None of it was a major dealbreaker, (in fact, I’ve come to expect this sort of nonsense it from AAA releases) but it was still annoying. I’ve had a few funky cutscenes where the lip sync was off as well. There’s a ton of texture pop-in, even on my high end (brand new $600 Nvidia 980ti card) rig on low settings. I experience at least one crash to desktop every few hours of play. The big question on everyone’s mind is: is Syndicate a buggy mess, like Unity was before it? The answer is a mixed bag. There’s also a tacked-on “modern era” story told exclusively through cutscenes that you could skip without missing anything at all. Along the way, they learn to appreciate teamwork. They’re try to stop the Templars from getting their hands on a crazy powerful artifact. Jacob and Evie are somewhat rebellious assassins, but they’re good at what they do. Story-wise, there’s nothing much to write home about. However, you can always resort to running away and doing the stealth/stab thing instead, which is an instant kill regardless of level differences. It can be challenging if you’re going up against enemies at much higher level than you. The brawling isn’t terrible, but it does feel very awkward by comparison. The result isn’t nearly as polished as the games that it’s trying to copy. The series-standard fast travel places and leaps of faith are still present, however. The streets of Victorian-era London are also bustling with carriages that can be hijacked to get you from point A to point B faster.
I lost track of the number of times I fumbled with the controller trying to figure out whether they wanted me to free run up or free run down as I approached these obstacles. In some cases, this is considered an up, in others it’s a down, and in still others you start by free running up and then switch to free running down. The downside to this is readily apparent whenever you want to try to mantle over something, like a fence or a railing. Basically, if you’re climbing up, you don’t have to worry about your character accidentally climbing down, or jumping off a building when they reach the edge. I don’t really feel passionate about this one way or another – the benefits are pretty minimal, but it’s not invasive enough to really annoy me.Īnother major change to the motion mechanics in Assasin’s Creed: Syndicate is the addition of separate “free run up” and “free run down” button combos. When in stealth mode, you make less noise, can hide behind half-height walls, and you get a HUD indicator that gives away the location of nearby enemies. One of these is the addition of a “stealth mode” that is toggled on and off. Having removed such a key element to the Assassin’s Creed formula leaves Syndicate grasping at any possible improvements that could be made to make the game’s movement stay interesting. In Victorian-era London, however, it’s a major pain in the butt. Back when one and two story buildings were the norm, getting a high vantage point only took a few seconds. On the other hand, as we move into larger cities and more modern eras, the climbing is just getting in the way of playing the game. Being able to air-assassinate almost anything anywhere feels pretty overpowered. This cuts both ways for me – on one hand, fluid, free-running traversal has always been a trademark of Assassin’s Creed, and taking it away feels like losing a limb.
The grappling hook takes almost all of the free running and climbing out of the game. (God help us all if you have to stab more things after that.) More complex missions – stay with me here – feature stealth, then stabbing, then more stealth. Other times, you stab it and then stealth away afterwards. Sometimes you stealth up to something, and then you stab it. It’s basically a mix of stealth and stabbing.
I do apologize for any confusion.Īssassin’s Creed is an easy franchise to get a feel for. Note: I did not play Unity, so when I talk about new features in Syndicate, they may have been features of Unity. Does it rise to the heights of Black Flag, or does it scrape the bottom of the barrel like Assassin’s Creed 3? Read on to find out more about Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate in my review! After a disastrous, buggy outing for 2014’s Unity, Ubisoft sought to rebuild trust in the franchise with 2015’s Syndicate. These open-world stealth adventures have been a yearly staple for what feels like forever. Warning: count(): Parameter must be an array or an object that implements Countable in /home/public/wp-content/plugins/wots-plugins/wots-shortcode.php on line 386Īnother year, another Assassin’s Creed game. Posted January 12, 2016, Updated January 12, 2016, Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate Review: Free-run Rerun