Assassin's Creed: Syndicate 1886-All

I was thinking 1930's Chicago with the mobsters and such would be an excellent setting as well. At the same time, I wouldn't mind a new continent entirely for the series.

1930s depression would be cool. Also Wild West, a western AC would surely be different.

The Bolshevik Revolution is so perfect for the AC universe that it's practically inevitable, I wouldn't be surprised if it's one of the next games. There's been popular demand for a game set in Japan or China since at least AC2, as well. I'm not as familiar with eastern history but I'm sure both cultures have plenty to draw from.

ruhk wrote:

The Bolshevik Revolution is so perfect for the AC universe that it's practically inevitable, I wouldn't be surprised if it's one of the next games. There's been popular demand for a game set in Japan or China since at least AC2, as well. I'm not as familiar with eastern history but I'm sure both cultures have plenty to draw from.

Any of the Warring States periods from Chinese history would be pretty easy to work into. The eras of weak Shogunate control over feudal lords and generals controlling the Shogunate for Japanese history would also work quite well for an AC plotline.

That said, pre-Soviet Russia would be awesome. We'd have to avoid the Monguls, simply because that was actually mostly ended by Altair, his wife, and his son (seeing as how Genghis had the Sword of Eden). Can't remember how much the Subject 16 stuff covered Russian history now.

ruhk wrote:

The Bolshevik Revolution is so perfect for the AC universe that it's practically inevitable, I wouldn't be surprised if it's one of the next games. There's been popular demand for a game set in Japan or China since at least AC2, as well. I'm not as familiar with eastern history but I'm sure both cultures have plenty to draw from.

I saw a documentary about the killing of the Romanov family (Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Tsarina Alexandra and their five children Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei) giving details of their captivity, execution and looking at whether one of the princesses could have survived. During their captivity several of the princesses were actually trained in sword fighting to pass the time. The way it worked on the day of their execution, with handmaids about, friendly male guards etc I could see one or two of the princesses being swopped out at the last minute by sympathisers (you'd need some dedicated look-alikes to take their place.) I don't think it happened in reality but it would be a great origin story for a female assassin or two (or three.)

Higgledy wrote:

I saw a documentary about the killing of the Romanov family (Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Tsarina Alexandra and their five children Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei) giving details of their captivity, execution and looking at whether one of the princesses could have survived. During their captivity several of the princesses were actually trained in sword fighting to pass the time. The way it worked on the day of their execution, with handmaids about, friendly male guards etc I could see one or two of the princesses being swopped out at the last minute by sympathisers (you'd need some dedicated look-alikes to take their place.) I don't think it happened in reality but it would be a great origin story for a female assassin or two (or three.)

OH MY GOSH, YES!!!!! This would be so awesome, pleeease, pleeeeeeease Ubisoft, make this happen!
Oh wait. I can already hear the enraged cries of the entitled male masses. :/
Seriously though, that's a brilliant idea, Higgledy. The fate of the younger Romanovs has always been a subject of speculation.
Also, I'm sorry I skimmed most of the posts, but I'm convinced, and I'm going to get this eventually. When it releases on PC. Eventually. And maybe hold off for a couple of weeks until they smash all the inevitable bugs.

Ironically enough, I haven't really been following this title, even though I started the thread. But since you brought it up, Eleima, was there a big stink about there being a female playable character in Syndicate? I'm only asking because I feel like the AssCreed fanbase was always a bit more progressive in terms of wanting diversity and whatnot.

I could be way off base.

Higgledy wrote:
ruhk wrote:

The Bolshevik Revolution is so perfect for the AC universe that it's practically inevitable, I wouldn't be surprised if it's one of the next games. There's been popular demand for a game set in Japan or China since at least AC2, as well. I'm not as familiar with eastern history but I'm sure both cultures have plenty to draw from.

I saw a documentary about the killing of the Romanov family (Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Tsarina Alexandra and their five children Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei) giving details of their captivity, execution and looking at whether one of the princesses could have survived. During their captivity several of the princesses were actually trained in sword fighting to pass the time. The way it worked on the day of their execution, with handmaids about, friendly male guards etc I could see one or two of the princesses being swopped out at the last minute by sympathisers (you'd need some dedicated look-alikes to take their place.) I don't think it happened in reality but it would be a great origin story for a female assassin or two (or three.)

