Assassin's Creed® Syndicate

This game isn't bad, but the story made it somewhat dreadful for me. In the modern world segments, it is recommended to play Unity to understand who some people are and why you get to see so much. The story was definitely worth it in the end, but I didn't know until I reached it.
The Jack the Ripper DLC was kind of the opposite for me with it feeling great at the beginning and bad at the end. It was probably because of some crashes and somehow locked out of controls once (had to ALT F4 as pausing didn't work either).

Combat was quite interesting as it was more faster, but somehow harder to play as well. Sometimes the combat wouldn't attack or have myself fight when enemies were lining up for theirs. It was rare, but it still happened.

The best part to me was the Murder Mysteries from the Dreadful Crimes DLC (not included in the Gold Edition) as the interactions and exploration was quite fun to do. Suspects have more than one line of dialogue!

Set in England in the 18th century. The combat is quite easy, there are new tools, and it has two protagonists.

I really enjoy the game play mechanics and the story. It's built out well and there is SOOO much to do! Literally could spend hours just doing side content.

This game is one of the best AC game by far. The atmosphere is great, the main characters are likeable. The voice actors and the antagonist characters are on point, especially the final antagonist.
The Jack the ripper DLC is great. The story has 10-memory sequences, the sides quests are fun. Everything is re-playable like the main game. [/spoiler] You even get to play Jack the ripper sometimes. [/spoiler]

What are the negatives about this game?
If you want to replay a memory there is a bug where you continuously desync and you need to wait until the world fully loads.
The horse-drawn carriage sometimes randomly gets yeeted to valhalla for no reason.
In the Jack the ripper DLC (which is amazing), for some reason when I started playing this game through steam it didn't save my progress. But when I played it directly through the Ubisoft connect client I didn't have this problem for some reason. I was once clipped into a horse carriage (it was flipped sideways because i was fighting - had to restart the mission), sadly i don't have the footage.

Conclusion: I believe this game is worth the purchase, this game has the old school ac's vibe to it (for me). Wait for a steam sale tho.

two fun protags and a lot of really well oiled game mechanics, mostly old era AC gameplay but with bleeding edges of the new-era RPG mechanics and systems that create a neat little entry, the main story is a pretty cool Gangs of London style punching up the ladder but the story around all the edges are batshit insane and go off the rails in goofy ways

The Frye twins are cool

Probably the most underrated game in the AC franchise. Fun gameplay, an amazing setting, and likable dual protagonists.

the graphics are great, and the London setting is one of my favourite locations in the assassins creed games.

One of the best AC games ever made.

Played it on console before going to PC.

Just a brilliant game in every possible aspect.

10/10

Buy it with all of the DLC. Absolutely worth checking it out if you haven't yet.

I was avoiding this game for many years because of my own predjudice of thinking the game was too modern to be fun to play, but i have to admit that i was wrong. My friend was indeed correct all these years and it is an perfectly fun assassin's creed game.

Definetely enjoyable main story and a good map with fun bonus missions. Especially the historical figures you meet along the way. Would recommend to anyone who likes story driven games and especially fans of the series.

Very fun, and very enjoyable to play for long periods of time.
The story may be a little hit or miss, but the game as a whole is worth it.

Although Assassin’s Creed Syndicate stands in the shadow of Unity, it has its own strengths. The improved stealth mechanics make sneaking around more satisfying, and the game is far more polished, avoiding the technical issues that plagued its predecessor. With fun dual protagonists and a lively Victorian London setting, it’s a solid and enjoyable entry in the series if you don’t mind the rather light-hearted tone.

To me, it feels like this is the direction modern AC games should have taken. Not to say the next entry in the series is bad, Origins is far from that in fact, but Syndicate, while slightly rough around the edges, establishes a good balance between combat, parkour and stealth. Not one of the 3 systems is left behind, which is what modern AC games tend to do by favoring combat over both parkour and stealth, and what older games used to do by focusing more on stealth and parkour rather than combat. It's not like Syndicate executes all 3 systems perfectly though, combat is way too flashy and some enemies have too much hp, there is no jump button for parkour for whatever reason and stealth while a MASSIVE improvement over Unity, doesn't hold a candle to the older games. Every system here is decent, which works out just fine for Syndicate. The story is nothing spectacular, its somewhat bland and boring but its serviceable enough. London is... a map for sure. It is one of the weaker maps of the franchise, especially coming from Unity's Paris. Crossing the Thames river is fun though and WW1 era simulation London looks very cool not gonna lie. But overall, Syndicate is a very decent package. Some crashes and bugs here and there but nothing out of the ordinary for a Ubisoft game.

