Introduction
The last main game, "Assassin's Creed Valhalla," apparently is the highest-grossing Assassin's Creed game to date, by a large margin. The series has ballooned into an absolute monolith, big, bestselling, massive open-world action adventures. But, of course, as many as you know, there was a whole different world of Assassin's Creed games before this massive shift. From the humble beginnings of Altair to the mega hit that was Ezio's adventures, for years, the Assassin's Creed series hopped around from time period to time period, experimenting with different variations on Assassin's gameplay until it eventually shifted completely with "Assassin's Creed Origins" into a big open-world RPG series.
But there was one last game that held the line before the big evolution, "Assassin's Creed Syndicate," one last game that kept the classic stabbies and stealth gameplay we initially loved the series for, and it's the one that people never give enough credit for trying to hold that line. Give us one last good classic Assassin's Creed title. I call it the last gasp of Assassin's Creed gameplay.
Is It the Best Assassin's Creed?
Now, is it the best Assassin's Creed? No, I definitely don't think so, but it is deserving of love. Even if it wasn't perfect, it's worth remembering. Now, released in the fall of 2015, the game has you playing as Jacob and Evie Frye, a brother-and-sister pair living in industrialized Victorian London in 1868. The duo definitely come off like rough-around-the-edges street kids, but they were also raised and trained as Assassins. They find their hometown completely under Templar control and jump in to take it back and really ultimately find the Shroud of Eden in a plot full of Templar conspiracy, crime, real-world historical figures stopping by, and of course, some sci-fi time hopping.
The Dual Characters and Combat Mechanics
Now, this was the first Assassin's Creed game that let you swap between characters, often during missions, and it was a fairly cool mechanic. Jacob is a bit more of a brawler, where Evie is a bit more stealth focused, and each have little advantages here and there, but still they're really flexible to do pretty much whatever with whichever character. Combat is pretty button-mashy. You're overwhelming enemies with attacks and stabs, but you're also dodging and countering in a kind of slight "Arkham" style. It's okay, you know, but it's cool that it's mostly based on fists and knives and stuff, no massive swords or anything. Also, there are guns, and you can shoot and dish it out but also have to worry about dodging incoming fire, too.
Stealth and Social Elements
In this, there's still small elements of social stealth, just walking around the streets and avoiding certain folks, but there's also a dedicated stealth button, where your character crouches down and puts their hood up. Basically, it's like they've become an Assassin's Creed person with a button press. Revolutionary at the time, because before that, every character, besides Edward at least, just wore their hood all the time, just straight up kind of looking suspicious. Now, the stealth is simplistic, with the easily fooled enemy AI, but having that crouch button from "Unity" definitely helps. Still, the sneaking and stabbing and punching was still satisfying, especially with the fact that, like "Assassin's Creed Brotherhood," you could roll with some homies, or really, gang members in this world from the Rook gang, because you're engaging in organized street crime.
Time-Hopping and Creative Hideout
So they can fight with you in street fights, and it all can become very cool, kind of "Gangs of New York" style stuff. You start off kind of as lowly street urchins and basically work your way up the ladder, becoming badass, not only cool Assassin people, but also criminal gang leaders. And the game goes even crazier with some time hopping, occasionally thrusting you into London during World War I, making the game even more modern than we've ever seen. You're a relative of the Fryes, and you're working with Winston Churchill. It's wild. And your base of operations hideout is really impressive and creative, too. It's on a moving train, out in the open world. You just head to it, and then it's your mobile Assassin hideout. Henry Green, your Assassin mentor, helps set it up, and it's just really sweet looking.
The Stunning City Setting
This is where you track assassination targets and keep track of the Rook gang stuff and manage equipment. Then, when you're done, you can just hop right off of it and engage immediately with the open world. I don't think we've seen this in many games, and it's still really impressive. And, oh my god, the city itself, let's talk about the setting. "Syndicate" takes place in an insanely big, detailed, and almost modern game world, like I said, in the late 1860s, and it has all the stuff a world coming out of the Industrial Revolution you would expect: soaring buildings with multiple stories, factories working nonstop, a bustling main river crowded with boat traffic, shipping goods everywhere, accurately representing London, England as the powerhouse of the world as it was in this period of time.
