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Assassin's Creed Syndicate |OT| Once more unto the glitch

CaLe

Member
Is anyone here really having fun with the combat? I can't get how repetitive and boring it is.

Also,
the mission where you're being chased by templars on carriages as you're trying to steal documents
shows how buggy this game can be. I also don't see the performance improvements over unity that a lot of people are talking about, the framerate still dips in the low 20s in crowded areas.
 
I think it's a bad sign that this thread hasn't broken 20 pages yet. Unity did a lot of damage to the franchise + yearly fatigue.

That being said I'm playing my 10 dollar copy of unity right now and hoping for a Black Friday price drop on syndicate.

I'm pretty curious to see how this does, sales-wise. The Unity release debacle may have put a permanent dent in first-day sales, but maybe word of mouth will carry it. Who knows.
 
There is, but it's not as constant as ACII or Brotherhood. Usually pretty short music bits, but they're excellent.

Thanks!

And it's not triggered by combat or being close to a waypoint or anything? It's legit ambient music that comes and goes on it's own?
 

Paasei

Member
I'm getting this game because I just bought a GTX 970 for in my new PC. Hopefully the port will be good this time, fingers crossed.

The game seems like it's actually fun again. And London looks very fun to explore.
 

mdubs

Banned
Lord, the first too missions are so good.

This already feels like the best game since Brotherhood.

I liked Unity and III thought, did not enjoy IV.
 

SJRB

Gold Member
I highly recommend investing in the gang unlocks that make the Blighters have lower health and dull blades, it makes fighting a mob of them so much better.
 

MAX PAYMENT

Member
Combat is tough without the ring. Not because of the ring itself but hiding that HUD element also hides level information about your enemies which is critical, and also hides prompts about when you're about to get shot from off-screen.

I'm managing with only the map on so far. I like that it's difficult.
 

Harmen

Member
So, is there a modern day story in it nowadays? I haven't played any AC beyond III (and I actually liked that game), but does it go onwards from that point or what?

One of my gripes with AC's overarching futuristic story is that none, seriously none of the first 4 games had any sense of closure. III had some closure, but the ending was just not that satisfying I guess. Somewhat frustrating, since the stories set in the past always felt like complete arcs to me. Is there a future story that "goes somewhere" in IV, Unity, and this one? Or did they just ditch the ending of III.

Not asking about the quality here btw, just if there still is an ongoing plot for the series as a whole.
 

Trojan

Member
I haven't seen much footage of Syndicate leading up to release, but I did watch the Giant Bomb Quick Look this morning for my first peek at the game. I found myself agreeing with the GB East guys that:
  1. The game looks to have enough gameplay tweaks (grappling hook) and interesting missions that it might be worth getting, and
  2. Syndicate seems more violent and graphic in its combat than previous entries, to the point where it's almost ridiculous.
Alex Navarro played for about 45 minutes and most of it was spent filleting criminals and policemen with a knife that looked like it was pulled straight out of Saw. He also showed some of the spiked brass knuckles that seemed equally as brutal. I know AC has always been about killing dudes with wrist blades, but there was blood spilling all over the streets like Bloodborne.

For those that have Syndicate, has anyone else noticed this much while playing? I don't remember things being this blatant in Black Flag, which is the last AC I played. I'm fine with violence when I adds to the narrative or is intentionally over-the-top (ala Quentin Tarantino). But with Syndicate, it seems like there's this strange disconnect when juxtaposed with the real-world backdrop. The cognitive dissonance reminded me of the Uncharted conversations that happen a lot, but the execution realism here takes it to the next level.
 

SJRB

Gold Member
When do fight clubs open up? I'm only on Sequence 5 but haven't seen any yet.

Game does a pretty poor job of explaining this.

You'll encounter certain characters that open up certain activities, but the game doesn't really tell you that. So you'll get a marker on the map with the initials of tha character, but you have no idea what it is until you go there.
 

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
So, is there a modern day story in it nowadays? I haven't played any AC beyond III (and I actually liked that game), but does it go onwards from that point or what?

One of my gripes with AC's overarching futuristic story is that none, seriously none of the first 4 games had any sense of closure. III had some closure, but the ending was just not that satisfying I guess. Somewhat frustrating, since the stories set in the past always felt like complete arcs to me. Is there a future story that "goes somewhere" in IV, Unity, and this one? Or did they just ditch the ending of III.

Not asking about the quality here btw, just if there still is an ongoing plot for the series as a whole.

