PlayStation 4 players will get a little something extra out of their copy of Assassin's Creed Syndicate. Ten exclusive missions are packaged with the PS4 version of the game, all themed around Penny Dreadful stories from 19th century London.
In case you're unfamiliar, "Penny Dreadful" was a term assigned to serialized stories that were sold for one penny, mainly to working-class males. Their popularity stemmed from their subject matter, which was almost always a sensationalized retelling of fictional crimes — sometimes told with the criminal as the hero.
In Assassin's Creed Syndicate, the fictional Penny Dreadful stories become a fad, and players will be charged with tracking the stories' roots back to real-life crimes. Ten such crimes are waiting to be solved as part of the "Dreadful Crimes" mission pack. Sounds a lot like the "Murder Mysteries" missions from Assassin's Creed Unity, but there appears to be more to it than that.
In Syndicate's mysteries, either Jacob or Evie Frye (your choice) is teamed with a (NPC) young boy named Artie, a huge Penny Dreadful fan and self-made expert on their subject matter. Ubisoft says that these missions unlock "an enhanced version of Eagle Vision," which sounds to us rather like Batman: Arkham's Detective Vision, in that it will enable players to discover more detailed clues at crime scenes and even rebuild them, piece-by-piece, in the protagonist's eye.
Players are given enormous flexibility in how to solve the Dreadful Crimes missions. You'll be able to pick and choose your next steps, whether it's interrogating a suspect or using deductive reasoning to discern the truth. Once you've identified your most likely culprit, you can accuse them to learn the truth — but if you accuse the wrong person, your reward will be much smaller.
If you're not a fan of crime-solving, there's an added incentive for playing the Dreadful Missions. After you've solved all ten mysteries, you'll be rewarded with in-game tools and weapons used by Victorian-era detectives.
Gamers who purchase the PS4 version of Assassin's Creed Syndicate will get access to the Dreadful Crimes pack immediately, as it'll be available to download beginning October 23 — the same day the game itself is released.
Be sure to follow T-Lounge on Twitter and visit our Facebook page.
