Assassin's Creed Syndicate

 Xbox One
User Score
6.7

Mixed or average reviews- based on 662 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 362 out of 662
  2. Mixed: 153 out of 662
  3. Negative: 147 out of 662
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. Herstal
    Oct 31, 2015
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I just finished the game last night and want to just mention the big stuff.

    1. The game is definitely less glitchy than Ac unity. But that isn't saying much because anything is better than Ac unity. There were still plenty of instances of broken freerunning, combat and stealth all not agreeing with my suggested button presses.

    2. There was a three minute cutscene with no character models at all. Just their floating attached weapons carrying on a conversation. I captured the footage because I didn't believe it myself. They didn't learn anything from the invisible faces glitch in unity I guess.

    3. Multiple cutscenes, including the final one, had out of sync audio. It's not a game breaker but boy does it show the laziness and lack of polish. This kind of thing can't be let go when they are trying to prove they can release a finished product.

    4. The story was very hard to get into. The characters were hard to care about. The main female lead looks like the art department wanted to see what Ellie from the last of us would look like grown up. It was distracting. Besides that, no one is likable and they shoehorned in their 'historical celebrity guest stars' more poorly than any other installment.

    5. The final boss was the worst final boss in video game history. It was repetitive, had no creativity or imagination applied to its design, and was insulting to the players intelligence. If anyone remembers the final boss in unity, it's pretty much a copy paste job of that except you have to take turns beating on him as the two main characters for about ten minutes and every thirty seconds in the fight, you are out at the entrance to the room you are in and must run back over to the boss. I don't even know if I can properly convey how old that gets after the second time. Let alone the sixth time it happens.

    Overall, this was not a redemption for Ac. It is just the continuation of unity as the last nail in the coffin. Why can't they just take a year or two break? They are doing more harm than good to a previously great franchise.

    if you are looking for a great Ac game you might not have tried, play Ac rogue. It's basically black flag 2 and it's very polished and complete.    … Expand
  2. Jackel278
    Oct 29, 2015
    4
    Generally I do not write unfavorable reviews as that is not my forte and I prefer to see the positive elements in different experiences. However, to save others the financial loss I feel obligated to inform potential consumers about the pitfalls of embarking on a mission to purchase this software. From my personal experience this game exhibits little gameplay difference compared toGenerally I do not write unfavorable reviews as that is not my forte and I prefer to see the positive elements in different experiences. However, to save others the financial loss I feel obligated to inform potential consumers about the pitfalls of embarking on a mission to purchase this software. From my personal experience this game exhibits little gameplay difference compared to Assassin's Creed Unity. As many other reviewers have remarked, the glitches are just as apparent and unacceptable as they were in Unity. I am unsure as to what is going on in the present gaming world, but why does it seem that so many PS3/Xbox 360 games are/were performing better/more efficiently than the games being released on these supposedly "markedly improved next generation" systems (I have both systems so I compare them regularly)? The glitches and attention to detail on these games are lacking immensely. To many I am sure my complaints will seem petty but I am sure that others will agree that these issues detract from the fun and realistic nature of the game.

    For my starting point, I cannot stand in this game that your character seems to almost constantly meld with/pass through their enemies with whom they are engaged in combat. Often fatal strikes that would have been landed are lost to the software universe and no damage is inflicted on your assailant. Depending on the game this can sometimes mean the difference between success and having to restart a campaign or mission. I have also encountered on numerous occasions what can only be described as "falling into a black-hole or out of the world with no chance of escape" other than by dying or restarting the game.

    Another component I take issue with is the lack of effect your character seems to have on the environment. By this I mean that it appears your character is almost weightless and can navigate an environment as if they were a ghost. How is it that when one is free running across chains or beams suspended by only one rope, the chains don't even bend a little or the balance of the beam isn't affected at all? I mean even in AC4 Black Flag on PS3 the ropes that the lead character would cross on ships would at least bow in relation to his weight and position in space. A random point I might add is are you really going to punch a train car handle three times to activate the release? Is it really that hard to just program the character to look as if they are struggling to raise a lever? Also there is little to no interaction from civilians/observers. These elements are trivial to many and may require far more data to actually incorporate into a game but important to me because it shows the developers actually took time to focus on the little details to really make a game stand out (for example games like Heavy Rain incorporating facial hair growth on lead male characters and baggy/blood shot eyes to display weariness/fatigue/heightened stress; Until Dawn displaying foot print paths in the snow showing exactly where your character has been; State of Decay incorporating fatigue when fighting/fleeing, scavenging for survival and being susceptible to disease/pestilence; Hitman series where if civilians observe you with a weapon they run to notify authorities). Small details but they truly add to the experience of making it real to life, more challenging, and they dramatically increase its repeat play-value in many consumers minds.

