There should be a mission in future series where you liberate Konami employees in modern day Japan.

This will never not look ridiculous.

Entirely unnecessary political commentary? It's like they're actively trying to completely turn me off the series. Also, "twin protagonists" is giving them way too much credit. It's more accurate to say "marketable generic male protagonist with tacked-on female alternative due to deservedly catching flak for basically ignoring the historical significance of women during the French Revolution in Unity", but that's not quite the brevity you want with a title.

It's also good to learn that punching someone causes a flying ragdoll backflip every time.

That top hat, man. I just can't see someone in a top hat and not think of them as foppish and ridiculous.

That bumper sticker political commentary though. I'd expect to hear trite boilerplate like that from a kid who just came home from his first year as an undergrad. The fact this is coming from a company with a billion dollars in revenue just makes it silly. It's like Ubisoft decided they needed to get the kids back on board after the disaster of Unity, and figured the best way to seem edgy and extreme would be to rail against capitalism.

FUCK CAPITALISM

*Pre-Orders for Assassin's Creed™ Syndicate available now.

It is fun getting these nods from globally dominant corporations toward the festering bitterness an entire generation is developing for the economic policies that destroyed them*. But then, it's also fascinating to imagine what it must be like to have any ideals whatsoever and work on a huge game at a megapublisher. That tightrope between trying to convey unprofitable or unpopular messages that mean anything and giving in to the enormous machine you're but a small part of has to be incredible.

*also so so many before and concurrently with them

They should have set that trailer to Arctic Monkeys' A Certain Romance

Holy shit that woman just spoke in an Assassin's Creed trailer and she's not even a generic prostitute!

Please, by all means, climb back on to your corporate-produced device of choice to tell me how the evil corporations destroyed your generation. I'd love to hear it.

Going after the lucrative Twitter and Tumblr market I see.

I wonder how the protagonists would feel about pre-order bonuses

One of gaming's most egregious nickel-and-dimers uses its most egregiously annualized, DLC/pre-order bonus-laden franchise to plant a flag against nickel-and-diming the poor. Discuss!

But first, please pre-order to get these digital baubles.

@billyhoush: or rescue Foxconn workers.

This game was made by idiots of various races and religions.

lol nice.

@maedhros925: ah yes, one must have absolutely zero connection to the society one is in or they aren't allowed to criticize said sociey's structure. Cool. Nice, totally not-impossible standards!

On a related note, I love your avatar.

People make me a sad... sad... panda!

That's a curious choice of words; if an artist or creator had chosen to express a particular viewpoint through their work, then I suppose that doing so was, in their view, necessary in some sense. Whether they did so in a persuasive manner would be something else entirely, of course.

That said, the rhetoric coming from the protagonists seems more or less appropriate given the setting. I doubt there will be much in the way of substantial commentary in the game. At most, this looks like Ubisoft appealing to a populist grievance yet again; it just so happens that this time it's unfettered capitalism instead of mass surveillance.

What, you mean you can't just sever all of your existing social relationships, abandon all of your possessions created within a capitalist economy and form an intentional community outside the grasp of private land owners and nation-states? *Hmmph* I guess your principles will only take you so far then, huh?

"For England, James?"

There's something hilarious about railing against capitalism, then ending your trailer with "JOIN THE FAMILY, GET YOUR REWARDS!"

Definitely in the 'wait for reviews' category after the various shenanigans and general decline in quality that has taken place ever since Brotherhood.

That said, looks interesting

@noah_duncanson: hahahah that was a good one

Hahaha :D

I wish they made a more personal story (AC IV, rogue) rather than a political one that this looks like. But if its about street gangs in the AC universe (a bit like Sleeping Dogs maybe) then that part could be fun!

It's one thing to have the typical AC story where you're overthrowing some oppressive (read: rich and/or powerful) force, but it's another to make a blanket criticism of capitalism on the whole by outright labeling it as "stealing from the poor". It stinks of either some folks interjecting their personal politics, or worse, Ubisoft trying to make some pathetic appeal to the angsty teen/"occupy" crowd. Regardless, shoehorning in an overtly anti-capitalist statement accomplishes NOTHING towards the narrative that a simple classism tale couldn't. Therefore, it's quite unnecessary, and Ubisoft going out of their way to say something inflammatory and shitty doesn't somehow validate itself.

