Overview
Assassin's Creed Syndicate is a third-person action-adventure stealth game developed by Ubisoft Quebec and released in November 2015. Set across a faithfully reconstructed Victorian London, it follows twin Assassins Jacob and Evie Frye as they work to dismantle Crawford Starrick's Templar stranglehold on the city, borough by borough. The scale of the open world spans recognizable landmarks from Buckingham Palace to the River Thames, and the period detail runs deep enough that historical figures like Alexander Graham Bell, Charles Darwin, and Charles Dickens show up as actual mission contacts.
What separates Syndicate from earlier entries in the franchise is the dual-protagonist structure. Jacob and Evie aren't just the same character with different skins. Jacob is built around aggression: brass knuckles, multikill chains, and gang warfare. Evie is a stealth specialist, built for precise, silent takedowns and the kind of patience that turns a mission into a puzzle. Switching between them based on the objective at hand gives the game a flexibility that most open-world titles don't manage.
The story itself is tighter than the series was producing around this period. Evie's pursuit of a Piece of Eden called the Shroud, racing Templar occultist Lucy Thorne to locate it first, runs parallel to Jacob's campaign to eliminate Starrick's lieutenants across London's districts. The siblings clash over approach throughout, which adds genuine tension to what could have been a straightforward good-versus-evil setup.
Dual characters: how does the combat actually work?
The two combat systems are distinct enough to change how you approach the game. Jacob's playstyle centers on close-quarters brawling with weapons like kukri knives, cane-swords, and revolvers, supported by a skill tree that rewards aggressive play with faster multikills and stronger counters. Evie's tree leans into stealth mechanics: longer invisibility windows, quieter movement, and tools that reward patience over force.
Key gameplay mechanics include:
- Rope launcher for rapid vertical traversal
- Carriage hijacking and street races
- Borough liberation through gang warfare
- Weapon and gear crafting and upgrades
- Rooks gang management between missions
The rope launcher deserves specific mention. Introduced here, it cuts travel time dramatically and opens up rooftop traversal in a way that feels earned rather than handed to you. Parkour across moving trains and carriages keeps the momentum up even outside structured missions.
World and setting
Victorian London is the best historical setting the Assassin's Creed franchise had used up to this point. The city is divided into seven boroughs, each controlled by Starrick's Blighters gang until the Rooks push them out. Liberating a borough requires completing a set of activities including assassinations, hostage rescues, and child labor disruptions, which feed into a district score that eventually triggers a gang war to flip control.
The period texture holds up. The Thames is alive with steamboats. Carriages clog the streets and double as weapons when hijacked. The fog, the cobblestones, the class divide baked into the architecture all contribute to an atmosphere that makes 1868 London feel like a place rather than a backdrop.
Content and replayability
The Gold Edition packages the base game with the full Season Pass, which includes the Jack the Ripper expansion, The Last Maharaja's 10-mission pack, and several cosmetic and gear bundles. The Jack the Ripper DLC is worth flagging separately: it's set decades after the main story, features an older Evie, and carries a noticeably darker tone than the base game.
Between the borough liberation loop, the historical character missions, train robbery sequences, and the DLC content, Syndicate offers well over 30 hours of structured play before the open world activities start to thin out. The PS4 version holds a 4.41 out of 5 average rating across 43,000 player ratings, which reflects a game that landed considerably better with players than its immediate predecessor in the franchise.