    AC4 did provide many of these details and on a "less developed gaming system" at that! Not to mention AC4 took the best parts of AC2 and AC3 and combined them into one great game (the hunting, ship sailing, village construction and trade, alternate story lines/missions, side quests, etc.). AC Syndicate fails as miserably at these concepts as AC Unity did. Yes in AC Syndicate they add the element of fighting on moving trains and carriages but in all actuality who really cares if that and a few added combo moves are all the new features the developers really incorporated? Those attributes are more like new DLC to be purchased and added to an existing game. It is not worth charging full price and claiming it to be an entirely new experience in of itself. As one user remarked, I expect this game will be in the "marked down/discount bins" soon enough. If you absolutely must test it out I encourage you to do so but I would be patient and wait until it gets to that discounted price. I am sad to see the gaming industry heading this way and even more disheartened that we can't even count on honest professional reviews any longer as almost everything in present society has moved to money changing hands in exchange for praise and positive press. Of course maybe I am naive and it has always been like this in some form or another but I can say that I am glad that there are many reviews that can be counted on in my experience. Those reviews are the eloquent, intelligent, and sensible reviews of the real gamers and consumers.    … Expand
  3. HiHereIsMe
    Nov 11, 2015
    1
    This is really one of the worst games I have ever played. I am an Assassin´s Creed player since Day One. And I really loved the complete Desmond saga for its complex and fascinating story. But with this Ubisoft put everything, which made Assassin´s Creed so special, out of the game. This game is made for the great mass of the population. It´s just Popcorn Cinema with a story so complex, IThis is really one of the worst games I have ever played. I am an Assassin´s Creed player since Day One. And I really loved the complete Desmond saga for its complex and fascinating story. But with this Ubisoft put everything, which made Assassin´s Creed so special, out of the game. This game is made for the great mass of the population. It´s just Popcorn Cinema with a story so complex, I could write it on a beer mat for you. It´s just good against evil and that´s all. The protagonists are just stereotypes of young rebels, the mission design is monotonous and boring. What Ubisoft gives us about the First Civilization and the Templar-Assassins-Conflict is a joke. Additionally the developers made the game much more brutal and put the fighting in the centre of the gameplay. This is no more a stealth game. This is no more an Assassin´s Creed.
    WHAT UBISOFT GIVES US HERE IS AN INSULT FOR ALL ASSASSIN´S CREED FANS.    … Expand
  4. WwWWw
    Oct 23, 2015
    0
    You can tell even the professional reviews were trying to find a sneaky way to tell the consumer that the game is still a broken mess. ("They fixed most of the glitches", "the gameplay is somewhat improved") it's clear that money changed hands here because this game is just as bad as unity when it comes to the bugs and the uninspired characters/story.

    Biggest glitches I've experienced    You can tell even the professional reviews were trying to find a sneaky way to tell the consumer that the game is still a broken mess. ("They fixed most of the glitches", "the gameplay is somewhat improved") it's clear that money changed hands here because this game is just as bad as unity when it comes to the bugs and the uninspired characters/story.

    Biggest glitches I've experienced in my three hours with the game so far:
    -Fell through the world and had to restart.
    -My carriage hit a bump of some sort and flipped over like someone did the old warthog jumping glitch in Halo.
    -Textures all over the place take longer to load than in thps5.
    -The freerunning has somehow got worse since unity so they made the zipline I guess to keep you from climbing and breaking the game. Only my character fell off the line halfway across a gap and then ragdoll'd around until magically resetting on the ground as if nothing happened.
    -The combat is once again a disaster and there was even one person I kept punching that got stuck in a wall and wouldn't go down so I had to restart.
    -fell into a wall while climbing once. Luckily I just fell to the ground and was then able to walk right through the wall and back into the street. No reset necessary that time.