Streets of London, The Last Maharajah, The Dreadful Crimes and Jack The Ripper DLCs all add singleplayer content to the game. Buying the season pass gets you a bonus mission. Jack The Ripper is incredible, its like they hired a completely different writing team strictly for the DLC and playing as Jack is way too fun. Shame we cant use him in freeroam. IF you enjoyed Unity's murder mysteries then check out The Dreadful Crimes DLC, which adds 10 new murder mysteries for you to solve. If like me you didn't enjoy it, then skip it, you wont be missing out on anything special. I cant lie all singleplayer content added by the other DLCs is just not good. The Last Maharajah especially is buggy as hell for some reason.

7/10

Firstly, the fact that steam doesn't have a neutral option is a shame. Disregard that I recommend against this game, but continue reading knowing that I do not recommend it either. It's a coin toss.

With that out of the way, Assassin's Creed Syndicate is certainly an improvement on Unity in many ways, however it also takes steps backward in others. It is certainly one of the games that marked how badly Ubisoft has been trying to push micro-transactions, because the RPG style leveling system (with perks) has returned. This restricts you to specific areas of the map. Fortunately, unlike Unity that only grants you skill points after completing missions, this game offers you experience points for kills as well as missions. Theoretically, you can max your level without progressing through the story, purely by exploration and slowly assassinating enemies close to your level as you go.

Another thing to return from Unity are bugs and glitches, and no, some of the bugs haven't been ironed out nor ever will at this rate. Of course, the game is far more polished than Unity, and the bugs and glitches are few and far between, but when you come across them, they're no less infuriating. For instance, a bug that causes Frye (either of them) to fling up into the air when trying to climb atop your carriage and hop onto another. I noticed this consistently during one of the Charles Darwin ghost hunts, and considering one of the secondary objectives was to hijack another carriage in a limited time span, it was very frustrating to keep running into.

When this game runs well, it is a beautiful experience, with realistic visuals and immersive tracks that play in the background. I don't know if this was intentional, but occasionally you'll even hear an entire song (sung and strummed and all) while you're exploring. A pleasant contrast to Unity, where you can only find folk songs being sung in taverns (although that is more realistic). The soundtrack certainly fits you into the setting, so that's a pro to this game.

The combat feels much more fine tuned, in my own personal opinion, however it punishes button mashing by having some enemies react quickly despite being stabbed or punched repeatedly. They seem to be able to lock you into a combo, yet just as easily break out of yours. This can be a combo-breaker anytime they suddenly decide to block in what I'll describe as a counter-block--that is, punching them in this specific state can cause them to counter attack you out of their block before quickly retreating to blocking. It can be very confusing trying to determine when this is going to happen, because it's purely random, and furthermore, block-breaks don't seem to stun them nearly long enough before they return to blocking--thus increasing your chance of rolling that dice again that they may counter. For a game that relies on combos, it seems as though they're trying to be a Batman Arkham game, but they didn't implement the indicators nearly as efficiently. At times combat can feel more rewarding than the older titles, but at other times it becomes a chore. This is further worsened by the poor assassination system. The game seems to decide at random if your rush assassination is an assassination, or an open-engagement strike. This can ruin a stealth run, because you'll enter open combat as a result of the game's own incompetence.

The story has its charm, but more often than not, it's goofy and doesn't feel like an Assassin's Creed narrative. This is the fault of the lead, who wanted a lighthearted, buddy cop story. Apparently the game was initially going to be much grittier, which would have better fit the time period. Really, the Jack the Ripper DLC is the only part that feels fitting. Mind you, in the story, you encounter some horrific scenarios or moments in history, and even go on actual ghost hunts, yet it never ceases trying to be a sitcom. This leaves the game feeling like another let down, considering what we could have had instead.

Finally, I'll touch on the Frye Twins. I, personally, enjoy the idea of playing as two separate assassins, each with their own unique personality. It's too bad that this is mostly irrelevant, save for the cutscenes involving the two, because they are otherwise the exact same character, and due to Ubisoft forcing the game out too soon, content involving Evie Frye had to be nixed. This resulted in a game that is mostly about Jacob Frye, which wouldn't be so bad if they still at least made the twins uniquely different, however the only differences they have--aside from buffs provided by specific attire that are unique to them--are a very few skills that are late-level skills. So for most of their levels, they're otherwise the same. Sure, you can assigns them different skills, but at the end of it all, they otherwise mostly play the exact same. If they offered more character specific skills, this wouldn't have been an issue, but you really don't notice much of a difference between brawling as Evie (who is Stealth focused) or doing a stealth run as Jacob (who is combat focused). Well... at least they can whistle.

