Assassin's Creed: Syndicate 1886-All

Good god! That was the first time I saw the map from Unity. JAYSUS!

Yeah, normally the map wouldn't look like that. Most of those things only appear when you walk near them, so you would naturally pick them up as you go and clear the map. I had everything unlocked from the start, though.

I finished the main story tonight. Definitely one of my favorite Assassin's Creed games! I would enjoy a sequel with the same characters.

I worked on getting all the optional objectives on the story missions as I played through. Unfortunately, that means having to be extra sneaky in a game that prioritizes combat. You don't have much of any tools to deal with people in non-lethal ways, and it makes the last few missions a bit frustrating.

Spoiler:

Also, sequence 8 was all Jacob all the time, so it was my least favorite.

Overall one of my top games of the year. 2015 is shaping up to be an excellent year for gaming.

Finished this up on Saturday. I felt that this was definitely the most fundamentally sound AC game yet. I enjoyed the minute to minute game play immensely and really liked what they did with the combat. Which made me wish even more that there was Co-Op.

Story wise, it was fun, though I do wish they would drop the achievement for getting all the optional bits on the story missions, I just can't be bothered, let me win each mission the way I want to. On that note, definitely a couple of really annoying achievements in that list that don't seem worth grinding out.

Spoiler:

Also, way too much Jacob! Screw you sequence 8!

In the end I don't think this will unseat Unity as my favorite AC game, I just didn't feel as connected to the city as I did in Paris, but overall it is definitely a brilliant AC game and well worth playing for anyone that has been holding off.

Is anybody still playing? I started a little late. Looking for more UPlay friends to share social discoveries with.

My wife was gone this weekend and I marathoned from beginning to most of the way through Chapter 4, three territories taken over, characters just turned Level 6. Most of the stuff I love and hate about recent AC games: the world is almost TOO overstuffed, it's a little distracting, but there are some great little missions that strike a perfect balance between setpiece and "open" that hit that Ubisoft sweet spot and keep me going.

I'm not sure I like the RPG-like leveling elements, but this seems pretty well balanced in a way that encourages doing both the story missions and the optional stuff at an equal pace. The way XP/levels, money, crafting materials, storyline-only schematics/gear, and gang takeover-only schematics/gear gate each other seems a lot more thoughtful than previous games. It even gives you warnings when missions might be too difficult for you, which I like.

I guess none of this is news to anybody else who has played-- just musing about what does and doesn't work for me in this one!

Yeah, Sequence 8 was really not fun. Interesting mission objectives, but the twist to that sequence was so obvious that I was just waiting for it from the get go. But, powered through it, and enjoyed the last sequence probably more than any others.

Speaking of Sequence 8... am I understanding correctly that it unlocks early (after you take over three districts), and even though I haven't even done Sequence 4, I could jump to it if I want to? That seems weird. Does it work? Is it something a sane person would want to do?

beeporama wrote:

Speaking of Sequence 8... am I understanding correctly that it unlocks early (after you take over three districts), and even though I haven't even done Sequence 4, I could jump to it if I want to? That seems weird. Does it work? Is it something a sane person would want to do?

That SEEMS to be the case, seeing as how the Sequence is divorced from pretty much any other, so it could work quite well. There's no mention during it (for example) of previous missions or their effects on the general population, etc... kind of like you see in, say, Sequence 3 after you finish Sequence 2. Thinking back on the missions, however, I don't know how you would do a lot of it without most of the tools available to you by the time you play through all the other sequences.

What's the combat like?

Higgledy wrote:

What's the combat like?

Like other recent AC games in many ways. You can gracelessly pound the attack button through much of it, but there are more dudes who will automatically block or even counter, so "counter/dodge followed by an attack" or "break their guard then attack" is something you do a little more often.

You can also get in some throws or or "tool" (knife, gun) attacks but they seem a little weaker... smoke bomb has maybe been nerfed slightly too, which I'm sorrynotsorry about because it was starting to feel like a "magic win button" in recent entries.

Some depth (?) has been added with a system where you can stun enemies instead of attacking them, or bring multiple enemies to "near death" and do a single finisher on all of them for bonus XP... but I haven't got the hang of it. I don't think most gamers are going to dig into that, but if someone else really got something out of it, I'd love to hear from them. (Seriously! Teach me!)

Biggest change, to me?... Like I said, equipment progression is gated a little better, and enemies come in various levels (which you can see with Eagle Vision) so there is more of an RPG-like sense of "this dude is way too tough for me right now" in certain missions. Police are generally very tough. That doesn't really change the feel of combat itself, other than meaning you have to be pickier about who you engage.

