Assassin's Creed: Syndicate Review
Greetings Assassins, It’s been a while since my last activity here. I apologize for that. But it wasn’t by choice. I had a lot of serious stuff going on in my life, and yes, infiltrating Abstergo was one of them, but you can say that I’m back to being the same old lore-obsessed Assassin, who digs deep into his own genetic memories for clues about what to do about digitally immortal Precursor Beings. I gotta say that I missed every bit this place.
As you know, I’ve been playing Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate since launch day and I took a whole new approach this time. Contrary to what I do every year, which is jumping from every exclamation mark to the other to finish the story in a period as short as 24-48 hours, this time I took the patient and more explorative approach, thanks to my fiancé, who’s been taking care of the side missions with me, which was a great motive for me and it somehow felt nice that we’re two people in charge of two characters in the game.
First, I must say that Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate impressed me, greatly. For the first time in my life, I find joy in completing side missions and freeing the whole city from Templars. The only time I enjoyed side missions was in Mass Effect trilogy. This is the second time. And I must say that I’m kinda hard to please when it comes to side quests, because I tend to look for story value and originality in each and every one of them, rather than having repetitive and chore-y activities to perform.
Now I’m here to review the whole experience, in depth: Starting with:
I’ve noticed how significantly the gameplay has improved the moment I started the Gamescom demo back in August 5th, 2015, when Ubisoft honored me with the privilege to test the game on media day, at Gamescom.
I noticed how the camera is closer to the protagonist than ever before, making the game more immersive. It feels like you’re inside the world, not on top of it, observing a small character moving. It truly feels like you’re accompanying Jacob and Evie, especially when you’re indoors, and that’s something that enhanced the experience, greatly for me, as I’ve always complained about how most open world games tend to have a camera that makes the character look so small, that you don’t even notice the details that the developers have carefully crafted.
Same goes for the world, as this time, the city is more detailed than ever, everything feels so alive and moving and with this closer approach, you feel like a companion to the protagonist and observing the world exactly the same way as they would have, in real life. Carriages added a great deal of ease and fun in exploration. From ramming into other carriages to disable them from following you, to standing on top of them to shoot the horses and the drivers of other carriages, the whole thing was very enjoyable and it made exploring this massive city of London an entertaining thing.
Now I gotta move to the Zipline. This is probably the most revolutionary gameplay mechanic that was every introduced to Assassin’s Creed. Though we’ve seen Ziplines before, the fact that you can launch them from your gauntlet whenever you want, and both to scale buildings and to move from one building to another, across wide distances is absolutely impressive. I can’t even describe how fun exploration became.
To be quite honest, after being a fan for all these years, since the very beginning, climbing have gotten a bit chore-y. Buildings tend to look the same, especially that not each and every one of them is a well-known distinct historical monument, so climbing on top of each one kinda feels the same every single time, not to mention that with the increasing sizes of buildings with each game, it’s becoming such a time consuming task that a lot of people don’t even bother with viewpoints anymore, and same goes for exploring cities that keep getting bigger and bigger.
The Zipline narrowed down large spaces and hastened climbing vast buildings. It’s a beautiful mechanic that I’d love to see in future installments. As a gameplay mechanic, I can’t help but think about how people often complain about wide streets and buildings that have large spaces between them, saying they’d love to continuously move from one building to another, without having to land on the ground. Well, the Zipline solved that problem and made exploring London a wonderful experience, despite its beautiful and wide streets and massive buildings.
A few setbacks with the gameplay were present as there are numerous glitches during gameplay and cutscenes such as character models nor showing up in multiple cutscenes, except for their weapons and the things they’re holding in their hands, or the game freezing and requiring a full shut down of the console or character models flickering (appearing a disappearing continuously) during battle, as well as sticking through walls or moving into one another or missions not continuing due to certain cutscenes not triggering when they should. I noticed that after getting setting stuck and doing every possible thing to progress to no avail, until I decided to restart the mission and noticed that I didn’t need to do anything and a cutscene should’ve triggered itself automatically at the same point when it didn’t on the first playthrough, before restarting the mission. And that’s after installing the first patch file.
