Due to a chain of unfortunate events, I never managed to play any Assassin’s Creed before. But thanks to ZAVVI, who kindly sent me a copy of Assassin’s Creed Syndicate to review, my time has finally come and I can tell you from a rookie assassin’s point of view what I think!
First impressions first.
I’ve heard about the stories of the Assassin’s Creed series many times. I always love games that are set in the past so Syndicate is especially interesting to me because it is set in 1868 London. Will I be able to recognise the environment? We’ll see.
Controls
My first experience with the controls was not overly positive. They can be clunky at times and, at first, I was pretty confused. Occasionally you get stuck on objects while in stealth which then causes you to be discovered. In general, I like the stealth aspect though because it’s not forced upon you. If you get detected you can still fight.
Characters
The two main characters, twins Evie and Jacob Frye, have different builds. Jacob is more into hands-on combat whereas Evie is skilled in stealth.
Mechanics
The climbing mechanic works a lot different than I had imagined. When I played Shadow of Mordor, I read about people comparing it to Assassin’s Creed. And I agree, both games feature an extensive climbing mechanic as well as action-heavy close range combat based on timing. The difference here though lies in the climbing.
I expected Assassin’s Creed to be the same as Shadow of Mordor where you push X when you want to jump/climb. But in AC, you hold down a button to free climb which I found odd at first combined with the other controls.
However, as the game progressed it made more and more sense to me. You can climb absolutely everything, which is something that I love. In some games, it’s made very clear to you visually which kind of buildings or structures you can climb. Not so in AC. You can just scale any building with no visual cues and are then rewarded with some awesome views of foggy London (also known as The Big Smoke).
World Building and Gameplay
This is what makes the game just that more beautiful to me. Not that it wasn’t already beautiful. Apart from the stellar graphics, the detail is just incredible. The game world is so big and yet authentic. You’ll see street vendors, markets as well as historical advertising, both in poster form and on buildings themselves. It all creates an incredibly real atmosphere.
Adding to that is the architectural and geographical accuracy. You’ll be able to find (and climb) all the big landmarks such as St. Paul’s Cathedral, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery and Big Ben. Incredibly, I was able to find my way from Big Ben to Buckingham Palace just by having been there in real life. It just blew my mind.
Being that the game is set in 1868, you will neither find tube stations everywhere (at that time the underground network was still in its infancy) nor the famous red doubledeckers or black cabs. This shows just how much London has changed in the last 150 years.
Story
Story wise I’m not so impressed. The main objectives are different for each assassin sibling. Evie Frye is looking for something called a “Piece of Eden” whereas Jacob Frye is trying to free London from the Templar’s clutches.
To be honest, I have played through a big part of the game now and the story doesn’t grip me at all. I am much more drawn to the side stories. They are probably what I enjoy doing most in the game because you get to meet historical figures and help them for them to help you in return.
You can help Alexander Graham Bell with developing the telephone, hunt ghosts with Charles Dickens, protect Charles Darwin from “non-believers” and secure workers’ rights with Karl Marx.
Other historical characters you’ll meet are Florence Nightingale, Duleep Singh*, Sergeant Frederick Abberline who was a main figure in investigating the Jack the Ripper murders and even Queen Victoria herself. I find it so exciting to “meet” these people, knowing what they eventually achieved.
(*Related: International Women’s Month is coming!)
Here, the love for detail shines through again, seeing as all of these people actually existed and worked at the time the main story is set. A similar storyline to this is Nikola Tesla in The Order 1886, which was probably the only good thing about that particular game.
Another thing I really enjoyed are the PS4 exclusive “Dreadful Crimes,” where you can solve crimes around the city by putting together clues and then accusing someone. It reminds me of Sherlock a lot. In hindsight that’s probably on purpose as a 9-year-old Arthur Conan Doyle gives you your cases.
The crime solving is also a nice distraction from infiltrating gang strongholds and assassinating targets. I found one particular crime very interesting as it was pretty much the story of Sweeney Todd with a twist. The twist was not that the barber’s called Feeney Sodd by the way.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, there are pros and cons to this game. Some cons are that I had trouble advancing the story at first as it wasn’t 100% clear to me how to do so. I then ended up wondering why I wasn’t receiving any new items until I realised how to go ahead with the main missions.
Now I’m at level 9 but still have level 5 story missions to do. Another con is that the game glitches out sometimes, more often than I have experienced it with other games. I’ve had to restart missions because the place marker was bugged which was really annoying.
Then there’s the loading screens which is probably a necessary thing. Whenever you fast travel or die you have to go through a loading screen that is quite long. It gives you tips on the game and facts on Victorian life. Once you’re in the game, however, there are no loading screens at all. So this is kind of a pro/con for me.
Pros are obviously the amazing environment, the cool side missions, and the fact that you can play as a female character. I always find myself going for Evie unless I have to play Jacob for story purposes.
I don’t find the gameplay repetitive, even though I feared I would at the beginning. I enjoy trying to figure out a tactic to take down all the bad guys without anyone seeing anything! Overall I do really enjoy this game and I am looking forward to finishing it in its entirety. Here I go looking for all the chests and other collectibles…
Thanks again to ZAVVI, an entertainment website based in the UK that sells anything from games to merchandise and ships worldwide for only £0.99! They often have offers on so it might be worth checking out next time you’re planning to expand your collection.
Have you played Assassin’s Creed?
Which one’s your favourite?
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