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Games Assassin's Creed Syndicate (PS4), Release Date - 23rd October 2015

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shadowrem
post Oct 23 2015, 05:50 PM

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i thought they also scrap the "back to the future" desmond thingy?
SSJBen
post Oct 23 2015, 06:18 PM

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Had to reassess my conclusion to this game after the 1.11 patch.
Main reason being the final 3rd story mission wouldn't progress for me because a freaking NPC DID NOT show up no matter what I do. Couldn't progress, so was pretty much stuck.
Wasn't in the patch notes but the 1.11 patch fixed it for me.

Anyways, I'll try to keep it as short as possible:


The Good
- Let's get it out of the way, performance in comparison to Unity is day and night. It's like comparing fine wine to cheap $2 beer. The game quite playable now, even on pre-day 1 patch.
- Evie and Jacob makes for a very... interesting dynamic of characters. They contrast one another and has a unique brother-sister chemistry in the story.
- Evie... is awesome. Ubikayu failed to develop a compelling famale lead with Aveline, but Evie? Evie is awesome! Nuff' said.
- Voices no longer sound stupid. Unity had their "French" people speak perfect English. Yes, yes, the stupid reason ubikayu gave was that the animus "translates" language. But a high-tech animus couldn't translate "Bon Jour".
- With that said, voice overs are actually pretty solid. Most of the main characters has good sense of emotion in the roles they play.
- Victorian London's setting is potrayed pretty well here. I don't think it was on par with France, but none the less if ubikayu can nail one thing right everytime, it is the setting and Syndicate is no slouch at all.
- There is one very amazing portion area of the game that I don't want to spoil, but seriously hot damn I wish it was longer.


The eh?
- Bugs? They're there. As I said, an NPC somehow didn't show up in one of the last story missions for me and that completely halted the game's progress, FOR ME. I didn't have the day 1 patch(es) installed, so I guess part of it is related to that.
- That said, expect to see NPCs teleporting from one place to another. Expect to get clipped in between structures or objects, just to suddenly appear on a platform. These kind of bugs are still littered around the game, it happens MUCH LESS than it was in Unity though, so that's at least something to be thankful about.
- Although improved, framerate is still no where as stable as it was in Black Flag. There are definitely still drops, particularly when transitioning from an unpopulated area to one with a sizeable crowd. It's still annoying having frames skip when chasing down a baddie.
- I appreciate the new ambient music, but honestly I think it should have some more variety.
- Okay this is rather optional and always has been, but the amount of chests and collectibles in Syndicate is borderline in-your-face annoying. Yes, you can ignore them but when chests are spreaded less than 10 feet apart, that becomes overdone. It's the type of padding a developer needs to put in because they have zero ideas on how to implement something more fun.
- Grapple hook gun is a hit-and-miss thing. It's fun to use, but it makes no sense to do so. If realism was what they're going for in Syndicate, the grapple hook makes no sense at all, no matter how the plot tries to explain it.
- In Black Flag, the story transition periods was laughably pathetic. AC4 assumes the player to understand what happened between events, after completing a mission and the time period advances in game. Unity reduced that kind of time-passing transition, but it certainly wasn't enough character building for Arno. How about Syndicate then? Well, it's further reduced. But because there are 2 main leads in the game now, ubikayu found it easier to cheat through time transition because the focus is spread across 2 characters.


The Bad
- I'm laying this right out there, right now: the new dynamic lighting sucks, big time. Understandably to make the game perform better, the devs had to resort to using lower quality lighting. Unity had pre-baked lighting, but was very impressive. GTA V's lighting makes Syndicate look like a fool playing with a gun.
- Evie and Jacob, as much as I like their contrasting dissimilarities in the plot... they play damn near identical when controlling them.
- There are almost no gameplay differences between Evie and Jacob unless dictated by the game itself, which means unless a mission requires you to do something you actually wouldn't do with Jacob or Evie, you can play them the same way and get away with it.
- This leads me to another false advertising joke by ubikayu. Remember how they said that Jacob would play more like a brawler, more aggressive, more upfront and Evie was the opposite? Bullshit is what I'd say.
- The animations are beyond dated at this point. Seriously, the last time the series had a big improvement in animations was AC2: Brotherhood. Why would an English man move exactly the same way like an Italian Ezio? Hell, why does Evie walk like there's a dong between her legs?
- Unity tried to improve the movement mechanics by dumbing down the controls. But there was a nice sense of fluidity when scaling up buildings. In Syndicate, because there are much less high structures, the devs somehow thought that fluidity in climbing can be dumbed down EVEN further. This makes for a damn irritating time when trying to jump across buildings. You either fall to the ground or you land on something where your character clips into an object, then teleporting to a platform. It's ridiculous how they still couldn't get this right, when by right AC2 and AC3 was absolutely fine.
- The HUD, my goodness... it's as if ubikayu thinks everyone in this world is mentally handicapped or something. There are so much unnecessary info on the screen, all of which makes the game look like a joke. The outline that highlights enemies is as if the dev thinks the player are blind or illiterate. Thankfully much of this can be turned off in the options, but bloody hell.. it's still ridiculous.
- Finally, as with pretty much every open-world game, there is just so much filler content that wastes the player's time. So much padding, so much unnecessasary side quests that has little to no story much less to say an impact on the main plotline. Syndicate is pretty much as bad as Unity and Black Flag was with side quests, there's really no compelling reason to do them other than waste time.


