"Assassin's Creed Syndicate," or more commonly known as "AC Syndicate," follows the story of twins Jacob and Evie Frye as they fight through Victorian London to reclaim the city from the Templar Crawford Starrick. It's full of action, adventure, slight comedy and above all else, pure awesomeness. What makes this game so awesome? Why is it one of the best Assassin's Creed games?
For those of you who don't know what game series I'm talking about, here's a quick run down: There are two groups; Assassins and Templars. The role of the Assassins is to keep the world safe from the control of the Templars and to allow free will to continue. On the flip side, it is the role of the Templars to channel the powers of the Pieces of Eden, ancient relics which hold powers, giving the user supernatural abilities, in order to take control of the world and make a utopian world. The Assassins in this game are Jacob and Evie Frye. The Templars; various enemies, the main enemy, called the Grand Master of the Templar Order, Crawford Starrick. This game has a lot of nuances that we, as gamers, haven't seen for quite some time. As Maria in "The Sound of Music" once said, "Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start." and start with the story.
1. Story
The story opens in London as we meet our two Assassins: Jacob and Evie Frye. We quickly get a sense of their motives throughout this game and from the very beginning, have chosen our favorite. Evie, being the serious, traditional and logical assassin that we've grown to expect from the game, wants to find the Piece of Eden and defeat Starrick. Jacob, the comic relief assassin who also is more hands on when it comes to combat, wants to create a gang in London called the Rooks in order to overthrow the ruling gang, the Blighters. Even though they go through different aspects of the game, they still have one common goal: bring down Starrick. As is customary in most AC games, you meet historic figures, such as Alexander Graham Bell, Karl Marx and Charles Darwin. As you take down enemy after enemy, you get down to the final boss battle against Starrick himself. It truly is one of the best AC games yet from Ubisoft.
2. Assassins
As previously mentioned, we have two assassins in this installment of AC. How do they play out in the game? Well, throughout the game, you deal with what is referred to as Evie Memories and Jacob Memories. In these memories, you take control of the respective assassin until the final battle of the chapter, or memory sequence in AC lingo, where you can play as either Jacob or Evie. This character scheme is a huge leap forward for Ubisoft, as they have not seen a female assassin since "AC Liberation," which was a PS Vita exclusive so this technically makes Evie the first big-screen female assassin. She is a strong, fearless assassin who will stop at nothing to see the mission finished. Evie is the sensible assassin as her main goal is to get the Piece of Eden before Starrick and free London. Jacob doesn't care so much about the Piece of Eden and only cares about raising his gang to free London from another rival gang. He does want to defeat Starrick, but his methods are outside of the what he calls "superstition" of the Pieces of Eden. Jacob is the typical guy character. He loves to fight and doesn't really have much of a strategy as much as just jumping in and improvising. This is somewhat of a shift of what we've seen from other AC games. The males have typically been strategic and thought things out before going into battle. Even Arno Dorian of "AC Unity," taking place only 100 years before "Syndicate," used strategy to his advantage. Jacob is one of those characters who is chock-full of the one-liners to lighten the mood, and his missions are stealthy but they can also be a bit more heavy-handed (read: go in and beat up people). You do beat up people with Evie, but you tend to do it in a more stealthy and assassin-like way than with Jacob.
3. Weapons
It would be a huge mistake of me not to at least mention the weapons in this game. Aside from our usual hidden blade, we have a few new weapons as well. The main weapons in "AC Syndicate" can be found in real life, which makes the game even more immersive. The first being the Kukris. This weapon, which has its origins in Nepal, is a knife-type weapon that Jacob uses as his main weapon instead of a sword of past assassins. This weapon is given to him by Henry. Since he is from India, as stated in the Assassin's Creed Wiki, it would not be unheard of for him to have access to this weapon as he is in close proximity to Nepal. The second weapon, used by both Jacob and Evie, is the cane sword. This weapon is the second melee weapon we can choose from in our arsenal. It can serve as both a blunt force weapon as well as a cutting weapon, making it quite handy in a fight. The final melee weapon that we have are brass knuckles. These, of course, are meant to deliver maximum blunt force trauma to your enemy. The final twist to the weapons load out is that of the grappling gun now attached to our gauntlet. As seen in the picture above, you now have a hidden blade in the typical area and you have the grappling gun on top. Sadly, though, you cannot shoot enemies or pull them into you to do an epic assassin take-down. As insanely cool as that would be, it is only used for repelling to the top of buildings as well as zip-lining from building to building in a somewhat Spider-Man type fashion. Spoiler: you get this gadget by defeating the first gang boss in the Whitechapel district, bringing his grappling gun to Alexander Graham Bell, who makes it work for your gauntlet. The weapons truly are a step up from what we're used to in the typical Assassin's Creed games.
4. Map
Finally, we have the map. First off, let me say that the map above is not the full map of the game but rather only one district of the map. The game has several districts in it, all separated out into different sections by freedom missions. This makes the player have to grind through and upgrade the assassins in order to be able to free the districts. This idea of putting the player into a grinding session makes it a bit longer of game play. Instead of the player being able to play the game straight through in one day, as was typical in older AC games, you now have to spend multiple days earning what are called "sync points" in order to level up your assassin and be better equipped to get through the levels. This idea is more than likely meant to extend the longevity of the game and make it last longer to the player. Once you add in collectibles and side missions, it really broadens the game out and makes it more enjoyable and more immersive to play.
5. Assassination Memories
Finally, we have the Assassination memories. These take place at the end of every chapter or "sequence." They involve you assassinating a Templar. As I stated before, these can be likened to boss battles in traditional games. However, in these missions, you can kill your target in any way you like. If you want to just barge in there and kill them, that's fine. If you want to take the sneaky approach, that's also fine. The creators of the game, Ubisoft, started this idea in the last game they made, "Assassin's Creed Unity." This feature allows the player to truly think and act like an assassin, whereas in the other games, it told you to go to this spot and to kill them this way. You could kill them any way you wanted in the other games but in this game, it's more diverse and has a greater immersion factor than the other games.
Final Thoughts
"Assassin's Creed Syndicate" is a great game filled with complexities and subtleties that make the game the great masterpiece it is today. Playing this game is a true delight as you take on the lives of our two protagonists and help take down the evil Templars together. It's a game that plays like a movie and is filled with all the comedy and drama you would expect from a movie of this variety.