With all of that said, I mostly enjoy the game for what it is. Certainly more often than I do Unity, but that's not saying much. Both games are a disappointment, each in their own way. If you want to explore Victorian London, this is a certainly pretty game for it, but that's assuming you avoid engaging in combat with enemies that are higher levels than you. As far as an Assassin's Creed game goes, it's passable, but its Templars do not hold a candle to the Orders of all of the games prior. I can't necessarily recommend it in good faith, however I wouldn't advise against it either. It's entirely up to you to try, just don't blame me if it's not to your liking. It's something of an... acquired taste.

I had no hopes left for the AC gameplay coming from unity and it's garbage parkour and Syndicate has restored my faith. The Story is barely passable, but the gameplay is very fun.
The characters are fast and very responsive to the sudden movement direction changes, much better than all AC games before and the combat is fast paced and has more depth than prior games where it was just attack attack parry attack. And the finishers are some of the best they've ever been and the game allows you to set them up quite easily as well.

The Zipline is a godsend, I hated spending 30 seconds climbing towers in previous games.

The graphics are beautiful, game runs super smooth maxed out on my 10 year old PC.

Not many bad things to say except for the story. I also didn't like collecting the music boxes, it's too much work for too little reward. And by the time you collect them all the game has already ended, so what's even the point of a special new armor when there are no more missions to do.

This is my first time playing an Assassin's Creed game. I love history & London so playing this game I just love everything about it. I love the DLC that adds Jack Ripper to the game. That's amazing. I have nothing bad to say about the game at all.

I played this for a couple of hours this morning and had a blast. I tried to play just now and I got to the "Press any Key" window. It just froze. I read all the suggestions on how to get it to work but none worked. I then logged into Ubisoft and clicked on the game there. I was transported back to Steam and the game ran. I believe it is a login issue. I exited the game three times and I was able to get back in and keep playing.

A buggy mess of an Assassin's Creed game and the story isn't much to write home about either. If it weren't for the bugs that frequently launch carts 50 meters into the sky, send inside of buildings and some more, it would be an ok game. Only play if you like Assassin's Creed

Very nice ambiance through nuanced graphics and music choices

Its better then Unity they got better with the engine and could fix a lot more bugs from Unity.

But its still not getting a good assassins creed feeling.
The fighting animations are way to fast it feels so off.

you still have bugs with being stealthy or jumping around.

The graphics of the game is beautiful.

the last assassins creed game i have play that really made me feel it still was assassins creed was Rogue.

But Rogue still used the original Engine so its not as beautiful as Unity or Syndicate.


If you are after a real Assassins creed everything before and Rogue is good.
After Rogue the games dont really feel like assassins creed games but use the same outlook.

---{Graphics}---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☑ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ Free Fire

---{Gameplay}---
☐ Very good
☐ Good
☑ It‘s just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't

---{Audio}---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf

---{Audience}---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ All

---{PC Requirements}---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{Difficulty}---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Significant brain usage
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{Grind}---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☑ Too much grind
☐ You‘ll need a second live for grinding

---{Story}---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☑ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It‘ll replace your life

---{Game Time}---
☐ Really short ( 0 - 2 hours)
☐ Short ( 2 - 8 hours)
☐ Few hours ( 8 - 12 hours)
☑ Not bad duration ( 12 - 20 hours)
☐ Long ( 20 - 50 hours)
☐ Too long ( 50 - 100 hours)
☐ Endless

---{Price}---
☐ It’s free!
☐ Worth the price
☑ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{Bugs}---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ Cyberpunk 2077
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

---{70/100}---

A vibrant Victorian London setting and a strong cast of characters. The sibling dynamic between Jacob and Evie Frye provides engaging moments and a nice change of pace from the usual lone Assassin. Jacob’s more action-oriented style and Evie’s stealth focus add variety to the gameplay, although it’s a shame the differences between them don’t feel as impactful in practice. It’s particularly frustrating that you can’t fully embrace Evie’s stealth-focused abilities in campaign missions where Jacob takes the lead.