I’ve always said that Istanbul (from Assassin’s Creed: Revelations) is the best city ever portrayed in an Assassin’s Creed game, closely followed by The Frontier (from Assassin’s Creed III) Venice, Florence and Monteriggioni (from Assassin’s Creed II) and Masyaf (from Assassin’s Creed) and then Paris (From Assassin’s Creed: Unity). Now, I must say that London surpassed all of those with how alive and vibrant it is, with how vast and variant every part of it is, with how it doesn’t feel boring to explore it, and scale it’s massive buildings, for one second.
And now, not to devalue the work performed on any previous Assassin’s Creed, but it feels like the way the buildings are made is more realistic than ever that you truly feel like you’re looking at them in real life. The size of most buildings, especially the famous landmarks, in comparison to the protagonist and their surroundings is measured so perfectly that it truly feels like this is a huge building you’re staring it and it’s not just copy/paste to make it look big and tall.
I don’t know if it’s just the fact that it’s just larger than anything in Assassin’s Creed, or that the camera is doing miracles again or perhaps both, but I never felt so immersed in a game because of the camera and perspective like Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, nor have I felt so small in comparison to a building in a game, ever. I’ve travelled to London so many times and I must say I felt as immersed as I was in real life, if not more.
I must add one little missing thing, which is that I was hoping for a countryside area, something with small houses, large endless green place, and perhaps an old castle from medieval times. I must also say that Stonehenge was such a missed opportunity. It could’ve been epic, especially that it’s involved in so many Ancient Astronauts Theories that are the basis for the First Civilization/Precursor Race’s story, and the game is probably the one that addresses the Pieces of Eden more than any other. So it would’ve been really fitting to have a short mission there to retrieve The Shroud or something similar.
Another thing that I wished to see returning but did not is the original architecture of First Civilization sites. I’ve always been in love with how these Blue/White lights appeared in these high tech modern-minimalistic decorated Temples back in ACII, AC:B, ACIII, ACIV, AC:L and AC:Ro. They were my most favorite parts of the game, because they showed how advanced that this ancient civilization isn’t just some bunch of mythical gods from fantasy books and museums, but an advanced race that greatly surpassed hours in terms of science, evolution, politics, social life and knowledge, in general. And I don’t understand why both Unity and Syndicate have switched to showing these sites as ancient dungeons. They cannot live up to the awe, the mystery and the beauty of the high tech, modern minimalistic design of the Temple of Juno, the Grand Temple or the Sistine Chapel Temple.
So I implore future development teams to take this suggestion into consideration. This idea may seem cosmetic on the first glimpse, but when you think of it again, and remember what they game has been teaching us about how the ancient gods and myths are not what they look like, then the places where they’re held and how they’re portrayed shouldn’t picture them as magic and fantasy, but instead, as science and evolution.
London is a marvel. The graphics are the best I’ve ever seen in an open world game, generally and the Assassin’s Creed franchise, specifically. From lighting and global illumination, to character design and models, to outfits, carriages, NPCs, to buildings and world building.
Everything is so impressive. Especially when you’re outdoors. It’s one of the things that makes me wanna continuously explore London, to behold the beauty of this well-crafted city in these outstanding graphics.
However, I must note that there were some anti-aliasing issues, model deformities in crowded and narrow spaces, as well as the graphics being generally a step backwards when we are indoors in comparison to the stunning, breathtaking, artistic and impressive outdoors. But all in all, London was the best-looking city by far.
OK. I must start by saying how we absolutely adore Evie Frye here. She’s so balanced, so incredible, so intelligent and determined, so beautiful and attractive and so fun to hang out with. She’s not a superhero, not the typical over sexualized female character with an attitude, not the dark and stoic fighter and also not the over-charismatic and funny one. She can be all of those in different times, in balanced proportions.