Eleima wrote:
Higgledy wrote:

I saw a documentary about the killing of the Romanov family (Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Tsarina Alexandra and their five children Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei) giving details of their captivity, execution and looking at whether one of the princesses could have survived. During their captivity several of the princesses were actually trained in sword fighting to pass the time. The way it worked on the day of their execution, with handmaids about, friendly male guards etc I could see one or two of the princesses being swopped out at the last minute by sympathisers (you'd need some dedicated look-alikes to take their place.) I don't think it happened in reality but it would be a great origin story for a female assassin or two (or three.)

OH MY GOSH, YES!!!!! This would be so awesome, pleeease, pleeeeeeease Ubisoft, make this happen!
Oh wait. I can already hear the enraged cries of the entitled male masses. :/
Seriously though, that's a brilliant idea, Higgledy. The fate of the younger Romanovs has always been a subject of speculation.
Also, I'm sorry I skimmed most of the posts, but I'm convinced, and I'm going to get this eventually. When it releases on PC. Eventually. And maybe hold off for a couple of weeks until they smash all the inevitable bugs.

That already exists. http://assassinscreed.wikia.com/wiki...

Fun fact, while not a real Russian family name, his last name, "Orelov", basically translates to "of the eagle".

nel e nel wrote:

Ironically enough, I haven't really been following this title, even though I started the thread. But since you brought it up, Eleima, was there a big stink about there being a female playable character in Syndicate? I'm only asking because I feel like the AssCreed fanbase was always a bit more progressive in terms of wanting diversity and whatnot.

I could be way off base.

I think you are generally correct. To be honest, in our household, AC is my wife and daughter's jam. I like the game okay, but I don't really play it much. My wife played Rogue on the vita, which had a female. They have both discussed that they wish there was a cool female assassin.

There is no doubt that Evie is part of the reason my wife has become addicted to the game. She's complaining this morning about her lack of sleep and the fact that she didn't go for a walk yesterday. She's about 20 hours into the game, which we didn't download until late Friday night.

I got a good chuckle from her last night while she was doing the fight club stuff. I asked if the guys were going to be embarrassed when they are beaten by small little British girl, paraphrasing Agents of Shield.

nel e nel wrote:

Ironically enough, I haven't really been following this title, even though I started the thread. But since you brought it up, Eleima, was there a big stink about there being a female playable character in Syndicate? I'm only asking because I feel like the AssCreed fanbase was always a bit more progressive in terms of wanting diversity and whatnot.

I could be way off base.

If anything, more of the stink has been about how, while you could run around and do side ops as either twin, a decent chunk of the narrative is generally still Jacob. That said, getting INTO it, I dunno that it's as bad as some of the early previews for the game suggested it would be. Jacob deals with most of the assassination of Templars stuff while Evie is chasing down a Piece of Eden... though last night irritated me for three reasons there...

Reason the first: Full Sync objective at the very end of the mission that is... of course, don't let the enemy hit you. Except, oh look, here's the "rapid counter" thing they cribbed from that obnoxious Slade fight in the 3rd Arkham game that's even more fiddly here than it is there.

Other two are spoilery, my apologies for not tagging the first time...

Spoiler:

II: Evie finds precursor tech, not the actual Piece of Eden, but probably something that will gain entrance into the vault where it's kept. It's a necklace. She puts it on. First, she doesn't IMMEDIATELY tuck that in under her shirt. Second, fight inevitably ends with the Templar hanging onto Evie by the necklace and Evie... cuts the necklace? Wait what? Slash that Templar woman's wrists! She drops and you get away with the tech. Instead, the story must continue so... now we have to try to get that back before we can go further. Sigh.

Three: Other narrative problem... or at least that it could be argued is a problem... Evie is consistently cleaning up the messes Jacob leaves behind, even when those messes don't... really make sense. Jacob kills a doctor who is manufacturing tonics. That "tonic" is basically opium and LSD. Suddenly the kids you're saving and recruiting as spies/thieves are getting sick. Wait... were the kids all tripping on the opium/LSD tonic water?! What? "Now there's no medicine at all." Ummm... there wasn't before folks. There was chill out and hallucinate tonics which were NOT going to help you with any common ailment at all other than boredom! :lol:

Demosthenes wrote:

Three paragraphs of spoilers:

Guess I'll duck out of here until I finish the story in a couple weeks.

maverickz wrote:

That already exists. http://assassinscreed.wikia.com/wiki...
Fun fact, while not a real Russian family name, his last name, "Orelov", basically translates to "of the eagle".

