Assassin's Creed: Syndicate

For me Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate is one of the best games in the entire Assassins Creed franchise. I would put this right up there with games like Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag, Assassin’s Creed: Origins and even the second game! No matter if you are a hardcore fan of the series or just jumping in blind, you will have a great time causing mayhem in the streets of London.

Ello’ Guvna

The setting for Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate at first looks kind of “grey” gloomy and boring in comparison to past titles, but that is all by design. The game is set in 1868 and the city of London then was a very different place and Ubisoft managed to capture it perfectly, the London setting is actually a major highlight of the game and once you dig a little deeper and look a little closer, you notice what an amazingly detailed world they have created here.

Butt-Kicking Twins

The biggest draw for Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate has to be the story. The game is still at its heart about the age-old war between the Assassins and the Templars. However, this game does a great job in keeping up with the established lore while at the same time telling a truly engaging story of its own. You have two playable characters in the form of Jacob and Evie Frye who are actually twins. These two want to put a stop to the hold that the Templars have on London and they are willing to go about it by any means necessary. The story really is fantastic and I would go as far as to say that the voice acting here is some of the very best in the series.

It really grips you from the start right the way to the end… and speaking of the end. What a disappointment! Seriously, the writers, directors, and everyone who put this together nailed it, but missed the landing! The ending is very strange and it really did not sit well with me. Especially considering the campaign takes around 20 – 25 hours so you do feel a bit deflated at the end of it all.

Zipping Around London With Brass Knuckles!

The gameplay of Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate is awesome. It features much of what you would expect from an Assassins Creed game, but the way you can zip around the city with this rope launcher (kind of like you can in the Arkham games) is truly game-changing stuff. This along with the parkour style running, climbing and vaulting you can do makes London a really fun playground to explore.

The combat is also a lot of fun and using things like brass knuckles and a sword cane helps set the overall tone for the game. Combat is very fast paced and while I like that they tried to make Evie and Jacob feel different, ultimately, they play very similarly to each other. You do have to play as both in the story, but side missions, for the most part, are there to be played as who you want which is really cool.

The whole game is just a lot of fun to play and speaking of fun, you can tell the developers had a lot of fun with this. This is most evident in the cast of historical figures that you deal with. Charles Dickens, Florence Nightingale, Alexander Graham Bell, and Arthur Conan Doyle to name a few.

I recently went back and played through Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate once again and it was just as much fun as I remembered it being. It really is a stand out entry in the series and apart from the flat and strange ending I have to say that this is a game that Ubisoft hit a real slam dunk with!

8.5/10

Pros:

• One of the best stories in the whole series
• Zipping around London is fantastic
• Combat is fast and fluid
• Two likable and awesome playable characters
• The whole game really is a lot of fun to play

Cons:

• I still do not get what they were thinking with the ending!
• Some of the parkour can in places feel clunky