I would imagine that the rhetoric in the actual game will likely be bland and dull, just as the rest of the game looks like it will be. However, if Ubisoft is going to drop a trailer that basically flips the bird to the territories that comprise the vast majority of their audience (while ironically being the preeminent example of pure greed in the industry), I'm going to flip two birds right back at them and hope that this game flops so capitalism fittingly kicks Ubisoft in the nuts.

Not at all what I said. Hyperbole seems to be a thing with you, which is what prompted my earlier post.

Before engaging in silly rhetoric about the evil corporations, it's worth considering how capitalism has affected your life. By responding to me you've demonstrated access to an internet-capable device, produced by a corporation. The internet service connecting your device is provided by a corporation. The electricity powering your device was generated and distributed by likely several corporations.

The fact that you're on this website tells me you have enough leisure time and money to make video games a hobby. Not only that, but you can afford to spend time and money at an enthusiast website just to talk about video games. From that, I'm going to assume you have a secure shelter in which to play those video games, with modern basics like heating & air and indoor plumbing. You almost certainly have other basics in your life covered, such as access to available clothing and all the food you could want. You have a job that, even if it isn't rewarding on its own, provides you with the leisure time and money necessary to engage in your hobbies. And you have some form of transportation to get you to and from that job, as well as anywhere else you may wish to go.

In fact, your quality of life almost certainly matches or exceeds that of the richest villain in this upcoming game. Amenities and opportunities that were totally unavailable in 1868 London are yours today for a modest fee. This is why I ask you, please, tell me how capitalism has destroyed your generation.

Judging by how Asscreed treats history, this is likely to be just another game where the setting and history of stuff doesn't actually matter. You'll still be essentially a greed driven soldier of fortune who doesn't give two shits about people's lives as long as they have a couple of coins that will help you on your path to that next dagger upgrade or whatever.

In short: Wish they actually did something meaningful with their setting and not just using it the way Tim Burton does, just pretty stuff that has a theme, end of. The aesthetics of marxism doesn't really get my history juices flowing.

I suspect we'll see more anti capitalist games going forward. Kids aren't all that keen on that shit no more.

whoever wrote the script must be a lib-dem

Eh, I dunno that I necessarily disagree with your sentiments about Ubisoft that much, although I certainly lack the same fervor. Regardless, I still do think the rhetoric seems more or less consistent with the characterization of the protagonists and the time period/setting. More moderate factions of the labour movement from the late 19th century were often pretty explicitly anti-capitalist, so any individuals engaging in acts of violence and expropriation during this time would probably be fairly . . . intense in their opposition to the existing economic/political structure.

Frankly I have trouble conceiving of how an action-oriented game could explore this era without picking a side in a polarized historical conflict. Perhaps Ubisoft should have refrained from using the more "inflammatory" elements of the game in their advertisements? Or entirely avoided the setting in the first place? I suspect that I lack particular ideological motivations of those critiquing this trailer, so I can only speculate as to what would have been satisfactory.

So much post-graduate contempt for Populist messages in these here comments (such as referring to the Occupy demographic as "angsty teens" when the average age of on-street protesters was 33 years old.) :b

Keep in mind that, during the time period this particular AC is set in, the form of Capitalism on display was absolutely the WORST form that economic model could take. It was the era of the Robber-Barons, where the wealthiest of individuals obessively continued to grow their riches by literally working their employees to death in industrial environments which were often absolute deathtraps. It's the era of "Oliver Twist" and "A Tale of Two Cities", and to NOT point out the appalling social inequalities would be supremely irresponsible of Ubisoft.

The best twist would be if the twins turn out to be Jack the Ripper, they are the ones committing the ripper murders and they are murdering female templars.