I knew about Nikolai Orelov, but... Um. The only thing in common with the outline by Higgledy is that it takes place in Russia in the same general time frame. What was so brilliant with Higgledy's idea was how neatly it fit in history and mostly, how it featured a female or several female assassins. Not another "generic white dude."

Demosthenes wrote:
nel e nel wrote:

Ironically enough, I haven't really been following this title, even though I started the thread. But since you brought it up, Eleima, was there a big stink about there being a female playable character in Syndicate? I'm only asking because I feel like the AssCreed fanbase was always a bit more progressive in terms of wanting diversity and whatnot.
I could be way off base.

If anything, more of the stink has been about how, while you could run around and do side ops as either twin, a decent chunk of the narrative is generally still Jacob.

Well... That's kinda true, but they haven't had a perfect track record. Otherwise, we'd have had AC: Liberation as a fully fledged game because Aveline is clearly one of the best AC protagonists.

Infyrnos wrote:
Demosthenes wrote:

Three paragraphs of spoilers:

Guess I'll duck out of here until I finish the story in a couple weeks.

Oops, my bad, spoiler tagging now.

Infyrnos wrote:
Demosthenes wrote:

Three paragraphs of spoilers:

Guess I'll duck out of here until I finish the story in a couple weeks.

M wife thinks the gender role analysis was a bit overdone, too. But it did make for a nice conversation about the game this morning.

My impression is that she has been playing as Evie 75% of the time. She said that she really liked that XP is applied to both, so she is not forced to play them 50/50 to progress.

I don't think the game is a win for feminism, but there really isn't anything problematic about it either. It seems that the entire Unity debacle has caused a lot of folks to seek out the worst in the game.

Jayhawker wrote:
Infyrnos wrote:
Demosthenes wrote:

Three paragraphs of spoilers:

Guess I'll duck out of here until I finish the story in a couple weeks.

M wife thinks the gender role analysis was a bit overdone, too. But it did make for a nice conversation about the game this morning.

My impression is that she has been playing as Evie 75% of the time. She said that she really liked that XP is applied to both, so she is not forced to play them 50/50 to progress.

I don't think the game is a win for feminism, but there really isn't anything problematic about it either. It seems that the entire Unity debacle has caused a lot of folks to seek out the worst in the game.

Which I find amusing, in its own way, as Unity failed with Ubisoft's who thing on how hard it would be to animate female characters... but I still think Elise was one of the best female characters for the series.

maverickz wrote:
Eleima wrote:
Higgledy wrote:

I saw a documentary about the killing of the Romanov family (Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Tsarina Alexandra and their five children Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei) giving details of their captivity, execution and looking at whether one of the princesses could have survived. During their captivity several of the princesses were actually trained in sword fighting to pass the time. The way it worked on the day of their execution, with handmaids about, friendly male guards etc I could see one or two of the princesses being swopped out at the last minute by sympathisers (you'd need some dedicated look-alikes to take their place.) I don't think it happened in reality but it would be a great origin story for a female assassin or two (or three.)

OH MY GOSH, YES!!!!! This would be so awesome, pleeease, pleeeeeeease Ubisoft, make this happen!
Oh wait. I can already hear the enraged cries of the entitled male masses. :/
Seriously though, that's a brilliant idea, Higgledy. The fate of the younger Romanovs has always been a subject of speculation.
Also, I'm sorry I skimmed most of the posts, but I'm convinced, and I'm going to get this eventually. When it releases on PC. Eventually. And maybe hold off for a couple of weeks until they smash all the inevitable bugs.

That already exists. http://assassinscreed.wikia.com/wiki...

Fun fact, while not a real Russian family name, his last name, "Orelov", basically translates to "of the eagle".

To be fair, that's a Russian character in the same era but it's not the same thing as saving the daughters of the Tzar and having them become assassins.

