Assassin's Creed Syndicate Reviews
While titles like Witcher 3 and Metal Gear Solid V have innovated on the open-world adventure, Syndicate is stuck in the past, in more ways than one
Assassin's Creed Syndicate provides a fantastic facsimile of Victorian London, but clumsy controls and tedious missions spoil the fun.
Bernie Sanders could use Assassin's Creed Syndicate's tale of greed and capitalist abuse at campaign rallies. It's too routine after a dozen games.
London is wonderful, but Assassin's Creed's inherent problems ensure Syndicate never comes close to doing its world justice.
Another impressive open world environment is wasted on dull, joyless gameplay and repetitive missions, making Syndicate as banal and artless as Assassin's Creed has ever been.
The bottom line is that Syndicate isn't as ground breaking or entertaining as Black Flag was, but it's not the mess that Assassin's Creed 3 or Assasin's Creed: Unity were. Do you need your yearly Assassin's Creed fix? Syndicate will do just fine. If you're sick and tired of the formula, though, there's nothing new here that's going to change your mind.
In the end, Assassin's Creed Syndicate is a far more competent entry than the much maligned Unity, but it does not entirely restore faith in the aging franchise. While Ubisoft continues to stubbornly hold onto making yearly entries with minimal changes to the core gameplay, other titles continue to evolve with more streamlined controls and visuals. If the next title doesn't take an even bigger leap forward, the AC franchise may end up lost to history in more ways than one.
Assassin's Creed Syndicate is a "return to form," but maybe a change would do the series some good.
With every release, the same issues that Ubisoft has been rolling over year over year seem to have compounded themselves to a point where the entire package winds up suffering. Sure, this isn't the broken mess that Assassin's Creed Unity was, but in some ways it's more of a blemish than its predecessor. After all, this is a functional game that simply isn't all that fun to play, which is far more damning than any technical glitch could ever be.
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is technically stable and visually appealing, but even though it learns lessons from the mistakes of its predecessor, it still manages to make older problems return and creates a gameplay experience that really doesn’t do much to take a hold of the player, which is a shame considering many of its gameplay elements showcase much promise. Ubisoft Quebec has managed to create a decent game, but the gameplay simply never manages to live up to the potential of its setting, which is a shame.
Much like the Victorian city that it's based upon, you have to dig into Assassin's Creed Syndicate in order to identify its problems. The core gameplay loop is solid and it's built upon a sound structure, but familiarity and filler lessen the appeal of this open world outing. Vastly improved performance and all around impressive presentation mean that London's most definitely not burning – but there may be a little panic in the offices at Ubisoft.
To this day, I call Assassin's Creed II my favorite video game of the past generation. It was truly a masterpiece. Unfortunately, the Assassin's Creed series has become a shell of its former self. Syndicate tries hard to recreate some of the magic, and even creates some smart new features, but it ultimately falls short. If Assassin's Creed Syndicate had been in development for another year, it could have been a thrilling mid-1800's adventure. Instead, it sinks into comfortable mediocrity.
It's a good Assassin's Creed game that is a ton of fun if you're a fan of the franchise like me, and London is a fantastic playground that is just a joy to walk around in, but to me it feels like that is no longer good enough.
Syndicate unashamedly avoids any attempts to break away from the mould of its predecessors as it happily churns out the same objectives time and time again with no regard for the player. If, like me, you've grown weary of going through the motions, Syndicate will leave you unimpressed and doubtful of what, if anything, this series has left to offer.
New toys and strong characters freshen up the Creed formula, but only for a while.
Rather than following in the footsteps of AC Unity, Assassin's Creed Syndicate is an unambitious entry that mostly shuffles in place. There's still fun to be had here, but this sophomore next-gen effort doesn't excel.
Assassin's Creed: Syndicate lets you science the shit out of murder in a city where people are sciencing the shit out of everything. There's an undeniable appeal to that. But it's an appeal worth looking in the face.
In conclusion Assassin's Creed: Syndicate is an amazing standalone game packed with fun things to do from beginning to end.
Conventional but often brilliant
Assassin's Creed Syndicate is a solid and good-looking, if decidedly traditional, release in the series' annual cycle. It's worth a look but if you have an enormous backlog, then don't worry - the Frye twins can wait.