Assassin's Creed Syndicate

Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve done this song and dance nine different times now. Since the franchise’s initial endeavor into the 12th century, we have now made our way all the way up to the 19th century. I have personally played every mainline Assassin’s Creed title since its inception except Rogue, but I’ll be the first to admit that I understand the mass fatigue with the series, but that still hasn’t kept me from genuinely liking every iteration released. The general layout and play method just appeals to me, and Assassin’s Creed Syndicate was no different. It’s a solid new entry, but also comes at the cost of certain regression, that was surely beneficial yet still slightly disappointing.

Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is the ninth major installment to be released since 2007, and it may be difficult to remember, but this series began as the spiritual successor to the Prince of Persia franchise. After incorporating a tilted reimagining of Prince of Persia’s baseline mechanics into its own open-world, the first game was released to a mix reception. No one had crafted a game like that first Assassin’s Creed at the time, but it was broadly deemed too repetitive for its own good. Come 2009, its sequel was released to glowing reviews, but deriving from that a formula was born. Every main game that has since come out with the Assassin’s Creed title has been a further establishment on what AC2 originally crafted. That’s not a bad thing, as AC2 was truly a landmark title for the previous generation, but it’s also the root of the franchise’s largest problems.

Throughout the early titles was an overarching science fiction story revolving around Desmond, who was the descendent of all these respective assassins. However, after he destroyed the world or something at the end of Assassin’s Creed, also known as one of the dumbest endings to a game I’ve ever seen, the overarching narrative was scrapped. After the somewhat low reception of Assassin’s Creed III, Ubisoft rightfully scrapped the modern timeline elements, and the series as a whole has been trying to find its footing back with the average consumer since. Assassin’s IV: Black Flag was a return to form for many with its creative structure, even though I personally found the boat stuff rather laborious.

Assassin’s Creed Unity came out next and had one of the most horrific launches I’ve ever seen for a single game. With its multitude of bugs and glitches, it lead to an official apology from Ubisoft themselves. However, once you got past the various glitches (they were completely absent from the PC version just a month after launch), I found Unity to be the best title in the series yet. It was a return to form back into the stealth roots found in 1, but this time with better realized mechanics, strategic co-op, and jaw-dropping visuals. I know it may not be for everyone, but Unity was simply one of my favorite games from 2014. Syndicate was built around the same general tech as Unity, but was this time not developed by Ubisoft Montreal. Instead, Ubisoft Quebec lead developmental oversight on the project originally leaked as Assassin’s Creed Victory. Come October of 2015, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate saw the light of day.

It’s the Industrial Revolution and our twin protagonists, Jacob and Evie Frye, are amidst the heart of it all in 19th century London still during the longtime war between the Templars and the assassins. For the first time in the series, vehicles are a major part of the street’s landscape. Welcome to “Grand Theft Carriage,” because London is fully equipped with the latest mechanisms that carried the era along. All of the various gadgets and period structures are historically accurate, a level of dedication I think goes underappreciated for the franchise. Same as every game that came before it, you are friends with every notable person who happened to live in the city at the time important enough to be mentioned in an elementary school textbook. They typically serve as your quest givers, but this aspect of the game serves as one of the few things holding back this version of London from feeling like the city it actually is. Other than that, Ubisoft Quebec has molded a terrific realization of one the world's most fascinating urban settings.

The universe is still after the Pieces of Eden, technology supposedly from the first ever civilization, and the hunt is on during the distant past and present. In the present, the Helix player from Assassin’s Creed Unity is contracted to find it before the Templars, but this part of plot is skimmed over a lot and not part of the draw. That comes in with the tale in 19th century London, revolving around the twin assassin duo of Jacob and Evie. The Templars now reign the boroughs, and with the help of their now-dead father’s old acquaintance Henry Green, it’s up to them to fully liberate London and claim the hidden Piece of Eden within the streets of the torn city. Is this narrative any good? Well, it’s alright, nothing particularly significant to write home about, but the game’s surprising strength is its characters. Jacob and Evie, while not as round as Ezio, are believable siblings and a great addition. Add that with probably Assassin’s Creed’s best villain to date, and you’ve got a solid cast of characters that makes up for a majority of the plot’s shortcomings. Like I briefly touched on earlier, the historical figures here feel way more forced than have in previous games. These people often comes across as somewhat jarring, but not enough to hinder the experience in any form. It’s a narrative that doesn’t attempt to grab anything sophisticated, but stays put with a thin yet fun story that’s handled well.