The Tzar being a villain in the Assassin's creed lore makes saving his daughters a trickier prospect but you could do a similar story with a fictional branch of the Tzars family or just a wealthy family caught up in the revolution.

Demosthenes wrote:
Infyrnos wrote:
Demosthenes wrote:

Three paragraphs of spoilers:

Guess I'll duck out of here until I finish the story in a couple weeks.

Oops, my bad, spoiler tagging now.

Thanks dude!

So, I found a new female character tonight working on Sequence 6 or 7 (I honestly forget where I am at this point )... and she is awesome. I get why this isn't mentioned as the entire thing is spoilery as hell (I'll probably write up some stuff tomorrow on it)... but yeah, love this inclusion for a myriad of reasons.

I really enjoy running around and doing missions on the Thames. It's such a busy place and the type of traversal is a nice change. Also, tonight I got to rob a train. Now I want to watch The Great Train Robbery again.

After playing it a few more hours it's starting to become obvious to me that I really do not like this game and I'm forcing myself to play because it's AC. I do like the story, setting, and characters though. It's just too bad that for me the game play and graphics are so bad.

Graphics are really bad, without a doubt the worst of any AC game I have ever played.

Character animations are terrible, again the worst of the series in my opinion.

Combat is twitchy and buggy, the smooth sword fighting mechanics from previous AC games are gone. In place they have a crude fist fighting style of combat that I just do not like at all.

Carriage riding is just bad, they are hard to control and I find myself longing for a simple horse.

I don't like how just walking down the street leads to combat if one of the enemy faction even catches a glimpse of you. Either you fight or run, then if you fight the cops are on you in a heartbeat. I know it was like this in previous games, but you always had crowds and other NPCs you could use to deal with it. This game has neither.

I know the AC games are famous for re-using the same assets, but I think they've taken it to the extreme here. Almost every single enemy looks about the same, save for maybe facial hair.

It's really too bad for me, because the story and setting are one of the most interesting of the series. I just can't get past the flat out terrible game play and graphics. I know they put these games out every year, this one makes it very obvious. Those of you that are playing and enjoying it I envy, but for me I think I'm done. I may try and play it a little more, but I don't see my opinions changing. Since I can't get a refund I'll probably just trade it in for Fallout 4.

I feel like you and I are playing very different games.

I think the graphics are some of the best of the series. Aside from the kids, this is about the most human everyone has looked and the movements have never seemed more natural to me. Buildings are fantastic, especially with the art direction showing the disparities of London at the time. Kids.... weirdly, are a mixed bag. Important story player kids are unnatural looking... other than one quest near the asylum. But the random kids look pretty natural to me too. So, the kids I'm most likely to interact with look weird and almost adult in their faces... but the other kids look completely natural and childlike in a world that viewed them as a labor force.

Combat... I love, actually. I kind of got sick of the easy "Stand and counter everything for instant kills over and over again until you run out of enemies" of the previous games. Here combat is a brawl, which is more fitting for the time period and the type of war the Assassins are waging... and even if you're not great at the all out brawling, you have tools to help mitigate that. Smoke bombs, grenades, and your gun are invaluable for those times where you're slipping and need to get an edge (or want to be proactive and use your edge early to thin the herd before the fight gets going).

Carriage riding... yeah, ok, that one is kind of hard to defend. The mechanics are never super obvious and it's hard to tell how much damage you have taken versus another carriage. Good for getting around sometimes, but vehicular combat is stupid as hell.

As to people challenging you... well, A. It's a gang war. You're on their turf. But... B. If you do really hate that, there's a gang upgrade to help with that! You can actually get a gang perk that stops those challenges from randomly passing Blighters. C. Avoid them. The rooftops being the fastest way to traverse the city remains mostly true here, especially with the addition of the grappling gun and zip lines you create for yourself. Took me a while to get the hang of this, but now that I have, I can get across the city pretty fast.

What's funny about the asset reuse is that it seems to have been entirely relegated to the gang members (both your enemies and your own gang). Random citizens are more diverse in their appearance than ever (though still mostly all white, weirdly). Was walking around the park in Westminster while working on collecting some flowers and saw so many things going on. Couple walking arm in arm, two gentlemen debating each other on some political something or other, and, if I'm not mistaken, saw a group of young men practicing cricket off in the distance.

