor, while also being able to take to the rooftops.
Of course, bringing parkour skills to an environment is a standard trope in the Assassin�s Creed
history, but Syndicate will take it to the next level.
You can traverse London on foot as if you are a superhero, we are thinking in the vein
of Batman, making a mockery of physics along the way we should add.
Just like the Dark Knight, the open world really can become your playground and it looks
as though plenty of cheap thrills will be had just running around this city doing basically
nothing.
Carriages allow you to move across the city faster if you want, whether you ride in one
or steal one� we know which one looks more fun.
Cane Sword Ubisoft has really gone to town with new weaponry
for Assassin�s Creed Syndicate and the Cane Sword is arguably the most exciting new addition.
Looking like a rook topped walking aid, this is actually a scary tool of death which has
been revealed in gameplay trailers to be a brutal weapon.
Players can engage enemies with the cane, using it as a blunt tool for bludgeoning,
before whipping out the sheathed sword for a kill.
Alternatively, you can just use the sword straight away to carve through the evil masses.
The Cane Sword will also be made available through tie-in merchandise, so you can actually
own one of these things, although hopefully not for the same purposes as Jacob.
Zip Lining We�ve already mentioned that carriages can
be used to travel around London, and that Parkour still plays a huge part in the way
the characters move.
However, Syndicate really changes the way we get around in an Assassin�s Creed game
and will give Jacob and Evie more scope of movement than we have ever seen in the series
before.
They can grapple up buildings and use a new zip line to zip from point to point on the
map, which means you can basically move fluidly around the city and hardly have to stop.
Earlier we compared the movement to the Batman Arkham series and that seems to be a fair
comparison.
We will say that Assassin�s Creed Syndicate seems to be more restrictive, this is not
a superhero title after-all, but nevertheless the freedom of movement now seems a notch
above what we have seen before.
The zip line and rope launcher mean that there are not many places in the city that are off
limits, and that includes the tops of carriages, with players able to zip directly onto the
top of a moving vehicle.
Gang System One of the main objectives through the story
of Syndicate is for Jacob to amass a small army of followers from London�s underground
and back streets, forming an uprising against those pesky Templars.
As you try to win back London borough by borough, you will position gang strongholds around
the city where you can engage in various activities, such as fight clubs, and freeing women and
children from slum factories.
Being a dedicated gang leader will get you the attention of the Templars, who you can
then wage war upon.
You will have to take control of gangs first though, and to do that you will have to engage
in a gang war against a character called Bloody Nora.
With your gang you can move around the city in groups of five and enter into brawls and
sneak attacks to wrestle more control over the city.
The gang battles are very brutal and reminded us of scenes from Gangs of New York, so expect
plenty of punches thrown and plenty of weapons finding targets with realistic accuracy.
Kukri Weapon You simply cannot walk around a modern city
carrying a sword, not that we�ve ever tried.
Previous protagonists in older time periods carried swords as their primary weapons in
Assassin�s Creed games, but in Victorian London it is not possible, so Jacob and Evie
have to be more creative.
Enter the Kukri, a Nepalese knife that Jacob uses to inflict serious harm upon his enemies.
Of course, we actually mean he inflicts serious death upon his enemies, because the Kukri
is a concealed killing machine, and is used to deadly effect up close.
Yes, carrying a twelve inch blade is no better than a sword, but it is concealed and looks
so cool when the shit hits the fan and Jacob starts cutting through enemies.
What are your favorite features in Syndicate?
Let us know in the comments.
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