One thing that Ubisoft is spectacular at is that they can garner a ton of excitement for their games. Most of the time, the excitement stirred up is well justified but when its not it leaves most with a sour taste in their mouth.

Courtesy of Ubisoft

After the general disappointment of Unity last fall, Ubisoft should be looking to do better this time around. Hopefully, the newly announced Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate with be the “redeemer” for the Assassin’s Creed franchise.

Syndicate, according to Ubisoft’s reveal on May 12th, will be set in Victorian London (1868 if you want to get really specific). The game will feature two playable Assassin’s (that’s right I said two!) – Jacob and Evie Frye. This twin duo work through the criminal underworld of London to rid the city of Templar presence. Players will be able to switch freely between the two while exploring London, but for narrative reasons, will for the most part be restricted to Jacob during the main missions.

Evie Frye will be the second playable female Assassin in the franchise’s history. The trouble is, this fact was not bolstered in Ubisoft’s live reveal today . . . at all. They didn’t even mention the fact that she was even playable. You have to go to Ubisoft’s blog to find this out. After being heavily criticized last year for having a lack of playable female characters I find is strange that Ubisoft would neglect to even mention Evie being playable during the live reveal. Jacob was at the forefront of the entire presentation, so forgive me if I was confused about the disproportionate representation.

Courtesy of Ubisoft

Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate will bring about a few new changes for the franchise, but it doesn’t seem like the series is going through a complete re-haul. Firstly, a few more new gadgets will be added to your arsenal. Syndicate will see the addition of brass knuckles, a compact revolver, a cane sword, and kukri knife. Since the game is set in Victorian London (and carrying weapons openly was very much frowned upon) combat will be pushed closer as most of your weapons will now be small and easily concealable. Another new gadget that’s particularly exciting is the rope launcher that is attached to the Assassin gauntlet. With the rope launcher, you will have the ability to zipline between buildings as well as propel yourself up to the top of building.

Transportation around the vast city of London will be transformed into horse drawn carriages rather than just simply horseback. The carriages will supposedly serve multiple purposes in Syndicate. Carriages can be used for anything from transportation to parkour points to even moving hiding spots.

With as much that will be added to Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate there will also be a lot taken away. This time around there will be no form of multiplayer. The decision was made so that the developers could focus on developing London to the best of their abilities. London’s map is estimated to be about 30% larger than Paris was in Unity.

Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate is expected to be released worldwide October 23, 2015 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. A release date has yet to be announced for PC.

A lot of changes are happening to the Assassin’s Creed series and only time will tell if Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate will live up to the excitement it is inciting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZJbFf0kehw

(Presentation starts at 13:35)