Sort of. Black Flag marks the point where the present day story forks off in a different direction. You can find small expository links to previous events if you take the time to explore, but instead of playing an assassin, you're an Ubisoft Abstergo Entertainment employee who is courted by the assassins as the story progresses, and Rogue is very similar albeit with the faction loyalty turned around: you play as a different employee and (presumably) join the Templars at the end of the game. Unity, on the other hand.... well, you're said to be a user of an Abstergo video game system that the assassins hijack and use to prove your worth as an initiate, but that's the extent to which there's a present day component -- it's entirely limited to some voiceover work. Brief introductory sequence aside, at no point do you play as anybody but Arno.

You're absolutely correct that 3 failed to deliver any sort of payoff for what Ubi had been building up since the original. After completing the game myself, I genuinely felt sorry for those who had become invested in the present day story and were expecting something -- anything -- worthwhile. It has become a joke and even Ubi seems to be acutely aware of this as there's an endearing degree of self-referentialism to the Abstergo Entertainment angle.
 

realcZk

Member
Haven't played AC games since AC2 due to lack of interest in the gameplay. Always enjoyed the story and how it blends in historical characters and settings. Picked this up after seeing it was in Victorian London and haven't been too disappointed yet. I thought it started out rather abruptly but then again I'm way behind in AC story/lore and don't expect to know what's going on. There's a lot of information in the encyclopedia for anyone who wants to be caught up.

The gameplay isn't too diverse like with previous AC titles, but a decent skill tree and faster-paced combat helps me to keep moving through the game at a good pace without getting tired of it. The addition of a grappling hook is nice and helps make travel from building to building more bearable over time. The ability to hijack horse carriages and ride them around makes travel a breeze.

There are definitely a few complaints I have but they aren't unique to this particular entry in the series. This game has kept my interest so far for the first 6 hours.
 
So I've encountered what is seemingly a game breaking bug at the moment. I failed a mission, but by the time the mission restarts, the game is already in a fail state and then reloads infinitely with no way to pause the game. Anyone else experienced this/knows how to fix it? Restarting the game just loads straight into the fail state
 

realcZk

Member
So I've encountered what is seemingly a game breaking bug at the moment. I failed a mission, but by the time the mission restarts, the game is already in a fail state and then reloads infinitely with no way to pause the game. Anyone else experienced this/knows how to fix it? Restarting the game just loads straight into the fail state

Can you enter the pause menu, navigate to restart and select "Restart memory" instead of from checkpoint?
 

F0rneus

Tears in the rain
The soul-crushing vitriol on the AC series on GAF right now is...From liking AC makes you an idiot, to liking AC is having shit tastes in games, to playing AC is "killing your gaming soul".

Fuck I need to step back a bit.
 

ogbg

Member
Can't pause the game at all

Edit: Twitch vod of the error http://www.twitch.tv/micknick/v/22449733 I can move Evie a bit, but the game thinks I've already failed the mission

What happens if you hard quit the game from the OS and restart? I can't think of anything else although there is obviously a risk there of save file corruption

EDIT: Sorry, I just saw that you tried that already. Man, that sucks. Have you been able to speak to anyone a the Ubisoft forums?
 

ogbg

Member
I've finished the main story and also all of the boroughs but I never came across the hallucinogenic dart upgrade schematic. Anyone know where it is?
 

MUnited83

For you.
Sort of. Black Flag marks the point where the present day story forks off in a different direction. You can find small expository links to previous events if you take the time to explore, but instead of playing an assassin, you're an Ubisoft Abstergo Entertainment employee who is courted by the assassins as the story progresses, and Rogue is very similar albeit with the faction loyalty turned around: you play as a different employee and (presumably) join the Templars at the end of the game. Unity, on the other hand.... well, you're said to be a user of an Abstergo video game system that the assassin's hijack and use to prove your worth as an initiate, but that's the extent to which there's a present day component -- it's entirely limited to some voiceover work. Brief introductory sequence aside, at no point do you play as anybody but Arno.

You're absolutely correct that 3 failed to deliver any sort of payoff for what Ubi had been building up since the original. After completing the game myself, I genuinely felt sorry for those who had become invested in the present day story and were expecting something -- anything -- worthwhile. It has become a joke and even Ubi seems to be acutely aware of this as there's an endearing degree of self-referentialism to the Abstergo Entertainment angle.

Oh man, was I pissed at the ending of Unity.
All that shit, and turns out that Arno already solved the issue a fuckload of years ago? Why even have a "modern-world" component at all lol.
 

ogbg

Member

Nobody knows for sure obviously but it's unlikely to be exactly the same as Black Flag since it uses the Unity engine. The only difference with Unity is they swapped pre-baked global illumination with static time slices for no global illumination and a dynamic time-of-day.
 

thumb

Banned
Anyone else getting a full synchronization bug with Sequence 5,
End of the Line
?

