Syndicate is set in 1868 Victorian London. You play as two characters, twins Jacob and Evie Frye. Jacob is reckless and doesn't care for the history or ways of the creed, while Evie is quite the opposite; she prefers a careful approach and has a keen interest in their lineage. The twins head to London to take back the city from Templar control. You can switch between the two for the side missions, but the main Sequences (missions) force you to play as a particular character.
As you progress through the game, you will team up with various historical figures such as Charles Darwin, Alexander Graham Bell, Karl Marx and Frederick Abberline. Charles Dickens' tasks will involve various paranormal phenomena, Darwin's tasks involve fossils and his theory of evolution. Karl Marx wants to fight for the working class. Alexander Graham Bell needs assistance with his inventions such as the telephone or voltaic bombs. These side missions can provide interesting scenarios and vary the game-play compared to the main story-line or the standard side missions. Frederick Abberline, (the Chief Inspector during the Jack The Ripper murders) will be involved in the main story (this doesn't involve Jack The Ripper; that is available as DLC).
The main plot seems a bit thin with the lack of major plot events/twists/drama. I often felt the dialogue was geared towards action cliché, especially from Jacob i.e.: he can encounter a near death situation but will casually come up with a pun. Evie wants to track down the Piece of Eden, whereas Jacob wants to reduce Templar control and increase control for his gang known as The Rooks. The modern day story involving Abstergo is minimal, and only told via a few cut-scenes.
The aesthetic and detail to the game is very impressive. Maybe I'm biassed since I'm English, but the world was wonderful to explore. There's plenty of people in the streets which brings the city to life. You will see people shopping in the markets, socialising in pubs, travelling the streets in horse and carriages, or making their way by boat in the River Thames. Police patrol the streets with guns and batons.
There's plenty of things to distract you as you navigate the streets. Children can give you items, there's events where you have to react quickly such as 'kill the criminals' that are harassing a citizen, or 'catch the thief' who will be fleeing the scene of the crime. There's other quests like Cargo Escort or Cargo Hijack which ends up being a chase in horse and carriages. There's items to collect like Helix Glitches, Music Boxes, Pressed Flowers, Vintage Wine and plenty of Treasure Chests.
The large map of London is divided into boroughs. Each borough is split into further areas and assigned one side mission each. Completing the mission gives you 'control' of that area, and completing the full borough gives you full control. These missions can take many forms, from killing all enemies in the stronghold, kidnapping a specific gang member, rescuing children from the factories or stealing a carriage full of cargo. These missions reward you with item unlocks, resources to craft, and money. It will also increase the The Rooks' presence. You can hire up to 5 members who will follow you and assist you in combat.
In terms of upgrades, you can invest in your gang, or personal equipment. Your equipment includes weapons (kukri, brass knuckles, cane-sword), capes, gauntlets, outfits, ranged weapons (revolver , throwing knives, hallucinogenic dart) and health upgrades. Other secondary items include smoke and voltaic bombs. Smoke bombs stall enemies, allowing you to flee or assassinate them as they stop and cough. Voltaic bombs damage enemies in range and temporarily stun them.
Investing in your gang increases their health, combat ability and weapons. Additionally, there's upgrades to decrease the effectiveness of your rival gang. You can increase the presence of items such as hanging barrels and explosive crates in the map, which gives you an extra option to assassinate your enemies.
When you level up, you are awarded skill points to assign in the skill-tree. The tree is split up into three areas; Combat, Stealth, and Ecosystem. The skill tree is near identical between Evie and Jacob despite Evie being geared to stealth, and Jacob having a more brute-force approach. When you acquire a skill point, both characters receive the points and are spent separately.
The "Eagle Vision" perk is a bit too useful, since locating enemies keeps them highlighted and you can easily track them through walls. It definitely makes the game less real, but I guess it's up to you if you want to take advantage of it or not.
Early on in the game, you are given a grappling hook which allows you to traverse buildings with ease. Positioning yourself at the base, gives you the option of quickly rappelling the building vertically. Once on the roof, you can shoot it to the next building, allowing you to travel horizontally. This also opens up new positions to assassinate people from. This feature works brilliantly, and allows you to cut tedious travel time. It could annoy some fans, because it basically limits the climbing aspect of the game, which is associated with the series. As a side note, it would be interesting to see the same developers make a Spider-Man game since they have executed this idea so well.
You can also ride in a horse carriage which is the fastest method to get across large distances without using the fast travel. I found that the quick travel points were few and far between which was annoying. These points are either the tall buildings (which are far rarer than the initial two games I've played) or your train (which acts as a headquarters) which constantly moves around the map.
The carriages can be hijacked from residents or your rival gang. Whilst riding, you can climb onto the roof which allows you to fire your gun for some thrilling action chase sequences. You can leap onto other carriages to hijack them, but so can the enemy, so caution is required.
The combat system is simple. You have buttons for attack, ranged attack, counter and block-break. The attacking animations are very fast which often keeps the combat action-packed. There's some brutal execute animations, especially if you bring many enemies to near-death state and execute them all in sequence. The combat is mainly easy, but can be very tricky when surrounded, especially at the start of the game. You can't take many hits, especially from the stronger enemies. The enemies are assigned a level, and if the enemies are much higher level than you, then they can quickly take you down. Not only do you need to keep an eye on surrounding enemies, but other enemies have guns so attack from range. However, the window to trigger a successful counter attack, or dodge a bullet is a bit on the lenient side, especially since there's an on-screen prompt to do so. With all the different weapon/gang/personal upgrades you have, the combat does get progressively easier which means the latter part of the game doesn't have the same sense of tension and danger.
Sneaking into a heavily guarded building or stronghold and carrying out your assassinations is extremely satisfying. The new mechanics make stealth a great way to play. You can peer around corners which gives you a few options. You can assassinate from cover (either wait till they naturally get close, or whistle to taunt them over), or use a ranged weapon such as hallucinogenic dart, throwing knife, or gun to take them out. The grappling hook means making a quick getaway is usually an option, and a very cool on at that. The stealth aspects aren't usually that important though, since if guards are alerted, you can just revert to the brute force approach without any consequences.
I really enjoyed the music in the game, but it's very sparse. There's large sections of the game where no music seems to play at all, which is rather strange. I also felt that the music didn't really match the on-screen action but it is good regardless.
When it comes to the assassinations in the main “Sequence” missions, you are shown who the important people are and these give you alternate ways of completing your objective. For example, one guard may have a key which you can steal/acquire by brute-force in order to unlock the door. Finding another person and talking to them may unlock a back-entrance, or taking a certain person hostage may give you the option of walking straight through unopposed. You are also given an objective which gives you extra rewards if you complete it. These can be to remain completely undetected, having a kill restriction or finding a secret entrance.
Once you reach the end of the game, you can keep playing to fully conquer London. There's also another historical character (I won't name them) that gives you some more missions, plus there's a cool set of missions during World War I involving Jacob's Granddaughter.
Prior to this, I've only played the first two Assassin's Creed games. After ironing out most the issues in the first game, the much improved sequel is often regarded as one of the best. I found Syndicate to be similar enough to capture the essence of the series, but expand on it with new mechanics, most notably the grappling hook which is a cool and efficient way of navigating around the map. I'd imagine if you have played many Assassin's Creed games, you will be bored by now, but if you have skipped many, this could be a game to get you back into the series.