25.10.2015

Assassin's Creed: SyndicatePlayStation 4Rated 181 Player (Offline)HD 720p, 1080i, 1080pRequires 38.2 GB minimum of free Hard Drive space.Uplay account needed for additional content.Compatible with PlayStation Vita.Developed by Ubisoft QuebecPublished by Ubisoft EntertainmentAdvisory: [To get the best possible gaming experience, I advise you to download the software patches 1.10 and 1.11 from Ubisoft before commencing play as they fix a lot of bugs and performance issues. To get these; your PS4 needs to be connected to the internet].STORY:London 1868; Templar Grand Master; Crawford Starrick controls most of London's borough's with Templar gangs and he even has influence on a street gang known as the Blighters.Evie and Jacob Frye are Assassin's, but the Assassin Brotherhood has long since been defeated with only a few remaining Assassin's left. Spear-headed by a call for help by a fellow Assassin (Henry Green) They conjure up a plan to take control back from London by thwarting the Templar's plans and surging a new uprising with the newly formed "Rooks". Together this elite army of people will thwart, defeat and save London in order to bring an end to the crimes and corruption that scar the political depths of the city.STORY REVIEW:Syndicate's story is both brash and beautiful from beginning to end; you see relationship's forge and some you'll see perish, but the strong arm of the story lies within the siblings of Evie and Jacob Frye. Jacob is a lovely chap who likes to toy around for the most part, but interestingly enough his story of being double-crossed time and time again making him feel used in such a way where it hurts him is pretty invoking; especially when the next sequence to follow some of these harsh scenes of Jacob's is Evie, disapproving of his actions. Yeah; Evie can be a mean person throughout most of the game, but there is this moment right at the end of sequence 9 where they share an understanding with each other after their words were mis-translated as sarcasm most of the time. Crawford Starrick, is ruthless and the acting of the character is wonderfully portrayed; so he's definitely up there among the greatest video game villains that I’ve ever encountered.GAMEPLAY: SKILLS TREEWhen you play through the activities or missions you’ll earn what’s called XP; the more XP you earn (indicated by the blue bar surrounding the mini map) will award you with a skill point which you can use to purchase skills for the character. Purchasing either 3 or 4 lots of these skills from the skills tree would increase the overall level of that character, which enables you to take on more ruthless and dangerous missions. The Rooks have their own skills tree that increases the gangs level but also changes parts of the world to make it more convenient for both Jacob and Evie by allowing the character to go unnoticed and to be able to purchase medicine from the shops.The gangs skills tree doesn’t use the Animus credits; instead relies heavily on crafting materials you find by hijacking and delivering Blighter carts to the Rooks, by looting from train robberies, taking part in fight clubs, running races and by the obvious way of doing the missions themselves. Cash is also a big part of Syndicate and is needed for gear upgrades and for buying skills for the Rooks. Cash is easily discoverable by opening chests, looting dead bodies and for completing activities and missions.The little Rooks as they are known in game; are children you managed to save from the factories. When buying the skill which enables these little Rooks; they would seek out supplies for you and you can then approach one during mission and get an item which can range variously between money and crafting items; it’s handy if you’ll need supplies quickly.GAMEPLAY: COMBAT & STEALTHCombat in Syndicate is fast and more brutal than was previously in Assassin’s Creed games. However you still utilise the 3 main formulas from the previous game (Unity): Dodge, Parry and fight. Which you’ll have to use at the right moment in order to stop the enemy from attacking first. To parry the enemy, there is a small window of opportunity represented by a yellow bar above the enemy’s head, once that shows up you can move in for the parry which presents you with another opportunity of a counter strike. It’s basically the old combat method that’s been re-touched upon from Unity. But where it failed in Unity with its clunky-ness it succeeds in Syndicate because of how the combat is more responsive and much quicker.Stealth plays an important role in many missions and it’s the most favoured method in the entire game. When setting up stealth; the player can go to a high advantage point, use eagle vision which highlights enemies, allies and any prime targets and then enter an area less occupied by enemies to take them down one by one by: air assassination or assassination from cover. The latter; you can use the whistling technique that was featured in Black Flag to lure the enemies to your position and take them down without alerting nearby enemies. An additional technique, is to simply use the surroundings to take down enemies from things like hanging barrels to crates of dynamite. Evie can go invisible when standing still and let the enemies walk towards her. They’ll be unaware of her presence and ultimately fall into her blades of death. Which is good, but it’s the old method that’ll be used a lot as there aren’t many safe areas that present a good location for Evie to use that invisibility skill in many activities nor missions as there is just too many enemies surrounding one area at any given time.A big part of being stealthy is not to do it at all and just let your Rooks take down enemies instead; which for one, stops you from being injured prematurely and it allows to carry out any primary objective without being bombarded by enemies. You can hire up to five Rooks to aid at your side and they will then follow you around by any means necessary by: getting into a large carriage, by commandeering a carriage and if you’re up higher ground, they will follow you by either climbing or by using service hatches to get to the roof.VISUALS:London is massive and the industrial authenticity has been wonderfully recreated. The buildings are at a much higher scale than was previously possible in Unity and because of that, they appear much more realistic. The game doesn’t utilise 3D texturing featured in many other games; instead Ubisoft have used a broad selection of colour palette’s to bring the depth to all material and set pieces that make it appear 3D; to see this, you have to get up close to a building to see the textures blurred together and the overall texture definition becoming lost. Another area where the texture seems bland is on the character’s faces as there isn’t much facial definition given to the character’s unlike what we saw with Arno from Unity for instance. However Ubisoft’s use of colour to the buildings has been used really well and London still looks impressive even though it’s a major step-down from Unity.SOUND:There are two songs that are somewhat cliché and they are “Rule Britannia” and “God Save the Queen”. As I am sure not everyone walks around singing their national anthem on a daily basis; but every other music and sound score is terrific with so many wonderful variations as you scale each part of the city to doing various combat. The sound is overall majestic and its one part of the game I can’t fault.CONCLUSION:Syndicate is a fantastic game, but a word of advice which contradicts the top bit in this review and that is to disconnect the PS4 from the internet; when you do that you’ll find the game’s cutscenes are played correctly and it also limits the amount of freaky glitches this game suffers from. You can still install the patches first off, but make sure you turn your PS4’s internet off afterwards. I have spent 45mins with Evie’s face stuck up some Police Constables back-side, parading all over London in the most unusual way of floating mid-air, whilst the policeman moon walks in the sky. It’s just one of many glitches this game suffers from and just yesterday my carriage took off by itself, riding around Lambeth. So any glitch on this magnitude destroys every immersion this game had for me as It’s deeply off-putting. So I love the game, but I found the ending to be cheesy and somewhat pompous and because it has the same noticeable glitches that happen randomly throughout the game; so it's awarded 4 stars.

