As we all expected, Ubisoft will be releasing yet another Assassin’s Creed title this year for the PS4, Xbox One and PC.
This year’s iteration comes in the form of Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate and, true to the rumours that have been flying around recently, players will indeed be following the tales of a pair of brother/sister assassins based in a mucky London.
Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate takes place in a grimy and pretty bleak London in the 1800’s (or present day Rhyl,) and throws players into the seedy underworld of criminal gangs that most people still associate the famed city with. Though this time it’s less Lock Stock and more, well you get the idea.
As always with the Assassin’s Creed games, expect to see some familiar faces from those history text books.
Key points:
Takes place in 1868.
It’s an industrial world ruled by money and science.
Evie and Jacob Frye – siblings the story follows.
Jacob: more about the chase, confrontational.
Evie: the voice of reason between the two.
The Assassins work with the street gangs.
7 boroughs to explore with gangs to topple.
Carriages can be hidden in or, much like GTA, ridden in to traverse the city quicker.
Speed of combat is “much more close-range,” and is the “fastest combat in the series yet,” according to the developers.
The team behind this year’s Assassin’s Creed state that they’re trying to do things differently and that they want to put their mark on the franchise, whether this translates into some actual fresh experiences and innovation, we’ll have to see.
The short gameplay demo shown during the live reveal showed us a bit of Jacob traversing the city rooftops using the same parkour though with the added twist of using a neat grappling hook. We also got to see some of the new vehicular action where players will be able to commandeer carriages and use them to travel the city much quicker.
It still looks a lot like last year’s Assassin’s Creed: Unity with similar animations and a similar art style, but that’s to be expected. What does stand out as being strikingly different is the combat. It’s still the brutal combat we’ve come to expect from the series, but with more of a focus on close-up brawling and technical take-downs.
So far, it looks like Ubisoft Quebec have a winner on their hands, the real task is in convincing disillusioned players that this year’s edition is worth taking home.
Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate releases this October 23rd for PS4 and Xbox One with a PC release to follow shortly thereafter.