Glycerine wrote:

Graphics are really bad, without a doubt the worst of any AC game I have ever played.

Demosthenes wrote:

I think the graphics are some of the best of the series.

Different systems, maybe?

I have it on the XB1, and I commented to my wife as she played about how good the game looks. Animations seems to be what I usually see in AC games.

And finished! Well, main story finished. I may come back later to 100% it as it is a great game... but for now, other games to play.

Storywise? Wraps up nicely. Some good movement on modern day stuff attached to that has me excited for next year's installment. I'll give the writers this, an interesting idea for a Piece of Eden, FINALLY. Will be interesting to see how that shakes out for both the Assassins and Abstergo. Spoilery version of my reaction to this below.

Spoiler:

So, using the Shroud to resurrect a Precursor is... an interesting move by Abstergo. Gives them direct access (or so they presumably think) to someone who knows how to make the tech, how to best utilize the tech, etc... Obviously, this is also a terrible f*cking idea. With every human built specifically to be susceptible to the influence of these artifacts, if a Precursor gets their hands on one, the Templars (and pretty much everyone outside of the Assassin bloodlines where the interbreeding occurred) is now their puppets and pawns. That said, the Shroud is also known to have brought some folks back to life (including Jesus, in the game's lore). The Assassins could break into Abstergo, grab it, and use it to resurrect someone who died... someone who is described by Minerva as the greatest Assassin of our generation. Hmmmmm...

Either way, the reviews and various other high profile gamers suggesting the ending (I'm assuming meaning the modern day ending) was bad and out of left field strikes me as... really weird. We're nowhere near a fight with Minerva. She's not even in physical form yet (and it's hard for me to imagine that that won't be the final boss fight of whatever game that happens in). So, yeah, the mission not going the way the Assassins wanted it to sucks, but it was still interesting... though I think Rebecca's choice was short-sighted. But, it was also kind of touching in its own way, and I'd say it's pretty clear she survives. Gut shot, no one else attacking... should be pretty easy to get her to medical attention and resume from there.

I am curious about the new Associate questline I got access to after beating the overall game, killing the Grand Master, etc... but I'm not curious enough to put off a few other things to do it first. It'll just be part of my 100%/Platinum run later. I will say, this is the first Grand Master fight that I've actually LIKED. Black Flag's was a boring traversal into an assassination... Unity's was just boring fight that could be really easily cheesed, weirdly... and most of the others are really just a REALLY long combat sequence with nothing else going on. Syndicate's has some mechanics to figure out that are quite interesting.

beeporama wrote:
Glycerine wrote:

Graphics are really bad, without a doubt the worst of any AC game I have ever played.

Demosthenes wrote:

I think the graphics are some of the best of the series.

Different systems, maybe?

I don't think the difference between XB1 and PS4 is significant enough to account for this. It just boils down to subjectivity.

It is interesting that gamers always combine art and graphics into one single category called, "graphics". Games can have great art but poor graphics (and vice versa). I also think it's time gamers start looking at cinematography, or at least, the gaming equivalent. How a scene is laid out, with the lighting, background and camera positioning can have a huge impact but no one ever talks about these things like they do with movies. We heap high praise on movies / tv with great cinematography but the gaming equivalent (mostly) goes unmentioned...sorry, I'm probably babbling... A discussion for another time

I am actually really enjoying the cinematography of the game. Night time - rain storms - they create an evocative world.

If only the controls didn't have me murder policemen when I'm trying to run away, or pick up people I just killed instead of fighting!

The game is pretty good, control issues aside.

I watched a stream of someone playing this last night. The buildings are friggin' massive. I didn't think I'd care for a UK based game but the more I see the more I love it.

IMAGE(http://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pvponlinenew/img/comic/2015/11/pvp20151102.jpg)

My favorite thing about the hay jumping is that someone complained on the Ubisoft forums that Arno in Unity didn't make a poof sound when he landed in the hay - it just made a thump. It turns out that it depends on how far you fall.

So I had to make a video to prove it. With bonus bidet ending (at 1:30).

BTW, Green Man Gaming has a massive sale going on AC Syndicate (Uplay key preorder for 36% off, $37.99), and I couldn't resist, despite my reservations. It isn't the deluxe version, though, so if I want the season pass I guess I'll have to buy it separately.