Syndicate is downloaded. Oh god what have I done.

I blame you filthy enablers with your fun-having and your praise.

Have you played other AC games, BadKen? (Sorry I'm too lazy to go back and do a lot of reading.) If you like the series, it's a very solid entry. (At least for me so far, probably about 1/3 through or maybe close to 1/2.) Not inspired, but they keep iterating on a well-polished style.

As far as changeds from forumla, biggest minus is losing ship combat, if you liked that. (AC4 gave me my fill, though.) Biggest plus is that the rope launcher really makes traversal slicker and lets you stick to the rooftops way more, even if it's no longer a fun challenge scaling some of the enormous viewpoints.

Yeah, on that note, anybody reading the thread and thinking about the game: don't get distracted by side content, stick to the story missions until you get the rope launcher. It's a game-changer.

Oh, and especially if you are on PS4, please add me in the Ubisoft Club aka UPlay. It just means we share "social treasure" locations with each other, which is a nice little bonus. I'm "beeporama" there, too.

Yeah, I've played them all (except Rogue, which I've installed but not played yet, and Liberation, which I only played for a few hours because something about the controls bugged me). I was initially unimpressed by the videos for Syndicate, because I really like the swordplay, and I'm not a huge fan of what appeared to be turn of the century MMA style combat.

However, Green Man Gaming had a huge discount on it, and I've read a lot of glowing reviews, so...

Started it tonight on PS4. I wasn't planning on getting it (though I liked Unity ok), but watching Giant Bomb's Quick Look and seeing it's mainly "press square to murder capitalist" sold me. Enjoyed the intro, planning on playing a lot while off work next week.

Grabbed it on PC and really liking it. I'd put this up in the top 3 AC games easily. My only gripe is the wonky deathbed confessions. Seeing the victim standing and talking really takes me out of the moment. What the heck is wrong with him/her laying there saying the same things? Still, it's faaaaaar better than Unity's magical memory absorption thing. That was just bonkers.

PC version is running great so far. The only weirdness is with the auto-detect settings. I have a 780 GTX and it thought I should play at 4k resolution with everything turned down to super low. I can run it at 1080p with a high/ultra high mix, so that was weird.

RooksGambit wrote:

Grabbed it on PC and really liking it. I'd put this up in the top 3 AC games easily. My only gripe is the wonky deathbed confessions. Seeing the victim standing and talking really takes me out of the moment. What the heck is wrong with him/her laying there saying the same things? Still, it's faaaaaar better than Unity's magical memory absorption thing. That was just bonkers.

PC version is running great so far. The only weirdness is with the auto-detect settings. I have a 780 GTX and it thought I should play at 4k resolution with everything turned down to super low. I can run it at 1080p with a high/ultra high mix, so that was weird.

I THINK what they're going for is something along the lines of giving their final words in the way they'd want to, versus doing so dying of blood loss. I kind of prefer it to the weird camera angles that would be necessary to have good but distinct shots for each assassination if they were all just laying on the ground being partially propped up by Jacob and Evie.

The "deathbed confessions" is a neat affectation that was quite striking in the first game, but sadly came to feel kind of mechanical in later entries. I still like it if it isn't overused and really marks a special moment... and if it takes advantage of the way it breaks immersion. They should be making you, as a player, question the motivations of your assassin and his/her victim and have some real-world meaning. The entire struggle between free will and an ordered society is a real one of ambiguous morality. But, no, I don't think they are meant to be seen as literally happening.

Just watched a cutscene in which the twins were invisible, except for a pistol one was carrying and was ... hovering in space.

Ghosts Creed: The Assassinatings.

beeporama wrote:

The "deathbed confessions" is a neat affectation that was quite striking in the first game, but sadly came to feel kind of mechanical in later entries. I still like it if it isn't overused and really marks a special moment... and if it takes advantage of the way it breaks immersion. They should be making you, as a player, question the motivations of your assassin and his/her victim and have some real-world meaning. The entire struggle between free will and an ordered society is a real one of ambiguous morality. But, no, I don't think they are meant to be seen as literally happening.

I like them, generally, for the discussions that take place. It's one of the things I DIDN'T like in Unity, where they got replaced with new telepathic clues about the murder.

I'm sure glad that I don't have to play as Jacob throughout this game, because he is a jackass.

Oh, I've been playing as Evie whenever possible.

I like the setting a lot, and I'm always down for some "run around the map and gather stuff to get some new gear," but man, the mechanics feel even wonkier than usual this time around, esp. the climbing. Getting the character to climb down something seems like a dice roll.

