Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is an upcoming action adventure video game and part of the Assassin’s Creed franchise. The game is currently being being developed primarily by Ubisoft Quebec, but it has since been confirmed by Ubisoft that there are a total of 9 other teams contributing to the titles development. Assassin’s Creed Syndicate serves as the ninth entry into the main line series.
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is being published by Ubisoft, who are best known for the Far Cry, Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia and Assassin’s Creed franchise of games. Unlike the previous entry in the series, Assassin’s Creed Unity, Syndicate is being developed exclusively for current generation consoles and PCs.
At the time of writing, the game is slated for a world wide launch on October 23rd 2015. The PC version is slated to release in Q3/Q4 2015.
The game has been confirmed to be running on a build of the AnvilNext engine. Anvil has powered every main line entry in the series to some extent with AnvilNext last being used in 2014’s Assassin’s Creed Unity.
Building upon the scale of Assassin’s Creed Unity, Syndicate is expected to be somewhere in the region of 30% bigger than it’s predecessor. Speaking about this, Ubisoft Quebec has stated that they are focused “on creating the biggest city based open-world that we’ve ever had for an Assassin’s Creed game.”
Development of Assassin’s Creed Unity was headed up by Ubisoft Montreal. This explains the surprise behind Assassin’s Creed Syndicate being primarily developed by Ubisoft Quebec. This news first came to light when Ubisoft publicly blogged, “Ubisoft Quebec will be taking the lead on the development of a future Assassin’s Creed.”
Elaborating on the decisions to run with Ubisoft Quebec, the publisher said that this was, “part of a major investment in the Quebec City studio, which includes a significant increase in the number of staff along with all-new facilities in Quebec’s St-Roch district…”
Previous series Creative Director Marc-Alexis Côté and senior producer François Pelland are confirmed to be working on the new game, alongside audio director Lydia Andrew who was praised Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. The Historian, Web Designer and Illustrator, Jean-Vincent Roy, will also be returning to work on Syndicate, having previously worked with Ubisoft before.
The game was first made known following an information leak that was posted on Kotaku in December of 2014, less than a month after the release of Assassin’s Creed Unity. The leak included a number of images/screenshots of the game which revealed a small amount of gameplay details, the implications of which were clear. Swinging and Outfit Changing, Grappling hooks and the like.
Addressing this leak, Ubisoft distributed a statement to numerous media outlets, an excerpt reads, “It is always unfortunate when internal assets, not intended for public consumption, are leaked. And, while we certainly welcome anticipation for all of our upcoming titles, we’re disappointed for our fans, and our development team, that this conceptual asset is now public. The team in our Quebec studio has been hard at work on the particular game in question for the past few years, and we’re excited to officially unveil what the studio has been working on at a later date.”
The aforementioned later date was May 12th 2015 when Ubisoft officially announced the game. On May 11th, leading up to the game’s official announcement, Kotaku obtained and published the names of the two protagonists, Jacob and Evie Frye.
Prior to the official announcement, Kotaku obtained leaked information again and revealed the game’s name to be Assassin’s Creed Syndicate.
In 1869, during the transitional years between the first and second industrial revolution, the Brotherhood of Assassins has been effectively crippled, being vastly outnumbered by their Templar foes with both Church and Monarchy losing control and influence.
Jacob and Evie Frye, twins raised under the Brotherhood, make for London, a city that they aim to wrest from the control of the Templars by way of manipulating the criminal underworld so prevalent during the Industrial Revolution.
Marc-Alexis Côté, a creative director at Ubisoft Quebec, has commented on how the gameplay will work around the manipulation of criminal factions, the commandeering of vehicles and the use of tools. He said, “The ability to lead an underground gang, commandeer any vehicle on hand and use modern tools to take on an expansive and fast-paced Victorian London sets this game apart. Assassin’s Creed Syndicate has been in development for more than two years and this new modern take on the living open world will please Assassin’s Creed fans and newcomers alike.”
Being an estimated 30% bigger than the world of Assassin’s Creed Unity, the player can make use of vehicles in the streets and train stations of London to quickly navigate the city. They will also have access to a grappling tool device that will let them quickly ascend buildings and players can also use ziplines to quickly traverse gaps between connected buildings.
London will be divided into six separate boroughs, they are Westminster, the Strand, the City of London, Whitechapel, Southwark and Lambeth.
Some new weapons shown to be in the game include revolvers, an all new concealed cane-sword, brass knuckles and the kukri knife. On the combat front, melee combat has been reworked to be faster, more responsive and suited more to brawling than sword-fighting.
Players can swap between both of the game’s protagonists. Evie is the first main line female protagonist in the Assassin’s Creed continuity, likely as a response to the harsh backlash Ubisoft faced for the lack of female characters in their games. Where Evie is very much a stealth specialist with a more cunning and sharp mind than Jacob, she lacks Jacob’s stellar close combat skills.
The roofs of moving carriages in the streets of London, as well as the rooftops of moving trains, will be used in the game to augment the already existing parkour system as well as enhance some fights.
Perhaps the most notable revelation thus far, is that Assassin’s Creed Syndicate will have absolutely no co-op or competitive multiplayer. Speaking about this, Ubisoft Quebec creative director Marc-Alexis Cote said, “The reason we are doing this is to really focus on the roots of the franchise. That’s why all nine studios are focused on delivering this single-player experience.”
At this time, we know about the game’s two main protagonists, Jacob and Evie Frye. Charles Darwin and Charles John Dickens will also be appearing in pre-order missions.
Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.