Assassin's Creed Syndicate is an improvement over Unity

Assassin's Creed Syndicate is an improvement over Ubisoft's effort last year with Unity. It's a more enjoyable experience. Assassin's Creed Unity was a botched launch for Ubisoft last year. The game was a step backwards over Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag as it was slightly boring and had a flawed combat system. Not to mention the game was buggy and full of glitches when it came out. Thankfully, Assassin's Creed Syndicate is a fresher and less bug-free experience. It gets rid of any online multiplayer modes to bring to the table a proper and meaningful single player experience that is fun and full of varied missions. Best of all, this is the first in the series that allows you to play as two characters instead of one. There was some controversy with the Assassin's Creed series as all of the mainstream games in the series only allows you to play as male characters. Here in Syndicate, you are able to be twins. One is a male named Jacob Frye and the other is his sister named Evie Frye. These two characters are great and have good chemistry with one another. Much like any other twin siblings, they banter a lot with Jacob teasing Evie from time-to-time. It's great to see some main characters having a bit of fun after seeing a lot of serious non-charismatic protagonists in other video games. Another great thing about Assassin's Creed Syndicate is that it includes several new gameplay mechanics. It also eradicates the annoying combat system that Ubisoft introduced in Unity. Gone is the frustrating parry system as Syndicate brings back the countering mechanic. It also debuts a new hand-to-hand fighting combat system too. The combat system is kind of like the one seen in the Batman Arkham games, although it's not as fluid. Still, you can do a variety of deadly moves and even pull a gun into battle as well. Apart from head-on fights, you can of course use stealth and this is probably the best approach in playing an Assassin's Creed game.   There are various ways you can use stealth to your advantage and this makes the game fun. You can use throwing knives, chuck smoke bombs, distract enemies using allies and much more. Both Jacob and Evie Frye also have deadly weapons in their arsenal that you can utlise and upgrade when you level up. This game also makes travelling around the large city of London faster and more efficient too. The characters have access to a grappling hook and this makes it easier for you to scale large buildings. There are also numerous horse carriages around that you can ride on too. These two means of travelling are fun and beats the tedious running and walking that you had to do in previous games, As fun as I had playing Assassin's Creed Syndicate, there are still a bit of flaws that prevent if from being a perfect game. First of all, there are far too many enemies lurking about that it's hard to travel around the city without someone trying to kill you. To add insult to injury, even the cops in this game have beef with the two assassins too. This can get annoying if you want to trigger a mission. You usually have to be anonymous in order to start missions, but this can be hard to do when everyone around you is wanting to kill you at every corner. The game allows you to recruit gang members to help out, but sometimes they're useless too and end up dying. The other issue is that Assassin's Creed Syndicate's graphics are drab and mundane to look at. Unity is much prettier because it was set in Paris, France which has a more artistic design. 1800s London, England is just downright boring and ugly to look at. Even if it's a clear sunny day, the game still looks dark. Aside from a few flaws, Assassin's Creed Syndicate is a huge improvement over the disappointment that was Unity. It's also nice to see that we can play as a female character for once. The gameplay is what counts in this game despite the graphics being disappointing. Hopefully future games in the series plays more like Syndicate than Unity.   Overall: 8.5/10