Ubisoft had a lot to make up for after last year’s Assassin’s Creed Unity. They also had a lot to make up for when they quality of games in the series dipped after Brotherhood. In my opinion, Black Flag was one of the best games in the Assassin’s Creed series since Ezio’s trilogy and some may dispute that. This year’s entry may just surpass Edward Kenway’s story.

The biggest hurdle that Ubisoft had to overcome with Syndicate was not only technical glitches that plagued last year’s Unity entry but not choke the game with micro-transactions and do better to make the story more interesting.

Syndicate seems to show that Ubisoft has so far listened to the fans and without retreading too much of what most fans already know, let’s focus on what makes this game work.

Presentation

This year’s game features twins Evie and Jacob Frye. They are picking up the family business of being killers in the dark. The most important part of their story is seeing how different their goals are. While Jacob is more concerned about establishing himself as the de-facto gang leader on the streets of London, Evie is more concerned about ensuring that the Assassins’ work in taking down the Templars is completed. What makes their story work so much better as opposed to previous entries is that the twins already come into the game as assassins. You aren’t spending a bulk of time behind the scenes waiting to develop your character into the assassin that the Brotherhood is looking for.  In fact before the first hour is up you will have performed at least 3 crucial assassinations that push the story forward. The story itself is a bit more compelling this time out as your characters are more focused on the work of the brotherhood without it being so convoluted as it was in Unity.

Features

The setting of Victorian London is an excellent backdrop for the game. With this setting, Ubisoft has been able to bring back some old features which made Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood so good as well as some new twists to the formula. One of the features includes being able to not only recruit gang members to follow along and help in a fight, but you can recruit children to keep an eye on activities and information about supplies. Also you can upgrade your members by gaining experience as the game progresses. The stronghold mini mission makes a return in this game as well and if you want to open parts of London, you have to fight for territory. You can also bribe police, you can open pubs to get more income and so much more.

One thing that Syndicate does this time is it doesn’t allow you to open up too much too soon. There are parts of the map you are able to see and get a general idea of what level you need to be near before you can conquer it. This doesn’t mean you can’t take a crack at it but it does mean that your level 4 assassin will not take down a level 10 gang stronghold.

While I wasn’t exactly impressed with the mobile train headquarters, the grappling hook is a much needed addition to the game. Let’s not kid ourselves, this is a feature we have seen in other games such as the Batman Arkham series and Tomb Raider but here it’s not a fire and forget mechanism as we have seen in those games. While it does allow you to traverse the city a little bit faster, Ubisoft was wise enough to not allow players to grapple on everything. Also, you can grapple down as well as up and the animation works as well to make it believable.   When Jacob and Evie use the grappling hook, they have to pull themselves along. The last new feature that stands out of course are the wagons and stagecoaches you can utilize giving the game a Grand Theft Assassins feel. The wagons allow you to cover ground in the fastest way possible without using the fast travel option. You can use it to transport your recruits and also rams enemies off the road.

Syndicate does a lot to get players into the game and truthfully, I don’t miss the removal of multiplayer. Ubisoft is doing a lot to keep players focused on the single player game and with all of the feature sets, it goes a long way to do so. You also still have the option to improve weapon pieces, as your characters have so many new options such as guns, knives, staves etc., but you can also change your appearance as well. Ubisoft rewards long time players, as they have done for years, by allowing them access to costumes from past characters to use with current ones.   It’s kind of odd however to see Jacob running the streets of London in Ezio’s costume but somehow, Evie in Elize’s or Avaline’s costume fits right in and maybe it has to do with how close the eras are.
Graphics

The Assassin’s Creed series has always been a stunningly visual feast to look upon and Syndicate is no exception. The attention to detail in bringing alive Victorian London with its impressive landmarks shows that the series is still worth playing. Of course with the newer consoles, so much more can be done including detailed advertisements, people bustling on the streets with little loss of framerate. I still wish however, Ubisoft would take the time to make a true day/night cycle where once it got dark, there were less people on the streets and businesses closed for the night. This was a bit of a hallmark of London especially considering one of the DLCs is a Jack the Ripper mission.

As far as glitches are concerned, I experienced two early on with one occurring in a cut-scene in which Evie and Jacob didn’t appear onscreen while you still heard their voices and another glitch where a character I was supposed to assassinate in a particular way got stuck in a wall which caused me to repeat the mission for full credit. Thankfully, I didn’t have any of the major game crashing glitches (yet!) that Unity had last year. The one thing that could be fixed however is within the game, there is a upgrade which allows your characters to automatically loot beaten foes, which…doesn’t always work.

Overall, this entry makes a serious leap forward. The story is more intriguing, the characters are some of the most likable characters since Ezio and the insane amount of historical characters that are in this game makes this such a fun romp this time around.   I really like the way that the RPG mechanics works independently of both characters as well. Spend too much time with one and you will get to go back and upgrade the other and have different skill sets for each.   The gang mechanics really add to the game as well as the new features including the zipline.   Lastly, I also want to commend Ubisoft for taking a chance by making this a Friday release thus giving the average gamer such as myself a nearly uninterrupted weekend to get into the game without having to skip work to do so. Not to mention, get out of the way for rabid Halo 5 fans who will be doing just that this coming Tuesday.

4 ziplines out of 5