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

5. London Is Alive With Incredible Detail & Varied NPC Animation

Everywhere you go in Syndicate's London, you'll witness something intriguing. Standing right next to an old couple overlooking the pond in Hyde Park, I eavesdropped in on their wholesome conversation about industrialisation's effect on the environment, before shoving them around, knocking the parasol out of the woman's hand, and moving on across the park to watch a game of cricket played by a bunch of well-dressed gents. To get across the Thames to south London, I decided to frogger my way across the boats clogging up the river rather than take the bridge like an ordinary dullard. Once I wove my way through the grimy docklands of Southwark - barely surviving a scrap with a meat-cleaver-armed brute who worked for the area's gang leader - I headed towards what appeared to be a large church in the area. As I jumped the wall into the grounds of the church, I discovered to my delight that it was a mental asylum (or should I say, in true Victorian fashion, 'Loony Bin'). People dressed in pyjamas wandered around the grounds of the asylum, rabbling to themselves inanely, but with just enough nuance for it to be convincing, rather than comical. There's a spontaneity to the city too, as I witnessed an urchin helping up an old lady who'd tripped over, and several people nearly get run over by speeding horse carriages. To my amusement, I managed to cause a traffic jam of around 10 carriages when I left my stolen one in the street for a few minutes. Who'd have thought Victorian horse traffic would be so orderly? The actual geography of the city is a bit less than accurate (Whitechapel is east of the City, not north of it), but that shouldn't bother anyone but the most fervent cartographers. London 'feels' great, whether you're wandering around markets or listening to a gentleman telling stories to a crowd in Trafalgar Square.