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[cabelhigh]

It's a lot like a third person Dishonored.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

The one AC I skip and it turns out it's actually good... please go on sale soon.

 

[jdstorm]

I'm playing through Unity right now on PC and will play Rogue and Syndicate after.

My biggest problems are they are just too easy and silly now. I loved how in 1 and 2, you saw a building to climb and it was a challenge. You had to find footings and a way to climb. Now, you literally run up and down buildings like Spider-Man and don't even have to look to climb. Stealth is all but gone as well. Once again, in 1 and 2, it was super difficult to hide if you were caught and you had to hide bodies if you killed anyone. It was super challenging. Now, you can go on killing sprees and just run away.

I still like the series but they need to get grounded again and back to their roots.

In Unity the bezerker blades are extremely overpowered. Stealth shoot the one of tbe tank enemies then every enemy will run in trying to fight them. Shoot a few of them and almost every AI Character will die fighting amoungst themselves

 

[Adryuu]

Finished this today! Mostly agree with OP. But I didn't feel the missions were great, on the contrary, had more fun reclining the boroughs and just killing everyone and not doing full sync than doing main story. And the plot, it wasn't very well connected, but it could still be better than Unity indeed.

Still have to play Rogue (IF I ever play it) but your ranking is very valid I guess, and I feel the games should have focused more on modern day plot rather than making it stupid to the point that I don't care either for the epoque plot or the real current day plot because both are shit and each game's individual plot leads to nothing now and is isolated. First game is the only one that really nailed both plots, but the execution ruined it. So there's no full good assassins creed game to me, but Syndicate was among the best.

Even then I can't be bothered to collect all the SHIT ubi puts in these, ffs.

This series needs BADLY a reboot, and a big one. In almost every aspect.

 

[F0rneus]

Still planning to play this. Can you main Evie for most of the game?

Yes and no. Both characters have their own specific missions in every sequence, and IMO Jacob seems to have a bit more. On the other hand, you can do pretty much everything else with just Evie. I never used Jacob much. I just ran around as Evie, and if you start a mission for Jacob it switches for you. And just his main missions get him enough XP to level up too, so it's never a hassle to play as him.

Recently went back to the game to Platinum it and go through the DLC which I got from the season pass but never played. Phenomenal game. In my opinion, it's by far and large the best AC game with AC2 right behind it.

 

[heringer]

Couldn't enjoy this at all. Stopped at 7 hours. The gameplay just wasn't fun for me, controls feel so sluggish. I might give it another try later.

 

[Yabberwocky]

Glad you enjoyed, OP! I absolutely agree with all your positives/negatives. I have fond memories of my time with Syndicate, it's one of the few AC games I've managed to finish. Jacob and Evie were amazing, and Jacob was a pleasant surprise considering how irritating I was expecting him to be. (Stupid Sexy Jacob.) Henry and Abberline were really fun, too. London was beautiful and lively, and is still one of my most memorable open world experiences. There was such a distinct separation from all the areas in the city, but it felt very subtle at the time when you're walking through it. It's funny, my experience with AC:S is a lot like Skyrim where I've blanked over a lot of the story, but I can remember all these wonderful little moments from exploring the world. The markets, the backstreets, the parks, jumping across the Thames... the boys hanging out on the roof with the cat that I may have accidentally pushed off... Syndicate did have some memorable missions, though. I just wish the main story line had a lot more meat to it, and the game had a lot less collectables.

It's a shame the main story was so lean, especially when the villains was so well done in terms of acting and mo-cap. Starrick and Roth were the absolute standouts. The dynamic between Jacob and Roth was surprising too, and it's tiny small baby steps for Ubisoft to have both female lead and a bisexual male lead, though the latter is only really hinted at in game. (In retrospect, Jacob did pretty much flirt his way through every scene with Abberline.)

The Jack the Ripper DLC was almost more memorable than the main campaign, so definitely give it a go, OP! I keep hoping we'll see more from Jacob and Evie someday, but that's probably not going to happen. This thread made me realise how much I missed playing Jacob and Evie, and rope launching my way around London.

 

[darkslayer101]

Didn't expect such a positive response!!

I read posts in Gaf here and there about how Syndicate is good but this is such an overwhelming response!

Play Jack the Ripper too OP.

I just finished the game today morning so I'm taking a break. I barely did any sidequests so needless to say I am definitely gonna sink in more hours. I just got the 20th anniversary TR and have Dks3 DLC coming out soon, but this game is just so much simple fun that I wanna keep playing em. Jack the Ripper is definitely going on my list.

Friggin hawt indeed. Seriously though, I really liked Evie and it always made me laugh when she would strut into a room like a gym bro.

Dude I never really understood guys fawning over other chicks in video games but damn Evie is one beautifully created character. Her accent, hair, freckles etc... is just so on point.

Even the love stuff was tepid and bland.
The bank heist stuff was one of the best bits, where you saw the effects of good intentions turning into chaos but it needed a LOT more of that kind of thing to become a good game, imo.

The one thing I agree is the love stuff definitely was rushed. I never saw chemistry between Green and Evie but I actually saw more with Graham Bell who was extra quirky around Evie.

Yea I think the bank heist repercussion and Evie cleaning up the mess was far more better conveyed of the assassin recklessness than the whole AC: Rogue did.

Even then I can't be bothered to collect all the SHIT ubi puts in these, ffs.