Immersive and Lived-in World
Not only that, the streets were wide and filled with not only detail on the sides of the streets, but bustling horse and carriage traffic, something that just seems really complicated to implement into a game like this. You got people coming and going on the streets and bridges in carriages of all shapes and sizes and purpose. It all just makes it feel so alive, up to the rooftops, with just thousands of chimneys with smoke spewing out of it. Not only that, there's also trains just persistently cruising by through the whole map. It's a big, wide, polluted city with rich political districts, working-class districts, factory zones, deeply poor districts and that all just feel convincingly real and not only lived in, but really lived in.
The Grappling Hook and Transportation System
It feels like an old city bursting at the seams and really helps you get immersed. Even if it's not as completely one-to-one immersive as, say, "The Witcher" or your favorite RPG deep world, it still really sells a unique world that we just don't see in this type of genre, like at all. This, to me, is one of the best parts of the game. The detail, still, to this day, is pretty stunning. They bust their at making detailed worlds. I mean, Paris was pretty impressive with "Unity," but this takes it to another level. It's massive and dense, but not staggeringly huge like "Assassin's Creed Odyssey." There's not as much wasted space. This London is, of course, still filled with that typical Ubisoft bloat. It's map filled with busywork, distractions, and tons of things to collect and areas and hideouts to conquer. But when you're actually just in it, walking around, it's really nothing short of video game magic, from the sight and sounds, the visuals, the lighting, the detail that I mentioned early, all of it.
The Horse and Carriage System
Plus, it is pretty brilliant how they made you still be able to get around quickly, despite all of the modern, much taller buildings. They solved that problem with a grappling hook/zip-line thingy. It really is the perfect solution to still get you on those rooftops quickly and still make the game feel Assassin's-Creed-ish. I mean, if you're not running around and parkouring on rooftops, then it's not Assassin's Creed to me, and they solved that problem. Giant wide streets for carriages. How are you gonna get across the street when you're on the roof? Well, that's where the zip line comes in. On the ground floor staring up at a massive, massive building? Well, with the press of a button, Batman-style your grappling hook, and you zip right up it. Pretty smart solutions.
Story and Immersive Themes
Not to mention, like we said earlier, it's super ambitious how they added a whole vehicle system of carriages. That had to have been daunting to implement. Crowded city streets and carriages, navigating through them, but also keeping the gameplay fun and fast and exciting. Horse and carriage, buggy, whatever you wanna call it, always seems like it would be really boring in a game, but they made it pretty thrilling. Now, the results are often goofy and a little bit floaty, but it still totally works, and some of the chases were really good, maybe some of the best parts of the game. The story was actually fairly interesting, with some okay villains and stuff. It also did a fairly good job of showcasing the rough edges of the time period: the massive wealth disparity, the fact that people were living almost in tent cities beneath the city and the sewers, the sickness running rampant at the time, and the fact that the game actually shows children working in factories.
The Overall Package
Some of this stuff is acknowledged in the story, some of it is just out there in the environment for you to discover, but it kind of all just helps strengthen the story a bit. But really, the tone and exploration were the best parts, along with the gang wars. So even if the combat or stealth wasn't a hundred percent, it was the total package that made it all come together and still feel satisfying to play. It was that classic Assassin's Creed gameplay formula that was really kind of pioneered with "Assassin's Creed 2," and they made it all the way up to this point in this almost modern time period. It is really impressive how they pulled that off.
Conclusion: The Underrated Gem
And again, like I said, at the start, even if it isn't maybe considered the best Assassin's Creed game or anything, to me, personally, it is still the most unique and does a really great job of just standing out. You're still doing the Assassin's Creed thing, but it just feels a little bit more special. It's kind of hard to explain. It's one that you just definitely need to kind of check out for yourself. And there are other underrated Assassin's Creed games. Believe me, this isn't the one end-all-be-all. We can make a whole video about "Assassin's Creed Rogue," or any other game, really. But we just wanted to take a minute and take a quick trip down memory lane. It's been a long time since we talked about "Syndicate," and we wanted to show it some love, especially after "Assassin's Creed Valhalla," which you might love that game, but it's definitely come very far from what the series originally was.
Your Thoughts?
We want to hear from you! Did you play Assassin's Creed Syndicate? Maybe you were turned off after Unity? That’s understandable — many players felt the same way. Syndicate came right after Unity, and at the time, the Assassin's Creed franchise had a bit of a reputation to overcome. But we believe there are some great elements to this game that don’t get enough attention.
If you’ve played it, we’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments! And if you enjoyed this discussion of an older game, give us a like — we appreciate it! Thanks for reading, and as always, we’ll see you in the next one!
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