PC Gamer - UK (2022-02)

Happily, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
doesn’t waste much time in the
future. We get some bobbins about
Abstergo, a bit of Danny Wallace in
knitwear being chipper, and then
we’re swiftly off to the past to kill
strangers. And what a version of the
past it is. It’s Victorian
London as glimpsed in
a commemorative
snowglobe, with as
many glib Britishisms
wedged into its
impressive space as
possible. Two minutes
after the game properly
starts – after an
interminable pre-credits intro – we
literally bump into Charles Dickens.
There are penny farthings. Corgis in
bags. Skylines ruptured by endless
polluting chimneys. And then we
have the game’s moustachioed,
tea-supping arch-bastard, Crawford
Starrick: a man whose name sounds

like an anagram of a ’70s prog rock

band and who looks like Satan’s

masseuse. Even the Syndicate’s goons

are parodically British: a bunch of

bowler-hatted, pock-marked ruffians

called the Blighters. You can’t help

but wonder what names landed on

the cutting room floor.

CREED IS GOOD

This level of

stereotyping might be

insulting if it were any

other country at any

other time, but here it’s

a treat, like clambering

around in a version of

The Muppets Christmas Carol where

you can garrotte Gonzo. It’s

gloriously slick, almost to the point

that it shocks me how easy it is to

climb everything. At the same time,

it’s all so easy that I sometimes feel

like the game would be happy to

carry on playing without me. I could

probably climb St Paul’s by sitting on

my keyboard. It’s impressive, but also

makes me feel disconcertingly

unnecessary. Combat, too, lacks a bit

of connective tissue. It looks

incredible – all flashy counters, kneed

faces, and twirling canes – but so

much of it feels like it’s there because

it looks cool. Being shot at is a good

example. I get a nice, lengthy prompt

when someone’s aiming at me, and

they only seem to fire when I duck.

The first few times make you feel like

a god. After that, you’re almost

willing the goons to gun you down,

just to see if they can. Combined,

these things can make Syndicate feel

a bit patronising, but perhaps that’s

not the point. There aren’t many

titles that offer so rich an intricate

version of a place, and fewer still that

let you explore it in such detail. It has

the misery and majesty of Victorian

London and you can experience the

lot by holding one button.

75

Finally, a setting

drizzly enough to justify

those silly hoods, and

good old London town

no less!

VERDICT

T

here are many things in life that we accept as normal despite
them being weird. Punch and Judy shows. Why drinking cow
milk is fine but pig milk isn’t. And I get the same feeling
whenever I fire up an Assassin’s Creed game and remember
the entire series is built on memory-hopping, past life sci-fi.
The Animus is the child beauty pageant of videogame plot devices.

FRYE UP

Great eviscerations across Dickensian London in ASSASSIN’S CREED SYNDICATE

You’re almost

willing the

goons to gun

you down

NEED TO KNOW

WHAT IS IT?

Victorian London

Commemorative

Plate: The Game

EXPECT TO PAY

£34

DEVELOPER

Ubisoft

PUBLISHER

In-house

REVIEWED ON

Intel Core i7-7700 CUP

@ 3.60GHz, 16 GB RAM,

NVIDIA GeForce GTX

1070, Windows 10

MULTIPLAYER

No

LINK

ubisoft.com/en-gb/

game/assassins-creed

OLD GAMES REVISITED by Matthew Elliott

THEY’RE BACK

“What’s up guys,

it’s your boy

Charlie D!”