Secondhand Opinions: Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Rise of the Tomb Raider and Just Cause 3

So 2015 has come and gone and we got a lot of fantastic, diverse games this year. However, there's an old saying that "the more things change the more they stay the same." While many games strive to bring new things to the table others endeavored to simply deliver a familiar experience. This worked really well for some games like Bloodborne and Fallout 4, but for other it feels like they are just running the numbers and are in desperate need of fresh ideas. Here are three games form last year that I haven't had the chance to play yet, but still want to talk about.

Assassin's Creed Syndicate

Assassin's Creed Syndicate is set in Victorian London and has two protagonists. Those are the only interesting things in this game.

Another year, another Assassin's Creed game comes out. After the disaster that was 2014's Assassin's Creed Unity the next Assassin's Creed just needed to be good. Thankfully, it seems that Assassin's Creed Unity is just that. A return to basics with the only real gimmick being the dual twin protagonists Jacob and Evie Fyre. However, from what I've been hearing most people would have preferred if Evie had been the sole protagonist of the game as she is a far more interesting and likable character then her brother Jacob, who seems to be a giant, snarky asshole. It seems that Ubisoft keeps trying to make another Ezio from Assassin's Creed 2 without understanding the subtlities that made him an interesting character in the first place. The Assassin's Creed franchise is thankfully taking a break this year so hopefully when it comes back in 2017 we actually get a great game again.

Rise of the Tomb Raider

I do know that the Tomb Raider reboot has some grisly death animations. I'd hate to see what this bear does to Lara Croft.

I know next to nothing about the Tomb Raider series and even less about the reboot series. I have two friends that have played the game. One who was a fan of the series from the beginning and absolutely despised the reboot for turning a unique environment exploration game into an Uncharted clone, and the other who has only played the first game in the reboot series thought it was alright. I personally curious about checking out the reboot as several game journalists I like such as Laura Kate Dale seem to really like the game. But since Rise of the Tomb Raider is currently an Xbox One exclusive and even though a PC port is coming my laptop prays for the sweet release of death everyday so I'll have to wait for the PS4 port of the game. I'm honestly not sure what to think of the reboot Tomb Raider and I'll likely have to check it out on my own before I give an honest suggestion. It very much seems to be a love it or hate it game.

Just Cause 3

Just Cause protagonist Rico Rodriguez and his physics defying grappling hook. 

I heard nothing but good things about the Just Cause games. Zero Punctuation gave the previous game in the series Just Cause 2 his 2010 Game of the Year, and general consensus is that the series is a wacky over the top physics defying explosion fest that will leave you on the edge of your set from beginning to end.   Just Cause 3 seems to be more the same with cooperative multiplayer which is fine, but I have heard that there was a great deal of behinds the scenes drama with developer Avalanche Studios and their publisher Square Enix. Apparently, Square Enix wanted the game to be a multiplayer only PC exclusive game because at the beginning of this console generation they had not faith that console games would be successful. When they were proven wrong they demanded Avalanche add a single player mode only about a year before the end of development. Traces of this rapid change in direction can be seen in the underwhelming single player campaign and the horrendous loading times on consoles. Still from what I hear the game is good so if that floats your boat I'd recommend checking it out.