    And those are just the notable things in 3 hours of play. I'm not THAT much of a glitch magnet. This is inexcusable.

    I love how all the professional reviews dodge around the fact that horse carriages are the most broken gameplay element since the batmobile or the witcher 3 horse. Leave vehicles to racing games already!

    I usually just come to the user reviews section here because the critic reviews are all or mostly lies. I'm starting to see some devs or friends of devs bleed through into this section though. Nobody that actually played this game would rate it 10/10. Even if you liked it and you weren't being paid to write the review, at best I can see the game being an 8 if there weren't so many bugs and you liked the story I guess.

    Anyway, I'm giving this a zero because 10 and 0 are the only numbers that stand out and get read here. And this is certainly no 10.

    Don't be fooled by the corrupt reviewers! I bought my copy at full price and once again I was left wondering why Ubisoft is still in business. Assassins creed just needs to take a long break and get a different dev team to be worth buying ever again.    … Expand
  5. MONSTATURKEY
    Oct 31, 2015
    0
    This game has no improvement to unity! The clunky controls, the slow movements and the repetitive game play make this game a complete failure that even the Die-Hard assassin fans would dislike.
  6. TomBurgs99
    Nov 4, 2015
    2
    Visuals and soundtrack are amazing - but that's pretty much it.
    This series seriously needs a rest for 2-3 years at the minimum!
    Why? First of all this game is so easy that any 4 yo kid could play it. Your brain is never ever challenged, killing enemies and climbing are so automatic, that it gets really boring really fast. Missions are the same and feels so repetitive that you lose    Visuals and soundtrack are amazing - but that's pretty much it.
    This series seriously needs a rest for 2-3 years at the minimum!
    Why?
    First of all this game is so easy that any 4 yo kid could play it.
    Your brain is never ever challenged, killing enemies and climbing are
    so automatic, that it gets really boring really fast.
    Missions are the same and feels so repetitive that you lose interest in the story
    - it's only the money I've paid for the game, that really makes me bother to start up the game.
    So Ubisoft: we all know you can make a beautiful city, now start to make some good story missions,
    that are interesting and surprising and doesn't feel like you're doing the same over and over again.
    Played all AC games - still think Black Flag was the best...though it probably didn't had much AC in it. But the perfect pirate adventure! Lots of weird glitches too.

    On the plus side, I like that going back to actual time, it is now just cutscenes - especially after last years extremely uninteresting first person gaming.

    Again - Take a good long break from AC Ubisoft....you're killing it with every year productions!    … Expand
  7. Zararsiz
    Oct 23, 2015
    0
    Had much faith in this and saw it as a new start and was let down again...
    If you arent sick of the same AC games over and over again this game is just for you!
  8. Thiiagro
    May 15, 2021
    0
    The worst AC I ever played. The weakest story ever. The missions are tooooo boring. So repetitive. Disgusting. I wish I could have my money back!
  9. Sashik317
    Aug 1, 2020
    0
    Игра говно. Мы играем за братьев Фрай, где сестра куда круче и умней тупоголового Джейякоба. Игра механиекой больше напоминает бэтмена на минималках. Боёвка говно, физика корет говно. Феминистический высер!
  10. D3nji
    Sep 26, 2022
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Assassins creed syndicate is one of my favorites assasins creed games,i really don't know why some people hate so much this game,syndicate is incredible and incomparable with AC unity, it have great characters a great open map,a great history and so much extra things to do if you are tired of the principal missions,the end of the game is so epic,on the final battle with crawford starrick is so much exciting,and after win the battle yoy really fell that you have a great journey,AC syndicate is in my favorite assassins creed games with blackflag obviously… Expand
  11. Nobilis1984
    Nov 15, 2020
    4
    The end of the classic AC style. There has never been such a monotonous and tough game in the series until 2015.
    Today I played it again and had the same feeling as an Odyssey.
    The game is just extremely monotonous and boring. At that time there were no fresh ideas to turn things around. That the botch ends up in XBox Gold. The icing on the cake is the controls that are more suitable for a tank.
  12. Joellemm
    Jun 1, 2018
    3
    Going back to Syndicate after Origins was a stupid idea on my part. The game has a greater focus on stealth, taking certain elements from the Hitman series to improve many of its most important missions, and having a wealth characters well differentiated from each other.

