Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is known for its unique approach to protagonists as far as Assassin’s Creed games go: rather than starring one protagonist, Syndicate stars two. Twins Jacob and Evie Frye are the player characters for Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, with screen time and mission divvied up between the two of them.
But do the twins have equal screen time? The game is divided up into sequences, and both twins have a progression of quests during each sequence, but if we take a closer look at exactly how many quests each twin has, the results aren’t a 50/50 even split. One twin gets more time than the other, at least as far as the main quest is concerned.
During development of Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, Ubisoft originally planned for both twins to have an equal amount of screen time in the game. Equal amount of missions to embark on, and qqual time for the players to take on the persona of each twin. But Ubisoft, known for having trouble including playable females in past Assassin’s Creed games, decided to change plans: instead, Jacob got more quests than his equally capable sister, Evie.
The story of Syndicate does include a character development arc for each twin: Jacob learns to better follow the Assassin’s Creed, while Evie learns that the Creed isn’t everything – there’s more to life. Unfortunately, because of the way each twin’s time onscreen is split, Evie’s character arc is more rushed, and Jacob’s is arguably a little too drawn-out. Each twin could’ve had a solid, fulfilling narrative if their screen time was truly split 50/50, but as we’ll look at next, that’s just not the case. While Syndicate has a fun narrative overall, it’s hindered by the fact that Ubisoft worried more Evie would mean fewer sales, when that’s not necessarily the case.
So let’s take a look at Jacob’s overall screen time in Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate. Sequence one is all Jacob, sequence two is all Evie, and sequence three is pretty evenly spread between the two and quite short, with one for each and then five introductory liberation missions that are player’s choice, but sequence four is where the disparity begins. Sequence four contains seven main missions: four for Jacob, two for Evie, and one for either of them (again, player’s choice). Sequence five continues the pattern with the exact same numbers as its predecessor, and sequence six contains five missions: three for Jacob, and two for Evie.
Sequence seven contains another six missions, with four for Jacob and two for Evie, followed by sequence eight with another four missions – and these are exclusively all for Jacob. Sequence nine is the final sequence, and it contains four missions in total: two for Jacob, one for Evie, and one with the both of them as the player switches back and forth between each twin. So here’s the math: all in all, Jacob has twenty-four main quests, while Evie has a mere twelve. There are an additional seven quests where either Syndicate twin could be the player character.
It should be noted that there’s a lot of free exploration time between sequences in which the player conquers the burroughs of London, and in that time they can play as whoever they wish. So for Evie fans, it can feel like she gets plenty of screen time, but her actual narrative arc is quite short compared to her brother’s. It’s a pity, since Evie is just as interesting of a character, if not more so.
However, there’s another aspect of Assassin’s Creed Syndicate that needs to be mentioned before the final judgement is cast of Jacob and Evie’s compared screen time: the game’s DLCs. The Streets of London gameplay pack contains one mission for Evie and three interchangeable ones; The Last Maharaja, meanwhile, comes with a series of quests that are mostly either interchangeable or involve both twins. There are only two solo quests in the DLC pack, one for each twin.
Finally, there’s Jack the Ripper, and this final DLC takes place about 20 years after the events of the main game, wherein Evie Frye is the exclusive player character. It follows her return to London after Jacob’s disappearance, and she embarks on a mission to destroy infamous serial killer Jack the Ripper once and for all. Jack the Ripper represents quite the chunk of DLC, because it’s impressively all dedicated to Evie, the DLC goes quite a ways towards evening the screen time between Jacob and Evie.
Counting Jack the Ripper and other DLC, that’s twenty-five missions for Jacob, and twenty-three for Evie, with all the rest being interchangeable or playable by both. So, DLC included, Jacob and Evie are almost even. That’s not bad, but keep in mind that DLC isn’t mandatory for the rest of the game, and not everybody is going to play it.
Given all that, do Jacob and Evie have comparable screen time in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate? Ultimately, it doesn’t feel like they do. Despite the DLC, Jacob and Evie’s main character arcs take place in the base game, and it’s those arcs that allow players to really get a feel for the twins. Looking at those character arcs, it’s clear that they’re not at all even: Jacob gets far more screen time and missions than Evie, which doesn’t really make much sense. They’re the Frye twins. Shouldn’t they be pulling the same amount of weight?
Yes, the DLC does make Evie’s screen time comparable to Jacob’s, and perhaps Ubisoft was trying to correct its initial treatment of Evie by making her the star of Jack the Ripper. Still, the fact remains that as far as plain old Assassin’s Creed Syndicate goes, Evie Frye got the short end of the stick. DLC is optional, and for there to have been fair treatment, one character could not have been an option.
Hopefully, Ubisoft is becoming more and more aware of this, and is working on improving its outlook and work conditions. Looking back at Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, though, it’s hard not to wish Evie got just as much love from Ubisoft as her brother.
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is available to play on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
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