The AC: Syndicate Trailer-A Mini Vent (SPOILERS)

I don’t have fits regularly, but they do happen every once and a while. The Assassin’s Creed Syndicate trailer was revealed last week and was all over my Twitter feed. While I was intrigued, I did not move forward with watching. Here’s why: I don’t want to be set up for disappointment. The AC series is one of my favorite games. The first one, though redundant, really poked at my conspiracy theory crazy part of my brain and then I got enveloped in the story of Templars and Assassins and their war that spans thousands of years in their quest to gain the knowledge of the first. As I progressed throughout each game, I was more into Desmond’s story line and how his genetic ancestry helped protect the ancient artifacts such as the Apple of Eden. There were of course low points where Ezio’s story went on too long (Revolutions not so great), but I felt the games made quite a good recovery with AC III. Connor was very different from other assassin’s and the story just felt deep, at least it was for me. This is where Desmond’s story hit really high peak with learning about the first and the interactions with them, and regardless of his death, I needed to know what happened to the world after that. When you start AC: Blackflag, you learn about the body recovery and the use of Desmond’s memories to make films, there is little interaction with the first, and there isn’t much information on what is happening with the Templar and Assassin war in the present world. Sean and Rebecca make a cameo but they don’t say much either. This is when I started getting lost, because the intense story line that Desmond and his memories provided started losing its presence. My first issue started with not knowing who you are playing as. I like the story of the characters outside of the animus because they are dealing with the current war. Moving on to Unity, you don’t even leave the animus to see who you are. You are just an initiate. Even Arno’s story was a little lacking and the pattern of memories was predictable for the most part. I enjoyed the games, but this has led me to lose faith in the success of the stories. Which brings me to Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. I have seen a few photos, but I am not watching the trailer quite yet. My mom asked me why (because she is now an AC nutcase) and I told her because I am expecting to be severely disappointed. The story is one of the things that drew me into the series because there was the constant mystery of the First and the war between Templars and Assassins and how this all affected the present world outside of the animus. That has been pretty absent in the past couple of games so the curiosity and need to know constantly gets punched. I had high hopes to learn more, but there was no opportunity because it wasn’t built into the game. While many people are excited about this game, and of course I have room to be surprised by this, but the overwhelming fear of being disappointed is just so strong. Will the end of the world business be addressed? Where the hell is Desmond’s dad? Where are Sean and Rebecca hiding out? WHY WON’T ANYONE TELL ME WHAT IS GOING ON? When I finished III, I was left with more questions that were unanswered, and it feels like the goal of the company was to sweep these under the carpet and to derail the entire series and take it in a weird direction. I enjoyed the opportunity to experience different stories of the ‘historical’ figures… but seriously where is the direction towards the truth that they built up so large and then just got cut off? BAH. I will end up buying Syndicate, because I am always hoping each game will end up going back to the intense mystery and poke at that feeling that makes me want to keep getting deeper into the story. But for now, I don’t want to watch the trailer because it will get me hyped up for something awesome, and then I will end up buying the game, playing it, and saying it was ok, it could have been better, where is the information on the first and their influence on the world. It is a cycle that I am hoping will break, and the story will continue instead of doing whatever is going on presently. Until then…I’m going to have my internal fit about this. -A Crazy Vent by Meghan Rodriguez (Twitter: @collins_m81)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *