Assassin’s Creed Syndicate – Review

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For the first time in years, all the little things which made the original Assassin’s Creed such a treasure, have been dusted off and reintegrated into a game. Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate is an utter tour de force, one that more than makes up for last year’s mediocre venture into next generation gaming. Syndicate improves upon Unity in just about every sense, while still retaining the bits and pieces that really worked.

Syndicate’s scriptwriting immediately deserves mention. Multiplayer has been sacrificed entirely in order to nail the single player; an exchange which pays off. It has a powerful and engaging plot which snakes its way through the Industrial Revolution; much like the Knights Templar, the conspiratorial baddies, in this iteration of the series, attempt to take over London. For the first time in the series, the game features two playable characters, twins named Jacob and Evie Frye, who you can switch between at will outside of story missions. Jacob is reminiscent of past protagonists Edward and Ezio; a brash yet lovable rogue whose main idea of a good time is to rally an army of street urchins and factory workers to fight back against those evil industrialists. On the other hand, Evie is more reminiscent of Altair and Connor; generally more interested in living by the (Assassin’s) Creed, as opposed to leading an army. Both help and hinder the other interchangeably and their dynamic relationship is believable and will be familiar to anybody with a sibling. This is helped along by superb voice acting performances and a great supporting cast. However, except some slight digressions in their skill trees towards the end, Evie and Jacob are pretty much identical to play. This is slightly disappointing, as it would have been nicer to have an incentive to switch between the twins, besides the novelty of getting away from Jacob before his wise-cracking becomes overbearing.

In terms of gameplay, London is full of distractions. Instead of a map full of random and overwhelming icons, events pop up as you explore the world, á là Far Cry 4. You can get lost for hours among the dazzling sights of London and the huge volume of side missions. None of it feels overdone however, and there’s a great variety of missions to choose from. The massive open world assassinations pioneered in Unity have also been retained. Having the freedom to prey on your target whatever way you please is exciting, and features some great set-pieces, including the Tower of London and Lambert Asylum (AKA Bedlam).

The main addition to the gameplay is a rope launcher that can zip you up buildings or across streets in a heartbeat. An eye-rolling but useful lift from Arkham, this tool majorly decreases the time needed to traverse the city. Carriages, the urban equivalent of Black Flag’s ships, can be hijacked, hidden in or simply boarded and driven. Meanwhile, once you’ve driven the Templar’s out of an area, you’ll notice members of Jacob’s gang (“The Rooks”) patrolling. In a manner similar to Brotherhood’s initiates, these guys can be recruited to help you out, either as some extra muscle or as a distraction. None of this, by the way, is in any way historically accurate, but may well be Syndicate’s most effective innovation. Instead of Unity’s austere historical detail which was of little interest to anyone outside of a few history buffs, Syndicate has relaxed the world-building rules a little in exchange for making it way more fun to play.
That is not to say the game is completely flawless. Some slight graphical glitches are visible, although nothing game-killing and it’s far less than you would expect from a game of this size. There are also the usual issues with uncoordinated wall climbing, although it is a lot smoother than Unity’s. Perhaps the biggest critique is that the story time is split about 60-40 in favour of Jacob. Evie can feel a little too much like a secondary character at points— such as one memorable mission set whereby Jacob screws things up and the consecutive mission is literally just Evie fixing it— and the majority of assassinations are performed by Jacob. However, Evie is a far more intriguing character than her brother, and her missions tend to be more memorable, so this discrepancy can perhaps be forgiven.

After Unity’s debacle, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to worry that Assassin’s Creed was on its way out. It seems that Ubisoft realised that too. Compared to the other recent entries, this is a welcome return to form. Taken by itself, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is a stunning, breathtaking and genuinely heartfelt adventure, a game which can confidently be declared as revolutionary.

Reviewed on Xbox ONE. Also available on PS4 and PC.

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