Board Thread:Syndicate general discussion/@comment-13471981-20150825210137/@comment-1153722-20151029164656

Alright I'm gonna go ahead and type out my thoughts, and I won't refrain from mild spoilers. So I'll start off by saying the game is better than Unity. It uses the same gameplay system, including the awkward combat system that just feels outdated. But at least now it's playable and enjoyable. The rope launcher makes traversing this large open world, which is gorgeous, a lot less tedious. Landmarks are absolutely fantastic, and like Paris was in Unity, I think London is definitely the heigh point of the game. Conquering London borough by borough is a lot of fun, even though a lack of variation in these missions is a bit of a low point.

Characters are likeable and fun, and while the 'young and brash' type of protagonist has worn out its charm I enjoyed Jacob and Evie as protagonists, and Henry, Bell, Darwin and Dickens as side characters. Starrick was a great Grand Master, calmly menacing. The story was fun and reminded me of the Ezio days, but it was devoid of any real climax or epic conclusion. The end battle felt very dull and simple. Leaving out the shocking revelatory endings of the past games doesn't do the series any good, and it lacked any emotion like Black Flag managed to pull off in its ending.

After all the complaints about Unity's modern day moving nowhere, they moved the plot ahead somewhat but it's nowhere near what we had in the Desmond saga. Most of the modern day plot is told through audio files that can be obtained by collecting Helix fragments. I could not name a greater sin this game could pull off. Collectibles are the most boring filler that games can have, and forcing people to collect them to obtain the full story only makes it worse.

The Rift sequence was a very welcome addition, and I loved how they had kept it secret. It made me hungry for more. It was a great piece of history to explore, and I hope the other forthcoming games add in more surprises like this.

I really enjoyed the game overall, but I think that's mostly because the games did a lot of things better than its disappointing predecessor. However, I think if this game came after, say, Assassin's Creed II I would be quite let down. Initially I would have rated this my third favourite, but I think I would now place it fourth of fifth. AC2, AC4, ACB, AC1, ACS, ACRV, ACU, ACRG', AC3'' would be the order I would place them in right now.