23.10.2015

For anyone who held off buying this game due to last years Unity debacle lets just start with saying this is a lot better than Unity! In fact if your an Assassin's Creed fan this game is up there with the Ezio trilogy and Black Flag. Set in London in 1868 Syndicate follows two Assassins this times, twins Evie and Jacob Frye. While previews hinted that you would be mostly playing as Jacob, everyone who wants to play as a female character will be pleased to know that for all open world things you can switch between the two characters on a whim after you have completed the first sequence. There are certain story points where you have to play as one twin or the other,Evie has a stealth advantage and Jacob is more of a brawler. However you can level both characters up and if you wanted too you could easily outfit Evie with more brawler traits or Jacob with better stealth tactics. Even if you played the whole game as Jacob, each twin gets the level points so when you do the mandatory Evie missions you don't have to worry about one twin being underpowered. Both twins get points irrespective of who your playing at the time your awarded them - just remember to level up each twin as you have to assign the points separately to each one.The graphics on this are great, it doesn't have half the problems that Unity had last year - no frame rate slowdown or long loading times. There were a couple of minor bugs here and there, the odd villager getting stuck walking into a wall, but nothing game-breaking and don't believe all the nonsense of a 10GB day one patch, there is a patch and it took minutes to download. As for combat, Syndicate is more of the same old Assassin's Creed three button brawling - Arkham Knight this is not. There are a few new additions to combat like a stun feature so you can line up a row of bad guys for multiple assassination and the ability to use objects in the environment like hanging barrels to take out enemies. As you build up your Syndicate you can recruit allies to help you distract guards or start fights with large groups of bad guys. While the scenery is stunning holding down R2 and X allows you to climb anything in a matter of seconds, whether that's a lamp post or Big Ben. While rumours hinted that Modern day sequences had been removed from the game it should be noted there IS a present day storyline - but only as unplayable FMV's. There is one surprise if you like playing in other eras but to say any more would spoil it - you'll know what I'm talking about when you find it.New additions to the series include Carriage riding which is actually quite fun - the roads are much wider to accommodate carriage flow in both direction although sometimes you may think your in an episode of My Little Pony the amount of horses that are on screen! The base of the Frye's is located on a train which circles the whole of London, and where you can see all your collectables and select new Sequences. There's also a new grappling line introduced, allowing you to whiz around any large gaps without having to return to ground level which, in addition to all the free running, means London is the most traversable city in the series so far.For multi-player fans, be warned that this Assassin's Creed contains zero multi-player elements. A lot of people bemoaned how intrusive Unity's multi-player elements were, but the segmented multi-player modes of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is something that I have always loved in the series, and its a shame that Ubisoft couldn't find a way to add some modes like Wanted or Assassinate - which would have been amazing to play over the streets of London.I've played through all of the main sequences but still have a load of side missions to do and collectables to hunt down. The game is big, but it seems far more focussed than Unity. There is a fun element to the game, and whether your building up your own gang or hunting down glitches there is a lot to do. If you love Assassin's Creed but were put off by Unity this is a great return to form for the series and for newcomers this is a far superior next gen effort than last years Unity. If you've never liked Assassin's Creed though then this won't be the game to change your mind, and if your favourite part of Assassin's Creed was the multi-player then don't be too disheartened as there will no doubt be another Assassin's Creed along next year!

