Assassin's Creed: Syndicate 1886-All

SallyNasty wrote:

I love the modern/sci-fi stuff. Some of my favorite parts of the series were the Desmond sequences.

It's just too bad that most of his character development took place in the game after the culmination of his primary storyline.

It's clear that a lot of people hate the "present day" stuff in the AC games, but there is a sizable minority of us who love it. I'm kind of hoping that in future games they turn a lot of it into optional material; win/win. (Although I disliked the slow-moving first person view of AC4, and enjoyed running around as Desmond doing Assassin-y stuff in earlier games.)

Now that they have an engine that handles vehicles and rapid-fire guns, for better or worse, I think we're going to be getting more modern era stuff in the future.

The basic conceit of the Animus is of course ludicrous as BadKen says, but, in what I call "The Simpsons Effect," I'm able to suspend my disbelief as long as a fictional universe is consistent in how it works. What you can/can't believe is subjective, of course; but unfortunately the entire series is built around this fictional technology, so you just have to accept it and push it to the back of your mind, I guess.

> handles vehicles

Vehicles are handled about as well as they ever were in the series, which isn't saying much. The carriage gameplay in Syndicate is unwieldy and unfun.

It seems inevitable that Ubisoft will march time ever forward, but there are many other games that do brawling and shooting better than AC ever will. I hope they will stick to their strengths and revisit other eras. They have literally thousands of years to work with. It would be a shame if they boxed themselves into the previous century.

I've been playing a lot the last few days, and with the exception of a few specific missions that I found frustrating I'm quite liking it. But I've always enjoyed the series when it's a "be in this historical era and mess around" simulator, and this one does that fine. It's the most "play within yourself" the series has been in a while, and I think Ubi has taken the (well-deserved) roasting they got last year to heart.

At any rate, really just wanted to say that the "murder mystery" missions are well worth playing. They are much, much better than they were in Unity.

Edit: Post didn't have enough "quotes."

I actually never played a second murder mystery mission after the first one made me guess wrong then that dude popped up to admonish me to look beyond the obvious facts. I was literally sitting there like, ok, you gave me three clues, all of which point to this person... so I guess I just have to go with that because there's nothing else around to do... WRONG! Wait, what? Hey, f*ck you. Even I could have told you a murder investigation should take a LITTLE longer than 30 seconds.

Has anyone played the Jack the Ripper DLC?

Steam sale on for this. Just nabbed it for $35

Hm, the Season Pass is on sale, too. Hmm. Anyone played the Jack the Ripper thing?

No other game has made me feel so patriotic.

strangederby wrote:

No other game has made me feel so patriotic.

Funny, I felt the same way about AC3.

And I kinda felt that way about Unity.
Or proud of my city, at any rate.

maverickz wrote:
strangederby wrote:

No other game has made me feel so patriotic.

Funny, I felt the same way about AC3.

I'm not sure "patriotic" is quite the right word, but I did think it was cool to meet up with Washington and the other Revolutionary War figures to help them out. And, I liked the snarky lines from the Brit that was helping you in the present day. In Unity I didn't quite have that sense of history, but I did like touring the city (which I've never visited in real life). I haven't played Syndicate yet, but I'm looking forward to it, being a bit of an Anglophile and having visited London. To the point of the original comment, what part of it made you feel "patriotic"? From what I had seen, I thought my reaction might be similar to Unity, but does it have a bit more sweep of history to it (or, were you employing British snark =) ?

It's mostly how familer everything seems dispite being set in the past. St pancras station for instance. While not 100% accurate looks close enough to the real thing.

IMAGE(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSq5rnaY-lfyclAQrkmV9gDJ8BZT46y7hNIb_U2qkH54koWNptt9w)

IMAGE(https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSl3MRpbMNRi2QVB1ocTLV6YRjHQSAMg8RTmh-uT9LkXqEcKFFC)

That and the familiar historical charecters. Saying any more would be heading into spoiler territory.

tampaillini wrote:
maverickz wrote:
strangederby wrote:

No other game has made me feel so patriotic.

Funny, I felt the same way about AC3.

I'm not sure "patriotic" is quite the right word, but I did think it was cool to meet up with Washington and the other Revolutionary War figures to help them out. And, I liked the snarky lines from the Brit that was helping you in the present day. In Unity I didn't quite have that sense of history, but I did like touring the city (which I've never visited in real life). I haven't played Syndicate yet, but I'm looking forward to it, being a bit of an Anglophile and having visited London. To the point of the original comment, what part of it made you feel "patriotic"? From what I had seen, I thought my reaction might be similar to Unity, but does it have a bit more sweep of history to it (or, were you employing British snark =) ?

I am enamored by the idealized history of the formation of this country, so being able to actively participate in its birth was a neat to me.

If you've never played an Assassin's Creed game before, would this be an ok start?

It's good, maybe even great. But I would still grab AC2, or maybe Brotherhood.

But if you are really interest\ed in the period, then go for it.

Syndicate is pretty different from the others. It has a dual plot that's a bit of a mess, and an overwhelming number of side activities. It's easy to get sidetracked.