The open world of London is a real highlight. The city feels alive with its slums, foggy streets, and bustling train stations, and the variety of side missions (like helping Charles Dickens solve mysteries) adds charm and levity. The new grapple gun is a great addition, providing quicker vertical movement across the city, and the gang mechanics feel rewarding, letting you chip away at the Templars’ control over the city. However, the game does fall into familiar Assassin’s Creed territory with repetitive mission types, like escorting or killing targets. Additionally, while the new gadgets are fun, the combat can feel repetitive by the end, and the police mechanics don’t offer much depth.

Syndicate stands out for its character-driven story and fun setting but suffers from a few gameplay issues and a jarring conclusion. It’s one of the more enjoyable Assassin's Creed entries, but not without its flaws.

Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is a solid entry in the series that delivers a fun, fast-paced experience with engaging characters and improved mechanics, but it also suffers from franchise fatigue and a lack of true innovation. While it refines many of the gameplay elements from previous games, it doesn’t quite stand out as a must-play installment in the series.

The Victorian London setting is easily one of Syndicate’s biggest strengths. The city is beautifully crafted, filled with historical landmarks, bustling streets, and a lively atmosphere that makes exploring a joy. The addition of the rope launcher improves parkour traversal, making climbing buildings and zipping across rooftops faster and more fluid than ever.

The combat is also a notable improvement. It’s more refined and brutal, with a focus on quick, counter-based melee attacks that fit the industrial-era setting. The gang warfare system adds a fun layer of open-world control, letting you take over enemy territories and build your own criminal empire. The ability to play as both Jacob and Evie Frye is a nice touch, with each sibling offering slightly different playstyles—Jacob is more of a brawler, while Evie focuses on stealth.

However, Syndicate still struggles with some of the franchise’s recurring issues. The mission structure can feel repetitive, with a lot of checklist-style objectives that don’t always feel engaging. While the story has its moments, the overarching Assassin vs. Templar conflict feels somewhat uninspired, and the modern-day segments are forgettable at best. Additionally, while Evie is a great character, Jacob’s personality can be grating, making some story sections feel weaker than they should be.

Despite these shortcomings, Syndicate is still a fun experience. It’s an enjoyable historical playground with improved mechanics and engaging characters, but it doesn’t quite shake the feeling of just another Assassin’s Creed game rather than a groundbreaking one.

Rating: 7/10 – A fun and polished Assassin’s Creed game, but not a revolutionary one.

Syndicate takes players to Victorian London, delivering an engaging story paired with exceptional gameplay. Playing as twins Jacob and Evie Frye, the game blends stealth, combat, and exploration seamlessly. The grappling hook and horse-drawn carriages add dynamic new layers to traversal, while the bustling streets of London are a delight to explore.

The setting is a masterpiece, capturing the Industrial Revolution’s gritty charm. The narrative is compelling, with well-written characters and a satisfying balance of humor and drama.

A must-play for fans of historical settings and thrilling gameplay!

Score: 9/10

I honestly enjoyed it! And this is my first ever AC game. I know it's not in order, but i was not interested to the franchise at all until my 68 hours of gameplay proved me wrong.

I've always wanted to play an open world London based game. I was thrilled when this game came out as Assassin's Creed is a series I deeply love and care about. Being finally able to play it, gave me so much joy. I enjoyed every moment of it. As for the Jack The Ripper DLC, I liked the gameplay mechanics, have mixed feelings about the story. However, it has a few bugs and glitches that made it hard to get 100% sync. But loved it nevertheless. And Ubisoft, please for the love of god stop ruining the AC franchise!

Great game, but spent hours trying to figure out how install this VERY buggy on my windows. Had to go into the actual file directory and spend hours trying to figure it out based on forums. I fixed it, but then to install another assassins creed game I made other changes to fix that game which was also broken then breaking this game and wasting all the time that I spent. It has been a very bad experience and very frustrating. They should give a refund for this.

Honestly, this was a delight to play, specially on the deck. It looks incredible and runs around 40fps on mostly max settings.

I know, when it came out the franchise was exhausted, consumers weren’t satisfied and everything changed, but 10 years later this is a breath of fresh air.

That should tell you everything about the state of the industry.

3.5 / 5 - good game, but not fun enough to go for 100% completion. A bit grindy, they didn't invest in the time and effort in building up the key villians.

I've played a lot of this game, but I cant remember anything that happened in it. Fun to run around, but if I need to have a yt video or something on my second monitor to enjoy it, the game ain't getting a recommendation

Probably the most underrated AC title in my opinion
game looks beautiful and fun to ply , definitely worth a try

Good game. Story was good so as side missions.
Couple bugs there and there but DLC Jack the reaper was almost unplayable.