If she’ll ever get any story DLC or star in future installments of Assassin’s Creed, I’d be really happy and wish she’d get a full time job, this time around, because she truly deserves that. Now as for Jacob. He’s fun, he’s reckless, he’s that typical bad boy who doesn’t care, fights his way through in a one-man-army approach, makes fun of everything but also good on the inside and cares deeply for his sister.
Jacob and Evie are a great pair that I’d love to see them in the future, somehow. They’re so fun when they talk and argue and I believe they need more digging into their lives. It somehow feels like the game, though gives the larger percentage of gameplay to Jacob, is built around Evie more than Jacob. I don’t know if it’s just the differences in personality, or the focus of the game, but it feels like Evie is the main Assassin and Jacob is her escort. I don’t dislike that, no. I just hope she had more story missions, even though the game gave a close-to-satisfactory percentage.
I must say that I wish we had more digging into their past in cutscenes and/or gameplay. We know that their father was an Assassin, and that their mother died, but we don’t know much about how the brotherhood operates. I’ll discuss that thoroughly, now.
HISTORY
The historical story is very entertaining. We play as two distinctive and entirely different characters set against a well-known historical period and setting, merging their own personal stories with the general historical events that took place at that time and place.
The characters, like I mentioned before, work well together. The humor between the two, the differences, the recklessness of Jacob versus the maturity of Evie makes them an interesting duo. I can’t express how happy I am to finally see that the Pieces of Eden have become the focus of this game for the first time in years.
I believe this is a huge step in the right direction because Assassin’s Creed, though it’s a historical tourism simulator, it’s not just a retelling of real life historical events, but instead, a device that uses famous historical events and well-known locations to tell the whole overarching story that the game established since its very first installment. At least this is how and why I fell in love with this franchise. So to me, this is a big plus and one of the main reason why I’m so in love with this game.
There are very few disadvantages in the story, as most of it was really engaging and it tried to explore everything. One of these disadvantages was that the Pieces of Eden remained shrouded in mystery. We could only encounter the Shroud near the very end, we were unable to use it or know more about it and we weren’t given any information about the first Piece of Eden which was destroyed in the explosion. It looked like the small Apple of Eden that Arno took in Dead Kings, yet we should’ve been given a bit more information about it. I was wondering if the ring/orbit thing around it is part of the artifact or part of the machine experimenting on it.
Another thing that I felt was missing was the brotherhood and the backstory of the protagonists. At first we saw them at Crawley, we saw George, who seemed to be some sort of mentor to them, yet it was only one encounter and we didn’t see or learn anything about what was going on with the brotherhood or if they ever reported back to him, until the end when they joke about the name ‘Georgie’. At that time, I truly wondered who that was. It’s only when I started replaying that I remembered whom they were referring to.
I’m well-aware that the Templars were in control of London for the past 100 years, at that time. However, the Assassins have always been some sort of an underground force. So why not shed some more light on how they lived, how many of them were there and if they had any connections outside of London and outside of the United Kingdom as a whole. So it would’ve been better if we could see that part. However, I also enjoyed the idea of being two lone assassins in this big place.
Regarding The Rooks, the moment we arrived in London, Jacob was psyched about the entire idea of creating his own army, and it was such a great idea to have us liberate London bit by bit and recruit the Templars to the Rooks. It was really fun to see London get liberated bit by bit and have these cutscenes. One thing I didn’t like was that this was all there was to it. I wish we could see main missions focusing on the forces we’ve built and how Jacob and Evie meet with the Rooks in these pubs and join forces to finish a certain number of missions, like we saw in the trailers.
Modern Day
The modern day was the best experience set in present day since Assassin’s Creed III. I can hardly find anything to complain about. Everything was so impressive from start to end, and this is coming from someone who hated the modern day state in Unity and prefers a full playable 3rd person experience.
Even though we followed a similar formula to Assassin’s Creed: Unity, which is using cutscenes to progress through the modern day story, instead of gameplay, yet the cutscenes were rich enough to keep me entertained. It was a lot richer and more detailed and progressed the modern day story a hell lot more than ACIV: Black Flag and AC: Rogue combined.
