The Assassin's Creed series has its fair share of good moments and bad moments in the series, Assassin's Creed Syndicate takes the series back to its original roots on the single player campaign and not focusing on the multiplayer side when it comes to gaming. What does surprise me is seeing how far the series has come since 2007, you would expect Ubisoft to run out of ideas by now when it comes to story-telling but Syndicate however you wouldn't expect the next game to be set in the Victorian era of London when I first heard about the announcement I was hoping to see something like Jack the Ripper being mentioned.
What really made Syndicate shine was the graphics and visuals everything about this game looked very well detailed from the slums of London to Westminster you can easily be wondering the streets for hours fighting blighters or sightseeing. If you've seen films like Sherlock Holmes or Oliver or even Sweeny Todd you can tell you feel like you’re are a part of history especially when London itself is slowly expanding and seeing the industrial revolution.
Story follows two twins Jacob and Evie Frye as they navigate the corridors of organized crime, and take back the city from Templar control. The plot is set in a fictional history of real world events and follows the centuries-old struggle between the Assassins who fight for peace with liberty and the Templers who desire peace through order. So you still have the same concept that has been used in past games. In Syndicate you do get to meet notable figures of the era like Charles Dickins, Charles Darwin, Queen Victoria, Frederick Abberline and Alexander Graham Bell.
If you've played past games you should feel familiar with the gameplay controls and mechanics a new feature they have added in is the rope launcher where you can use a grappling hook on buildings or roofs making it easier to climb all the way to the top or a quicker way to escape from your enemies. You'll still have the same concept as you progress through the game you'll need to assassinate certain people, you'll get new weapons including smoke bombs, revolver guns, brass knuckles and cane-swords pretty much weapons that were used in the 1800's. This is a clever concept if you think about and of course swinging your way across buildings makes it a little easier thanks to the rope launcher, you can upgrade your weapons and second items as well the stronger weapons and tools you have the easier your battles will be.
Completing the main story can take at 10-15 hours to complete but completing all of the side-missions will let you unlock more items and weapons. As you try and take over the streets of London you can build up your own gang which you end up calling them the Rooks there'll be missions like free slave children from factories, assassinating or capturing them alive certain leaders of the Blighters, or taking over their stronghold. You don't have to assume total control of London's gangland, but it does helps you out a lot in later missions in the main story if you took over one part of London and there were a few missions in the area if you manage to take over that territory you won't get bothered by Blighters non-stop. Some of the missions can feel a little repetitive at times but it keeps the game fresh on having certain missions on a higher difficulty or giving you some extra challenges for that mission.
The skill points you earn for doing missions can help you earn new skills and abilities when it comes to boosting health, assassinating techniques, driving skills on horse carriages and quieter footsteps when sneaking around. Not only that you can use money to purchase new skills for your gang the Rooks for better fighting training, cheaper discounts on the black market, or bribing the police to look away.
It does have remote play support if you have a PS Vita but if you want to try and get everything on 100% can take more than 30 hours especially if you want to get all trophies. If you are a fan of the series it doesn't disappoint but if you are not a fan of the series you can easily fall in love with Syndicate just like that especially if you've been wanting an Assassin's Creed game set in the 1800's.