Assassin's Creed Syndicate E3 Trailer Starts A Gang War

A new trailer was released for Assassin's Creed: Syndicate to focus on the game's different ways of tackling a target, whether it be through carriage, trains or rooftop parkour. The video for Assassin's Creed: Syndicate at this year's E3 was fast and furious and gave gamers a taste of some of the action to come.

The video hosted on GamesHQ Media doesn't really tell us anything new that we didn't already know.

But we do see how gang members can be recruited to your own squad by taking out the leaders and recruiting their members. Unfortunately none of the cinematics actually replicate the real gameplay.

With Assassin's Creed: Syndicate since the game throws away the whole seafaring pirate gimmick from Assassin's Creed III, Assassin's Creed: Rogue and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, it means that there's going to be a stronger focus on traversing the environment and fighting. The only thing is, we haven't seen much of the fighting other than a snippet or two and I can't say that I was impressed.

The fighting in Assassin's Creed: Syndicate is mostly based around hand-to-hand fisticuffs, something that was optional in previous Assassin's Creed titles but not necessarily the focus. The hand-to-hand fighting in Assassin's Creed III looked really good with the tomahawks, but here in Syndicate the fighting – in the actual game mind you – doesn't look half as clean or as dynamic as we see it in the video above.

Maybe Ubisoft is refining the melee combat and animations for the game when it releases this fall. However, as it stands what I've seen so far is somewhat lackluster. The biggest drawback so far is that the fighting just isn't very smooth or cinematic. It also looks somewhat disjointed and sloppy in the actual gameplay.

However, if Ubisoft can manage to refine the combat to something smooth and decent then I think it could work out well.

I do have to say that the stealth-oriented combat involving Evie looks a lot smoother. Then again, the stealth kills and combat were always the highlight of the Assassin's Creed franchise so it's not surprising that the combat mechanics that made the series popular are the mechanics most refined.

Assassin's Creed Syndicate is due for release for the Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Will Usher

Staff Writer at CinemaBlend.