| Assassin's Creed Syndicate | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Ubisoft Quebec |
| Publisher(s) | Ubisoft |
| Director(s) |
|
| Producer(s) | François Pelland |
| Designer(s) | Frédéric St-Laurent B |
| Programmer(s) | Pierre-Luc Coté |
| Artist(s) | Thierry Dansereau |
| Writer(s) | |
| Composer(s) | Austin Wintory |
| Series | Assassin's Creed |
| Engine | AnvilNext 2.0 |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release | October 23, 2015
|
| Genre(s) | Action-adventure, stealth |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Assassin's Creed Syndicate is a 2015 action-adventure game developed by Ubisoft Quebec and published by Ubisoft. It was released on October 23, 2015, for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and on November 19, 2015, for Windows. It is the ninth major installment in the Assassin's Creed series, and the successor to 2014's Assassin's Creed Unity.
The game's plot follows the premise of the Assassin's Creed franchise, involving a fictional history of real-world events where a secret war has been fought for centuries between two factions: the Assassins, who promote peace and liberty, and the Templars, who desire peace through control. The framing story is set in the 21st century and features the same unnamed and unseen protagonist from Assassin's Creed Unity, who assists the Assassins in their race against the Templars to find an artifact hidden in London. The main story is set in London in 1868, at the onset of the Second Industrial Revolution, and follows twin Assassins Jacob and Evie Frye as they navigate the corridors of organised crime and take back the city from Templar control. The game also includes segments set in 1916, during World War I, which follow Jacob's granddaughter, Lydia Frye.
The game is played from a third-person perspective and its open world is navigated on foot or by carriage. Syndicate introduces new travelling systems to the series, as well as refined combat and stealth mechanics. Players control the two lead characters throughout the main story, switching between them both during and outside of missions. After launch, the game was supported with several releases of downloadable content (DLC), including three story expansions. The most notable of these, Jack the Ripper, is set twenty years after the main campaign and involves Evie's pursuit of the titular unidentified serial killer.
Assassin's Creed Syndicate received positive reviews upon release, with praise for its visuals, characters, narrative, and level design. However, the combat, open-world design and vehicle gameplay were met with some criticism. The game was nominated for multiple awards, including Best Action/Adventure at The Game Awards 2015. Syndicate was less financially successful than previous entries in the series, selling over 5.5 million units by November 2017. Ubisoft attributed the lower sales numbers to a series fatigue among players, caused in part by Assassin's Creed Unity's disappointing release the year prior, and decided to end the annual release cycle for the series. The next main entry, Assassin's Creed Origins, primarily set in Ptolemaic era Ancient Egypt, was released in October 2017, and acts as a soft reboot which introduces more role-playing mechanics and a new modern-day storyline.