How cool would it be to roam the streets of London choosing to play as either of the Frye twins? Pretty cool!
I loved AC franchise since day one, with the ups and downs that came.. Personally, this is a solid game, mechanics aren't super innovative but the gameplay is good and the story enjoyable, that to me is the important bit.
A must for all the fans of the series, bought on sale is practically free..

Assassin's Creed Syndicate

So much fun, I love Jacob and Evie, they are so much fun to play

Since 12/20/2024 Ubisoft Connect will not launch Assassin's Creed, Assassin's Creed II, Brotherhood, Revelations, III, Liberation, Black Flag, Rogue, Unity or Syndicate. Prior to this issue with the exact same setup i had only 5 hours on AC Syndicate through steam. I loved the game so much i bought it again, had previously played it on XBox when it came out. Support for Ubisoft is a joke and Steam "can't do anything about it."

Prior to these issue's i'd gave the whole franchise a thumbs up cause I loved these games. Good luck. If you research these games not launching on Ubisoft Discord or anywhere online this is a plagued issue for them with no solid resolution.

This is the only AC game you gonna encounter so many famous characters at once..Story and graphics also ok tbh..Ngl one of the best AC game so far...

The game does not launch. I've heard similar with Assassin's Creed Origins. Ubisoft, I know you're throwing a once thriving company down the drain. But some dev has to care enough about this to fix it so we can at least play the game we purchased.

Please fix this. Thank you.

Game crashes on the title menu right after ""press any key to continue".
I've given up after trying to fix it for a while...I can not recommend a game that crashes after the first user interaction..

This game marks the beginning of Ubisoft's downfall. Still a great game, but not comparable to Unity's level. 😎

10/10 solid game, good, not hard to progress but also has some elements of tens atmosphere and suspense, really enjoy this one

a bloody fun game with good immersion of 19th Century London also well optimized for PC

Really like this game but I ended up refunding because I could not get it to start. I am able to play every assassins creed game on very high to ultra settings but changing the graphics settings caused the menu's to run in stop motion. When I hit on options I get a microsoft cc error saying that a script caused the application to close in an unusual way. I will wait for another sale and buy it again later.

I'm on a 3080 so maybe this game needs an update for rtx cards? Not sure what the issue was but I was able to run Unity and Origins at ultra settings so no reason this game should only work on low settings. I would avoid for now if you're on 30-40 series cards.

Don't even bother buying, waste of time with lovely bugs where u can't even finish missions, clunky parkour with terrible base controls set up, basic combat that takes 2 minutes to kill a single enemy and if you get revealed even slightly u have to try the mission all over again, terrible leveling system design. Very few variety in missions with an average story. Just depressing playing this game.

This game is the most buggy piece of **** I have ever played it has so much potential and can be fun at times but the amount of game breaking bugs there are make it the worst play through experience I have ever had on a game. You spend hours doing specific missions or tasks only for the game to bug out and not let you collect the reward. If you want a truly fun game play experience I recommend AC Black flag or AC 2 this game is the biggest waste of your time and money ever please stay away. Again it is not that the game is not fun it is simply the amount of game breaking bugs make it extremely frustrating and a terrible player experience. DO NOT BUY!!

Game completely borks my 4k high end PC with crashes at the start menu and during the beginning of the game that force me to hard shut off my pc, unacceptable...

its pretty fun, i played the come a little bit years ago and when i seen it on the winter sale on steam i bought it and am enjoying it. one thing if i had to say is that i wish i had the capability to make the hertz more than 60 however, its not all that of a big deal. if you enjoy assassin creed or story based games or just want to put belt to ass i would highly suggest buying this.

Good AC game, funny and dynamic, but with bugs: flying horses, extremly fast zipline with stucking in textures, sometimes npcs are dying while they move on sidewalk border

It's a good ac game. Fighting system is not like other ac games. This one is like Batman. It's more enjoyable that way. But it gets boring after some time. Not as good as batman. London looks good. Story is ok. I liked Evie. She is beautiful. But Jacob is funnier.

listen, it's fun, not the best, but fun regardless, amazing setting and love the steampunk stuff in it, but definitely not a game i'd recommend to anyone who wants to get into AC series.

some quick pros and cons:

cons:
- not the best city for parkour, a lot of huge open spaces where you have to use a carridge or zipline to traverse properly.
- minimal customization
- hood cannot be up always
- poor combat, silly mechanics like "slouched when stunned" the enemy, multi-kills barely work
- 30 fps cloth physics is very weird to look at.