I would recommend starting with Assassin's Creed II. It has all the core gameplay elements, a great story and arguably the best main character in the whole series. The tech is a little bit dated, but it still looks great. The only downside of starting with II instead of the original is that the very beginning won't make much sense, but after a few minutes, it won't matter, because they pretty much explain everything.

It should be very inexpensive, too.

If you like Assassin's Creed II, try Assassin's Creed IV next. That'll tell you if you should bother with Assassin's Creed 3 and Rogue, because the mix of activities is similar in those three. If you *really* like Assassin's Creed II, you may want to just continue with Brotherhood and Revelations.

Unity is my favorite, but I don't think that is a majority opinion. Most of the negatives in Unity were release problems, and they were all fixed within a few months after it was released. Unity's my favorite AC game, but Ezio is my favorite character.

Unity is probably my least favorite from a story telling perspective, mostly because it's a hot mess with like ONE good character (Elise).

Syndicate is a much more cogent story that I like more... but it also really figures out traversal for the first time in the series's history. If you ever think, hey, I like this climbing and assassinating and sword fighting... but man getting around is annoying while playing II or whatever... then Syndicate is probably the game for you.

The thing is Syndicate was on sale for $15 on the Prime Sale. I don't think I could go back to II, maybe even IV. I've never got to wanting to play these games before, but the cheap price got me.

I would not start with Syndicate either, especially just based on cheap price. It would be okay, but I think you want to start with a numbered entry; they do a little better easing you into the games' unusual control scheme, not to mention the mythos. You can do it, but you'll have a longer period of starting disorientation.

When you say "I don't think I could go back to... IV" does that mean you tried it? If you did and you didn't enjoy it, the series probably just isn't for you, at any price. I'm not saying it's the best, but it should have at least been somewhat fun.

I don't think AC is so complicated that you couldn't load up Syndicate and enjoy it right off. And the larger arc is not nearly as interesting as the story you play in each game.

If the goal is to play lots of AC, then hitting the previous high points in the series is worth it. If you have the game cheap and just want to spend some time playing an AC game, Syndicate is a fun entry in the series.

If you really like it, try going back to just Black Flag, as it will have some different gameplay. Then if you just need more, go back to AC 2 and Brotherhood, which is where the game got great. Playing in reverse isn't going to spoil anything that matters much.

Jayhawker's right.

Also, Evie Frye is badass.

BadKen wrote:

Jayhawker's right.

Also, Evie Frye is badass.

Yeah, for me she's the best assassin in the series so far. Yes, that includes Ezio. Ezio got good by about mid Brotherhood into Revelations. Evie is just interesting from the start and only builds on that.

Demosthenes wrote:
BadKen wrote:

Jayhawker's right.

Also, Evie Frye is badass.

Yeah, for me she's the best assassin in the series so far. Yes, that includes Ezio. Ezio got good by about mid Brotherhood into Revelations. Evie is just interesting from the start and only builds on that.

+1 to that.

Aristophan wrote:
Demosthenes wrote:
BadKen wrote:

Jayhawker's right.

Also, Evie Frye is badass.

Yeah, for me she's the best assassin in the series so far. Yes, that includes Ezio. Ezio got good by about mid Brotherhood into Revelations. Evie is just interesting from the start and only builds on that.

+1 to that.

The dual protagonists were clever. They focused on Jacob a bit in advertising, but I think it's also like the advertising default Shepard for Mass Effect was a soldier bro, and the covert art for Bioshock Infinite tried to make it look more like a traditional shooter. People with a more casual attitude towards the series and story could bulldoze their way through with Jacob; people who are really into the stealth and assassin mythos invariably gravitate to Evie, though.

I'm really sad that the special edition included a statue of Jacob instead of Evie. Would have loved to have her on the shelf with the other statues from the series.

So I am about halfway through the game now and... meh? It is probably the weakest AC game that I have played, and I have played them all. Not to say it isn't fun - it is, but it just feels really soulless. The graphics are pretty weak, too, on Xbone. Unity looked way better. +1 to the Evie love, but Jacob is pretty bland.

I love this series, so I hope they are doing some real soul searching right now and putting some real love into the next game - but this one totally feels phoned in.

Well they're skipping this year to work on the next AC, so it sounds like some soul-searching is indeed in the works. From what I read, they toned down the lighting in Syndicate compared to Unity, hence the graphical differences.

Honestly, I would have greatly preferred a game all about Evie instead of Evie and Jacob. I get how their story is mean to unfold and how the two of them both need playtime to make that happen and blah blah blah... but yeah, would have reaaaaaaally preferred an Evie solo game.

I am really finding this game a slog. Usually AC games are my zen - love the stealth and collectibles - but Syndicate just feels so... soulless? Just like a by the book yearly release with no love poured into it. This is by far, for me, the weakest entry in the series. There are other games in the series that had issues, for sure, but through their rough edges you could see some love poured into them. Not so much this one. Also, seriously disappointed in the graphics. Glad I didn't pay full price. Don't get me wrong, is still funnish, but I am ready to get the 1k and move on.

That's too bad. It may be my wife's favorite in the series. But then, she doesn't play them all. She skipped Unity and Black Flag. I do think Syndicate was more fun for her on a gameplay level than a story level, where she and my daughter both really enjoyed Ezio's journey.