Assassin's Creed Syndicate Reviews
Assassin's Creed Syndicate uses alternating sibling protagonists and a gang of English street toughs to put the stealth-action series back on the right track.
Assassin's Creed Syndicate is an acrobatic lunge in the right direction for the series. It's a more stable offering than Unity ever was with engaging protagonists, a monster of a city to get lost in, and some shrewd tweaks to the time-tested formula. Contract killing and taking leaps of faith off famous landmarks hasn't been this rewarding since the days of the great Ezio Auditore da Firenze.
Assassin's Creed Syndicate features a solid campaign, elevated by challenging assassination missions and a spellbinding setting. Syndicate delivers all of the innovations I had hoped to see from Unity, which was the franchise's first new-generation console entry, as the adjustments to combat, stealth, and travel breathe new air into the series.
Despite its flaws, Assassin's Creed Syndicate is a great action-adventure romp featuring a stunning backdrop in 1860s London and a brilliant cast of colorful characters.
When I look at the big picture, Assassin's Creed Syndicate is one of the best installments in years. It does nearly everything perfect, save the bug I mentioned and establishing a bit more gameplay contrast between Evie and Jacob. I think fans of the series will be quite pleased with what they find. Assassin's Creed Syndicate puts the franchise back on track, proving that it does not need a year off.
[W]ith solid combat, a very fun grappling hook gun, a wonderful recreation of Victorian-era London, and a pure focus on the single-player campaign, Assassin's Creed has returned to its roots, and hopefully this has set the stage for something epic as the series used to be known for.
While the franchise still needs to overcome some inherent flaws, Assassin's Creed Syndicate feels refreshingly different and a joy to play. With believable characters and fluid gameplay that feels trimmed of its excess fat, it is the best Assassin's Creed game to come out in years.
It isn't quite the game to finally thrust Assassin's Creed forward into new territory, but it's the one to point the series at true north for the first time in years.
Something of a return to form for the series, Assassin's Creed Syndicate is the perfect marriage of time, place and characters with an entertaining story and fun gameplay to match. London has never seemed so appealing.
All in all, Assassin's Creed Syndicate is welcome iteration in a series of open-world games that really should have overstayed its welcome by now. Improvements in the core gameplay and traversal, along with a host of great characters and compelling narrative offset its historical backdrop and technical concerns. It's not perfect, but its good enough to warrant a purchase.
Assassin's Creed Syndicate is a game for the fans of the series, a step forward when compared to Unity, but not the great comeback that many loyalists were expecting.
While there are still blemishes that stop it matching the heights of Brotherhood or even Black Flag, Assassin's Creed: Syndicate restores faith in the series by delivering a highly enjoyable open-world experience. Jacob & Evie make for entertaining characters in a beautifully crafted Victorian London filled with content that will keep you busy for weeks. So pick up your hidden blade - it's time to return to the creed.
Assassin's Creed: Syndicate's only significant flaw is a lack of ambition. It's an incredibly safe game that makes sure every edge is smoothed out to avoid any backlash. It's a simple, solid and predictable game that is a big improvement over last year's title, but at the same time, it leaves it feeling slightly bland. Syndicate is a good experience, and it's hard to fault a game for focusing on that. Fans of the franchise and newcomers alike should find much to like here.
A great return to form and on par with Black Flag for the best in the series. It's certainly not flawless, but Ubisoft have clearly taken their criticisms on board and hopefully will continue the series with this kind of quality. The combat, exploration, and parkour are highly enjoyable and the story and characters well written and compelling. Definitely worth a second chance for those driven away by Unity.
Perhaps the series is better off this way, since the franchise is to history as Indiana Jones is to archeology. It's meant to be entertaining. And it is. But while others hope for graphical and mechanical innovation in future installments, I'll be the awkwardly shirtless gentleman suggesting that Ubisoft continues to improve and expand its narrative.
Overall the story is okay, the present day parts are really starting to drag the game down though. I liked the present day sections in the earlier Assassin's Creed games, but recently they have started to become boring and uninteresting. It just takes you out of the game when these parts play throughout the main story. They really need to make the present day storyline interesting again.
Head and shoulders above last year's version, Syndicate has refined the Assassin's Creed experience, but essentially it's another familiar entry to the series with several polished elements.
Ubisoft took considerable flak from last year's release of 'Assassin's Creed: Unity', which had some good ideas but suffered from a collection of design and testing problems. To their credit, they appear to have taken it as a learning experience, as 'Syndicate' emerges as one of the strongest 'Assassin's Creeds' in recent memory.
The environment, the gameplay, the characters, this game has certainly enough assets to present that would make this game a good purchase. It's problems aren't that much of a problem, in fact they aren't game-breaking at all. The game does reward you, especially with a certain secret area that takes you in for a spin on World War I, putting you in the shoes of Jacob's granddaughter, Lydia Frye, which fans could take as a hint towards the franchise's future direction. Definitely this game is one that you can buy and add to your collection or not but the experience would still be that of what you can expect from an Assassin's Creed game.
Assassin's Creed Syndicate makes some strides forward with more substantial side quests and interesting story missions, even if the plot itself doesn't really go anywhere. Exploring this recreation of London is a marvel, but the repetitive cycle of taking territory and gathering pointless collectibles quickly wears thin, while gameplay pillars in stealth and combat still feel lacking. It's the most modern Assassin's Creed has been, but the Industrial Revolution doesn't quite bring the series into a new age.