I've Stabbed All the People--Assassin's Creed: Syndicate Review

Last night I finished up my 53 hour playthrough of Assassin's Creed:  Syndicate.  I am a newcomer to the Assassin's Creed series and have been picking and choosing which games I should play.  Since there's no way I'm going to play all of them, I Googled the high points and went from there.  I was aiming for a top five and Syndicate appeared near the bottom of that list.  Thus far, my Assassin's Creed adventures have included Black Flag, Origins, Odyssey, and now, Syndicate.  I will agree with the assessment that Syndicate belongs in the #5 on the list.

Syndicate takes place in mid-19th century London and unlike the other games in the series that I had previously played, it is a very urban setting--tons of buildings, bustling streets, docks, the busy Thames filled with barges and ferries--there's so much happening!  One of the other intriguing aspects of Syndicate is the fact that there are two different protagonists--the Frye twins, Jacob and Evie.  I found Syndicate to be a 'tweener game--when it was released it was moving toward the much more open-world type of game that Origins and Odyssey are but still had the more centrally-focused parkour/action-y style from the earlier games in the series.

Pros:
+ 1868 London is beautiful.  The Assassin's Creed series does a great job of immersing players in historical eras.  The attention to detail is always amazing--there are famous landmarks to explore, green spaces, and zones that differ in their aesthetic--posh, upper-class areas, rundown slums, and busy industrial spaces (complete with giant, steam-driven machinery).

+ Collectible-palooza.  Although Syndicate is nowhere near the staggering size of Odyssey, the city of London still offers players plenty to explore.  Each zone is scattered with several different classes of items to find--chests, pressed flowers, beer bottles, helix glitches, and music boxes.  The nice part about these collectibles is that players can choose to use in-game currency to purchase maps which reveal the locations of some of them (namely the chests, pressed flowers, and beer bottles).  If you want to catch 'em all (trademark Pokemon) you will need to explore--helix glitches and music boxes have to be discovered.

+ Secrets of London offer uber-explorers a chance to use clues to puzzle out the locations of the 32 hidden music boxes.  I mostly enjoyed the challenge and was able to find all but one without looking up a guide.  The nice part is that the reward for finding all of them is a fancy outfit for Evie.

+ Side tasks galore.  As you travel through London and progress through the main storyline, you meet some very famous Londoners.  All of them have concerns and need your help with some task associated with them.  These side-missions are mostly fun and offer the chance to gain some rare crafting materials and schematics.  Besides these mission based tasks there are also more exploration-based tasks--the city is pieced into zones and each zone includes tasks that can be completed for associates in order to raise your reputation with them.  The ultimate goal is to establish the dominance of Jacob's gang, the Rooks--doing so requires players to complete the various tasks in a zone and then defeat a rival gang in a gang war.  There are also other side activities, for example Robert Topping offers various "fight clubs" and carriage races in each zone.

Basically, if you're worried that you'll run out of things to do...you won't.

Jacob looking dapper in his fancy outfit.

+Unique inventory for both characters.  Jacob and Evie can equip a variety of weapons and gear which can be tailored to how players want to play each character--for example, brass knuckles and canes have a higher "stun" stat which will stagger enemies--kukri's (a kind or curved knife) have a higher-lethality stat and offer faster kills.  Both characters also carry a pistol.  When it comes to their gear, Jacob can equip belts which give him various stat boosts and Evie can equip cloaks.  Exploring, completing missions (main and side), and raising associate reputation unlocks schematics for a wide variety of items which can be crafted with materials found throughout the world.

+ Jacob and Evie offer two differing playstyles and have talents tailored to them.  Evie specializes in stealth and Jacob prefers a more confrontational style.  You can freely switch between the two while exploring, but the main storyline sees you switching between the two or specific missions.

+ Rope launcher!  This unique contraption allows you to navigate the tall buildings and landmarks around the city.  It conveniently creates ziplines anywhere and makes you feel like an 1868 Spiderman.

+ Combat is fun and both Jacob and Evie are super OP.  You can literally battle hordes of baddies with no problems.  You feel like an ultimate badass.

Cons:
- Technical difficulties.  Initially, I couldn't get Syndicate to run on my old PC (an issue that I believe was tied to my non-ideal graphics card overheating) and tried to refund it.  On my new PC, it ran very well, but Syndicate is the glitchiest Assassin's Creed game that I have played so far.  Some of the most entertaining glitches happened when all of a sudden horses and carriages would come raining out of the sky (it's funny until one lands on you and kills you).  One major bug I had was the fact that not all of the associates (who you raise rep for) would show up on my progression tracker.  Even after completing the missions to meet them my journal still showed a "locked" symbol for Ned Wynert.  This meant that I couldn't see which tasks I could complete to raise rep with this character, which was annoying.

- World > Story.  I have found this to be true of all the Assassin's Creed games I have played so far.  The stories in the games are very forgettable and the amazing worlds are the highlight.  I've come to the conclusion that you play the games more for the worlds than the stories, so if you're hoping for some deeply engaging story...'taint happenin'.  There a big baddie who has some littler baddies who work for him--your job is to take out the little baddies to get to the big baddie (who is trying to steal some legendary artifact)...it's a stock AC scenario.

- Side tasks can feel very grindy.  Even though these tasks are optional, some of the best schematics for high-level craftable items are unlocked through rep.  In particular, Ned Wynert's tasks are obnoxious as heck--hijacking cargo over and over or sabotaging ships.  I also had an annoying bug that wouldn't let me see which tasks I hadn't completed for Ned, so his was the only rep I didn't max out.  I also read several complaints that the carriage racing is difficult--the AI definitely doesn't give you much leeway.

- Like any Ubi game there are microtransactions.  You're not pushed to buy them, but you will see ads for them on the pause menu. 

Final verdict:
If you're interested in adventuring through the Assassin's Creed series the games frequently go on sale.  I would recommend playing Syndicate, overall I had a good time, but I was ready to move on to something else by about hour 40.  Get it on sale (I bought it for $13 during a sale).  It's not a "must play" in the series, but does offer some unique features that fans will enjoy.