Syndicate Game Details, Platforms And Confirmed Release Date
Dayna Delabarre
The game's plot follows the premise of the Assassin's Creed franchise, involving a fictional history of real-world events where a secret war has been fought for centuries between two factions: the Assassins, who promote peace and liberty, and the Templars, who desire peace through control. The framing story is set in the 21st century and features the same unnamed and unseen protagonist from Assassin's Creed Unity, who assists the Assassins in their race against the Templars to find an artifact hidden in London. The main story is set in London in 1868, at the onset of the Second Industrial Revolution, and follows twin Assassins Jacob and Evie Frye as they navigate the corridors of organised crime and take back the city from Templar control. The game also includes segments set in 1916, during World War I, which follow Jacob's granddaughter, Lydia Frye.
The game is played from a third-person perspective and its open world is navigated on foot or by carriage. Syndicate introduces new travelling systems to the series, as well as refined combat and stealth mechanics. Players control the two lead characters throughout the main story, switching between them both during and outside of missions. After launch, the game was supported with several releases of downloadable content (DLC), including three story expansions. The most notable of these, Jack the Ripper, is set twenty years after the main campaign and involves Evie's pursuit of the titular unidentified serial killer.
Assassin's Creed Syndicate received positive reviews upon release, with praise for its visuals, characters, narrative, and level design. However, the combat, open-world design and vehicle gameplay were met with some criticism. The game was nominated for multiple awards, including Best Action/Adventure at The Game Awards 2015. Syndicate was less financially successful than previous entries in the series, selling over 5.5 million units by November 2017. Ubisoft attributed the lower sales numbers to a series fatigue among players, caused in part by Assassin's Creed Unity's disappointing release the year prior, and decided to end the annual release cycle for the series. The next main entry, Assassin's Creed Origins, primarily set in Ptolemaic era Ancient Egypt, was released in October 2017, and acts as a soft reboot which introduces more role-playing mechanics and a new modern-day storyline.
The game lets the player control two characters: twins Jacob and Evie Frye.[3] Jacob is a hot-headed brawler, specialising in close-ranged combat,[4] while Evie is strong in stealth and relies on her intelligence and wit.[4][5] Evie is notably the first female playable character in a mainline Assassin's Creed game.[5][c] In contrast to the previous' entries swords and long weapons, the main weapons of Syndicate include era-accurate brass knuckles, compact revolvers, cane-swords, and traditional Nepalese curved kukri knives, all of which can be upgraded to increase their effectiveness.[6] The twins can also be equipped with various outfits and clothing items (belts for Jacob and capes for Evie) which present different statistics, as well as gain additional abilities through a skill tree system. As the player progresses through the game, they earn experience points to level up their characters; for every 1,000 experience points earned, they unlock a "skill point" which can be spent on a new ability. The number of skills unlocked determines each twin's level, which can be a maximum of 10. Enemies also present levels, determining how difficult they are to defeat in combat. However, all enemies can be stealthily assassinated, regardless of level.
The game's combat system was changed from Assassin's Creed Unity, and now focuses on chaining together fast-paced attacks and blocks. The stealth system also saw several improvements with the addition of new gadgets and a kidnapping mechanic, which allows the player to take an enemy hostage and blend in with them to remain unseen, as long as they are not in close proximity to another enemy. Syndicate also builds upon Unity's "Black Box" design for assassination missions by introducing more opportunities for infiltration and distraction, as well as "cinematic kills", which are unlocked after certain parameters are met. For navigation, the game adds several new systems, including a rope launcher, which allows the player to rappel up structures, or create a zip-line between buildings;[7] carriages, which can be piloted or simply occupied by the player, and can be the setting of fights and parkour chases;[4][8] and a train, which serves as the main base for the player throughout the game.[9]
The side content in Syndicate was designed to reflect the fight for power in London, and is cohesive to the game's main story,[10] adopting a gang warfare mechanic where the city is divided into districts each controlled by the game's two main street gangs.[11] During the game, the Frye twins start a street gang called the Rooks to combat the Blighters' influence, which can be leveled up with various upgrades pertaining to their weaponry, vehicles, and economic opportunities, increasing their effectiveness in combat as well as the passive revenue generated by the gang over time. At the start of the game, London is controlled entirely by the Blighters, but as the player completes optional liberation missions (which can range from freeing child labourers to kidnapping or assassinating a high-profile Templar), each borough slowly comes under the control of the Rooks, culminating in a gang fight to definitively take over the borough. Other side missions focus on assisting prominent historical figures such as Charles Dickens, Karl Marx, and Queen Victoria. Players can also engage in a number of smaller activities for monetary rewards, like fight clubs and carriage races, and find several different types of collectibles, including music boxes containing the keys to a hidden treasure.