    The city of London is beautifully realised but sadly the utilisation of the world is completely uninspired. You spend    Going back to Syndicate after Origins was a stupid idea on my part. The game has a greater focus on stealth, taking certain elements from the Hitman series to improve many of its most important missions, and having a wealth characters well differentiated from each other.

    The city of London is beautifully realised but sadly the utilisation of the world is completely uninspired. You spend a great deal of time traversing many areas that look and feel the same, and with very little variety in enemy appearances, the game feels repetitive. Side missions are especially bad in this regard, offering the same tasks in the same location types over and over again. Its so artificial. The gameplay does not align with the missions it sets, with glitchey environmental interaction and NPCs. The combat is equally repetitive and glitchey. Missions in higher level boroughs leads to unnecessary backtracking later; if you are a completionist. The plot is boring. The character's potentials are never fulfilled. I could go on for a while describing what makes the game such a failure but I cannot be bothered.

    It really is a poor addition to the series.    … Expand
  13. Soxman
    Oct 21, 2018
    1
    This game is boring, repetitive and not fun. The story is boring. You follow two characters with different goals but the only conflict in the game between the characters is that they want different things and their father. There are no stakes to any of the arguments, they do not affect the game in any manner. The conflict between the main characters holds no weight as they have no effectThis game is boring, repetitive and not fun. The story is boring. You follow two characters with different goals but the only conflict in the game between the characters is that they want different things and their father. There are no stakes to any of the arguments, they do not affect the game in any manner. The conflict between the main characters holds no weight as they have no effect on the game. The characters themselves are just so bland that they make the main story insufferable. The story is cliche with some awful dialogue. Worst of all, any momentum the game tries to build is immediately stopped by the god-awful story. The free roam in this game is useless because the map is so small that running around in the city gets very boring very quick

    The gameplay is very bad. The combat is very boring and uninspired. The stealth in this game is horrendous. There is no need for a player to be stealthy while playing a stealth mission. The main problem in this game is that there are no stakes. If you mess up, just run away from the fight and everything is reset. The final boss fight is repetitive.

    The gang wars in this game are boring, you would expect them to be a grand event filled with great action that gets your blood pumping, however, that is not the case. You fight a handful number of enemies and you are done.

    The textures in this game are well done and the city looks great, however, the map is so small that free running is dull. There no interesting sets in this game, everything is flat. There is no reason the game should have two main characters. The game says that one is stealthier than the other but in reality, their fighting style is more or less the same.

    This is not a good game.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

45
#45 Best Xbox One Game of 2015
15
#15 Most Discussed Xbox One Game of 2015
16
#16 Most Shared Xbox One Game of 2015

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 22 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 22
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 22
  3. Negative: 0 out of 22
  1. TrueAchievements
    Dec 16, 2015
    90
    The combination of an interesting and diverse cast of characters and the entertaining and compelling story sit perfectly in the beautifully recreated 1860’s London. It doesn’t do everything to solve all the series’ problems, missions can feel repetitive and there are some minor AI bugs that will shatter the sense of immersion occasionally, but by taking a step backwards and removing much of the excess baggage that the series has accumulated over the years of annual releases, Syndicate has become the best Assassin's Creed since Brotherhood.
    Read full review
  2. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Dec 3, 2015
    60
    Syndicate is a solid sequel that will delight fans of the series, but most likely will not draw new people to the brand. If only devs pay more attention to an optimization and get rid of repeatable tasks, the result could be significantly better. [Issue#258]
  3. Shacknews
    Nov 19, 2015
    70
    It isn't a terrible game by any means, and I'd rank it much higher on the totem pole than the previous installment, Assassin's Creed Unity. But that doesn't change the fact that Ubisoft's latest assassin-centered story is only a few shades above mediocre.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »