Preview

Assassin’s Creed Syndicate – The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The following article is based on our impressions of Assassin’s Creed Syndicate after approximately 10-12 hours of gameplay. A full review will follow next week, and will take into account any additional patches that arrive on launch day.

As such, we thought we’d give you some quick impressions about the good and bad points that we’ve found so far in Ubisoft’s latest open-world adventure.

assassin's creed syndicate review

The Good

Welcome to London
Maybe it’s because I’m English and love London and its history that the setting of Assassin’s Creed Syndicate appeals to me so much, but British pride aside, Ubisoft has done a superb job at capturing the look, sounds and atmosphere of Victorian London in a variety of ways.

– The accents are spot-on. There’s no mockney accents here with characters on the street sounding authentic and real. Listen out for screams of “fackin murder” on a regular basis, and “I’ll gut you like a fish”. Indeed, voice acting across the board is excellent, which is no mean feat considering the extensive cast.

– The architecture of some of the most iconic locations in London is spectacular, from the towering figure of Big Ben and St Paul’s Cathedral to Thames Bridge and the hustle and bustle of Trafalgar Square, complete with the imposing statue of Horatio Nelson. It’s clear that a lot of time and effort has gone into creating an authentic vision of Victorian London.

– At ground level, the detail is astounding. From the cobbled side streets full of vagrants, the grand architecture of the buildings, the authentic shops fronts, the grimy warehouses, and the docks (full to the brim with trading vessels), the era is brought to life spectacularly, capturing both the grandeur and the poverty of the city. Not to mention it’s dangerous edge.

– The sounds of London capture the hustle and bustle of the city, with traders shouting, kids playing, and paper boys yelling out the news. The sounds of steamboats on the Thames, industry clanking away in the distance, and the clip-clop of the horse and carriages across the cobbled streets make for an impressive audio experience which is combined with an impressive orchestral soundtrack that fits the mood of the city.

– The scale of the game is huge with six huge boroughs to explore, including Whitechapel, City of London, Southwark, The Strand, Westminster, and Lambeth. Then there’s the huge stretch of the Thames with the opportunity to loot cargo from rival gangs. Each area is chocked full of missions and activities. I’ve barely scratched the surface, and it’s always a thrill to discover a new area to explore. So far, it seems that the area is bigger than any previous Assassin’s Creed game.

Characters
In my 12 hours or so of gameplay time, it’s never been too long before I’ve bumped into another fascinating character in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate with a fair few of them being very recognisable figures. Each has his/her own side-story or tale to tell that fits in really well with the main story. Here’s some of the people I’ve met.

– Charles Dickens tells me about the fabled story of Spring-heeled Jack and sets me off on a mission to hunt him down.

– Alexander Graham Bell sends me to Big Ben to mend some fuses in order to combat the Starrick Telegraph Company

– I blew up a brewery with Charles Darwin

There’s plenty more to come too. I’ve just stumbled across a mission that involves Florence Nightingale.

More on Assassin’s Creed Syndicate overleaf.

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The twin mechanic
With two main protagonists, Jacob and Evie Frye, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate cries out for a co-op mode so two people can combine their different playstyles together and work as a team. Sadly, that hasn’t happened, but I’ve still thoroughly enjoyed their story and seeing how their relationship is progressing. Both are very strong characters, and are quickly turning into my favourite Assassin’s Creed protagonists in the series.

– You upgrade Jacob and Evie separately. It works extremely well because you can level one up in stealth and the other in combat and then switch between them when tackling different situations.

Combat
Combat is brutal, and when it flows well it’s extremely satisfying. Here’s some of the highlights so far.

– Contextual kills add a new level of brutality. Take an enemy out by a wall, for example, and you’ll likely smash his head into it to finish him.

– Fist-fights are fast-paced and hard-hitting, with dodging and counters when timed correctly making for some visually impressive bouts and long combo chains.

