Topic: Assassin's Creed: Syndicate

I'm loving Unity, but I don't like the way this is shaping up. The grappling hook is a terrible idea. It's something for Batman, not AC. It's also just too unbelievable. I mean, I know it's a fictional series with plenty of fictional elements to it, but this takes it too far. The grappling also feels like a cheap idea for parkour, like they're taking the easy way out instead of improving it. It would be difficult to to make that (If it's even possible, I'm not sure if it is) today, let alone back then. They're also comprising historical accuracy by bringing in the train 80 years early. I'm not sure I like there two playable characters either. The combat also looks weird, it's just unnatural. It looks like someone put it on fast-forward or something. I'm also not sure about some of the stealth changes, I mean I like that you can whistle now, but other things I'm not so sure about. It could still be a fun game, but it's lost potential in a number of ways This series really needs to take a year or two off.

Honestly I haven't cared about an Assassin's Creed game since Black Flag.

I honestly think they're starting to run out of ideas and that's what happens when you go to yearly releases with a style of game that doesn't benefit at all from that. The reason the GTAs, Marios, Zeldas, etc are great is because there is time in between in each release. At this point there's almost nothing more they can do with AC. The smart play is after Syndicate Ubi takes a good 3 or 4 years - please give us another Splinter Cell in that time - off and then returns with the finale for the franchise. It's unfortunately been run into the ground, but it could still get a great sendoff if done properly. But we're talking about Ubisoft.

@Gamer83: I think they're running of ideas too, but in a slightly different way. I don't think they need only have one last entry after break. I think they're just running out of ideas that can be done with yearly releases. It woud be a different story if wasn't yearly. I was watching some gameplay walkthroughs for Syndacite, and couldn't help but think that they could've had something amazing on their hands with more development time. If they gave themselves enough time to make new gameplay mechanics and alter existing ones to fit the new era, Syndacite could've been amazing. I think if they paced the games, all the different eras would provide for different gameplay experiences that would let the series go on for a very long time while still being fresh. I'm actually a little dissapointed that they use some eras up without really taking advantage of their potential.

@Gamer83: @Jaz007: Don't you guys know, that they need to make sequels not only becauae of brand thing. But also because they can use a lot of things from previous games and because of that development is much cheaper. This is the true reason why they didn't make AC in Japanese setting. Because they need a lot of new assets for that. And now they are just exosting this franchise.

But anyway, I realliy wished for hook in Unity. And was exited to see it in this one.

_{Please don't responded to the spammer just report and move on. Thanks -Tasuki-}

@Tasuki, seriously?

@Gemuarto: Yes cause it disrupts the thread.

So I've played the game for a good few hours now. It's mostly what I expected. It takes a lot of steps forward with design (side missions and stuff to do), but as many steps back in gameplay from Unity (making Unity the better game.) The combat is decent - it's fun and the animations are good, although they're too fast; the combats too easy (espcially considering you have rooks to call on), and lacks weight. The lack of weight really bothers me, as it really needs it and would benefit from it. The lack of weight applies to most things in the game to some extent. The lack of social stealth is terrible. Crowd blending is often broken. You walk upto some people, and you bump into them, the master assassin who's a master of this bumps into people causing then to go away and ruin the blend. I also hate how if you stand there, people start cowering for no reason. You don't threaten them or anything, they just start begging for their lives. It's really shame since the hood/hat mechanic is awesome. The kidnapping mechanic is great though. The grappling hook is indeed a terrible idea. It's only use is zipping across to a different building. I honesty don't use it because it's just a cheat really. I don't what the devs were talking about with it keeping climbing time the same since the building were bigger. You probably get to the top of buildings faster than any other AC game without it. I also preferred the extra control Unity gave you with parkour. I could go on, but I'll end now lol. Overall, I like the game, but gameplay wise, it's a step back for the series.

@Jaz007: Didn't you find the combat in Unity to be really unresponsive? I feel like this game does a much better job of responding to your button presses.

@get2sammyb: I rarely (though it did happen) found it unresponsive in Unity the weird running/combat state aside. The vast majority of the time I felt like they got me in the window that most actions leave you open, or I simply got overwhelmed. The combat in Syndacite actually feels more unresponsive due to the lack of weight and semi-button-mashing nature. It espcially comes up when trying to pull off a combo (like stun then gun.)

All I can say for the game so far is that I'll take it any day of Unity, and I actually didn't hate Unity (probably because I bought it after the fixes). The games all play so similar imo. Combat was probably a bit more complicated, which I think is a good thing, in Unity, but for some reason I've just had a much more fun time play Syndicate, probably because I enjoy the characters, story and setting more. I still stand by my statement that the series could use a few years off (because there are many people sick of seeing AC every year) but at least this effort wasn't as terrible as I initially thought it could be. The return to more single player focus is a plus and having two characters is also nice.