3.1.2016

To put it briefly, superb game.POSITIVES+Visuals are on point, especially the character's faces which really show their emotions well+After the update I've noticed very very few bugs+The main characters, the twins Evie and Jacob Frye, are good fun+The dialogue is the best of any AC game I've played+The map is expansive, fun to explore and very well put together (very entertaining viewing all the familiar sites of London)+Rope launcher is a good addition and a necessary one given the distance in between buildings and the sheer height of most buildings now (no longer the meagre 2-3 floor buildings of most previous AC games)+The ability to play as both of the twins and being able to give them different skills keeps the game fresh longer and is a great addition to the game.At the same time I haven't felt they are unbalanced at all and I use each of them differently depending on what lies ahead.+Multitakedowns have the most brilliant cinematics ever+Combat is good overall; bit too easy I'd say...you still have the case of the enemy standing there watching as you annihilate their mate, but it hasn't got boring yet. It's still a little easy to counter (given plenty of warning usually...except when they start off the screen and come flying in). But it's not easy enough to be boring. In the next game I'd like to see the addition of a new button which adds something a bit more interesting to the mix such as a leg sweep or flying kick.NEGATIVES-Parkour is practically redundant now since the rope launcher can get you anywhere much faster, which is a real shame because the parkour side was what made the earlier AC games unique for me.-Parkour (when you do use it) is now grossly unrealistic in the sense that you can jump from one tiny ledge nearly three metres to the next ledge, in a bid to speed up getting to the top of these ludicrously tall buildings so parkour doesn't become tedious (it's still fun to be fair)-Story missions a bit too short on the whole I think...although to be fair they're usually one big one split into many smaller parts, each which you have to start individually.-Too much you have to do in boroughs to liberate themBut honestly I'd recommend this game. Great fun.EDIT: After having played a lot more I've had to edit my review...I was too kind the first time.- The liberation of the borough missions are repetitive...very repetitive. It's the same 4 or five types of liberation missions for nearly 50 different areas- The gang, while fun to have there as an option, are a little pointless...they replace mercenaries but I hardly ever use them and see no need in using them either- The side missions are good from the point of view that they all involve people from that era that are famous and well-known such as Karl Marx, Alexander Bell, Charles Dickens and Charles Darwin. However the missions themselves are very flat. There's no more awesome in them. Everything is very standardised and predictable and uncreative- The story is a bit dry...I'd give it 3.5 stars if I could...

10.11.2015

Assassin's Creed Syndicate is a game that truly feels like it has rejuvenated the series, it may not be full of swashbuckling pirates or Italian renaissance charm but it does an excellent job of bringing pre - modernism to the franchise. Victorian London may seem too close to the style of Assassin's Creed Unity 's revolutionary Paris, with there being some seventy years between the two, however streets full of horse - drawn carriages and and a railway line stretching throughout the entire map really do emphasise the importance of an industrial revolution within the game.Syndicate also has the important feature of having two playable protagonists, Jacob and Evie Frye.While this may not seem like anything new to begin with as we have seen Haytham and Connor Kenway in Assassin's Creed 3 and Ezio and Altair in Revelations, Syndicate takes this to an entirely new level. Jacob and Evie both have separate skill trees to upgrade and different weapons and armour that can be gained through mission rewards or crafted. Furthermore both characters are available from the get-go with the player being able to switch between them at will except in character specific missions.The story of Syndicate is also very much improved from Unity which (although still enjoyable) I couldn't help but feel was slightly lacking. While the present day story is still very much isolated to cutscenes between memories they are more substantial and progressive, introducing more characters both Assassin and Templar which makes it feel that the series is once more progressing towards an outcome instead of stagnating. The Victorian story is also interesting and rich, the player can meet numerous historical characters not limited to Karl Marx, Charles Dickens and of course Queen Victoria.Graphically the game is what you would expect of a next generation game, the city of London is vast with busy streets and traffic and sites such as The Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace are staggeringly huge and beautiful to climb and explore, smaller perhaps less obvious points are also aesthetically pleasing such as the grassy parks of London or the waters of the Thames are wonderfully rendered.Combat and stealth obviously play an important part within the game. Stealth now operates with a newly implemented stealth mode that will automatically allow the player to take cover when they are stood next to it, this allows for more fluid stealth gameplay. Combat now allows for the player to now perform counter shots at the enemy while also performing both melee and ranged combination attacks as well as melee finishers on several enemies at once.Overall Syndicate is what I hope every Assassin's Creed game in the future will try to imitate: a wonderfully balanced, immersive story that makes the player frustratingly impatient for the next game while delivering new stealth and combat mechanics that still bring nostalgic feelings of the original 2007 game.

