North Texas Daily

Nicholas Friedman | Editor-In-Chief

@NMFreed

With so many games retreading places like New York and, well, just New York over and over again, it’s nice to see ‘Assassin’s Creed Syndicate’ shake things up.

In a game that’s a cross between ‘Gangs of New York’ and ‘The Warriors,’ Syndicate is probably the most ambitious title in the yearly series in a while. With a dud in last year’s ‘Unity,’ Ubisoft had a lot to prove, and they came out swinging.

Players take on the roles of Jacob and Evie Frye, siblings carrying on their father’s assassin legacy in the city of London. While Evie’s main goal is to find a Piece of Eden (a mystical relic from the past capable of immense power. Talk about a plot device). Jacob wants to take down the Templar leader of London, Starrick, and have the power of the city to himself and the assassins.

While the story trucks along, players get to know a new combat system, new weapons and a great  new traversal technique, some sort of grappling hook.

Gone are the days of slugging it to the top of a building only to find out the gap between rooftops is too much for you. Just shoot your hook and zipline along.

Everything is upgradable in Syndicate. Need your brass knuckles to pack more punch? Done. Cane sword looking a bit dull? Done. Need your gang to cause some ruckus just a bit more? You can do that too.

Syndicate is a game about building an empire and taking down corruption from the inside, secretly of course. The protagonist’s main hub is a train that circles around the city, allowing players to dynamically jump off at any time.

Another staple of the series present here is historical allies. Sure, it might be hard to top Da Vinci and his flying machine from ‘Assassin’s Creed II,’ but how about hanging out with Charles Darwin or Alexander Graham Bell? It’s rather exciting. And maybe, just maybe, you come up with the name for the telephone.

As an adventure game, Syndicate succeeds in almost every category, though Ubisoft’s engine is not without a few hiccups. A horse carriage may randomly fly into the air and Evie and Jacob may disappear from cutscenes every once in a while, but it’s nothing game-breaking.

With a new, solid entry under its belt, hopefully Ubisoft knows there’s no complacency in this high-profile series anymore. We want action. We want adventure. We want to feel like a badass.

Photo Courtesy | Ubisoft