2/5 ★ – peacebrendanp's review of Assassin's Creed: Syndicate.

Just a soulless husk of a game, in my opinion. I have no idea why I have chosen this year as the year I try to give Ubisoft another chance. I have heard some folk describe Assassin's Creed Syndicate as one of the best in the series, but adding the caveat that it just didn't do as well around release because it added to the open-world fatigue that existed at the time. After nearly 24-hours with this game, I can confidently say that this game has a much deeper problem than just being another open-world game. I really tried to push myself to enjoy this game. It's why I have 24-hours in the game. But, those 24-hours are over the course of two-weeks, which is abnormal play-behavior from myself. I'll start with what I like about the game. Like all Ubisoft games, the world is the star here. It's cool to look at England from the late-1800's. The world feels like a historical snapshot. But, the compliment ends there. There are NPC's that will sometimes be doing something interesting in the world, but the facade falls apart pretty quickly. The different districts all feel different from one another, but they don't feel special or alive. I liked that the "hook" of the game was to conquer each district, and you can actually see the enemy presence dwindle as you progress, but there's really no incentive to keep tackling these objectives. The combat looks flashy, and sometimes feels alright. The parkour is okay, and the addition of the zipline is welcomed. The parkour uses the same system from Unity, which I thought was the most fluid of the series, but it feels a bit more rough here. The ambient music is actually really awesome, but it plays too infrequently. I think the carriage driving is pretty alright too, despite it feeling off at times. That's about all I can say for the good, and even then, there's always a caveat to every positive this game has going for it. Now for what the game fails at. The game lacks any sort of soul or heart. The characters are all flat, with performances being boring as all hell. All cutscenes feel really dull and like they were recorded in an empty studio. The writing is atrocious, and not in a so-bad-it's-funny-kind-of-way, just in a really sad and insulting sort of way. The game, like every single other Ubisoft game I have played, does not respect your time. The combat looks flashy, but feels so sluggish and bad. The upgrade tree is uninspired and doesn't feel good to progress through. Even movement can feel poor at times, and that is supposed to be a huge piece of the pie with this series. And, why oh why, does this series insist on forcing everything to be viewed through a "modern" lens. Why not just have a game, that takes place in late-1800's England, and focuses on a story that revolves around the assassins and templars? Why are we still fucking around with this animus bullshit? It's boring, and hasn't really gone any where since ACIII. Man. I was starting to get re-interested in trying Assassin's Creed because of the launch of AC: Shadows. I should have probably just jumped into that game, because this entry just turned me off. Some folk genuinely might find merit with this title. But, it made me realize that Sony makes games like this (checklist-type games), but with actual care and polish. I know I'm going a bit hard at this game, but man, Ubisoft has fallen so fucking hard for me over the past 12-or-so years. They sit there, and call their games "Quadruple-A," and then release games that are mid. This game is a one-out-of-five, shooting for a four-out-of-five, but landing at a two. As a historical piece of media that aims to recreate a diorama of London, AC: Syndicate is okay. As a game? AC: Syndicate is not worth almost anyone's time. Abandoned this one at the start of sequence six, out of eight total sequences. Console Played On: PS5 (PS4 Version) Game Played: 04/2024 - 04/2024 Review Written and Published: 04/26/2025