Video Game Review: Assassin's Creed Syndicate - Little Britain

Developer Ubisoft
Publisher Ubisoft
Distributor Megarom
Where we got our copy Megarom
Genre Action-adventure
Game modes Single Player
Players 1
Reviewed on Xbox One

Available on PC, Playstation 4, Xbox One

NiteFenix

Published October 30, 2015

Britain, Britain Britain. A long time part of the Assassin’s Creed Universe, but it has only made it’s actual debut in this year’s entry, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. Oh and what an entry it has made. Ubisoft has clearly set out to try and correct it’s previous failings, but don’t take my word for it, read my review below to see how my experience panned out.

Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is set in Victorian-Era London. You can see the amount of effort that has been put in to try and win back the faith of long time fans of the series. I’ll be honest, I enjoyed Unity. Sure it had it’s faults, but I had very few bad experiences during my play-through.

So what is Assassin’s Creed Syndicate you ask? Simple really, it’s the continuation of one of the most beloved stealthy, stabby (and lately shooty) titles on the market. There are several differences though. Firstly Syndicate introduces the player to the concept of two main playable characters. You get to play as the twins, Jacob and Evie Frye, each with their own agenda. What’s really awesome about Jacob and Evie is that they are such well fleshed out characters. From the moment you are introduced to the characters, you develop a strong connection with them. They have a sharp wit, and an understanding of each other that only close siblings could have. This becomes more evident as the story progresses, as they interact with the other characters found throughout Victorian London.

The story of Syndicate is quite interesting. It shakes up the flavouring of Assassin’s Creed somewhat. Your standard elements of Assassins vs. Templars are still there, but a brand new RPG-like element has been introduced. You not only need to level up your characters, but you also need to occupy the different districts across London. There are various activities to do inside each district in order to do just that. There are the classic Templar hunt activities, Gang Strongholds – which requires you to eliminate a bunch of bad guys (known as Blighters), kidnappings – where you kidnap a character and deliver them to the Bobbies (that’s cops for you non-British peasants) as well as freeing child labourers from factories (despicable I know – but hey, these things really happened in Victorian London).

An issue I had with some of the optional side activities was the fact that you could play some as Jacob and then a subsequent mission in the memory sequence as Evie, and then the story would show the previous section as if you had played it as Evie, and not Jacob. Which made absolutely no sense to me. They force you to play as Evie in Evie-centric main memory missions, why not force you to play as the character that you played as in the previous side activity memory. That would make more sense to me.

Jacob Frye also starts his own gang, called The Rooks which goes into direct competition with the Blighters in order to take control of London. The above mentioned activities, once completed in any given area will unlock an initial fight with the district Blighter gang leader, in which you can make a run at them and attempt to kill them. If successful, the followup Gang War does not include the leader, for obvious reasons. If unsuccessful, the gang leader will show up for the Gang War, thus making the battle much harder.

Some of the side-activities in the game have been designed in such a way that it really portrays life as it would have been during the Victorian times. A particular favourite of mine was the Fight Club element, which is of course as the name suggests, is an activity in which you participate in a fight to win some Pounds. If you’ve watched films such as Robert Downey Jr.’s Sherlock Holmes you will get a good feel of what the bare knuckle fights were all about back then, and Ubisoft has really outdone themselves in Syndicate’s Fight Club. I highly recommend that you go a few rounds in the ring.

Another new introduction to the Assassin’s Creed universe is the ability to drive carriages. Think Grand Theft Auto, only with carriages. You can hijack them and with a light tap of A (or X for you PlayStation peasants) you can boost your horse along with a sturdy whip of the reigns. If you’ve played Sleeping Dogs, you’ll also be familiar with the ram option, which has made its way into Syndicate to good effect. There’s nothing like a carriage chase through the streets of London and knocking your enemies, sending their carriages careening head over heels into traffic.

Another new addition to the Assassin’s Creed universe is the Rope Launcher. A fantastic and quick way to travel from one place to another. Stand at the foot of a building (preferably a tower and hit the LB (R1) button and your character will propel them self up the side of the building. While standing on top of a building you can launch a rope line towards another building (if it is in range) and propel yourself across the gap. It really rather reminded me of the grapnel tool in the Batman games. Quite a fun way to explore the city.

The controls have also received an overhaul. It’s not perfect, but it’s certainly a lot more responsive than last year’s entry. Bugs are also still prevalent, despite the Day 1 patch that was released. At one point in the game, early in my play-through I fell from a roof after holding B to release, and my character still fell into the haystack. Controls are still a bit wonky when free running. I find that sometimes I need to divert my character into another direction in order to continue a free run otherwise they end up running into an invisible wall where clearly there shouldn’t be one.

The really fun part of the game though is the Leveling System. There are 10 levels to the game and to progress in the game you will need to level your character. You do this by earning Experience for completing tasks. For every 1000 XP you gain a Stat Point, with which you can learn a new Skill. Various skills are available; the classic health boosts, fight improvements, driving improvements and stealth. Each character has a baseline skill tree which is the same for both, but are assigned individually. Jacob also has his own unique skills that focuses on his brawler aesthetic and Evie’s skills have a focus on stealth. If you earn a skill point with one character the skill point is given to both, avoiding the problem of having to do levelling twice to keep them on the same level. Next time you swap out characters, you can assign the new skill points to the desired skills. Of course, the further into the game you get the more expensive skills become, ranging from 1 skill point in the beginning, to 6 at the end.

