Assassin's Creed Syndicate discussion (WARNING: MASSIVE UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Yeah, you knew this thread was coming

Just finished through it, and I must say that I loved Syndicate. Much better than Unity (note: I loved Unity). There are a bunch of things I did not like, which I'll start with in this post.

- Jacob/Evie. The idea of this is brilliant, the execution less so. Why? Because Evie is in my eyes, much more interesting, yet Jacob gets much more missions. I also think it's weird that Unity puts so much emphasis on us being able to control both a male and a female assassin, yet it's the male who gets most of the story, who gets to be front and centre of the cover and ho gets a statuette in the collector's editions of the game.
- Ned. I don't mind the character, but what I do mind is Ubisoft talking all high and mighty about having a transgender character, and in the end it's a side character with barely a whole minute of screentime. Also, Ned appears shortly after we see Abberline, a bearded man, in a woman's disguise befitting of a Monty Python sketch. Way to undercut your own message, Ubisoft.
- Where the hell is my chase scene among burning and falling buildings? We had a great one in Brotherhood, an even greater one in Rogue... I feel like this should be a "once every game" type of thing but alas...
- Basically, much of the advertising of famous people in the game shouldn't have been made at all. Queen Victoria, Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens... Sideline characters with completely optional missions (that weren't even given the nod of having a trophy for completing them) yet Ubisoft tries to lure people in with them. They would have been better left as surprises for the player.
- The setting. This is just because it's not that interesting to me as an AC setting. I loved the other, more exotic settings much more.

Looking at the list above, it shows that I'm mainly disappointed by the differences of what Ubisoft tells us before the game and what happens in the actual game. Had Ubisoft simply kept silent on all those pieces, I would not have had anything to complain about.

Here's what good I have to say about it:

- Classic Assassin's Creed. One large city, a Templar organisation to assassinate and a Piece of Eden. I like it how this time around they actually put emphasis on the repercussions of destroying such a vast controlling empire.
- Evie. In my eyes, right up there with Ezio Auditore in terms of likeability and very memorable. I hope we get another game where we can play as her. Perhaps in India? This was teased in one of her diary entries, and a while ago they already said they were considering an entry during the British Raj...
- Amazing graphics and music. Can't wait to see what they do with next year's installment.
- I loved how much it felt like it was a film. What stayed with me was during that final mission, the tension during that dance... Wow.
- Characters with actual personalities. I may not appreciate Jacob as an Assassin but he's definitely got spirit, which Arno had to do without. Already talked about Evie. And that villain... Great show. How he can cause mood whiplashes, going from badly singing on the piano to killing a man and back to his singing...

Basically, anything I did not mention in the list with regrets is great in this game. It's great to see that after some minor missteps, Ubisoft seems to be back on track with how the series should be going. I hope next year's title will be Evie in India. I do stil hope we get some form of game set during the First Civilization...

I was a bit disappointed with Assassin's Creed China, but seeing the beautiful screenshots of India make me probably want to get the game day one again.
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For the rest, it's waiting until they announce the new title I'm afraid. I'm usually not that into DLC. Though for the next few days I still have Syndicate to 100%

tl;dr
Is it just me or is the secret area really dull and boring? It doesn't help that all of the RPG elements are out now that there's no inventory, so now collecting anything is meaningless.
The old hag in the sky is really annoying too, why does she have to come back after every little objective, I want to say to her face 'shut up you arrogant cow I don't give a shit', I just ignore her.

Prem-aka-Prince said:tl;dr... You already know what I'm going to call you now, aren't you?

Prem-aka-Prince said:Is it just me or is the secret area really dull and boring? It doesn't help that all of the RPG elements are out now that there's no inventory, so now collecting anything is meaningless.
The old hag in the sky is really annoying too, why does she have to come back after every little objective, I want to say to her face 'shut up you arrogant cow I don't give a shit', I just ignore her.No need to talk around it, people comingto this thread know there will be spoilers.

I think the idea of a World War I or World War II assassin would be pretty cool, even though I don't really feel the need to play a whole game around one. I thought the first mission was really good, all the more annoyed I was when the rest of the WWI missions were basically normal territory missions adjusted for the setting. If they'd just make a few real missions I would have been really happy.

And I appreciated the Juno messages, even if they could've put everything together at once and the best info was saved for last. I thought the extra information about how Sages work was awesome.

Finished the story and a load of the side missions and I loved it. Going to get the season pass next to continue the life span of such a pretty game. Agree with Billy Horrible in that Evie was way under used and I spent any time inbetween main missions playing as her and not the more clumbersome Jacob. This was why I liked the WW1 missions so much, playing as Evie's grand-daughter. It felt like the game as a whole felt more like an AC game when you were Evie. On a different note; how big a tool does Jacob look with that Top Hat on!?. Ended up in the Ezio outfit, which thankfully came tophat-less!

mysticmosh said:Finished the story and a load of the side missions and I loved it. Going to get the season pass next to continue the life span of such a pretty game. Agree with Billy Horrible in that Evie was way under used and I spent any time inbetween main missions playing as her and not the more clumbersome Jacob. This was why I liked the WW1 missions so much, playing as Evie's grand-daughter. It felt like the game as a whole felt more like an AC game when you were Evie. On a different note; how big a tool does Jacob look with that Top Hat on!?. Ended up in the Ezio outfit, which thankfully came tophat-less!Much the same sentiment as me, Evie is really more of an AC worthy character. Little correction though: It's Jacob's granddaughter, not Evie's.

mysticmosh said:...On a different note; how big a tool does Jacob look with that Top Hat on!?. Ended up in the Ezio outfit, which thankfully came tophat-less!Gents of the era were expected to cover their heads in public, and obviously it wasn't yet the time of hoodies.
If anything his top hat is too modern, look around, everyone else's top hat is better. I can see why he upgraded from the flatcap of his original poor man outfit, I just think it's a shame none of his top-end outfits have top-end hats. But I guess this is why they had to restrict it: modern audiences don't well understand the gentleman's top hat!

By the way, Evie's secret Aegis outfit was way cooler than anything Jacob had, though if you play the final story mission with his Maximum Dracula outfit in default colours you get a brilliant light/dark dichotomy.