With the launch of Assassin’s Creed Syndicate on the horizon, October is Assassin’s Creed month, so we thought it prudent to put together the ultimate guide to everything you need to know about the game.
Taking place during the peak of the industrial revolution in London, you take on the role of Jacob and Evie Fry, two assassins who have set out to take down the underground world of organized crime that’s established itself in London.
Whether it ultimately achieves it or not is still up for debate, but Assassin’s Creed Syndicate “promises” brand new ways to explore, travel, fight, assassinate and grow your two main characters. We suppose two protagonists, rather than one, is new.
As the city’s development is hastened by the Industrial Revolution, London is taken over by an all new paradigm, money and capital. And with it, the fall of the Brotherhood and rise of the Templars.
As is the way with any Assassin worth his, or her, salt, Jacob and Evie Frye have taken it upon themselves to take back the city and bring down the reign of the Templars.
Along the way, Jacob and Evie will come into contact with some of the most iconic historical characters like Charles Darwin, Jack the Ripper and Charles Dickens.
Jacob and Evie Frye
For the first time in the series, you will be able to switch between two main characters while navigating London’s large, open environment. Each of these two characters have their own unique missions that go hand-in-hand with their unique approaches to assassinations and all-out combat.
Evie takes things slowly and relies on stealth as she takes on different scenarios. Jacob, on the other hand, is a hot head who relies on close combat and melee weapons to take down his opponents.
Both Jacob and Evie will have their own set of weapons, including brass knuckles, a revolver, a sword and a kukuri. The same customization system found in Assassin’s Creed Unity will be found in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, but expect a deeper experience this time round.
Along with their personalised loadouts, the twins will also have the brand new rope launcher that will enable you to swing across to nearby buildings, pull enemies off ledges, reach high places and generally travel around the city faster.
Side Missions
While exploring London, you will come across a number of mission variations designed to test your Assassin’s wit.
These are much deeper this time around, or so Ubisoft claim, and include taking down gang leaders, saving child slaves, taking down snipers, or just racing across the streets of London while bashing into chariots and civilians along the way.
Sounds like a fairly regular collection of distractions, but the jury’s out until we get to test them more thoroughly for ourselves.
Exploration
Getting around London has never been quicker thanks to the improved parkour system, as well as the rope launcher, turning your average Assassin into a regular Batman.
Climbing up the Elizabeth Tower, for example, takes mere seconds thanks to the ability to string together grapple points while you climb up the sides of the tower.
When you get to the top, you can easily string a zipline onto a building in the distance and slide all the way down to it.
Using the trains as a mode of transport makes getting from different points in the city much easier. You can hop on a train and ride it all the way around London, jumping off at any time.
The same goes for horses and carriage, as you can get in one and drive it wherever you wish. If you feel like taking a trip down the River Thames, then just hope on a boat that is crossing the river and take in all of its muddy beauty.
What to do while in game
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate will not have any multiplayer at all, so at its core the game seems to allow for solid single player experience that has it reminding us of earlier titles in the franchise.
The game’s new focus on close combat merges the combat found in any of the Batman: Arkham titles with the likes of Assassin’s Creed II, granting you the opportunity to string together unique combos and approach each fight with your own style.
Like the game suggests, what with being called Assassin’s Creed Syndicate and alll, you will be granted a syndicate of your own to control. That means managing those operating within your syndicate, as well as their skills, appearance, equipment and even recruiting new members.
Stealth has also been refined to be a much smoother, more seamless experience. You will no longer have to wrestle your character while you go about your business, and the enemy AI has also been given a tweak making it a much more realistic adversary.
You can now kidnap certain enemies that need to be kept alive during missions rather than going in and killing everyone. This adds to the overall stealth experience as you not only need to get into the area, but you now also need to get out with the target.
So when you’re not running around for Darwin, or zip lining up Elizabeth Tower, you will be building your crew and taking over London.
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate needs to be a hit, honestly, after the failure of Unity; if this year’s title does not make an impact, I doubt we will see any more Assassin’s Creed titles.
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate launches on October 23rd for PS4, Xbox One and PC.
Are you looking forward to this year’s release? Let us know in the comments and forum!
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If a titan X can run it in 4k I’ll give it a look