Assassins Creed Syndicate Horse

Love it or hate it, there's no denying the success that Ubisoft's now annual Assassin's Creed franchise has experienced. Recently, however, the series has become somewhat of a mixed bag in terms of quality. The trend began back in 2012 with the divisive Assassin's Creed III featuring a host of issues, then after success returned the following year with Black Flag, things fell apart once more with last year's Assassin's Creed Unity - a title overwrought with major bugs, glitches and online issues.

With Ubisoft Quebec now leading development on this year's entry, Assassin's Creed Syndicate, instead of the Montreal Studio, the developer appears to be preparing for the future by looking at the failures of the past.

In a statement to Eurogamer, a Ubisoft spokesman confirmed that Assassin's Creed Syndicate will not have a dedicated companion app nor will the title have any sort of multiplayer component. The reason for this sudden shift in philosophy appears to be directly related to quality control, letting the development team make sure it can deliver on the single-player experience.

"There will not be a companion app. For Assassin's Creed Syndicate, the team wanted to focus all their efforts on the core experience." - Ubisoft Spokesperson.

The companion app has been a series staple since Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, where players could use it to utilize an interactive map or interact with the Kenway's Fleet minigame. Last year's version, Unity, received a lot of criticism from critics and fans alike for using the companion app to lock content in the main game behind progression in the second screen experience. Players who did not wish to participate lost access to treasure chests and various costumes from within the main game. The companion app experience from Assassin's Creed Unity eventually became a lost cause, though, as a patch months after it's release disabled all online requirements, letting people finally open up chests that were previously locked behind the app.

Assassins Creed Unity Face Glitch
An accurate depiction of a 18th century Frenchman.

Considering all of the issues that Assassin's Creed Unity suffered with in its core experience, allowing the development team to focus solely on the single player campaign rather than trying to shoehorn multiple added features on top of it seems like a wise plan. As Unity can be seen as a financial disappointment, the title became the butt of many jokes typically using a screenshot depicting a common glitch that removed the facial features from a lead character, leaving only the eyes and mouth behind (see above).

Not wanting to suffer another misstep with Syndicate, Ubisoft appears poised to try and correct past issues with the franchise with this year's entry. For more on Assassin's Creed Syndicate, make sure to check out our hands on preview along with the top 5 new features being added.

With Ubisoft Quebec leading development on this title, are you feeling a bit more optimistic about this year's Assassin's Creed game?

Assassin's Creed Syndicate is scheduled for release on October 23 for Xbox One and PlayStation 4. The PC version is scheduled at a later date.

Source: Eurogamer