Don't Count Assassin's Creed Out Just Yet.
Like pretty much anybody else, I was about ready to call it quits with the Assassin’s Creed series after last year’s entry, Unity. It wasn’t so much that the game was technically disappointing, but on a philosophical and design level the game just wasn’t fun. There was so much to do in the game, but I hardly had a good time doing any of it. Word of mouth and my ability to forgive to a fault led me to putting Assassin’s Creed: Syndiacte into my Playstation 4 this year though, and I can say with some confidence that the improvements made to the movement, combat and mission structure have made this the best Assassin’s Creed I have ever played.
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate more than makes up for the sins of it’s fathers in almost every way. Not the least of which being the core gameplay. Much of this is standard assassin fare: climbing buildings, leaping off those buildings and landing on soft Templar bodies to slide a wrist-blade in their back. This time around though, Syndicate has made tremendous leaps at making all of this action much quicker and more satisfying. For example, your assassins are now equipped with a Batman style grappling hook that will zip you to the top of the highest buildings Victorian-era London has to offer. In addition, the grappling hook allows you to quickly move laterally across rooftops. This might sound like it makes climbing obsolete (and it kind of does) but the grappling hook is fun to use throughout the duration of the campaign and it’s immensely satisfying every time one of your characters shoots it and it lets out a pressurized ‘pop’. In addition, the combat is much snappier. The characters might look a little jittery while in the midst of flowing to and from different enemies, but taking on multiple opponents has never been more fun or responsive as it is in Sydicate.
Throughout the course of the narrative you will take control of twin assassins, Jacob and Evie Frye, whom you’ll be able to switch between on the fly. The dynamic offered by multiple protagonists allows for some light-hearted albeit run-of-the-mill sibling rivalry shenanigans, since Jacob is written as the more careless of the two and Evie is more of a by-the-books type. More interestingly though, is how the game allows you to level the two characters up concurrently. This means that you’re able to spec each character to your liking. While the game might have written Jacob as the type who’s eager to jump the gun, I threw all of his experience points into the stealth tree, making him my go-to character for sneaking missions, while I levelled Evie into being my brawler. Eventually, the game lets you know that its intentions were for Evie to be the stealthy one by making certain skills character-specific, but I thought allowing the player to take each character in the direction they saw fit was novel. The game was good about giving each character experience even when they weren’t being played so one never got stronger than the other. The levelling system was also great for a player like me who is bad at min-maxing ability trees and ends up spreading points around like a bizarre video game Johnny Appleseed.
I would be remiss to sing the praises of this game without talking about how gorgeous it looked. Say what you will about past entries into the series, but Assassin’s Creed games always look fantastic, and Syndicate is no exception. Victorian London will be shown in some absolutely beautiful light. Climbing to the top of a building and looking out across the landscape can make for some incredibly picturesque moments. Go down the wrong alley at night however, and you’ll be treated to some well realized “bad parts of town.” As ever, all of the character animations look great, but can lead to some awkward moments when the player character (or enemy A.I. for that matter) can’t quite figure out how negotiate their body through a door. These are minor complaints however in a game that is otherwise visually stunning.
Like I said this is the best experience that I’ve had with an Assassin’s Creed game, but that doesn’t mean that it’s without fault. There were several moments throughout my time with it where I would experience bugs. One moment that comes to mind took place during a side mission in which I was tasked with killing Spring-Heeled Jack. When it came time to fight him however, I was unable to attack. Try as I might to restart the mission, I would always run into the same problem until attempting a full console restart. Things like this would come up intermittently throughout the campaign, which while unfortunate, was not enough to ruin the entire experience.
Altogether, Syndicate is just a more enjoyable package than any other Assassin’s Creed game I’ve played before it. The side missions are more fun and streamlined, taking over London is satisfying as you conquer individual districts by completing one of several dynamic side missions before culminating in a Gangs of New York style gang fight, and the adjustments to the combat and movement make the game a faster and more rewarding experience. The meta-narrative has been truncated to short cutscenes that play every few hours reminding you that you’re actually an initiate who we never see working for the modern day assassins. This is fine though, because that stuff isn’t particularly interesting anyway. The real draw of the game is the core gameplay, which is better here than it’s ever been before. I look forward to what’s to come next in the Assassin’s Creed franchise, which is something I haven’t been able to say in a good number of years now.
