After playing Black Flag, which was a pretty god damn great pirate game, but had nothing to do with the AC series other than linking some characters together. I was really disappointed with the direction AC was turning into. It seemed with every iteration the modern story is just getting more ridiculous and the gameplay while improved with Black Flag, Unity seemed like a major step back and there are just not any strong or likable characters to carry this series. The Ezio trilogy will probably be the best thing to ever happen to this series.

I am just not excited for this one bit. The location seems interesting, but I feel zero connection to the 2 main protagonist and the addition of a female lead seems like some very obvious damage control.

My expectations are that the sales figures for the series will slowly drop until they decide to give it a rest for a while.

I do want to explore Victorian London though. So maybe after this one I'll stop....

Still haven't played 3 or 4, though I own them both.

I expect a mediocre game, that won't resurface my love of the series's early titles. I felt very dissapointed with Unity. I'd been a series fan up to that point and I even looked past some of the lesser titles like Revelation and AC3. Hopeufully syndicate turns out well, but I'm tuned out till I see some positive critical response.

I hope it's good, I loved most of the Assassin's Creed games, but could not get into Unity and Black Flag was kinda dumb also, so I am giving this series one last chance with this game. If it's not good I am just going to walk away from these series. I was thinking of stoping at Unity but love for AC 1-3 is telling me to give it once last chance.

@icendice: that sounds like a great plan!!! Haha

Zero. Unity killed this franchise once and for all

I'm kind of hoping for a surprise, and it turning out to be pretty good. I'm not expecting that and will wait for the reviews, but I'm in the mood for a good Assassin's Creed at the moment, probably because I skipped the last 3 or 4 of them. If not, I'll probably just check out Black Flag which sounds like the only good one I missed.

I feel like anything above "blandness personified" will earn it a purchase. Next summer. For $20.

My hopes for this game are being raised slightly by Danny and Ty's coverage on Gamespot.

Although that said, they aren't being raised super high... maybe they are now raised to a point where it is nearly safe to say that the game isn't broken.

Although there was one point in their 90 minute stream where someone was pulled through a floor...

London does look wonderful though!

I expect a completely serviceable game.

But this tired franchise needs a serious reinvention or a significant break.

I expect it to be the same shit it's been for years.

My introduction to this series was AC4, so now I'm perpetually sad that this isn't a series about pirates and high-seas adventures. But I dunno, if this one doesn't have the same reputation as a flaming garbage pile, the stupid top hats and cartoon villain moustaches might rope me into this one.

Meh, I didn't think Unity was all that bad. Got it off Amazon about 4 months ago for something like $15, totally worth it after all the bugs that seemed to give it such at a bad name on release were fixed. I don't really think any of the games have been THAT bad, derivative for sure but hey, its 2015, pretty much everything is derivative in video games anymore. AC2, Brotherhood and Black Flag were all good games that I remember fondly. The rest of them? Forgettable sure and not very exciting at times, but still enjoyable at points, just maybe not for $60.

Ok I take it back, Revelations can go F*&$ itself.

I love, LOVE, LOVED Assassin's Creed but I gotta admit I think I'm done for a long time. I've always spaced out my playing of them to give myself the time I needed to want more but I started playing Unity about a week ago and I think I've finally had enough regardless of how long I wait. It's not about Unity, it's about me.

I love a lot of the things people hate. The meaningless collectables and quests, the simple combat, the overwhelming map swarmed with icons, I love it all and I've loved doing it again and again with each release but I think I've finally done it enough. Barring some serious and meaningful changes (and I don't mean additions, or refinements, I mean something totally new) I think I may be done with the franchise.

I loved the Assassin's Creed franchise, the first game was the first time I remember actually feeling like it was something next-gen with its cities and population. Loved AC2, Brotherhood and even Revelations for the story but I past on Unity after the mess that turned out. Shame to because Black Flag was outstanding for me and one of the best in the franchise I think. I'm fascinated to read the reviews for Syndicate. There's a part of me that should be all over the historical setting but I'm concerned about that engine and how it turns out. Plus there's a few other games I'm interested in so I might wait with Syndicate.

The cynicism for this series certainly has escalated. I don't blame people, but I felt like Unity was actually a fun game with a wonderfully alive city under all the bugs and glitches. The was the problem though; there were so many at launch. Too many times I fell through the floor, or had something not trigger correctly. Syndicate screams "game to pick up a year later on sale" because I am not going through another Ubisoft launch, as they have earned no trust in that regard. As someone who has only played 1, 4, Revelations, Rogue, and Unity, the gameplay is fresh enough that I can still enjoy it.

I finished Unity a week ago. Although the setting was great (Paris really felt like a busy and living city) and Arno was a likeable character, the story was boring, the combat system was mediocre at best and the forced co-op together with the insanely amount of collectibles (man, that map) were bad, really bad. I didn't hate it, but I had to force myself to finish it just because I finished all the assassi's creed games before (with the exception of Liberation). I'm currently playing Rogue and, in my opinion, it's a much better game. In spite of the game looking like a big reuse of Black Flag assets (and it is), the story is intringuing and the combat, naval and on foot, is great. The parkour is not as good as in unity but isn't bad either. Curious about Syndicate (I love stories set in the victorian period), but the videos I saw that showed the combat in particular left me uneasy.

If it reviews well enough I will probably pick it up sooner or later. I haven't played AC since I binged AC1, AC2 and Brotherhood a few years back. After that I've been keeping my distance to the franchise so I'm not as fatigued as many others are. I'm actually looking forward to play another AC.

From what I've seen this looks kinda cool. Hope they don't screw it up.

Check out the reviews here

So I am curious, has anybody here played it? If so, what are your thoughts on the game?

I am tempted to give this a look but want to hear some more opinions on this from fellow duders. I was unsure if I was ok asking this here or if the review thread was the place to go (but as this is more about expectations rather than the reviews discussing the actual reviews, I felt here was best?)

Cheers.