The Conclusion
Is Syndicate better than Unitiy? I said in a few posts above, I can't freaking believe that ubikayu made a worse game. And by that, I take it back after the day 1 patch. You see, being stuck on one of the last story missions made my blood boil. A mission that was vital to the story and progression of the game, there was no excuse in my book for something like that to happen in the game.
Syndicate is a better game than Unity by all accounts. Somethings they improved, somethings stayed just as bad and somethings they left the same.

Syndicate is pretty decent, but it's not a must play. I would recommend Syndicate to an AC fan, but for those who aren't I seriously think that you should wait for it to be cheaper.

This post has been edited by SSJBen: Oct 23 2015, 10:15 PM
agingamer
post Oct 25 2015, 09:08 AM

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All the above average review scores surprised me and raised my interests.
Thankfully, your honest and comprehensive opinions helped me make my decision final.
Not a full price purchase. Most likely skipped because 2016 is coming....


QUOTE(SSJBen @ Oct 23 2015, 06:18 PM)
Had to reassess my conclusion to this game after the 1.11 patch.
Main reason being the final 3rd story mission wouldn't progress for me because a freaking NPC DID NOT show up no matter what I do. Couldn't progress, so was pretty much stuck.
Wasn't in the patch notes but the 1.11 patch fixed it for me.

