Now that Assassin's Creed Syndicate has 60fps, are you ready to admit that it's one of the best AC games ever?

Nov. 19, 2024

Opinion | Justice for Jacob and Evie Frye, the most slept-on protagonists of Assassin’s Creed

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Before all the tech heads follow suit, I want it to be known that I have always been an ardent defender of Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. From the moment I first laid eyes on the Frye twins, shucking off their hoods on the misty rooftops of Whitechapel and proceeding to bicker in that loving yet exasperated way that only siblings can, I knew I’d get on with them. But I never understood why so many others didn’t.

Two for one

Assassin’s Creed Syndicate review: “it hasn’t been this much fun to wield the hidden blade in years”

Fellow Frye enthusiast Heather Wald highlights how she hopesthe dynamism of swapping between charactersis as fun and integral to Shadows' gameplay as it is to Syndicate’s – a sentiment I echo, too. From the joint player-controlled protagonists to the return of a grappling hook-like traversal system, these shared stylistic traits mark both games as identifiable products of Ubisoft Quebec. For that reason, Syndicate feels to me like a mandatory experience in the leadup to theupcoming Assassin’s Creed game, showcasing the origins of Ubi Quebec’s interest in character-swapping and the implications of doing so on an ever-evolving, overlapping narrative.

Pair that with some top-class voice acting, and you can’t help but be instantly hooked by their journey. Would I have preferred Evie’s storyline to pass the Bechdel test and revolve less heavily around a man? Sure, but I also appreciate how her romance with Henry Green proves an interesting parallel to Jacob’s budding…somethingwith one of the game’s most enigmatic, definitely queer coded villains. But a dissection of Jacob Frye’s implied bisexuality is a topic for another day. You’ll just have to trust me that Jacob and Evie Frye are a lot more than two wannabe gang leaders; they’re fully-formed individuals with goals, complexities, and flaws that had me yearning for a Syndicate sequel before I even rolled credits.

Syndicate is the perfect historical fantasy…

The final reason you absolutely need to give Syndicate a shot as a matter of urgency? Why, you’ll have the whole of Victorian London at your feet. I ranked it (potentially provocatively) high on my list ofbest Assassin’s Creed maps ranked by aesthetic, because I’m a sucker for a city-based Creed moreso than I am ones set in arid deserts or entire countries – sorry,Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.

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Syndicate is the perfect historical fantasy, a reimagining of 1800s London that feels both incredibly realistic in its shades of dreary greyandplayfully unserious. You can swing by Buckingham Palace to pick up a mission from Her Majesty Queen Victoria before going ghost hunting with Charles Dickens, scaling Big Ben, and causing a riot at Bedlam all within a couple of hours. In contrast, the must-play Jack the Ripper DLC doubles down on the atmospheric nature of Victorian London by removing the comedy entirely. A veil of dread, grief, and impending doom has been cast over the city, reflected not only in the DLC’s musical score but the more serious missions an older Evie Frye embarks upon a mission to save her brother and unmask the infamous serial killer stalking the streets of Whitechapel.

Even after 100% completion, I still find so much to marvel at in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. It’s one of the few games I refuse to delete from my overstuffed Xbox, frequently returning to it simply to walk about and soak in the ambience– and every time I visit real-life London, the itch to play Syndicate grips me almost instantly. It might be an acquired taste for some, but here’s hoping that my words have been enough to convince you to give the black sheep of Assassin’s Creed a fighting chance – especially now that Syndicate sports a buttery 60 frames-per-second to take some of the clunk out of those combat encounters.

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