I follow all the directions to get full synchronization, but no matter what I do, the game always shows that I did not use the
secret passage
, despite the fact that I am definitely using it.
 
I have really been enjoying this so far. Mainly because of the following:

The city has a wonderful atmosphere. The majority of my enjoyment comes from just being able to soak in the locations and explore. Being able to jump around the roof tops at night, seeing dozens of smoking chimneys is really cool, as is climbing up the lit up face of big ben. They have also given the city a great sense of scale compared to some of the previous games. The main streets feel accurately large, as does the monuments.

Due to the scale of the city, and the size of the streets, the zip line is a great addition. It is a clever move on the developers part as I don't really see it as being a new gameplay mechanic just for having a new feature, but more of a way to give them more creative freedom when it comes to designing the cities and locations. Up until now, they have had to pepper the map with random ropes extending between rooftops, lifts, and other mechanics to speed up traversal. They have also had to make sure they design the maps to be dense enough to allow for parkour. The zipline allows them do design the city without those constraints. I think going forward I would love the zipline to evolve further and to be a more fluid part of free running.

I am also really enjoying the writing this time around. Jacob and Evie are both really likeable, as are many of the side characters. They also do a great job at establishing the main villain early one. The tone is great as well, it seems to not take itself too seriously which makes the story a bit more fun to follow. I feel that Unity took itself a bit seriously so it is a nice change.

Also the missions are awesome. Some of the early ones so far give you a lot of freedom on how to take out your targets. They also offer some really good memorable locations. My favourite one being in Sequence 3:
When you kill the doctor in the asylum. I went in on the gurney :)

Anyhooo, until around a week ago I was worried this was gonna be another Unity, but I am really pleased to be wrong, so if you are a fan of the series I would go for it.
 

Stranya

Member
A key difference from Unity (which I completed recently) is that they have fixed the laggy controls of that game. Everything is now responsive, from the camera to the parkour; and they've also toned down the animation priority, resulting in quicker and more responsive combat.

Because of this, the animation transitions are a bit more janky/less fluid than before (though still very good), but it handles so, so much better than Unity. Genuinely a pleasure to play, whereas Unity was often like swimming through treacle (and I say that as someone who really enjoyed Unity).

Another change is the cover system. Gone is Unity's "press button for cover" and total inability to move round corners when locked in cover. Syndicate doesn't require a button press, simply going into corner cover when you're in stealth mode and press against the cover.

Oh and while I'm at it, I love that FINALLY I can play as an assassin without wearing my hood 100% of the time. It's great to explore London in non-stealth mode and actually see my character's head.
 

DOWN

Banned
Nobody knows for sure obviously but it's unlikely to be exactly the same as Black Flag since it uses the Unity engine. The only difference with Unity is they swapped pre-baked global illumination with static time slices for no global illumination and a dynamic time-of-day.

you mean they went back to what they did on Black Flag
 

Toa TAK

Banned
That awkward moment when you're kicking ass and then a hurthgutlahlfjdlas--

sdh3XtU.gif
 

Leeness

Member
:( I'm so annoyed I cancelled my preorder for this... Was hurting for money so I cancelled it a month or so ago. I am full of regret because I love all of the AC games and this one sounds so good :(

Now I'm looking at a $79.99 price tag if I want it any time soon. Hopefully I can get it during Black Friday sales.
 

Dantis

Member
So I've actually gotten really into this. I miss a lot that was in Unity, but the Victorian setting is nice enough to make up for it.

What season pass content is available already? Is any of it any good? Any new missions? Or outfits?
 

Brandon F

Well congratulations! You got yourself caught!
Here's a link to the Syndicate version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8sNGsaq7x4

Personally, I don't mind at all. I absolutely loved the Rogue version of it.
It'd be cool to hear a new rendition of the AC3 main theme.

All the good AC games (except 4) feature it at some point.

Yea, not sure how I feel about this myself. Such an iconic theme, but it just comes across lacking the same presence in the other games. I suppose it is an easy go-to for giving the franchise 'theme music', but its hard to separate Ezio and Italy from that track when heard in the other games.
 

Camisado

Member
So I've reached a point where I'm hunting down a lot of collectibles, I went looking for a place I could buy the treasure maps (as I'm constantly carrying at least £60,000 after doing all the gang upgrades) and couldn't find it.

Jokingly I checked the real money shop and there they are. That's... kinda gross right?
 
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