Anyways, I'll try to keep it as short as possible:
The Good
- Let's get it out of the way, performance in comparison to Unity is day and night. It's like comparing fine wine to cheap $2 beer. The game quite playable now, even on pre-day 1 patch.
- Evie and Jacob makes for a very... interesting dynamic of characters. They contrast one another and has a unique brother-sister chemistry in the story.
- Evie... is awesome. Ubikayu failed to develop a compelling famale lead with Aveline, but Evie? Evie is awesome! Nuff' said.
- Voices no longer sound stupid. Unity had their "French" people speak perfect English. Yes, yes, the stupid reason ubikayu gave was that the animus "translates" language. But a high-tech animus couldn't translate "Bon Jour".
- With that said, voice overs are actually pretty solid. Most of the main characters has good sense of emotion in the roles they play.
- Victorian London's setting is potrayed pretty well here. I don't think it was on par with France, but none the less if ubikayu can nail one thing right everytime, it is the setting and Syndicate is no slouch at all.
- There is one very amazing portion area of the game that I don't want to spoil, but seriously hot damn I wish it was longer.
The eh?
- Bugs? They're there. As I said, an NPC somehow didn't show up in one of the last story missions for me and that completely halted the game's progress, FOR ME. I didn't have the day 1 patch(es) installed, so I guess part of it is related to that.
- That said, expect to see NPCs teleporting from one place to another. Expect to get clipped in between structures or objects, just to suddenly appear on a platform. These kind of bugs are still littered around the game, it happens MUCH LESS than it was in Unity though, so that's at least something to be thankful about.
- Although improved, framerate is still no where as stable as it was in Black Flag. There are definitely still drops, particularly when transitioning from an unpopulated area to one with a sizeable crowd. It's still annoying having frames skip when chasing down a baddie.
- I appreciate the new ambient music, but honestly I think it should have some more variety.
- Okay this is rather optional and always has been, but the amount of chests and collectibles in Syndicate is borderline in-your-face annoying. Yes, you can ignore them but when chests are spreaded less than 10 feet apart, that becomes overdone. It's the type of padding a developer needs to put in because they have zero ideas on how to implement something more fun.
- Grapple hook gun is a hit-and-miss thing. It's fun to use, but it makes no sense to do so. If realism was what they're going for in Syndicate, the grapple hook makes no sense at all, no matter how the plot tries to explain it.
- In Black Flag, the story transition periods was laughably pathetic. AC4 assumes the player to understand what happened between events, after completing a mission and the time period advances in game. Unity reduced that kind of time-passing transition, but it certainly wasn't enough character building for Arno. How about Syndicate then? Well, it's further reduced. But because there are 2 main leads in the game now, ubikayu found it easier to cheat through time transition because the focus is spread across 2 characters.
The Bad
- I'm laying this right out there, right now: the new dynamic lighting sucks, big time. Understandably to make the game perform better, the devs had to resort to using lower quality lighting. Unity had pre-baked lighting, but was very impressive. GTA V's lighting makes Syndicate look like a fool playing with a gun.
- Evie and Jacob, as much as I like their contrasting dissimilarities in the plot... they play damn near identical when controlling them.
- There are almost no gameplay differences between Evie and Jacob unless dictated by the game itself, which means unless a mission requires you to do something you actually wouldn't do with Jacob or Evie, you can play them the same way and get away with it.
- This leads me to another false advertising joke by ubikayu. Remember how they said that Jacob would play more like a brawler, more aggressive, more upfront and Evie was the opposite? Bullshit is what I'd say.
- The animations are beyond dated at this point. Seriously, the last time the series had a big improvement in animations was AC2: Brotherhood. Why would an English man move exactly the same way like an Italian Ezio? Hell, why does Evie walk like there's a dong between her legs?
- Unity tried to improve the movement mechanics by dumbing down the controls. But there was a nice sense of fluidity when scaling up buildings. In Syndicate, because there are much less high structures, the devs somehow thought that fluidity in climbing can be dumbed down EVEN further. This makes for a damn irritating time when trying to jump across buildings. You either fall to the ground or you land on something where your character clips into an object, then teleporting to a platform. It's ridiculous how they still couldn't get this right, when by right AC2 and AC3 was absolutely fine.
- The HUD, my goodness... it's as if ubikayu thinks everyone in this world is mentally handicapped or something. There are so much unnecessary info on the screen, all of which makes the game look like a joke. The outline that highlights enemies is as if the dev thinks the player are blind or illiterate. Thankfully much of this can be turned off in the options, but bloody hell.. it's still ridiculous.
- Finally, as with pretty much every open-world game, there is just so much filler content that wastes the player's time. So much padding, so much unnecessasary side quests that has little to no story much less to say an impact on the main plotline. Syndicate is pretty much as bad as Unity and Black Flag was with side quests, there's really no compelling reason to do them other than waste time.
The Conclusion
Is Syndicate better than Unitiy? I said in a few posts above, I can't freaking believe that ubikayu made a worse game. And by that, I take it back after the day 1 patch. You see, being stuck on one of the last story missions made my blood boil. A mission that was vital to the story and progression of the game, there was no excuse in my book for something like that to happen in the game.
Syndicate is a better game than Unity by all accounts. Somethings they improved, somethings stayed just as bad and somethings they left the same.

Syndicate is pretty decent, but it's not a must play. I would recommend Syndicate to an AC fan, but for those who aren't I seriously think that you should wait for it to be cheaper.
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Lord Kyran
post Oct 25 2015, 10:20 AM

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My 2 cents:

I got the Rooks Edition on Thursday and have been playing since. I can honestly say that I've been loving it. I haven't encountered bugs or clipping or noticeable frame rate drops. The only issue on that part would be the long loading times.

Characters and story wise, fantastic! Been enjoying it thoroughly. I think ubisost implemented the skill system quite well. My Evie only does stealth kills whereas Jacob kicks ass. How you approach a situation is up to you. Though, it would be better if main story missions didn't lock you into using only 1 character so often.

The carriages and grapple gun are amazing as are the Rooks and the customisability options. As large as the map is, it's soo much easier to travel around. Certainly a breath of fresh air. And i, for one, like the HUD options. Makes my life easier.

I personally do not have any grievances so far. I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Maybe once the thrill has gone, i might find the fillers and chests irritating. Once that happens, I'll stop doing them. No need to after all. Until then though, amazing!

