Old but gold? First look at Assassins Creed Syndicate

With Assassins Creed Mirage probably being released later this year we took a look at the older titles from the series. Choosing from the steam sales I picked up Assassins Creed Syndicate for around 10€. The game was released in 2015. Can it still keep up with today’s games? In this small news article I’ll show my first impressions and opinion on the game after 10 hours of experience.

Things I like

As someone who likes grind intensive games I enjoyed that there are so many collectibles in every part of the city. These need to be ranged by doing parkour or just by searching for them and range from chest to papers on a wall or even unmarked easter egg items. My favourite thing to do at the moment is collecting “helix glitches”: these are points on the map that can only be reached by doing a certain jump.

The game has a experience system that rewards you experience points that unlock ability points. New levels unlock new upgrade, new abilities and new gear. Talking about gear: there is a whole crafting system which needs you to collect materials from the open world.

Another thing I enjoy are the “leap of faith” jumps where your character jumps of a high point and lands in a small carriage filled with hay or a mountain of leaves. Not very realistic but it’s a lot of fun to search for these.

The story missions all had a cool twist to them so far and introduce you to new mechanics. They also help getting to know the two main characters: Jacob and Evie Frye better. The rest of the game experience is set in an open world where you can walk into small mission areas that give you a certain task to complete.

The open world looks beautiful and even more during nighttime. I really just enjoy walking around or driving a stolen carriage around London, looking at the Victorian houses alongside the road. The lighting feels realistic and as long as you don’t look in detail it’s amazing.

Things I don’t like

The age of the game does show during the cutscenes or in the menu animations. The graphics aren’t as realistic as expected by today’s standard but by no means bad.

As most Ubisoft games it still costs a lot and additional content is sold in expensive DLCs. I don’t like this idea of paying more for expansions than for the main game but I guess that’s just personal preference.

Get AC Syndicate here

Interested in jump and run games? Check out our review about Alto’s Adventure, a free and fun mobile games.