So far 2015 has turned out to be a great year in respect to the gaming world. Some awesome games have made its way to the markets throughout the year. Some of them being—The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 and the recently released Fallout 4.
The latest addition to the long list of games that hit the market in the current year is Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate. This latest addition to the immensely popular series of Assassin’s Creed games by Ubisoft has a Victorian Age London setting.
Assassin’s Creed games have long portrayed the enmity between the Templars and the Knights and their long struggle for relics. In the game, the player has to take control of twins Jacob and Evie Frye, the protagonists of the game, and play through the various missions and perform different quests as the game directs.
Evie Frye is a hardcore assassin who is hell-bent on winning the battle against the Templars and stopping them once and for all by searching and finding the rest of the pieces of Eden. Her brother Jacob is less violent by nature. He somewhat dislikes the violent legacy of the Assassins and wants to help his city by bringing about certain reforms to it.
This brother-sister duo is sent to London with the purpose of thwarting the Templar’s plans and delivering a fatal blow to them in the process.
Soon enough they come across the Grand Master of the Templars, Crawford Starwick. This person wields a lot of influence and power and has a large area of London under his control, but that is not enough to quench his thirst. Domination over the whole world is what this malicious person has his eyes set on.
The campaign missions are more concentrated on Jacob as he takes the forefront in most of the game’s main assassinations. However, side-quests and other tasks that can be performed in the open-world setting of the game are available fairly equally for both the brother and the sister. Players also have the freedom to swipe between Jacob and Evie in the majority of the game.
The recreation of a 19th century London has been done beautifully. It will be a visual treat for players to wander about and explore the streets of the city that is vibrating with life.
The London city of 1868 is held up in a great way in the game. The newly incorporated train lines in the game and factories scattered throughout the city truly work towards bringing out the industrialized setting of the city during the Victorian age.
The city streets are filled with the hustle and bustle of the common people including shoppers, newspaper vending children and crafty pickpockets.
The introduction of stagecoaches is a major addition to this installment of Assassin’s Creed. The stagecoaches can be used by players to compete in horse races against certain gangs controlled by the Templars.
A certain combination of buttons can be used by the player to make the in-game characters Jacob and Evie jump on enemy stagecoaches from their horses. They can also fight their enemies on top of these stagecoaches while it moves about the city.
The combat experience of the game is quite breathtaking especially during the fights on top of train carriages with the train in motion. The combat situation in-game is mostly dependent on the D-pad.
It can be used by the players to attack, counter, stun enemies and shoot when needed. A combination of buttons can be used in quick succession to deal major damage to enemies through deadly combos.
These combos can be used to trigger execution moves which can bring down enemies in a single, beautiful, yet deadly blow. The game comes with a lot of side missions along with the main campaigns.
Players can indulge in fun side quests which include bringing back Benjamin Disraeli’s wife’s lap dog from the most notorious area of London, the Devil’s Arc, to setting out to find and retrieve hallucinogenic orchids for none other than Charles Dickens.
However, players may find the controls a tad difficult to get used to. Performing tasks and carrying out missions in a stealthy way can be a major challenge for the players.