Assassin's Creed: Syndicate Revealed

Ubisoft officially revealed details on their upcoming London-based Assassin”s Creed today. Assassin”s Creed: Syndicate will feature yet another white male protagonist, this time named Jacob Frye. Jacob”s sister Evie will apparently also be a playable protagonist for some of the game, though this wasn”t addressed in today”s reveal.

Set in 1868 London, the game will include horse-drawn carriage riding, a new brawling combat system and steam engines. Jacob was raised by Assassins and leads a street gang (or syndicate) called The Rooks. From what we saw of the game, he and the gang spend their time fighting other gangs for control of various boroughs in the city. Jacob wields a revolver, brass knuckles, a kukri and the Assassin Gauntlet which holds hallucinogenic darts, a rope launcher with grappling hook and motor that can whizz up to a rooftop in seconds, and a hidden blade. Best not to get into a street brawl with someone like him, yet that”s exactly what an awful lot of Londoners seem to do. Of course, the first gang we saw in the demo was run by a Templar, known as Bloody Norah.

Assassin”s Creed: Syndicate will take place across 7 boroughs of London. The official gameplay demo showed only one: the City of London. In the real world this is approximately a square mile in size, containing St Paul”s Cathedral (built 1675–1720), St Bartholomew”s Hospital (built 1732), the Bank of England Headquarters (built 1734) and plenty more landmarks that will undoubtedly turn up in the game.

You”ll be able to ride carriages around the streets, and even race them with visible damage on the carriage. The new battle system will also allow online casino you to do assassinations from the tops of vehicles. You”ll be able to use throwing knives if the loud revolver doesn”t appeal and much like every other AC city, there are stacks of hay conveniently lying around the city. You can also use the environment to kill people, cutting ropes on suspended barrels to drop them on people”s heads and so on. Eagle vision is still a thing and helpfully, the rooftops are strung with handy ziplines that Jacob can ride to cross distances quickly.

Here”s the gameplay walkthrough, with commentary from creative director Marc-Alexis Côté.

It”s… I don”t know. It looks slick and it”s hard not to like steam trains but I can”t see much that makes me want to spend £40 on this yet. Hopefully we”ll soon learn more about what you get to do in the game besides beat up people in the street and pretend to be a 17th Century Batman.

Assassin”s Creed: Syndicate is coming to PS4 and Xbox One on 23rd October 2015.