DLC #159 - Assassin's Creed Syndicate - Jack The Ripper

The scope for content during the London Victorian Era is full of intriguing ideas, so it's a little bit disappointing that Assassin's Creed Syndicate only bought out a single piece of DLC content. 

The good news is, they probably picked the strongest and most befitting idea of them all, focusing on the iconic serial killer, Jack the Ripper.

The succession of murders, that took place in Whitechapel, England in 1888 ultimately ended up unresolved, and this level of mystery made these crimes notorious in English folklore. The ambiguity also lends perfectly for the developers to run with their own narratives, characters and conclusion to the tale.

The story begins with Jack the Ripper having already committed the murders of 5 prostitutes, true to the real life crimes the Ripper was allegedly guilty of. However, in an added twist to lay the foundations of the plot, it also seems that Jack the Ripper is responsible for the death of Jacob Frye. This leaves you to play through the DLC as Evie Frye, with the main motivation being to stop the Ripper and understand what exactly happened to Jacob - His case is treated as a mysterious disappearance, but it's made quite clear to the player that Jacob is possibly killed during a very early confrontation with the Ripper. As part of the story, you will also control the Ripper during certain segments, which is a nice touch, as the game retains the angle of playing from the perspective of 2 different characters in the absence of Jacob Frye.

The DLC retains much of the main games approach, though it does implement a few fresh ideas. There is now a Fear mechanic in place, whereby you can disperse groups of enemies by pulling off specific attacks which will cause them to flee in terror, rather than relying on killing everyone in sight. This comes with the addition of some toys, including fear spikes and fear bombs. It's a neat little tweak, and makes combat much easier than killing seemingly endless waves of enemies.

There are also new associates you'll meet throughout the 10 memory sequence, who will provide a range of new side activities to complete. These are all required to achieve every trophy in the list, so to see some fresh injection of ideas into this, rather than just rinse and repeats from the main game, is also a good touch.

The 7 trophies are easy to achieve, and do lean into the fear mechanic quite heavily. You should unlock all of these progressing towards 100% completion, including a final trophy for concluding the story and unveiling the mystery behind Jack the Ripper, but there is a bit of additional legwork required here;

Ripperologist - Achieve 100% synchronisation in Jack the Ripper.

 

The "Ripperologist" trophy, requires the player to complete all content within the Jack the Ripper DLC. This wasn't a requirement for the Platinum trophy, so this is a sudden change in expectations, and full completion will require the following;

Beating 10 main story memories, including all optional mission constraints, completing 21 Associate Activities, including all optional mission constraints and collecting a total of 98 collectible items, spread across Chests, Posters and Helix Glitches.

Everything you do within this DLC works towards this trophy. The Story is great and full of intrigue, and as long as you follow the logic of completing the optional missions constraints as you play through, this will minimise the necessity to replay any memories. With that considered, it's around a 6-7 hour experience.

You'll meet 3 new Associates throughout the plot too, which will unlock a host of new side activities to complete. Most of these are fresh experiences, and a couple of them are carried over from within the main game. These also come with optional mission constraints which need to be completed in order to reach 100% synchronisation, so it's important to make sure these are fulfilled in the same method as per the main story missions. These 21 additional activities, assuming no replay required, should be another 2-3 hours on top.

Finally, and it wouldn't be Assassin's Creed without some arbitrary collectibles, you'll need to jump around the city and find 98 collectibles. This is a fairly standard map-hopping exercise, but it is important to note that you will venture into 3 unique locations as part of the main plotline, where some of these collectibles are housed, so if you're missing any, they're probably there. You'll need to replay the relevant memory where you visit these areas if you missed any collectibles the first time round. As before, you'll be able to purchase treasure maps at £5,000 each, which will reveal the locations of all collectibles. Add another 1-2 hours for this.

All in all, it amounts to the thick end of around 10-12 hours, with all focus on this trophy to cap the DLC off. It's a very casual experience, but a decent amount of time to put into a single trophy, where you effectively unlock the rest along the way. Exactly what was needed after being punished by The Division Survival DLC.