In 1868, at the tail end of the Industrial Revolution, with the Assassin Brotherhood all but eradicated in Victorian London, twins Jacob (Paul Amos) and Evie Frye (Victoria Atkin) leave Crawley for London and arrive to find a city controlled by the Templars, with both the Church and the Monarchy losing their power. Raised as Assassins to follow the Creed, Jacob and Evie aim to take back the city from Templar control by infiltrating and uniting London's criminal underworld,[4][14] aided by notable figures of the era such as novelist Charles Dickens (Des McAleer); biologist Charles Darwin (Julian Richings); inventor Alexander Graham Bell (Mark Rowley); political theorist Karl Marx (Matthew Marsh); nurse Florence Nightingale (Helen Johns); Maharaja Duleep Singh (Avin Shah), the last maharajah of the Sikh Empire; Sergeant Frederick Abberline (Sam Crane) of the Metropolitan Police Service (known for his investigation of Jack the Ripper); and Queen Victoria (Ellen David).[15][16] Additionally, Jacob's granddaughter, Lydia Frye (Lisa Norton), appears in a separate World War I segment, where she aids Winston Churchill (Rick Miller) in defending London against a new enemy espionage faction.[17]
In 2015, the Helix player, now an Assassin Initiate, is again contacted by Bishop (Kate Todd) to help the Brotherhood find a Piece of Eden in London. While Rebecca Crane and Shaun Hastings infiltrate Abstergo's facility in London, the Initiate relives the memories of Jacob and Evie Frye, twin Assassins from the Victorian era.
In 1868, Evie infiltrates a lab run by David Brewster and Templar occultist Lucy Thorne (Emerald O'Hanrahan), and finds them experimenting on an Apple of Eden. Evie assassinates Brewster, learning that the Templars seek another artifact in London, and escapes from the lab after the Apple explodes. The Frye twins head to London to stop the Templars from finding this Piece of Eden, and meet fellow Assassin Henry Green (Jaz Deol). Henry informs them that the London Brotherhood has fallen, and the city is controlled by the Templars, led by Crawford Starrick (Kris Holden-Ried), a powerful figure in the city's industry and criminal underworld. Although Evie wishes to search for the Piece of Eden, Jacob convinces her to help liberate London's boroughs from Templar-run gangs. In the process, they build up their own gang, the Rooks, and make allies such as Clara O'Dea, Frederick Abberline, Alexander Graham Bell, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Ned Wynert, and Edward Hodson Bayley.
During this time, Jacob, seeking to undermine Starrick's control over London society, assassinates Starrick's allies, including Dr. John Elliotson, who oversaw the production of an addictive tonic; Malcolm Milner, the owner of Starrick's omnibus company; Pearl Attaway, Starrick's cousin and owner of a rival omnibus company; Philip Twopenny, the Governor of the Bank of England who was secretly robbing it; James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan, who planned to assassinate Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli; and gang leader Maxwell Roth, who initially supports Jacob, but later reveals himself to be a dangerous sadist.
Meanwhile, Evie looks for the Piece of Eden with Henry's help. Following clues underneath Edward Kenway's mansion, they find the key to the Shroud's vault at St Paul's Cathedral, but Thorne steals it and flees to the Tower of London. Evie infiltrates the Tower and kills Thorne, who reveals the Shroud is not there. Henry believes the vault is hidden in Buckingham Palace, and enlists Maharajah Duleep Singh's help to obtain the building's schematics; however, the Templars seize them first. Evie also corrects consequences of Jacob's assassinations, such as medicine shortages and currency inflation.
With his lieutenants dead, Starrick moves to retrieve the Shroud and eliminate Britain's heads of church and state. Jacob and Evie argue over his recklessness and her inaction, but agree to work together to stop Starrick before going their separate ways. They infiltrate a ball held at Buckingham Palace, but Starrick beats them to the vault and obtains the Shroud. With Henry's help, the Frye twins kill Starrick, before reconciling and returning the Shroud to the vault. For their deeds, Queen Victoria knights the Frye twins and Henry.
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