The infamous Assassin's Creed series returns and this time it's in London during the industrial
revolution.
Welcome to the skilled channel and today we're looking at Syndicate.
Syndicate introduces a new brother and sister duo, Jacob and Evie, as they take over London
one slash at a time.
But does Syndicate make up for the mistakes of last year's game?
Let's find out in the Assassin's Creed Syndicate review.
Story Syndicate takes place in 1868 at the end of
the Industrial Revolution.
Twin sibilings Jacob and Evie Frye arrive in London to take it back from the Templar
control.
They begin building their own gang called the Rooks along with help from Henry Green
an acquaintance of their father.
Jacob and Evie have different opinions on how to take over London.
Jacob wants brute force with his enemies and making tricky alliances with the right people.
While Evie's approach is much more conservative and she becomes infatuated with finding the
Piece Of Eden which is actually the key to controlling London.
You can definitely sense the sibling rivalry straight from the opening scenes.
The brother-sister relationship is exaggerated be cause of the fact that they are assassins.
They're also both cocky and charismatic in their own way.
Especially Jacob.
He may be the most charismatic character in the series since Ezio.
What's also interesting is seeing our brave protagonists interact with historical figures.
Some of the main missions and side missions are directly tied into helping these characters
with events in their own timelines of history so it's interesting to watch it unfold.
There's still the present day story of Abstergo researching these Assassins, but the present
day story is becoming more and more convoluted.
The Abstergo ending, which I won't spoil, is really ridiculous.
Luckily there's very few scenes about present day and the focus is on the best part of the
game, the Assassins.
Gameplay 1868 London is a belligerent place and the
gameplay reflects that.
It's different from previous games in the AC series.
Everything is oriented towards close quarter combat.
The primary weapons are a cane sword, brass knuckles, and a machete sized sword.
There's no long swords in the game, which is a strong departure from traditional AC
weapons.
But everything else also reflects the move towards brawling.
Fighting is more confrontational if you aren't stealthing.
The game puts a strong emphasis to fight enemies head on and counter or break attacks.
When you are playing as Jacob, sometimes your ego can get the best of you and you'll be
more likely to go in loud rather than stealthy.
Areas are a little more compact.
Recruiting NPCs are for helping you fight as opposed to older games which used NPCs
for stealth.
The territorial nature of taking over the boroughs of London is settled with a formal,
but brutal gang fight.
That doesn't mean stealth isn't present, all the features and approaches are there.
You can stealth every mission if you want.
Especially if you are playing as Evie, but this game definitely mixes up the gameplay
more.
The rope launcher is another new feature that helps the game in a big way.
The rope launcher let's you zipline up or across, cutting down on the amount of tedious
climbing.
Climbing is still incredibly important but those dull moments of having to go up and
down buildings to close certain gaps are gone.
It also offers Batman like opportunities where you can drop in on an opponent and escape
quickly.
Or drop down on them from the middle of a zipline.
Two playable protagonist is a first for the Assassins Creed series and although it's interesting
it's not groundbreaking like having multiple protagonists was in Grand Theft Auto V. So
Jacob is supposed to be the brawler and Evie is the eloquent stealth Assassin, but both
characters feel the same until you get to later levels.
In fact both characters are capable of using all three of the main weapons.
When you max out your character skills that's when you get exclusive abilities and weapons
that the other character can't use.
The game progresses both characters at the same time as far as experience and equipment,
but you get to designate which skills you rank up on each one.
I'm glad it works that way, because it doesn't add the grind of leveling two separate characters.
The way the missions are laid out, you'll probably be using the two characters equally.
Graphics & Setting The AC series has always been strong on painting
a detailed picture of history and this one is no different.
London looks a bit dreary on first impression, but the city is very alive.
There's dense downtown areas with commerce and train stations that are filled with commuting
citizens.
There's plenty of smoke stacks and new technology that let's you know that the city is booming.
One interesting thing about the game is that your home base is a train that's always moving
throughout the city.
And that's pretty unique.
Syndicate still maintains the ability to see far into distance from high points, the realistic
portrayal of historical characters in cutscenes, and swift action.
I did experience moments of slowdown on the PS4 version, but your mileage may vary.
Sound The score of Syndicate isn't amazing, but
it is noticeable.
Sometimes there's somber moments when traversing the city by yourself.
And other times classical music will pickup during chase scenes.
Negatives We all saw the numerous glitch videos for
the previous game AC Unity.
Ubisoft themselves even admitted their mistakes in interviews and even in the preview trailer
for this game.
My personal experience in this game was that unfortunately there were glitches, but not
to the extant that people online are exaggerating about.
Sometimes traversing would have weird animations.
Sometimes stabbing guys with the blade did not animate correctly.
But nothing was game breaking.
Be careful with sensationalism in the gaming news.
I've seen reviews for this game that say it's a buggy mess and they give it a 5 out of 10.
While others praise it for being a return to form for the series like Gamespot's Review
that gives it a 9.
Use reviews for information and make your own decision, don't let sensationalism in
the media dictate your opinion.
Are there any other negatives about the game?
Well it's more of the same.
And that's something I'm really beginning to take issue with in this series.
I'm not usually against more of the same if the sequel is something special and it's not
annualized.
Like look at Super Mario Galaxy 2.
It's almost the same thing as the first game, but both games are still unique and enjoyable
in a library of games.
But when it comes to Assassin's Creed we have had at least 1 game in the series annually
since 2007.
It starts to become a sea of the same game with only incremental improvements.
It's become extremely predictable.
With other open world games offering major advances in gameplay like GTA 5, Phantom Pain,
or The Witcher 3 what incentive would someone have to play yet another Assassin's Creed
game?
Final Verdict It's always fun to slash, stab, and punch
enemies in style.
And trust me, I love sword play in games.
But Syndicate delivers a lot more of the same game with a few technical issues.
It's a good game, it's enjoyable.
But it's probably the type of game that you want to buy on sale.
Especially if you are thinking about picking it up this holiday with a highly competitive
lineup.
AC Syndicate receives a 7.5 out of 10.
It's still fun, it's a great re-imaging of London in the industrial revolution, and Jacob
and Evie may be the most charismatic characters we've seen since Ezio in AC 2.
What do you think about the Assassin's Creed series?
And what kind of historical setting would you want to see in the future?
Let us know in the comments.
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