The characters in Syndicate are well designed, not only visually but they have been given such rich character traits that, whether or not they are good or bad guys, you like them nonetheless. Some of the well-known characters introduced in Syndicate are Alecksander Graham Bell, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Florence Nightengale and Queen Victoria, each introducing their own flavour in cute little story-based missions for you to enjoy. Charles Dickens’ stories involve London’s Ghost Club which sets your characters off to investigate the paranormal and such folklore-based characters as Spring-Heeled Jack makes an appearance. Charles Darwin on the other hand has missions themed most related to his life’s work involving evolution vs. creationism. Alecksander Graham Bell on the other hand is kinda like the Leonardo Da Vinci of this title. He needs your help to test out his inventions as well as do missions to help further his tinkering.

The characters that were created specifically for Syndicate were also quite interesting. My favourites were Henry Green and Ned Wynaut. Each of these progresses your story along through the before-mentioned side-activities needed to conquer districts. I won’t spoil who or what they are, just know that they are all awesome.

Something which I loved about Unity was the introduction of co-op, a feature which had been long desired by Assassin’s Creed die-hard fans since its inception. Sure it had its flaws, but Ubisoft had a winner. Who wouldn’t want to play a game such as Assassin’s Creed with a friend. Which is why I was puzzled with the exclusion of this feature in Syndicate. The groundwork is there as previously mentioned. You have two playable (and likeable) characters, which you can switch between during most of the the game. Why not include co-op so that you can play through the story with a friend? The hardware is surely capable of it. Why cut it out? It’s not as if it was unpopular in the previous instalment. I just don’t understand it. What really drove this point home for me (and I’m trying to remain as spoiler-free as possible)… there is a certain mission, in which you actively switch between both Jacob and Evie during the course of a single mission. Each one relying on the other in order to progress. This would have been fantastic for co-op play.

The music is absolutely sublime. Having grown up in an English subculture in my home, I recognised a lot of the types of music that were played not only as background music during the adventures, but also as played by NPC’s as you are walking around London. Trumpets and trombones belting distinctly Salvation Army-sounding hymns. Fun shanty-type music in the pubs. It all really makes you feel like you are part of the Victorian subculture.

All in all Assassin’s Creed Syndicate has been a pretty wholesome experience. I am inclined to say that I have thoroughly enjoyed it.

Britain, Britain Britain. A long time part of the Assassin's Creed Universe, but it has only made it's actual debut in this year's entry, Assassin's Creed Syndicate. Oh and what an entry it has made. Ubisoft has clearly set out to try and correct it's previous failings, but don't take my word for it, read my review below to see how my experience panned out. Assassin's Creed Syndicate is set in Victorian-Era London. You can see the amount of effort that has been put in to try and win back the faith of long time fans of the series. I'll be honest, I enjoyed Unity. Sure it had it's faults, but I had very few bad experiences during my play-through. So what is Assassin's Creed Syndicate you ask? Simple really, it's the continuation of one of the most beloved stealthy, stabby (and lately shooty) titles on the market. There are several differences though. Firstly Syndicate introduces the player to the concept of two main playable characters. You get to play as the twins, Jacob and Evie Frye, each with their own agenda. What's really awesome about Jacob and Evie is that they are such well fleshed out characters. From the moment you are introduced to the characters, you develop a strong connection with them. They have a sharp wit, and an understanding of each other that only close siblings could have. This becomes more evident as the story progresses, as they interact with the other characters found throughout Victorian London. The story of Syndicate is quite interesting. It shakes up the flavouring of Assassin's Creed somewhat. Your standard elements of Assassins vs. Templars are still there, but a brand new RPG-like element has been introduced. You not only need to level up your characters, but you also need to occupy the different districts across London. There are various activities to do inside each district in order to do just that. There are the classic Templar hunt activities, Gang Strongholds - which requires you to eliminate a bunch of bad guys (known as Blighters), kidnappings - where you kidnap a character and deliver them to the Bobbies (that's cops for you non-British peasants) as well as freeing child labourers from factories (despicable I know - but hey, these things really happened in Victorian London). An issue I had with some of the optional side activities was the fact that you could play some as Jacob and then a subsequent mission in the memory sequence as Evie, and then the story would show the previous section as if you had played it as Evie, and not Jacob. Which made absolutely no sense to me. They force you to play as Evie in Evie-centric main memory missions, why not force you to play as the character that you played as in the previous side activity memory. That would make more sense to me. Jacob Frye also starts his own gang, called The Rooks which goes into direct competition with the Blighters in order to take control of London.…

Video Game Review: Assassin’s Creed Syndicate – Little Britain

2015-10-30

NiteFenix

Total - 8.5

85 8.5

Assassin's Creed Syndicate is pure and simply a joy to play. It has tons of new elements that are a welcome addition to the franchise and I sincerely hope they (most prominently the two playable main characters) make a return in some form in the future. It has its flaws, most predominantly of which is the lack of co-op, and the abundance of bugs despite the Day 1 patch, but it still manages to hold its own.

User Rating: 4.5 ( 1 votes)

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NiteFenix

Editor-In-Chief / Entertainment Editor at Geek Node

Jonathan has been a journalist for several years. Writing primarily about video games, and occasionally films and television series.

He spends most of his time talking crap on Twitter and looking for the meaning of life in all the wrong places.