Syndicate runs a tighter ship than Unity

After the unmitigated disaster of Assassin’s Creed Unity, there’s healthy skepticism surrounding the quality of Ubisoft’s flagship franchise. Since 2009, the series has been on a yearly release schedule that has taken a toll on the series and its fans.

Not every game has been excellent -- far from it. The subsequent titles have been uneven efforts, with Assassin’s Creed II and Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag being the best of the bunch. With the unrelenting stream of sequels, the big question facing the series is: How long can Ubisoft keep this up? Are there any more stories left to tell?

The publisher answers that with Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, a title that goes back to the drawing board and doubles down on what the series does best -- transporting players to major epochs in history.

This time, the centuries-long feud between the Assassins and the Templars rears its head in Victorian London. The Assassin heroes are Jacob and Evie Frye, twins who find themselves on the bad side of a ruthless Templar industrialist named Crawford Starrick. The Fryes have to fight their way up the corporate ladder before they can take on the mustache-twirling villain — and if they can break up some street gangs and free some child laborers along the way, all the better.

Jacob Frye is much like previous assassins: cocky, sarcastic and smooth with the ladies. Evie, the first female protagonist in the main Assassin's Creed series, is a more refreshing addition. Jacob is better with the fisticuffs, while Evie is sneakier, but either is adept at the high-flying parkour at the heart of the game — especially with the addition of a rope launcher, a zipline that makes you feel like a sort of Victorian Batman as you soar between the London rooftops.

This particular era of merry old London is teeming with legends like Alexander Graham Bell and Charles Darwin who could use the help of a pair of low-profile fixers. Charles Dickens recruits the Fryes to look into suspicious supernatural events; Karl Marx invites them to rally workers against the capitalist machine. There are dozens of other side missions: assassinations, kidnappings, train robberies, even carriage races that turn the game into something like Grand Theft Horse-and-Buggy.

The primary missions revolving around Starrick are more complex, requiring thoughtful planning while offering a variety of approaches, noisy or subtle. The adventure takes some clever twists and turns — the Fryes' efforts have some unintended consequences — and while the overarching Assassin-Templar conspiracy remains opaque, this particular chapter builds to a worthy climax.

As expected in this kind of sprawling open world, there are some technical goofs: important characters who don't respond to your actions, scenarios that end abruptly for no apparent reason. But Syndicate is a tighter ship than Unity.

Overall, Ubisoft's London is one of its most inviting playgrounds yet, matching detailed re-creations of familiar landmarks with a lush, period-appropriate score. But the main attractions are Evie and Jacob, two of the most charming characters you'll ever meet when they aren't slitting Templar throats.