‘Assassin’s Creed Syndicate’ Dev Promises Better Game By Improving Characters, Getting Player Feedback

“Assassin’s Creed Syndicate” will be Ubisoft’s next title following the rather glitchy “Assassin’s Creed Unity.” The developer received flak for what is termed an unfinished game released prematurely, given all the issues players encountered.

However, Ubisoft is taking all precautionary measures to ensure “Assassin’s Creed Syndicate” will see a more successful launch and be a more fluid game. In an interview with GameSpot, the developer took some time to expound on what the team is doing with the latest project to ensure a smoother gameplay experience.

Level Design Director Hugo Giard revealed with “Assassin’s Creed Syndicate,” the company will focus more heavily on the character to drive the experience instead of making the story’s setting the main driving point.

Despite this, however, Creative Director Marc-Alexis Cote assured the entire franchise still has a direction toward which it’s heading. What may have thrown people off is the concept of cycles going through the series, and with “Assassin’s Creed Syndicate,” Cote revealed a new cycle is on its way.

As far as ensuring the best title possible when the game is released, the developer felt ambitions for this year’s installment are backed by solid foundation. Cote emphasized there was a playable demo at E3 2015 is already one telling feature, as it has never been done so early in any iteration of the game.

Another way by which Ubisoft is acting on “Assassin’s Creed Syndicate” is by asking player feedback on last year’s “Assassin’s Creed Unity.” In a video spotted by Digital Trends, Jonathan Dank, user research project manager for Ubisoft, tried to get player feedback after showcasing this year’s titles at the last two gaming events.

There were a number of positive comments on the game, particularly its combat and stealth mechanics. Grapples and vehicles were praised as additional means of getting around the city. One fan even commented the game played better than “Assassin’s Creed Unity.” The hand-to-hand combat was also compared to “Black Flag” instead of “Unity.”

On the other hand, there are also still a couple of issues the developer has promised to fix. Obviously, the play-tested game was still on alpha mode. Ubisoft promised other play-tests from which the developer will gather intelligence to improve the game even more.

“Assassin’s Creed Syndicate” is slated for an Oct. 23 release. It’s headed to the Xbox One, PS4 and PC platforms.