Yes let's hash this out, here, in the Giant Bomb comments section of an Assassin's Creed trailer

They can "pick a side" all they want, but espousing some seriously radical sentiments in their marketing for the game is a really shitty way to go about it. I fully get the "but the character is a radical" point, but Ubisoft made a choice to go with loaded language like "stealing", and that's bullshit. Honestly, would anyone not get the character's motivations if they had left capitalism out of it and said "this city's getting rich off the backs of the poor" instead? Frankly, that's a more period-accurate statement anyway, which better conveys the highly exploitative/abusive practices of the time than trying to paint some ridiculous picture of an aristocrat literally pickpocketing Oliver Twist.

I put the slash between angsty teens and occupy protestors in an effort to differentiate between the two. I'm sadly well-aware that the occupy contingent was largely unemployed twenty to forty-year-olds looking to point the finger anywhere but the mirror for their own failings, as I happen to live in a city where this "movement" persisted. That said, both groups do share similar perspectives, for different reasons. Angsty teens tend to be highly idealistic due to having little to no concept of what the real world actually is yet and/or simply want to rebel against the establishment because they think it's "cool". The occupy crowd was mostly filled with folks who were trying to excuse being a drain on society or wanting to fancy themselves social crusaders as if they were somehow improving the plight of the little guy through slacktivism. It was just different shades of the same anti-accountability turd, from people who want to act like their fairytalegumdropland where everyone gets a trophy simply for existing is some amazing idea that would lead us all into a golden age of prosperity. Please.

If Ubisoft just wanted to highlight social inequalities, fine. Go nuts. I'm not asking them to rewrite history (although they didn't seem to have a problem doing this with Unity). Just don't call out an entire system which has existed in some very different forms and continues to exist. It's poor form, and it's pretty fucking stupid of Ubisoft on top of that to trash a system that many of their potential customers believe in, and one which they themselves have greatly benefited from and embody the worst parts of. Then again, their incendiary phrasing has precipitated far more words from me than this seemingly craptastic game arguably deserves, so I guess on some clickbait-esque level, their marketing is "working". For me, though, it's "working" to ensure that I'll skip this game entirely. It already looked uninspired enough on its own, but tossing in some extraneous political bullshit is the icing on the cake. Maybe Ubisoft is just preparing to go all Tale of Tales on us if Syndicate disappoints.

@notnert427: Your tilting at an almost purely semantic problem though.

You can't know that, people railing against capitalism, and the writers of syndicate, aren't against the contextually current form rather than the totality of the system, and simply using a clumsy rhetorical shorthand.

Of course it's kind of weird to claim that inequality in victorian England was social and not systemic and inherant to unregulated capitalism, but eh.

As to occupy protesters themselves an amounts of surplus labour is desirable for large businesses, and an arguably inevitable outcome of mechanisation, and transferability, so no many of the protesters employment status isn't, without question, an individual issue. Functional 100% employment is basically impossible without heavy state intervention. Competition in the workforce means that unemplyement is self perpetuating for a few, and regardless of that if there are always a certain number of people unemployed then what's the solution job sharing etc, in a time of wage depression, and when the lowest paid work does not provide a living wage to begin with?

Yes, we can hear you.

Trying to watch a trailer here. Christ.

All these statements on Capitalism feel like a marketing stunt just to get people talking about the game. I highly doubt the actual storyline will be as interesting or controversy as these advertisements make it seem. I do, however, appreciate any trailer that can spark a discussion far more interesting and intelligent than itself.

Ubisoft is a fairly diverse corporation from what I have gathered. The ideas they put forth here are not up for debate. Late 19th and early 20th century capitalism was a pretty ugly thing in most instances.

@hednik4am: Certainly, but people seem to ignore the modern parallels the exact same ideas of less elligability but applied to state benefits, the rhetorical delineation of deserving and undeserving poor, and that many America prisons may as well be workhouses.

*Actual ingame framerate

Today I learned that anything a video game character says must represent the views of the developers.

Oh great, more bunk political commentary from giant capitalist corporations. This confirms I will not be playing this game. I'm so sick of being preached to through my media. Disgusting. Count me out. Ahh never mind...

I like capitalism.