Ubisoft got quite a bit of stick for not adding playable female characters to Assassin’s Creed Unity last year, not so much for the omission itself, but for their fairly mealy-mouthed excuse that adding women would be “a lot of extra production work” that they couldn’t justify. Hmm.
It’s not hugely surprising, then, to see rumours pop up indicating that this year’s entry in the franchise (incidentally to be titled Syndicate rather than Victory, as we initially thought) will feature the option to play as a woman for the second time in the series’ history.
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate will have two main characters, brother and sister Jacob and Evie Frye. Much like in GTA V, you’ll be able to swap between the two at certain points in the game, though according to Kotaku’s scoop it’s Jacob who’s the main focus of the narrative, at a rough 75% to 25% split. There are no multiplayer missions, according to a source within Ubisoft, but while you’re roaming the streets you can choose which character you’d like to play.
Both siblings are mired in Victorian London’s criminal underworld, which gives me nightmares about Dick van Dyke-style awful accents, and dialogue consisting of nothing but Cockney rhyming slang – surely Ubisoft won’t let that happen, right?
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is set to be revealed later today, at 9am PT/5pm GMT. I’ve embedded the reveal stream above.