15.11.2015

This game is an absolute joy. In my humble opinion this is the best Assassin's Creed since ACII. The series seems to follow a distinct pattern; when it's charming, it's successful. Perhaps that's why ACIII and Unity fell slightly flat in a lot of people's opinions; their protagonists did after all have to follow the resounding success of Ezio and Kenway respectively. Two characters that are much loved by the community that were followed up by somewhat disenchanting characters in Connor and Arno that lacked the pizazz of their predecessors. With this in mind I would like to observe our two central characters; twins Jacob and Evie Frye. Put simply; they ooze awesomeness.Jacob has that superb cheeky chappy Englishman vibe that goes magically with the role of an Assassin and gangleader, whilst also exhibiting streaks of a Chaotic Good anti-hero. His charismatic bull-in-a-chinashop approach is reminiscent of early Altair, early Ezio, and most notably Edward Kenway (who gets honourable mentions in this game). Then we have the other side of the same coin; Evie. Aside from being a total English Rose and absolute fox, she has a more characteristically Assassin-like approach to things which brings a nice ebb and flow to the game whilst switching between the two siblings. Her catfight-esc back and forth with Lucy Thorne is brilliant to watch, as is her will they or won’t they relationship with our Assassin companion Henry Green.(Minor Spoilers Ahead)Moving on from the protagonists we have the wealth of other Characters that make the time and place come to life. Most notably we have Charles Darwin and Alexander Graham Bell who are brilliant from start to end in their roles. We also come across Dickens, Conan-Doyle, Marx and dear old Queen Vic as our heroes help to shape both the heritage and the future of London. There is also a delicious little side mission which may or may not involve a certain Englishman that goes by the name of Winston. But I won’t divulge anything further about our Historical friends; they’re a feature that is best enjoyed from playing the game. The world itself is something to behold. If scaling the side of Big Ben and jumping off of it doesn’t tickle your pickle, then ziplining across the Thames surely will. It’s just breath-taking. I’m so glad that Ubisoft focused on what made this franchise so successful in the first place; Single player, story rich, environmentally beautiful, immersive cinematic content that intertwines the past with the present. Lastly I would like to give an honourable mention to the villain of the piece; Crawford Starrick. Whilst we don’t see a huge amount of him, what we do see is pure gold. Extremely well-acted, and chilling to the bone. The best antagonist since Rodrigo Borgia for me.

4.2.2016

It was due to arrive on 2nd Feb. Got it before! Happily. No problems with disc. Etc.NOW FOR THE LONG PART OF THE REVIEW PREPARE YOURSELF.Now for the actual game. Well. Combat's nice, doesn't feel quite as slow as unity's combat did. Jacob and Evie are much more enjoyable than Arno from unity. I find this has very similar mechanics to Assassin's creed Revelations. In that it has zipline's (except you now place them), bombs (in this you don't make them.). Though Ubisoft did have to restrict themselves on lesser known people from real life in gangs due to living relatives possibly getting offended. At least it still has Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Florence Nightingale, Karl Marx, Frederick Abberline,

13.3.2016

Another year, another AAA Assassin's Creed game... BUT WAIT! This one is good. The bar was dropped below sea level with Unity, meaning just selling a blank disc would be more successful this year, but Syndicate pulls the bar out of the murky depths and places it onto the higher pegs of the Assassin's Creed ladder.PROS+ Like most AC titles, the environment has been beautifully crafted and has a very distinct atmosphere that represents the time period very well.+ New gameplay mechanics for transport help spice up movement around the city.+ The accents as always are very entertaining.+ The piece of eden plays more of an important role compared to Unity but is less of a focus than, say,

