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New trailer for Assassin’s Creed Syndicate shows off the game’s take on 1868 London

By Kris Wouk Published January 15, 2019

We’ve already seen a fair share of gameplay from the upcoming latest entry in the Assassin’s Creed series, but the latest trailer for Assassin’s Creed Syndicate takes a different approach, focusing on the world in which the game takes place.

The trailer allows the occasional brief peek at one of the game’s two main characters, but the real focus is on the world. London in the late 1800s was a grimy place, and that is represented here, but that doesn’t make the game look any less impressive. For every plume of greasy smoke there is a purple and orange sunset, for every look at the dirty Thames, we get a glimpse of a green grassy courtyard dotted with trees. England’s green and pleasant land (to quote William Blake) is well represented.

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After the multiple issues surrounding the launch of the last game in the series, Assassin’s Creed Unity, Ubisoft has been candid about wanting to make things right with Syndicate. Last month we reported that Ubisoft showed a demo to crowds at San Diego Comic-Con, asking them to be brutally honest when giving feedback.

The dual protagonists in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate — a first for the series — offer different styles of gameplay, with Evie playing a bit more like a character in a stealth game than her brother Jacob. A number of new mechanics have been added for this latest entry in the series, and while some have criticized them as being mere gimmicks, they might bring some much-needed variety to the series.

With the release date bearing down, the core gameplay and systems have likely been nailed down and the team will be focusing on ironing out bugs and refining the game mechanics. Hopefully, Ubisoft learned a lesson from the backlash against Assassin’s Creed Unity and will dedicate plenty of time and resources to ensuring the game launches in a polished state.

Barring any unforeseen delays, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate will be released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on October 23. The PC version will arrive sometime later, though no concrete release date has been specified so far.

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Kris Wouk is a tech writer, gadget reviewer, blogger, and whatever it's called when someone makes videos for the web. In his…

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How to get Knowledge Points and what they do in Assassin’s Creed Shadows

One of the protagonists in Assassin's Creed Shadows.

By the time we get to Assassin's Creed Shadows, most of us will be familiar with how the games work. Since transitioning more towards RPGs than stealth games, the titles have not only gotten longer but also embraced skill trees. Naoe and Yasuke each have unique progression paths to work through, but right away you will notice that most of the best abilities are gated off. Like Scouts, Knowledge Points are a new feature that you will need to master if you want to be the best assassin possible. We'll share all our knowledge about Knowledge Points with you.
How Knowledge Points work and how to get them

Knowledge Points are a separate system to XP that allows both Naoe and Yasuke to unlock the better and more powerful skills in all their skill trees. Unlike XP, you can't earn them by performing normal tasks or taking out enemies. Instead, Knowledge Points are rewarded for doing specific non-violent activities in Assassin's Creed Shadows.

Gaming

How long is Assassin’s Creed Shadows?

Yasuke in Assassin's Creed Shadows fighting an enemy. He's dressed in his samurai armor.

It's no secret that the Assassin's Creed games have gotten longer and longer over the years. This is typical for Ubisoft open-world titles, but many are hoping that Assassin's Creed Shadows has scaled back on the bloat a bit. There's always fast travel and finding the fastest ways to earn XP to cut down on the grind, but there's only so much time that can be saved. If you're worried that this game might be another 100-hour time investment to fully complete, let's use our Eagle Vision to scout out how long Assassin's Creed Shadows is before you start playing.
How long is Assassin's Creed Shadows?

As you would expect, the amount of time you could put into Assassin's Creed Shadows will vary wildly based on how you approach it. You can focus on just the story and nothing else, tackle a handful of side missions and activities, or attempt to complete anything and everything the game has to offer.

Gaming

Assassin’s Creed Shadows fixes my biggest problem with the series

The two protagonists in Assassin's Creed Shadows

The Assassin's Creed games have been on a steady path away from stealth ever since the series' first entry. I don't mean that stealth options were stripped out or haven't evolved, but it lagged behind the pace of a more direct approach. While Origins is seen as the major splintering point for the series into a full-blown action RPG, the series' identity crisis can be traced back much further. By the time we got Black Flag, stealth had become so inefficient and inessential that there was hardly a reason to bother with it at all outside of self-imposed challenges.

When the series did pivot into action RPGs, complete with weapon and armor scores, and made the protagonists more and more powerful, I fell off of the franchise. It not that I don't enjoy that style of game, rather that it wasn't what I came to Assassin's Creed for. With Assassin's Creed Shadows Ubisoft finally fixed that power creep problem without stripping those options out of the game. And that's thanks to its two character setup.
Jack of all trades, master of all
What caused me to fall out of favor with Assassin's Creed isn't that the series wanted to give players more options outside of a stealthy approach. Plenty of games proudly boast how they offer players the freedom to play sneaky or go in guns blazing. However, the issue with Assassin's Creed's for me was that one method invalidated the other.