Assassin's Creed Syndicate Hands-On Review: 9 Things We Learned

8. London Is A Big, Beautiful Monster Of A City

Going full-on in the opposite direction to the lush nature of Assassin's Creed IV, Unity and now Syndicate have decided to keep the focus of the games mostly in the city. When I spoke with Syndicate's game director Scott Phillips, he said that there will be no countryside in Syndicate, and that the design focus is to make London as captivating as possible. Naturally, Phillips told me that each of London's eight boroughs has a distinct character , but I took this statement with skepticism, and decided to feel every area of the Big Smoke out for myself. And boy does London live up to that monicker. Climbing up any factory, boat mast or landmark gives you a stunning view across the whole city, which is 30% bigger than Unity's Paris. Looking out over London, you can see giant factory chimneys in Southwark belching out their noxious fumes against a sky that's slightly hazed by smog, even when it's sunny. The Thames, meanwhile, is clogged up with so many cargo boats that you can get over to the other side by hopping between them. While it's a bit flattering to say that each area in London has it's own character (they are in the same city, after all), there are define marked distinctions between the areas. Westminster and the City are wide-open areas filled with Bobbies (police, American readers) and well-to-do types, while Whitechapel is filled with back-alleys, urchins and crime, without any law enforcement in sight. Head south of the river, and the area is decidedly less populous, with docks and factories hugging the riverside. Head further south still, and things look a bit more rural, with spacious roads, medieval-style houses, trees and dirt roads. Of course, it'd take hours to memorise all of London's nooks and crannies, but what I've seen has left me curious to explore more.