Assassin's Creed Syndicate

Assassin's Creed Syndicate is the ninth main entry in the series since the franchise debut in 2007, and the first I've put my hands on since Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag in early 2014. Playing through, it was difficult to take what Syndicate had to offer and where it executes it's ideas well without looking to the past and comparing it to other entries in the series. Whereas Black Flag was a major departure from the traditional open world Ubisoft is fond of creating, Syndicate (without the context of 2014's Unity) feels like a return to form that no one was really asking for. For every improvement on the mechanics, some other portion of them has been hamstrung, and it continues the narrative of a series that is spinning it's tires without being an outright offensive experience -- just a tired, already well tread one.

Set in 1868 against Victorian London, the story inside the Animus follows Assassin siblings Jacob and Evie Frye as they wrench free the city from Templar control, while the story outside of the modern Assassin's struggle with Abstergo, Templars and a remnant of an ancient civilization is conveyed through canned cutscenes between memory sequences. Nothing about the story of the modern day has felt essential since the death of Desmond Miles and nothing about Assassin's Creed Syndicate makes it any different. Your character has been reduced down to a cipher known as "The Initiate," and your only job is to get in the Animus and live out the story of whoever they tell you to in order to locate ancient artifacts. It's all been boiled down to a justification to put you into the past -- as it always has been -- but it's never felt more apparent than with how little agency you have. 19th century London is serviceable, but it's feels as much as template as ever. You'll go into the past, you'll interact with historical characters in distress such as Charles Dickens and Charles Darwin who will give you some side missions to accomplish, you'll climb some monuments and gather some collectibles -- all building into literally hundreds of text entries in a database, should you want to dive into it. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad... it's just that they've done it before. Again. And again. And again.

Traversing this world is one of the highlights of Assassin's Creed Syndicate. Addressing issues of mobility that have plagued past entries, Ubisoft Quebec ensures you have a whole slew of methods at your disposal. Horse drawn carriages able to be hijacked fill the streets, turning a mundane run across London into chaotic experience as you barrel through lamp posts, merchant stalls and Templars alike. Vertical traversal is streamlined via a grappling hook that has a profound impact on gameplay. Almost entirely eliminating the now-stale mechanic of scaling monuments in order reveal detail on your world map, the Fryes can pull themselves to the very top of virtually any building in seconds. It's application to the gameplay loop is invaluable as well: guerilla style hit-and-run assassinations are invariably satisfying as you worm through a crowd, bury your hidden blade, slink away and pull yourself out a la Batman in the Arkham series. While the climbing and bounding across rooftops still feels fluid until it doesn't -- mostly when your intended inputs are misread and sends your Assassin careening to their death from 300 feet. It's rare, but still present.

For as many ways as the game moves forward with traversal, it's taken just as many back with combat. For a series that has been exclusively about fighting dudes when you're not avoiding them, it's disappointing to see the veritable whirlwind of death and blades of past games slowed to a shockingly plodding pace. Enemies turtle up while defending more and you'll rarely find yourself attacked by more than one enemy at a time. They just don't feel as aggressive as they have in the past and the speed of it all suffers for it. The weapon variety is uninteresting as well. You're afforded the arsenal you've come to expect in an Assassin's Creed game -- your smoke bombs, throwing knives, hidden blades, and guns as of late. It's entirely possible to not engage with the tools outside of when required and still have a good time, though they'll go a long way for making your experience easier. When it comes time to fight, you'll have three options: brass knuckles, AC: Syndicate's prominently displayed cane sword and the kukri machete. Mechanically they all blend together, from the speed at which you fight to their utility, making the only real difference being the numbers on a stats screen. While in the fray and putting these weapons to use, enemies will enter a near-death state before being taken down. Should multiple enemies be in a near death state, they can be chained together into multi-kills. The multi-kills look sort of impressive... at first. By the end of the game, I found myself infuriated any time the much-too-long animations launched, knowing the fight would be quicker without all the flourish.

I subjected myself to more of these overly drawn out kills than I'd have cared for because they offer one benefit: increased experience points. As you hack, slash, stab and sneak your way through the game, most of your kills and missions will offer you experience points, which turn into skill points in order to make your Assassin better at doing what they do. The experience system isn't entirely unwelcome and gives more incentive than a touch more money does for completing missions and all of their optional objectives, but paired with some of the microtransactions are in this game, feels a little scummy. Helix credits can be exchanged for XP boosts, crafting resources, and maps for collectibles. Don't have enough from the minuscule amount you'll collect over the course of the game? Don't worry, Ubisoft will happily sell you some. It's feels gross, unnecessary and out of place, but if you're into the whole mentality of 'Time Savers', they've got you covered.

Microtransactions aside, I did purchase the Season Pass when I first started, thinking to myself how much I was really feeling being back in an Assassin's Creed world. The initial download as just the key to unlock access, and figuring out how to actually get at the content didn't occur until the end of the game, whereby all of the weapon and outfit additions no longer had any use. The missions added in feel weak as well, feeling like it added content, but not anything worth seeing. By the time I was ready to move over and give the Jack the Ripper content (launched separately from the main menu) a try, I had already had my fill. I scratched the surface but hardly enough to talk in-depth about it -- it was just too little too late in a game that had already drained me of fifty or sixty hours.

All in all, it's not that Assassin's Creed Syndicate is a bad game... It's just that it's another Assassin's Creed game. In 2016, most people who play games have touched one at some point or another and are familiar with what they have to offer. If you're feeling up for diving into hours and hours of stabbing dudes in the face and neck, embarking on innumerable side missions and collecting every and anything Ubisoft can dream up, then you may be ready for Assassin's Creed Syndicate. Just don't come to it expecting to see anything new or that you haven't seen before.