- pros:
- fun parkour
- grappling hook makes you feel like victorian batman
- carridge is fun to ride
- a lot of great side missions
- protagonists are funny and work well together as siblings.
- great stealth mechanics
- gang wars

i could go and on, its fun, try it, its not for everyone, but i had a lot of fun, the pros far outweigh the cons.

I love this installment of Assassin's Creed. The dynamic of the Frye twins, the classic AC driven story sequences, taking on Templars, epic assassinations—it has it all. I would recommend it as a solid must-have for fans.

Underrated Assassin's Creed game. Not as ambitious as Unity, but in return a much more polished and cohesive experience. It sticks to the basics of city assassin gameplay, retaining the good features of earlier games, refining some and adding a few new mechanics, of which the most notable are the grappling hook and carriages, along with some more era specific stuff of course.
Stealth works very well, it has all the relevant mechanics, you get plenty of tools and environmental pieces to play around with as well as different options to carry out tasks. Parkour is not as flexible as in Unity and has less potential (imo the best parkour in series, so being worse than that is still far from bad), but it's more consistent. It has perhaps the best combination of convenience and complexity for these 2 gameplay aspects in the series. While the grappling hook invalidates some of the parkour, I had a lot of fun using it and it was a welcome change of pace, giving some new gameplay opportunities compared to very much samey other entries. The buildings aren't always the most suitable for free-running, but there are still enough parts where you can pull it off, especially during curated missions, as those have pretty good level design. Combat is pretty much the classic AC approach, but flashier, faster and more arcadey. I missed having swordplay and it might be a bit jarring to some in comparison to other games, but it was fun enough for me. It's fluid, responsive and the movement and combat animations are very well done and decently varied.
London is incredible, my favourite rendition of a city in the franchise along with Paris. It is a vast, bustling city, with immersive crowds and traffic and beautiful interiors and exteriors. It is still not the most interactive, but it does provide you with enough in that regard. There's solid reactivity to player's actions, several kinds of crowd events and side activities, factions and so on. It being set in 1868 certainly helps with some of that. Soundtrack is also very nice, as always. Overall, it lends itself well to the assassin gameplay and definitely does a good job at recreating the setting you can dive into and feel a part of. There is still a little bit of that trademark AC jank, but rather tame here and a lot of it being closer to funny than annoying.
It has more progression systems, with the character levels, gear, skill and gang upgrades. All relatively simple and not locking anything essential, but they add some fun stuff and provide an extra reason to do side content.
Story is pretty straightforward and it gets you into the action right at the start, keeping that fast pace throughout the game. It doesn't really try to tell a meaningful story and is more a means to an end, but the main missions are consistently well designed and action packed, and the characters are simple, but effective. Not ideal, but I prefer that approach if you cannot come up with something compelling over teasing the player with 5 intriguing subjects and then squandering them all in the end *cough* Unity *cough*.
I liked the dynamic between the Frye twins, with intelligent, calculated and subtle Evie and more practical, direct and somewhat reckless Jacob, both of them being witty and charismatic and constantly bickering at each other, but making a good team. They have some of my favourite outfits in the series, which doesn't hurt either. Gameplay does a respectable job of reflecting this too. There's not as much character growth as in some previous games, but they're quite entertaining. Similar for the side characters - there's not much nuance, but their visual design and personalities are striking enough to keep your attention. The presentation is some of the best in series, with excellent cutscenes, facial animations, voice acting and graphics. Actually better than a lot of newer Ubisoft games, lol. It features many prominent historical figures and does a good job fleshing out the setting. This game knew what it wanted to do, and taking itself particularly seriously was not on the list.
Side missions are alright, for Assassin's Creed standards anyway, many revolving around the likes of Charles Dickens, Darwin, Marx etc. Dreadful Crimes DLC detective investigations were fun too. I already liked the idea in Unity, it was elaborated on here and the twist at the end was neat.
Admittedly, I am biased towards this game since I love the Victorian era / Industrial revolution setting, even more so with it being the most modern we've had so far (there's also a small WW1 part with free roam!), and while the game doesn't offer anything spectacular or super innovative and it's more lighthearted tone might not be everyone's cup of tea, I do believe it is by most accounts a solid, fun game.