For a couple of years now, Ubisoft has been releasing an Assassins Creed game each year. Last year was no different. Ubisoft released Assassin Creed Syndicate and it was a pretty decent game for the most part. It was in no way a big hiccup of problems like Unity. Unlike most Assassin Creed titles, this particular title throws you right into the action. When I started playing the beginning of the game, I looked at the first 8 or 10 minutes of the story and Wham!!! I was thrown into the action. Here I am playing as Jacob doing a mission and soon after I’m playing with Evie. I was quite surprised, to be honest, the story doesn’t really matter so much anyways, since Assassin Creed has always been about action. Another addition, this time around is that we play with a set of twins. Jacob and Evie are quite the twins…..that they are!
From the very start of the game I could see that Jacob was going to be a handful and boy was I right. Jacob is more of the hands on brawler assassin, while his sister Evie is rather clandestine and cunning in her actions. As I progressed further into the game there were more options that were available for me in the skill menu. Most of these options felt like older Assassin Creed titles. Increased health, longer counter window and increased defense was among some those skills. However, the technology advance is what really got me in the game. In the older titles something was carried from one to the other, double assassination, smoke bombs, throwing knives etc. When Syndicate starts off you already have access to these weapons and it makes for an enjoyable experience. I spent at least 75% of my time in the campaign using throwing knives to off my weak opposition.
To make things even better, if you are part of the Ubisoft Club you receive extra free in-game content. Getting a free arm gauntlet and weapons are great, but playing with Jacob in a detective outfit is priceless. This time around, the fighting system has definitely been revamped. The fighting is more face paced and I really enjoyed the thrill of multi-kills. The police on the other hand was a great disappointment. In previous Assassin Creed titles forms of authority seemed a little more challenging. In this iteration the cops are straight out weak. By the time you get the 16 and half hour campaign, you will feel Jacob and Evie are overpowered. Cops really have no way of stopping you, however if you decide to invest your time in one of the local brawling fights you can get ripped real nicely! These fights are by no means a push over. If you are 2 levels under your competition and you suck at countering, then these matches aren’t for you. However I used a xp boost from the Helix rewards and farmed at their locations for a while. The results…..I was already at level 10 before I got to liberate London from all of its Red! Chest looting is back, but as far as looting rare chests, there are very few this time around. Considering the big flop Assassins Creed Unity had with the companion app, I guess Ubisoft just stuck to the old formula. Just keep the gold chests and they will hold important items for helping Jacob and Evie level up. Assassin Creed Syndicate to me was probably the best game that came out since Assassins Creed 2 and its side story expansions. However, that doesn’t mean that this one is off the hook either.
While progressing through the fairly short campaign, most of the liberation missions became repetitive fairly quickly. If they made freeing kids a lot than harder than walking up to them and hitting “b” maybe that would have added some flair to these missions. Another thing to note as well is that this year the free run is a little bit better, but there are times where you still grab on to random things as well. The leveling up tree was good in its own manner, but by the time you finish leveling up Jacob and Evie nothing really separates them. Jacob gains added defense and make his opponents reach “near death” status quicker, while Evie basically can camouflage in her surroundings and increase her throwing knives. Really….. You can do better Ubisoft.
For fans of the series, these minor setbacks definitely wont be enough to set them back. I highly recommend that you go out and give it a try. As stated before, the liberation missions can get quite repetitive, but the overall flow of the game gives me that nostalgic feeling of Shadows of Mordor. If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment or you can reach me at my email.
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