Assassin's Creed: Syndicate - 8 Reasons Why The Modern Day Story Has To Go
8. It's The Weakest Storyline
Part of why many came to love the Assassin's Creed universe was because of its unique twist on History. Having players engage in a murky war between two secretive and shady organisations was a master stroke, especially when they have the ability to influence some of the most famous historical moments in the process. The historic war between the Assassins and Templars isn't a simple matter of 'good versus evil' either - as was made apparent by the oft overlooked AC: Rogue, which offered a brilliant new insight into the Assassin-Templar conflict that no other game has managed to emulate since. Sadly, Rogue also suffered massively from an atrocious continuation of Black Flag's modern day segments - having players trudge about to open doors and talk to irritating caricatures that they'd forgotten about by the time the credits rolled. The game could've functioned perfectly well without the modern story, and all it did was distract players from Shay's endeavours during the Seven Years War. Rogue isn't an anomaly however - in fact, each and every AC game has suffered from the modern day. It's totally irrelevant to the historical elements of the series, especially since an equally captivating tale could be told without the use of the animus nor the people who implore the player to use it.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
