'Assassin's Creed Syndicate' Review: One Step Forward, One Step Back

Assassin's Creed Unity was a mess.

Despite Ubisoft's promise of a bigger, better Assassin's Creed game, Unity was a muddy, boring entry in the franchise...and that's only if the game worked for more than a few minutes at a time. Unity quickly became the poster child for unfinished, unpolished games in 2014 - clearly, Ubisoft would have to turn things around for the next entry.

Now, a year later, Assassin's Creed Syndicate is here: supposedly, the game is set to take the franchise back to its roots while simultaneously pushing the series forward. There are definitely some interesting concepts here, and a few ideas that could change how the series approaches things - the question is, did Ubisoft actually make good on their promises, or is Syndicate just a repeat of last year's mess?

In a lot of ways, Syndicate fixes the missteps of Unity...while introducing its own major problems at the same time.

Syndicate's story starts off on a high note. Instead of rehashing the extremely tired 'young Assassin who learns of his heritage' story, Syndicate starts with its two protagonists already working for the brotherhood. The game hits the ground running, and it's a welcome change of pace compared to other games in the series.

The strong intro is bolstered further by a strong cast of characters: Jacob and Evie are genuinely likable right from the start, and the people they interact with throughout the world are just as well-done. There's nothing really unique about the characters, and most fit into a common archetype - Jacob is the aloof troublemaker while Evie is the practical strategist - but that doesn't make them any less fun to watch. Syndicate's villains are the true highlight, and the game's supporting roles are also handled well...even if the historical figures seem more out of place than ever.

Unfortunately, things start to fall apart once the game gets rolling. The story starts with a bang, but once Jacob and Evie arrive in London, everything just sort of...happens. The shifts in momentum are ridiculous - the beginning of the game is littered with huge dumps of exposition, only for the story to completely disappear for several missions. For the first half of the game, the story is simply about moving from one targets to the next - there's no hint of a larger, overarching plot outside of 'kill the bad guys.'

A few threads do begin to surface as the game progresses, but it takes far too long to get interesting - and even then, story segments seemed rushed, and nothing really resonates. The game's final mission does fix this to a degree: there's actual dramatic tension, and Syndicate finally takes full advantage of its dual leads. Sadly, it's over far too quickly, and a cartoonishly happy ending doesn't feel like all that big of a reward.

All in all, the story feels like something of a waste: there are some truly fantastic characters in Syndicate, but without a solid plot to stand on, they're not given all that much to do. There's real potential here - Syndicate just doesn't take capitalize on it.

Aside from a few small blemishes, Syndicate is a great-looking game. London is absolutely massive, and looking out across the city skyline is a sight to behold. Truth be told, the game's textures can get a bit muddy, some particle effects are mediocre and the framerate tends to buckle once the streets open up - but despite these small hitches, London is a huge step up from Assassin's Creed Unity's flat, uninteresting world.

When it comes to the game's characters, Syndicate knocks it out of the park. The game absolutely nails the look of a late-1800s gang, and while some characters a bit over-designed, the attention to detail is astounding. Facial animation is particularly amazing: Syndicate's cast of characters look like actual people, not just motion capture dummies. Combine this with some absolutely fantastic voice work (the villains and their monologues deserve special mention), and you've got a game that comes surprisingly close to crossing the Uncanny Valley.

Sound design is also strong, with ambient effects firmly planting the game in Victorian London. The soundtrack is, somewhat surprisingly, fantastic: staccato strings and piano pieces feel distinctly Victorian, and while some vocal pieces may feel out of place, Syndicate's music never fails to create palpable tension.

The only real problem with Syndicate's presentation are the loading times. There's a loading screen for everything - restarting a checkpoint, using fast-travel, changing equipment - and they can take up to a minute on the PlayStation 4. Simply put, it drags the game to a halt.

For the most part, Syndicate's overall design falls in line with the rest of the series: players are given a huge open world to explore jam-packed with missions. Completing enough of these unlocks Assassination Missions (which carry over from Unity, and are easily the highlight) - once your target is dead, you move onto the next sequence and the cycle repeats. Side missions help generate income and unlock new gear, while gang missions help Jacob and Evie take control of the city piece-by-piece.

As with the rest of the series, there's a big focus on getting around. The twins can climb just about anything, and taking the high ground is usually the first step in any mission. The grappling hook speeds parkour up even more, allowing players to quickly zip from ground level to rooftops almost instantaneously. Stagecoaches act as good long-distance transport, and help alleviate the need for fast-travel. They're not entirely necessary outside of missions, but they're a nice alternative to warping across the map.

There's one major problem, however: Assassin's Creed Syndicate just isn't fun to play.

In prior games, simply moving through the world was fun: there was a smoothness, a flow to movement that meant players rarely came to a stop. In Syndicate, that flow never materializes: even simply trying to run up a wall results in an unnecessary break in momentum, and it only gets worse as the moves get more complex. It's bizarre, as parkour has been a core part of the series since Day One - but in Syndicate, it never feels right.

What's even worse is that players will never feel like they're truly in control. Basically, as you play through Syndicate, the game will constantly try to predict where you want to go and how you want to get there: if your character is looking at a wall, Syndicate will assume that you want to climb up it. Considering how many different ways there are to interact with the world, a system like this makes sense...on paper.

The problem is that the system rarely works: Syndicate will push you in the direction it thinks you want to go, regardless of what buttons you're actually holding. There are far too many occasions where a character will keep moving or take off in the wrong direction simply because it's what the game thinks you want - and it's not just limited to parkour, either. Riding coaches, taking cover and even just firing the grappling hook are all subject to whatever Syndicate thinks you want to do - and it's almost guaranteed to get you killed at some point.

On top of all that, the controls simply don't work sometimes: Jacob and Evie may just stop moving because the game gets confused and doesn't realize that the path in front of the player is valid. If you're simply running around, it's annoying - but, when you're trying to evade the police and the characters refuse to make a three-foot jump because the game doesn't recognize the ledge ahead of you, it's rage-inducing.

If such control issues were isolated, it wouldn't be a big deal...but they're not. Playing through Syndicate means fighting the controls nearly every step of the way: basically, you'll aim Jacob and Evie towards your destination and hope that the game actually listens. Over time, it gets easier to predict what the game will try to do - but even so, you'll never really feel in control.

And then there are the glitches: while Syndicate never comes close to Unity's level, it's still an extremely buggy game. Getting stuck in the environment, the world failing to load, characters turning invisible, animations freezing and menus locking up are just a few of the glitches present, and that's all if the game doesn't outright crash. Syndicate either failed to load or crashed to dashboard a total of four times during the writing of this review - while the incidents were isolated, they were actually worse than our time with Assassin's Creed Unity.

There's one question on every Assassin's Creed fans' mind: is Syndicate better than Unity? The answer is yes...but that doesn't necessarily mean much.

In a lot of ways, Syndicate is a huge upgrade: the story might not be great, but the game's characters are a far cry from Unity's utterly forgettable cast. The game runs well enough, despite some glitches, and it looks absolutely fantastic...but that doesn't matter if it's not fun to play.

Controlling the Frye twins can be an absolute nightmare - more so than any other Assassin's Creed title, it feels as if the game is constantly trying to take control away from the player. At its best, it's tolerable; at its worst, it's absolutely infuriating. Now more than ever, it's clear that Ubisoft needs to go back to the drawing board in terms of how Assassin's Creed plays.

For any Assassin's Creed fans who are desperate for more gameplay and can tolerate the series' long-running control issues, Syndicate is passable...but for anyone who's already burnt out on the series, Assassin's Creed Syndicate just isn't worth your time.

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