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

4. The Missions Were Varied, But Restrictive

In the time that I wasn't trying in vein to explore all of London on foot, I managed to play through several of the missions in sequence 7. It all started off pretty generically, as I chased a thieving little urchin through the backstreets of Whitechapel, before racing Evie to the top of a nearby factory. But throughout the sequence, I managed to get caught up in a horse-and-cart chase (something we've already seen in previous hands-ons), as well as a decent little stealth mission in which I had to take out a target in a covered market. During this mission, I took control of the stealth-oriented Evie, and fulfilled the bonus objective of taking the guy out by detonating the explosive crates near him. It was satisfying and reasonably challenging, as enemies seem to become suspicious of your shifty actions quicker than in previous outings, and are much more dangerous if you get caught. Other than that, I had a few street scuffles in my bid to take over the Whitechapel territory from Frazer Butchers (or whatever his cockney-villain name was) and also earned some kudos with the aforementioned 10-year-old leader of a child gang. The mission she sent me on entailed saving kids from a squalid sweatshop, was best played stealthily (if the alarm was raised then you'd be 'taken to the cleaners' in no time), and while it was easy, was also reasonably satisfying. Of the missions I played, I didn't get the sense that there were alternative ways to approach them. There seemed to be only one way into the buildings they took place in, and each mission heavily directed you to approach it in either a stealthy or combative way, with little room to adapt it to your own play-style.