Game reviewers with early access are raving about Assassin's Creed: Syndicate. The Victorian London setting is unique, expansive, and truly amazing. Although the game suffers from wafer-thin storytelling and a seemingly deserted industrial London, it is still something to look forward to because of the fun factor.
The Assassin's Creed franchise is undeniably the number one best-selling franchise for Ubisoft in recent memory. According to Polygon, Ubisoft's above average 2015 Q3 earnings were due to the sales of Assassin's Creed, Far Cry 4, and The Crew. "Ubisoft shipped 10 million units combined of Assassin's Creed Unity and Assassin's Creed Rogue; the company did not break out specific sales numbers for the two games. Together, their sales are comparable to those of the previous entry in the franchise, 2013's Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, which had reached 10 million units shipped on its own by the end of 2013."
The franchise is a definite money-maker, and the positive reviews for Syndicate that started trickling in earlier today suggests that it will continue to be so.
The setting of Syndicate revolves around Victorian London at the height of the industrial revolution. Tom's Guide details the story of Syndicate: "This time, the action focuses on Jacob and Evie Frye, English twins who venture to London...in order to liberate the working class from the iron fist of industrialist Crawford Starrick."
You essentially switch between brother and sister, Evie and Jacob, at certain points in the game.
Game reviewers with early access to the game are of the same mind when it comes to the setting. Everything is huge and beautiful yet no vibrance, personality, or a sense that the city is alive. The same thing can also be said of the nearly non-existent character development of the sibling protagonists and the main villain.
The setting and the story is definitely one of the biggest drawback of Syndicate, but game reviewers thought it was a fun game nonetheless. Here are some of Syndicate's game mechanics, according to Mashable, "Typical stealth rules apply — don't be seen, slip away if you're spotted — but you end up using them for less direct approaches to plunging your blade into a target's throat...you can sneak your way into the Bank of England by ferreting out a secret passage, or you can quietly kidnap the head of security and have him 'escort' you to the vaults."
Traditional with Assassin's Creed, the parkour part and the cool traversal mechanics are present here as well.
According to the aforementioned Tom's Guide review, the innovation in Syndicate is the gang war mechanic. The conceit of this mechanic is that you can basically recruit AI flunkies to fight for you. This makes the game interesting, regardless of the flaws in the characters and story.
On the other hand, the graphics of Syndicate is a pleasure to look at. The architecture is majestic and the character design is highly stylized.
Syndicate is turning heads for sure because of a mix of classic and new gameplay mechanics. Reviewers are already raving about the game despite of a few shortcomings. Syndicate is available for pre-order and will ship on Friday, October 23.
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