This series needs BADLY a reboot, and a big one. In almost every aspect.

Don't feel like rebooting would do any good. Its just like the whole BvS situation where changing the tone to lightheartedness isn't the solution. Changing the parkour, mission structure, exploration etc... ain't gonna fix what AC got wrong.

The lack of impact, grandiosity and emotional story is what AC needs and had with AC2.

 

[jdstorm]

Don't feel like rebooting would do any good. Its just like the whole BvS situation where changing the tone to lightheartedness isn't the solution. Changing the parkour, mission structure, exploration etc... ain't gonna fix what AC got wrong.

The lack of impact, grandiosity and emotional story is what AC needs and had with AC2.

In Many ways the AC series has had a few soft reboots.

AC Black Flag was a soft reboot after AC3 killed off a few important characters

AC unity was also a soft reboot Ditching the Asbergo industries and Ubi shared universe (AC and Watchdogs 1 were in the same universe)

More then a reboot AC just needs to go back to basics. Historical Tourism, fun climbing/platforming a fun charismatic lead, embrace that its a little Campy at times. Ect. Do that in an interesting setting Egypt, The Wild West, Russian Revolution and the Series will return to form

 

[MaKTaiL]

My personal rank:

ACB > AC2 > AC4 > AC: Syndicate > AC3 > AC1 > Unity (the only one I never finished)

Never played Rogue.

 

[Indelible]

Platinumed the game and loved every minute of it, it is tied with Brotherhood as my favorite AC game.

 

[WGMBY]

I was recently playing Syndicate for the first time and ended up uninstalling it after a few hours. It played fine, but I wasn't able to get into the story and the sidemissions felt very repetitive. I know that's a common complaint about AC games, but it stuck out much more for me than in previous entries in the series. Maybe I'll come back to it at some point, but I have other games I'm more interested in playing right now. Just felt like too much of a timesink.

 

[Muffdraul]

I thought Syndicate was the best since AC2. London is one of the best cities in the whole franchise, and it felt like it was the first time they'd gone back to an upbeat feel since 2009. Just really fun and enjoyable. I actually liked Unity, it has its flaws but it's nowhere near as bad as the shitstorm would lead one to believe.

I finally gave up waiting for a current gen Rogue update and played the PS3 version a couple months ago. I liked it a lot more than AC4, which was actually my least favorite in the franchise.

 

[slightconfuse]

The emphasis on stealth was nice

Jack the ripper DLC was great

 

[erotic grandpa]

I hope Ubisoft's crew are taking notes from Hitman on how to do more "opportunity" based assassinations, but the "black box" levels in AC Syndicate are so, so good at giving you a number of options on how to approach and kill your target.

The only huge bummer is that (minor plot...layout spoilers, I guess) Evie only gets

Spoiler

two big assassination missions

vs. Jacob's

Spoiler

seven

. And that's being generous and including the tutorial for both.

And that last story mission in this one is a doozy. Tense and a lot of fun.

 

[Adryuu]

In Many ways the AC series has had a few soft reboots.

AC Black Flag was a soft reboot after AC3 killed off a few important characters

AC unity was also a soft reboot Ditching the Asbergo industries and Ubi shared universe (AC and Watchdogs 1 were in the same universe)

More then a reboot AC just needs to go back to basics. Historical Tourism, fun climbing/platforming a fun charismatic lead, embrace that its a little Campy at times. Ect. Do that in an interesting setting Egypt, The Wild West, Russian Revolution and the Series will return to form

Yeah but, apart from/in addition to this back to the basics idea and comment, I'm talking about a big one redefining what has been wrong since the beginning (for my taste). The missions in Syndicate for example never had good platforming puzzles like AC2, also I can't remember a single set piece after the intro with the train wreck. And even then, by today's standards, those missions would leave a bit to be desired. Mission structure feels just like a side mission but with cut scenes and more dialogue and that's not interesting. That's why I feel past ACs have been better overall (mostly 2 and maybe 4, never finished it, Brotherhood was more like B-side version of 2 and Revelations felt even more uninspired in that department), while still not truly good.

Parkour is good, just repetitive, but I didn't say to touch it. And rope launcher with circle button new mechanic (best thing Unity brought into the table along with its animations) are cool enough.

Combat and character progression is also what never has been all right and I think is the worst offender, along with easyness and brutally bad IA. Remake that from scratch. Syndicate at least gives you the option to choose bit by bit.

Tourism has always been great and the main reason I keep playing these (also why Syndicate has my favourite setting. Unity was very cool but I feel it was poorly realized, looking from above and far away it was really ugly compared to Syndicate). But I'd integrate tourist/historical info more with gameplay and or missions.

UI is already ugly enough, never do it again. But on the other hand, letting us customize the hud is very nice.

You see, reading these points, why I think Syndicate is one of the best and where it could have been better, even the best so far. But then I still think they have to rethink many, many things, too many games trying to hard to do the same things well while the answer might be to do then drastically different, imo.

 

[Adryuu]

Sorry for doble post and bump, but... Anybody else, on ps4, under the impression that the share button captures provide more anti aliasing than the game itself?
I noticed (think) that the game takes more time to do the captures than other games, using png always in every game (that takes longer but somehow I think Syndicate takes even longer). Could it be detecting the button press and applying extra post processing to the captures? Same way as some games put a watermark only in the captures.

Anyone else noticed that when using png? I'd swear the captures look cleaner and better than the actual game.