CptGlanton wrote:

I like the setting a lot, and I'm always down for some "run around the map and gather stuff to get some new gear," but man, the mechanics feel even wonkier than usual this time around, esp. the climbing. Getting the character to climb down something seems like a dice roll.

You might have noticed, in a change from previous entries, that they want you to use Square and Circle (or the Xbox equivalent) to climb up and down versus horizontal traversal. It took a bit of getting used to after so many previous entries, but after getting used to it I feel like control is better. Not perfect, but I'm surprised you say that, because I feel like the mechanics for control are better this time around.

I'm also tending to play as Evie, but mostly I like two characters with two styles (even if it is destroying the in-universe fiction of how the animus works, unless incest, eww) and I definitely switched up.

(even if it is destroying the in-universe fiction of how the animus works, unless incest, eww)

I was about to be like "Oh god, I never thought of that" but, I realized that it doesn't NECESSARILY need to go that way. The last two games have introduced the idea of not even needing the PERSON, just their genetic information on file (blood, tissue, etc...) and we know that Abstergo has been collecting this from pretty much everyone they can. At this point, it's entirely possible that they simply have sequenced enough folks to have some cross referencing available.

Knowing this, I wouldn't be surprised if the Assassins have been expanding their own database given that most of them are all descended from Assassins... though given their losses over recent years, having complete bloodlines available into the modern day would also be lucky at best.

Demosthenes wrote:
(even if it is destroying the in-universe fiction of how the animus works, unless incest, eww)

I was about to be like "Oh god, I never thought of that" but, I realized that it doesn't NECESSARILY need to go that way. The last two games have introduced the idea of not even needing the PERSON, just their genetic information on file (blood, tissue, etc...) and we know that Abstergo has been collecting this from pretty much everyone they can. At this point, it's entirely possible that they simply have sequenced enough folks to have some cross referencing available.

Knowing this, I wouldn't be surprised if the Assassins have been expanding their own database given that most of them are all descended from Assassins... though given their losses over recent years, having complete bloodlines available into the modern day would also be lucky at best.

D'oh, that's true. Being able to switch arbitrarily is still a little off, but it falls within my "suspension of disbelief" range for the universe.

beeporama wrote:
CptGlanton wrote:

I like the setting a lot, and I'm always down for some "run around the map and gather stuff to get some new gear," but man, the mechanics feel even wonkier than usual this time around, esp. the climbing. Getting the character to climb down something seems like a dice roll.

You might have noticed, in a change from previous entries, that they want you to use Square and Circle (or the Xbox equivalent) to climb up and down versus horizontal traversal. It took a bit of getting used to after so many previous entries, but after getting used to it I feel like control is better. Not perfect, but I'm surprised you say that, because I feel like the mechanics for control are better this time around.

I've screwed that up a few times, but I've also had repeated "I'm hitting O you stupid thing go down the damn building!" moments.

I'm also tending to play as Evie, but mostly I like two characters with two styles (even if it is destroying the in-universe fiction of how the animus works, unless incest, eww) and I definitely switched up.

Yeah, about that...

Regarding the other discussion here, about how having two characters affects the in-game conceit about the Animus, I decided years ago that there is no 'present time' to these games and they all take place entirely in the past (with bizarre interactive loading screens). Seriously, every second of the modern stuff in every has been trash, except the one (Black Flag?) where they trolled Ubi's development schedule by having you work at a game studio. That was pretty good.

I always liked the modern stuff, myself. Black Flag's working as a game developer was genius and a lot of fun, and still gave some ideas of what was going on in the larger world.

Unity's was.... basically non-existent. I think after Black Flag, they kind of stalled, not really knowing where they were going next. They had this crazy new thing introduced in Black Flag, and clearly wanted to run with it, but didn't know WHERE to run with it. Syndicate seems to have fixed that nicely, giving a brand new threat to fight and an actual plan from Abstergo's point of view that we are now working against. Can't wait to see how it progresses.

The whole notion of how the Animus is technically supposed to work is biologically ludicrous. DNA couldn't possibly encode all the data they posit. If I stop to think about it even for a second, it completely ruins my suspension of disbelief. It's as if there was a game based on the awesomeness of homeopathy.

BadKen wrote:

The whole notion of how the Animus is technically supposed to work is biologically ludicrous. DNA couldn't possibly encode all the data they posit. If I stop to think about it even for a second, it completely ruins my suspension of disbelief. It's as if there was a game based on the awesomeness of homeopathy.

It worked for Dune.

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