– It’s easy to switch weapons and gadgets on the fly, so you can go from whacking ten bells of shit out of someone with your cane, to firing off a couple of shots with your pistol, or dropping a smoke bomb to give yourself a much needed break from getting a kicking.

– Combat animation is impressive and finishing cinematics brutally satisfying. Jacob and Evie have some excellent moves in their arsenal, especially the finishers where you might break an enemy’s arm, or shove your blade through their neck.

Getting around London
There’s multiple ways to get around the city, but it’s the rope-launcher and zip-line that proves to be the main highlight.

– When I chain together zip-line moves from one building to the next smoothly, I feel a little like Spider Man. You can move very quickly across the city this way.

– It’s far easier to escape an area when you need to. You just look up, press L1 and you’re gone to the rooftops, which alleviates some of that frustration of having to run for miles to escape the enemy radar.

So much to do
Like any Assassin’s Creed game, there’s a wealth of things to do. Though it’s largely the same type of hunt down/assassinate/kidnap/fetch missions of previous games, I’ve particularly enjoyed how Ubisoft has taken its tried-and-tried and tested formula and applied it to relevant scenarios for the era.

Some of my favourite activities have included:

– Liberating children from slavery. Each borough has a workhouse where children need to be freed, and it’s very immersive moving through an ironworks, or a warehouse taking out the guards and allowing the poor souls to escape.

– Aside from the main missions, taking down gang strongholds is one of the best activities. Moving around an enemy base working out strategies to take down multiple enemies before taking on a boss and raising your gang’s flag is great fun.

– I love hijacking cargo. Whenever I pass over one of the London bridges there’s plenty of trade boats and you can just jump down, kick some ass, and take their goods.

– It’s good fun recruiting a gang on your side and then storming an enemy area, sending them in to fight enemies alongside you. It’s got a Gangs of New York feel about it.

The bad

Okay, I’m going to reel off some of the worst parts of the game so far.

– The draw distance is not as impressive as in Assassin’s Creed Unity. Climbing on top of some of the tallest buildings and looking across the city isn’t as impressive as I thought it would be. There’s too much bright lighting effects that drowns out the detail.

– There’s a real lack of variety with enemy types. If it isn’t coppers, it’s the gang in the red coats and the same generic bald-headed chap that you’re fighting against time and time again.

– What’s worse is that you can’t explore for more than 30 seconds without being spotted by an enemy who wants to attack you. The only way to counteract this is by navigating the city from above or via stagecoach. I just want to explore without that constant threat.

– The rope-launcher prompt is inconsistent. It doesn’t always kick in when it should. Sometimes you’ll have to go right up to a building to launch it, but other times you can stand back from a distance. This can interrupt the flow of movement.

– The margin of error for latching onto the wrong place with the zip-line is small. This is only really a problem if you want to move quickly through the city, as you’ll find yourself launching the zip-line onto a spot where you didn’t want to go.

– The arrangement of gear in the crafting interface isn’t well laid out. It’s hard to tell what you’ve got equipped. You have to scroll through all the available items to try and find what you’ve actually got equipped, when they could have just ensured that your equipped weapon was highlighted at the top.

The ugly
Okay, here’s the major issues that I’ve come across.

– Driving around on a horse and carriage is not fun. The physics of the carriage make it a wobbly, unpredictable ride that often sees me knocking down pedestrians and lampposts. It’s carnage.

– The roads are incredibly busy which means it’s difficult to navigate quickly without bumping into stuff.

– The carriage race side-missions are awful. They often take in 25 checkpoints that require you to constantly spam the X button while bumping into a lot of stuff. It hurts your fingers.

– There’s a few glitches which I hope are ironed out. In one mission, the final item I needed didn’t spawn. In the train hideout, the screen went blank and I couldn’t do anything but quit the game and restart. There was some hilarious face-glitching during one of the cut-scenes.

So, that’s it for now. We’ll have our full Assassin’s Creed Syndicate review live next week!