The tone of Syndicate is clearly much darker than, say, Black Flag, but the cheekiness of Jacob and Evie came through in the gameplay demo. The game has a suitably dark Dickensian tone. This was the intention we had from the beginning – to bring a different tone to the story.” “They’re twins, with the playfulness of twins, but still have their own very different personalities. So, one of the things I was wondering was, what if we had those two bouncing off each other. We tried that on Assassin’s Creed 3 with Haytham and Connor, but they were coming one after the other. “I think two protagonists is something that can bring a lot of freshness to the way that we do storytelling. “Top of my wish list was ‘how can we tell a different story, and how can we tell a story differently?’” continues Côté. We have the chance to make something interesting and something that’s new.” And all of that shaped the way we made decisions in terms of innovation. “We made the decision on London, 1868, the Industrial Revolution, and Jacob and Evie all very early on. “I like to say that creating a new Assassin’s Creed game is like creating a new IP.” says Pelland. We’ll just have to wait to find out more. It’s an odd decision, especially considering how much criticism that Ubisoft has received in the past for not fully featuring female characters, but Evie is described as a real driving force in Syndicate. Right now we’ve only heard much about Jacob, as Evie is barely mentioned during our presentation at the Quebec office. It begins with the game’s two brand new assassins, the twins Jacob and Evie Frye, who are both playable and both at the centre of the game’s narrative.

And change is at the forefront of Syndicate. Britain is changing, the world is changing, and these monumental transformations set a perfect revolutionary stage for Assassin’s Creed. The year is 1868, the midst of the Industrial Revolution. Some of what you’ve heard about this game already is accurate - it’s set in London, for example. It’s a different process and a different mentality.”įactories belching acrid black smoke into the air beyond a snaking, highly polluted river? It can only be Victorian London. Even though it’s just 250km away from Montreal, it has a different way of approaching the creation and the production of a game. “A different core team and a different culture.

“It’s a completely different team.” continues executive producer, Francois Pelland. “From that day, I was aspiring to lead on an Assassin’s Creed game, and over the years I’ve been building my list of notes – the stuff I would do if I was in a leadership position.” “I actually remember the day I started working on Brotherhood.” says Marc-Alexis Côté, creative director on Syndicate. There’s no room for error this time around, and the team at Ubi Quebec are fully aware of the pressure that sits firmly on its shoulders. Assassin’s Creed 3 was a critical disappointment, and while last year’s Assassin’s Creed: Unity made great improvements to the mechanics that had remained so stagnant for so long, it had real technical problems when it was released, leading to huge boycotts and fan outrage. Assassin’s Creed is a self sustaining behemoth of a franchise, but it has had a troubled few years.

Mayhem syndicate