It’s hard to believe what developers and publishers can get away with. When the PS4 and Xbox One first launched back in 2013 there was a flurry of ‘definitive editions’ for titles like Tomb Raider and DmC: Devil May Cry that were sold at full retail price but offered players the same games they’d bought and played just a few months ago on older hardware.
They looked and ran a little better, taking advantage of more powerful consoles while packing in oodles of downloadable content to justify double-dipping. First-party exclusives and other experiences were thin on the ground this early in the console lifecycle, so most people looking for something to play picked them up. This started a trend that continues in some fashion to this day, albeit in the form of paid digital upgrades.
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate’s New Update Is Very Impressive
For certain games that are a little older, companies know that daring to charge for a new and unexpected upgrade would see them dragged across the coals, so updates like this have developed a habit of appearing out of nowhere. Suddenly, Days Gone will be running fine at 4K/60fps on PS5 and we’re none the wiser, while Xbox has developed a great reputation thanks to its implementation of FPS Boost and AutoHD across its comprehensive back catalogue.
If Xbox isn’t releasing any new games, we’re at least safe in the knowledge its older ones will look really nice.
This week, however, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate received a surprise update for PS5 and Xbox Series X which eliminates the previous performance cap and lifts things to a smooth 60fps. The resolution has been boosted too, increasing from a sub-1080p image in some cases to a very impressive native 4K. It looks and feels incredible to play now. Previously, Syndicate suffered from similar performance and image quality problems to Unity, which uses the same engine and was evidently trying to push things too far on new hardware.
It was buggy, ran like garbage, and wasn’t worth the compromises required to enjoy it. The new patch is so good that now the community is begging Ubisoft to apply the same changes to other games in the series, with Origins and Odyssey already being jazzed up for the current generation.
Assassin’s Creed is something people will keep going back to (while new players are constantly discovering it for the first time), so it makes perfect sense for Ubisoft to keep delivering quick and easy updates like this that essentially remaster games without charging players.
Ubisoft’s Victorian London Adventure Used To Be Broken On PS5
For years, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate was plagued with bizarre visual issues on PS5 that saw the lighting flicker in and out of existence while exploring the open world, resulting in it being more or less unplayable. In fact, it was one of the few PS4 games to be labelled ‘Not Supported’ on the new console when it came out, leading plenty to investigate out of curiosity.
Eager fans pestered Ubisoft to fix this issue for months, but it didn’t seem interested in the idea of going back to an old game when all hands were needed for Mirage and Shadows. It eventually changed its tune, however, and hopped back into Syndicate to make things right.
Don’t get me wrong, Ubisoft probably would have charged for this upgrade if it had a chance, but rolling them out for true and keeping older games in the conversation is exactly how these sorts of things should be handled.
At this point, however, it still ran and looked how it always did, and I was satisfied with that. A few friends of mine won’t stop singing the praises of Syndicate, so I picked it up and all of its downloadable content on the cheap to make it my open world comfort game. I bounced off eventually, but this new 4K/60fps update brought me back for good.
I’m floored by how good its depiction of Victorian London looks on PS5 Pro and how well it runs. It’s not an exaggeration to say it’s transformative for the experience, and turns a game that always felt like it was being held back by its native hardware into one that exceeds it. I quickly fast travelled to the top of Big Ben to take in the landscape before me, taken aback by the increased draw distance and level of detail afforded by this upgrade.
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate has always been a good game, but now it feels like the open world adventure in Britain’s capital has finally reached its full potential.
