Oh wow....I completely forgot about this game. I own every Assassin's Creed game, so I'll probably get it at some point. From the review I read, it seems that there aren't a ton of glitches, which is good of course. It does seem like it's close to Unity though, not that this is surprising. Personally I didn't really enjoy Unity very much. The combat was brutal (or maybe I was just really bad at it) and the lack of ability to block ranged attacks made me want to kill myself at times lol. The whole sneaking ability thing didn't work for me, I could be instantly detected by a guy facing the other way from me on top of a building....lol. But apparently the story ending for Syndicate is really bad.....most reviews won't say things like that, but this one (IGN) specifically mentioned it. I really hated Unity's ending too, and I haven't played the game since I beat it. It completely killed it for me (same for Mad Max, actually).
So I'll probably wait until after FO4, maybe when the price has dropped a bit and any bugs ironed out. Knowing that the ending is bad will let me get over it faster, too :P
I am playing Syndicate right now and am enjoying every minute of it.
I'm only in sequence 4 right now which is a couple missions out of the tutorial, I'm not that far really. But I will try to explain how this game works.
Imagine if Unity was old school assassin's creed... That's probably the best way to describe it. Everything from the minor details like being able to run around in the loading screen is back, to major things like the combat is much more aggressive again.
But, for much more clearer detail, I shall start with characters:
The Frye Twins. they were a worry to me, I was scared that their personalities were going to be just stereotypical, the brutish idiot who just wants to fight and the always serious by the books one, I thought I'd hate every minute they are on screen... I am so glad I was wrong. While yes, Jacob is always looking for a fight, it's cause he knows most Templars haven't been in a straight up fight before and if they have it wasn't a fair fight. With his strength and combat knowledge, he knows he can defeat them, he can take back what was taken and rise as a leader to these people and let them realize that they own the city, not the Templars. He also is a kind person and always refers to women (at least from what I've seen) as Ma'am or Miss or My lady, he never is overly flirtatious or trying to charm them like Ezio, he is a true gentleman... despite his rugged looks...
Evie on the other hand while is focused on her job, cares a lot about her friends and family and god help any man or woman crazy enough to hurt them. She is focused on obtaining the precursor artifacts and unlocking their secrets, keeping them out of the hands of the Templars, much like her late father had taught her.
Whenever these two are together, they play off each other perfectly. Whether it's sibling rivalry where they challenge each other to races, Evie always trying to remind Jacob she's older, Jacob teasing her cause he thinks she has a crush, the dynamic works and their lines always bring a smile on my face and keep me invested.
Villains:
The main baddy here is a man named Crawford Starrick, and by god he is menacing and threatening. Just. by watching and listening to him you can see this is a true dictator, a man that has metaphorically the world in his hands, all of London is within his grasp and he has managed to not only keep the assassins in London on the brink of extinction, but has also started expanding his reach farther across the borders. Each time you listen to him, you can just get absence of pure evil and how he enjoys the power he has and how he believes he is leading these people to a great empire under his control. Hands down, best main buddy since I'd say Caesare or Rodrigo.
London: London is beautiful and I believe the largest area in an AC game to date, and I'm not just talking in how large the map is, the heights that you can go to in this game are insane, you can really get a good grasp of how large everything is just by climbing a tower and looking around.
Music: Lovely, it's a beautiful mix or original and remixed music from past games, my favorite track is the remixed version of "Family" from AC2, really fits this dark and dreary landscape.
Bugs: Not many I've seen, and those I have seen are minor (NPC's spawn a few inches above ground and float, Ragdoll physics freak out and break, pop in textures). Far better than Unity, to this day Unity is a broken buggy mess.
The combat is much more fast paced and fun. It is a strange mix of the past games and the Arkham series beat'em up system, that I feel works well and gets the job done. Some of the new kill animations are just insane, particularly one with Evie against a wall or ledge... Jesus they are vicious. And you can now dodge bullets. When an enemy aims at you a cursor will pop on your head to press the shoot button. If you have ammo you will quickfire shoot your gun or throw a knife to interrupt or if you don't have ammo, you'll dodge the bullet.
Overall, I'd highly recommend this game, at least a rental, it more than makes up for Unity's flops and it a welcome return to the AC I used to know. (oh, and collect all the pressed flowers, I won't spoil, but something happens)
I have the game and haven't been able to open the box yet, the last two weeks have been nothing but cramming everything into finishing up my first year of uni, I am excited to play though and its the first thing I have marked down to do on my break at the end of this week. The few reviews I've allowed myself to read have given it mixed but mostly cautious positive feedback, I'm glad that they'll be bringing back some of the more classic pieces about the series though. And though I think I'll fall into the minority on this I'll miss the co-op bits, it was fun to play with others if even a little unrealistic.
hopefully I can have a better response and my own review of the game in a couple of days.
Okay so I've now had a full day to play and it has been great.
Things I've liked
there are many other great features to the game, it is a remarkable improvement over unity (i still liked that one) and i hope that its the return of good AC games in the future.
(come on who hasn't always wanted to have a shoot out on top of a train? :P)