I’m not saying that I’m better off without a playable modern day, but I’m saying that I salute the writer and devs who made the experience so enjoyable and rich. I love how we got to meet Galina for the first time in the games, got to see some progress to the whole Juno and The Phoenix Project stories and how these pre-rendered cutscenes were so well-made that they made me crave for a full CGI Assassin’s Creed film, more than ever.
And I loved all the hints thrown here in there, along with the easter eggs in the drone names, and the references to Desmond’s son…etc.
The ending got me looking for my jaw which I dropped on the floor the moment Juno appeared on the screen.
I just wish that future installment will not provide us with anything less than this. On the contrary, I expect future installments to expand upon the story and the quality that Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate presented us with, and extend the playtime and the number of these cutscenes to make sure that by the time the game ends, we’re fully satisfied with everything and again, left hunger for more with the cliffhangers that Assassin’s Creed got us used to seeing by the end of each game, and perhaps allow us to game some sort of gameplay.
I still believe that making Galina our next playable protagonist would be the smartest move because it will provide us with a great, enjoyable experience, especially now that we said goodbye to multiplayer, so all the resources can now be focused on telling and portraying a deep, enjoyable and detailed story.
Another option would be allowing us to create our own custom character like Mass Effect and Dragon age. An Assassin who gets to interact with Shaun, Galina, Rebecca and Bishop, and perform his own missions in some new Assassin headquarters such as the Altair II ship.
World War I
Like Assassin’s Creed: Unity, Syndicate brings back Time Anomalies/Loops, where the Assassin encounters a glitch that takes him/her to another time period in the very same city. Contrary to Assassin’s Creed: Unity, white completely optional, Syndicate’s Time Anomalies have a lot more depth, gameplay value and lore than Unity. A huge improvement upon its initial phase back in Unity.
I discovered the World War I - The Darkest Hour Time Anomaly by accident, throughout my second play through. I noticed it with my first play through but it was nothing more than a distortion in the sky, nothing to interact with. However, with my second play through, I noticed an icon on the map, which I followed and I was shocked to realize that there’s a whole new world on the other side of the rift. It was a wonderful surprise to play as Lydia Frye, the granddaughter of Jacob Frye and explore a war-torn London, contrary to the rising metropolis back in 1868 that the majority of the game is set within.
The fact that you have a whole new open world with a whole new protagonist and a very interesting story, made my heart stop. The appearance of Juno totally stunned me and I was amazed by how much new information she revealed, such as the name of the First Civilization, The Isu, their years as well as a brief appearance of a new sage. I
really want to see more of these showing up in future games, perhaps more than one period, with more historical story and Juno-related cutscenes and speeches involved. I even wish that with future DLC included in the season pass, more missions and speeches by Juno are added to the experience.
I truly thank Ubisoft for this wonderful improvement upon the Time Loops back in Unity. I look forward to seeing further expansions.
In conclusion, I want to dedicate my gratitude, my respect and admiration to each and every member of the development team that worked on Assassin’s Creed generally, and Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, specifically. I’m so honored to be a Star Player and Community Leader and I’m so grateful that this program blessed me with the chance to meet Jeff Skalski, personally and have his autographs on the beautiful lithographs I was given at Gamescom and of course to meet the wonderful Justin Kruger. That’s something I’m eternally grateful for.
I look forward to meeting the rest of the team again. It’s a great honor to be this close to the franchise that I adore so much. So honored to see that the franchise that I love so much, loves me back.
I’m extremely satisfied with the Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate experience. I must say that every step it took was a huge step in the right direction, and I hope to see this formula expanded on and evolving to become something on the same level of the classics, but in current gen. visual quality.
Thanks again, for the opportunity you’ve given me to experience the Evie Frye demo before everyone else at Gamescom, for the allowing me to express myself and how I feel about this amazing franchise and give direct feedback to the team and be able to ask questions and be answered directly in the intimate Q&A sessions at Gamescom, as well as on social media.
Yours forever,
Rino The Bouncer
Ubi today. Ubi Tomorrow. Ubi forever.
