AC Syndicate: Reasons to be Excited

Assassins Creed Syndicate launches tomorrow, October 23rd, in North America. Review scores are slowly coming in and the game seems to be hovering around the 8-8.5 mark out of 10. Good for Ubisoft. Many wondered what kind of game we would be getting this time around. Assassins Creed Black Flag was one of the best in the series, but it followed up the poorly performing Assassins Creed III. Subsequently, the game that came after Black Flag, Assassins Creed Unity, was also in many ways a complete and utter disaster. While the game was improved with updates, few people were ready to go back and try it again. History would tell us Assassins Creed Syndicate would once again be good, but with the sour taste Unity left in the mouths of many, I personally wondered what there was to get excited for.

I’ll be honest: after Black Flag, I never wanted to return to the shipless game play that revolved around one particular city (Paris in Unity, London in Syndicate). Unity disappointed, greatly. It disappointed so much, in fact, that I returned to Black Flag and forgot Unity existed.  So why am I excited for Syndicate, and a shipless London? Here are my top reasons!

1. Carriages: carriages are bringing the GTA feel to Victorian London. As far as we can tell, these carriages are upgradeable, can be used to quickly get around London, can be used to hide dead bodies, and even be used as fighting platforms. What is not to love about that. It is almost like a ship, but on land!

2. Historical Figure: this is something we have been missing in the last few Assassins Creed titles. In London, you will get to interact with Queen Victoria, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Alexander Graham Bell, and even Karl Marx. For a history buff such as myself, this couldn’t get more exciting!

3. Victorian Spiderman: OK, with your new grapple hook you won’t be Spiderman, but it might be the next best thing. Some reviewers are even saying they have willingly not used fast travel because traversing the city with the grapple hook is much more exciting and rewarding. The hook can also be used to get yourself into position for a sweet assassination.

4. Upgrades: In Black Flag and Unity, Ubisoft gave us lots of things to upgrade. For Black Flag, the primary thing we focused on was our ship; in Unity, it was our tavern/club/what-ever-the-hell-that-was. London seems to lack that central upgradeable area – of what I have seen – but does introduce other things. You can now create your own band of thugs on the streets. Upgrading your gang is beneficial, especially in the larger fights with 20 or more opponents. You can also send out local children to retrieve crafting goods for you. Nothing like a little child labour!

5. Review Scores: the scores have been good so far, and we hope to have our own soon. However, on launch day, Ubisoft and Assassins Creed fans will purchase Syndicate with confidence, knowing that aside from a few disappointments, the game will be leaps and bounds better than Unity, and more on par with some of the earlier titles in the franchise.

There you have it! Our top 5 reasons to pick up Assassins Creed Syndicate tomorrow at a retailer near you, or online via PSN or Xbox Live!