20.2.2019

Assassin's Creed: Syndicate.Format:PS4/X-Box One.PS4 Review.Developer: Ubisoft.Synopsis.In 1868, at the tail end of the Industrial Revolution, with the Assassin Brotherhood all but eradicated, twins Jacob & Evie Frye leave Crawley for London & arrive to find a city controlled by the Templars, with both the Church & the Monarchy losing their power.Raised as Assassins to follow the Creed, Jacob & Evie aim to take back the city from Templar control by infiltrating & uniting London's criminal underworld, aided by notable figures of the era such as novelist Charles Dickens & biologist Charles Darwin.Timelord Review.'Assassins Creed: Syndicate' is a solid return to form after the disastrously horrendous previous game - Unity,

21.7.2016

Though a fan of the AC series since the very first one, i have to admit that none have really lived up to the bar set by AC2 / Brotherhood, as this game (+ the follow up version) was pretty much unmatch for story and puzzles. I find myself comparing it generally to my favourite in the series AC2... which is good, so here goes -Starting on the possitive side of AC - Syndicate, the gameplay and the new zipwire tool bring back the fondness i had for AC2, the combat and controls are familiar and easy to get used to and adapt to (should you be a new player). It seems that without the multiplayer option, Ubisoft has focused more on what matters, the gameplay,

12.12.2015

The depth and detail of the of the game environment is astounding in Assassin's Creed Syndicate for Xbox One. The lighting is perfectly graduated and the mood created are noticeable, as is the sound in all departments. Speaking of sound, it is well worth using the full surround facilities as the game protagonists may attack from behind.The gameplay is as you might expect it considering the title. Parents should take responsibility if they are considering an xmas present for a child. The "cut-throat" murderous adventures are graphic. The game itself is all the better for being one player only, something that has been a happy surprise to players that want a challenge but not the risk of other "personality intrusions" that sometimes plague live play.

17.5.2016

I'm a huge fan of stealth games. And always look forward to the next AC release. I never play AC 1-3 or any in between. And only started playing it from Black Flag.Black Flag was awful. Pirates and Assassin's do not go well together.AC Unity was a big improvement. And I like how it was based in France made the storyline more realistic and enjoyable.But AC Syndicate tops them both for me. Now I don't know if its because it's based in London and I'm from the UK. But every detail about the city is perfect. Being able to sneak around top landmarks like the Tower of London and Buckingham Palace made you feel like made feel like I was actually having a tour around the building.Introducing huge historic names like Alexander Graham Bell,

30.3.2017

I'm by no means a series gamer and I'm relatively new to the Assassins Creed franchise it's self. I played the first game years ago and got about as far as the first level before growing board with it. But I've come back to it with Syndicate, mainly because, well Victorian London. the game trailer boasted some pretty impressive visual's and I really honestly liked the idea of playing two charters, siblings at that.So far I've played and enjoyed it. I would say to whoever plays it that as soon as you complete your first level to go back and work threw it for the chest's and other game bit's and bob's you usually have to gather. your going to need thous xp points and cash etc for the later level's,

17.11.2015

I don't often review things, but feel compelled here. I received this game on Sunday and have played approx 6-7 hours. Let me start by saying I am a Creed Fanboy. I love the story, and the way it follows a singular arc. When the Desmond Arc finished, The Juno Arc began and I feel like we are mid way through that now. Syndicate is all the better for not including a multiplayer. You can tell that the extra development time released for the single player story has made for a really refined experience. In terms of how it feels, it is as good as AC2. In my opinion Revelations is still the best of the bunch, for story, gameplay, and replayability.This carries a lot of mechanics over from Unity.

23.11.2015

Where to begin. I am an Assasins Creed fan boy having played all installments except Rogue so take this review to heart because I know what I am speaking about.Firstly, graphically this game is outstanding the shadows the architecture and the way everything looks is amazing. Overall great graphics. Everything about the setting is awesome with the game anableing you to play during day and night and different weather patterns which is great. London looks and it present like it was back in those years with the locations looking identical to how they were or are now. Having said all that let's move on to game play.The game play is good,

3.1.2016

This is a hard one, as my title explains it is very much a love hate relationship. Overall the game improves on many of the flaws created by the previous game Unity. Pros;- The main characters are written very well and the banter and overall relationship shared by the 2 main playable characters is done really well, it made playing the game bearable. The villains are also very well written, making me more invested in the story as a whole.- The graphics are suburb, as i would expect for this generation of gaming.- The combat system is a step in the right direction, a definite improvement over the last game.Unfortunately that is where the good points end, now on the bad aspects.

Assassin's Creed: Syndicate - Reviews

Info

Analysis

Detail