It’s Ubisoft game-101, as we are once again here climbing towers, unlocking various skills, and doing a multitude of side-missions. Assassin’s Creed is “Checklist: The Game,” and if that model doesn’t speak to you, chances are that this one game won’t drift you otherwise. Syndicate is very much one of “those games,” but it’s a kind of coherent and structured game that I don’t think I’ll ever personally grow tired of. Combat has become somewhat of a derivative of the Arkham games without the fast-pacing depth, but it is suitable, albeit probably too simple for the average player. The series also returns with its trademark parkour system to maneuver across the roofs of London, once again proving that those viewpoints will never stop leaving me awestruck. This is still the core experience of Assassin’s Creed, and once again, I highly doubt that this new entry will persuade anyone who isn’t into the series otherwise. That said, the use of two protagonists is an interesting alteration for sure. Evie adheres more to stealth, while Jacob is outfitted more for core combat. These characters play largely the same, they earn almost all of the same skills, but it’s their specific equipment that differs. It’s a change that doesn’t rewrite the formula yet also keeps the general structure ever-slightly more fresh, that’s greatly appreciated

Perhaps the most significant pure gameplay addition to Syndicate is the grappling system. The mechanic is fairly straightforward - a grappling hook that you can use to more smoothly trek across the urban structures with the simple tap of one of the bumpers. While this implementation certainly has its own fair share of reliable uses, compared to its Arkham competitor, it’s just too slow. To be fair, I understand that the slower procedure of it coincides with the actual time period, but in order for the gameplay to feel more fluid, this should have been a near instant process in my opinion. That said, the general movement here has definitely been improved, as it’s now to the point that I really can’t imagine their parkour system improving from the solid foundation they now have.

That parkour only works when there’s environmental design to compliment it, and the open-world work in Syndicate is competent. This depiction of London is historically spot on, but it suffers from being technically dead inside. Due to our somewhat underpowered consoles, the amount of NPCs roaming around has been significantly downsized, mostly likely due it being the root of Unity’s technical problems. Unity’s design of Paris was my favorite yet because it felt significantly populated, and that was only further realized with the ability to go in and out of a plethora of buildings. Syndicate doesn’t really have that, and while the overall structural designs of the buildings are improved from a gameplay perspective, it lacks the spectacle I really appreciated from last year’s game. Don’t me wrong, I still liked the Carriage elements and reasonable space between the streets, but I just wish these consoles would have allowed them to fill this playground with no limitation.

Throughout London, you can participate in a ton of side-missions in order to liberate the city from the Templars. Are these missions any fun? Well, they’re alright, albeit repetitive because there are only a few different kinds. Nearly all of them can be completed by just killing everyone, but they’re still enjoyable in the moment. The overall structure and idea behind the optional content is interesting, as completion raises your loyalty to the quest giver. I personally wasn’t compelled to do every piece of content there was, but I can still see someone getting really drawn towards it.

When you’re not off doing odd-jobs for every notable 19th century Englishman, you are probably busy with the franchise’s trademark assassination mission at the tail end of a structured sequence. These have always been the best parts behind every Assassin’s Creed game, and Syndicate is no different. However, this time I feel that the actual gameplay here is a step back in all directions from what Unity established. It’s layed out in a format akin to what’s seen in the Hitman franchise, albeit a bit more hand-holding. You are granted a few different objectives to complete for extra incentives, but the underlining goal is to simply kill your target. When Unity gave the player multiple options to experiment with in order to kill the target, Syndicate’s final scenarios are completely scripted, which is just disappointing. Still, these are by all means moments worth visiting and definitely highlights of the entire game, it just seems like wasted potential to me that they had in the last game.

Remember when Assassin’s Creed Unity came out and it looked graphically incredible, but at the cost of a ton of glitches? Well, this time Assassin’s Creed Syndicate has released with little to no bugs, but at the cost of graphical aspects. It doesn’t look bad at all, in fact still quite the contrary, but it lacks the near-lifelike look of the environments, and the frame-rate occasionally takes a dive when the action heats up. From the audio end of production, I’m split. While the music is completely forgettable, the voice acting is some of the best the series has seen yet. The Frye twins in particular present themselves as a convincing duo from Europe with their depicted accents. Now, it’s also worth mentioning that my entire experience has been with the Xbox One version, even though I praised the PC version of Unity earlier. Why? Uplay - that’s why. From the screenshots I’ve seen, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate looks just as amazing on PC, but I don’t think I can recommend the objectively best version of the game simply because of the Uplay service. Many of us strongly dislike Uplay for good reason, and I’m not convinced I’ll ever personally buy a Ubisoft product on PC until they get rid of that system, when we lose all activation to everything we’ve bought. Isn’t DRM great?

Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is a solid game, but I don’t think it will pack enough punches for most people who aren’t as into the series. While the new addition of the grappling hook is a widely welcomed feature, it’s a bit on the slow side, and probably too slight of a deviation to bring distanced consumers back. Even though I definitely enjoyed Syndicate, there is no doubt in my opinion that this is a step back from everything established in Unity. All that said, the characterization is great and the setting of London is definitely an awesome playground to control our cloaked duo. I recommend this game to longtime fans of the series for sure, but it still further reiterates all of the overarching issues with the Assassin’s Creed games, and this title simply won’t help those who can’t look past those aspects. I know that I’ll be back for the next game, and for better or worse, you probably already know if you will too.