This post has been edited by Lord Kyran: Oct 25 2015, 02:21 PM
6so
post Oct 25 2015, 10:44 AM

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LOL There's a difference between critique and nitpicking. When someone already prematurely stating it's not gonna be good so I do wonder how objective is his assessment. If I want to be entertained by cynical rants, I'll rather go read youtube comments. biggrin.gif
This is the age of sequels and reboots, there is no guarantee that a follow up release upon a hit franchise is cock-sure gonna be better than the predecessor.
AC Syndicate is what it is, a miniscule improvement over a game that somehow works before. The newer mechanics simply did not overcome the inherent problem since the first game. Convoluted story, bland enemies, incessant filler mission.etc... The silver lining is if you are interested in it, go ahead and enjoy what it is. I am having fun with it at the bare minimum.
SSJBen
post Oct 25 2015, 08:41 PM

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QUOTE(6so @ Oct 25 2015, 10:44 AM)
LOL There's a difference between critique and nitpicking. When someone already prematurely stating it's not gonna be good so I do wonder how objective is his assessment. If I want to be entertained by cynical rants, I'll rather go read youtube comments. biggrin.gif 
This is the age of sequels and reboots, there is no guarantee that a follow up release upon a hit franchise is cock-sure gonna be better than the predecessor.
AC Syndicate is what it is, a miniscule improvement over a game that somehow works before. The newer mechanics simply did not overcome the inherent problem since the first game. Convoluted story, bland enemies, incessant filler mission.etc... The silver lining is if you are interested in it, go ahead and enjoy what it is. I am having fun with it at the bare minimum.
*
Is this aimed at me?

I didn't prematurely conclude my opinions on the game. I had the review code for more than a week before release, so I was playing on that. The issue I had was a progression issue, where the story wouldn't go further because of a bug. I questioned ubikayu on this because it isn't something that should have happened, espeically it is one of the final main missions. That to me, is more broken than Unity was. They fixed it with second day 1 patch of course, so there's that.
6so
post Oct 26 2015, 09:52 AM

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QUOTE(SSJBen @ Oct 25 2015, 09:41 PM)
Is this aimed at me?

I didn't prematurely conclude my opinions on the game. I had the review code for more than a week before release, so I was playing on that. The issue I had was a progression issue, where the story wouldn't go further because of a bug. I questioned ubikayu on this because it isn't something that should have happened, espeically it is one of the final main missions. That to me, is more broken than Unity was. They fixed it with second day 1 patch of course, so there's that.
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Seven words brahhhh!!!!
Making a big deal out of nothing. biggrin.gif
ps3roxor
post Oct 26 2015, 06:00 PM

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..........

This post has been edited by ps3roxor: Jul 25 2019, 10:23 PM
mochicake
post Nov 1 2015, 02:07 PM

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Game was an easy Platinum, especially for an AC game. Took a week exactly.

Anyway the game may be easy but it was fun so have grabbed the season pass for future DLC in Feb onwards.
Rei7
post Nov 1 2015, 02:17 PM

Game, anime and headphones ❤️
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SSJBen Good review mate. Thanks
maxZibel
post Nov 3 2015, 12:49 AM

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the rope launcher is ze bomb!! can really get used to this.
kider
post Nov 3 2015, 04:21 PM

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QUOTE(maxZibel @ Nov 3 2015, 12:49 AM)
the rope launcher is ze bomb!! can really get used to this.
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No work ka bro? Saw u play late night. tongue.gif
mochicake
post Dec 19 2015, 03:06 PM

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Latest patch make this game unplayable. The carriage freezes every 5 seconds when driving. Tried out the new Jack the Ripper DLC and can't even play it .. ugh, very interesting storyline though.
TSmrbs84
post Dec 19 2015, 05:38 PM

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QUOTE(mochicake @ Dec 19 2015, 03:06 PM)
Latest patch make this game unplayable. The carriage freezes every 5 seconds when driving. Tried out the new Jack the Ripper DLC and can't even play it .. ugh, very interesting storyline though.
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Is the season pass on sales? Received email from ubi, have 30% discount, but check at asia PSN, same price with no discount sad.gif
mochicake
post Dec 19 2015, 06:07 PM

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QUOTE(mrbs84 @ Dec 19 2015, 05:38 PM)
Is the season pass on sales? Received email from ubi, have 30% discount, but check at asia PSN, same price with no discount sad.gif
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I bought awhile ago was RM83 on PSN Asia. If Ubisoft email it is probably US PSN unfortunately.
XiuKeong
post Jun 9 2016, 11:04 AM

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Does the Gold Edition worth getting it? Saw it was on sale in PSN Asia.
romalis51
post Jan 3 2017, 11:14 AM

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Hi guys, need help. How to lock enemy in AC Syndicate? I remember last time during AC3 and 4, we can lock an enemy so it will be easier. Now during a fight, my character will be freely runs/look away .

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