Assassin's Creed Syndicate had a lot going for it, but the game we got was a far cry from what it was originally meant to be.
Assassin's Creed Victory (as it was codenamed during development) painted a very different picture of Victorian London.
It's a decent game, but you can't help but feel like it missed the mark with all the potential it had. Looking at what we lost with Victory and what Syndicate could have been, it's hard not to say that Ubisoft fumbled the bag on this one.
Early leaks painted Victory's London as dirty and industrial, with a story that fully embraced the brutal reality of the time. The landscape of Victorian London was marked by extremes, with opulence and progress on one hand and crime and poverty on the other.
The original plan for Victory was to evoke this reality through a more intense and somber aesthetic. Imagine a city where the streets aren't merely historical remnants but active battlegrounds in a struggle for power, where the urban landscape itself feels as harsh as the people hiding within it.
Instead, Ubisoft went for something lighter. Syndicate turned Victorian London into an amusement park packed with gang fights, which felt more like a playground scuffle than a battle for survival.
The Jack the Ripper DLC showed that Syndicate was capable of pulling off a darker narrative, but by then, it was too late to overhaul the main game.
Victory was initially supposed to have one Assassin, Samuel Fay, who was supposedly more developed and thematically grounded. His outfit (which was rumored to be repurposed for George Westhouse) had an incredible aesthetic that fit the era's mood perfectly. It was never released to the player, leaving fans questioning why such a solid design was abandoned.
Mods have since brought some of these elements back, but it's frustrating to know that they were once part of the game's core vision. However, Ubisoft tossed that idea in favor of Jacob and Evie Frye. Now, was that necessarily a bad move? Not entirely. But truth be told, their execution wasn't great.
Jacob was reckless for the sake of it, while Evie was sidelined more often than she should have been. Instead of getting a well-rounded, singular character arc, we got a disjointed experience where neither protagonist was truly fleshed out. It's not the first time Ubisoft has done dual protagonists, but here, it feels like a bit of a forced move.
The rope launcher in Syndicate also had a lot of untapped potential, but it was ultimately underused. Early concepts for Victory envisioned the rope launcher being used not just for traversal but also for stealth and combat. Picture yourself swinging across the streets, performing aerial assassinations, or using it creatively in fights. Instead, the final version boiled down to a glorified zipline that made traditional parkour almost obsolete.
We have to give Syndicate credit where it's due—its London was stunning. But that doesn't mean it was immersive. It lacked the density, the lived-in feel that made Unity's Paris so unforgettable. The world felt strangely sterile.
What really stings about Victory's lost potential is that it could have been the definitive Assassin's Creed experience set in Victorian London. The gothic architecture, the murky streets, the political intrigue—all of it was prime material for a classic Assassin's Creed game.
Ubisoft has a habit of scrapping incredible concepts, and Victory feels like one they really dropped the ball on. That being said, Syndicate is still worth playing. It has its strengths, and for many, it remains a favorite.
Maybe one day, they'll revisit the ideas they abandoned and give us the darker, more immersive Victorian Assassin's Creed we were supposed to get.
But until then, all we have is the knowledge that somewhere in Ubisoft's archives, there's a version of Victory that could have been a true masterpiece.