Why Evie In ‘Assassin’s Creed Syndicate’ Is The Stealthiest Assassin Yet

The gimmick with this year’s Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate is the ability to play as twin assassins Jacob and Evie. The twins have different approaches to their playstyle, with the former preferring his encounters more brash and bare knuckles, while the latter fancies the stealthy approach more. Ubisoft released a 10 minute walk-through video Friday, demonstrating what PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC players have to look forward to while playing Evie.

The Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate gameplay walk-through with Game Director Scott Phillips takes place during a “black box” mission. This concept was introduced in last year’s Unity and gives players multiple methods to complete an objective, or lets them choose their own.

In this case, Evie must assassinate the female Templar Lucy Throne, who is trying to obtain an ancient “shroud” artifact from the Tower of London. Evie can steal a key, climb to the top of the tower, and sneak her way in for a single-strike assassination. She can also free a constable, rally the guards, and take Thorne and her men head on. The third option is the interesting one, though, as it flaunts Evie’s ability to go invisible.

Phillips demonstrates Evie’s new chameleon passive ability that is available when she goes into stealth mode. “This skill is unique to Evie and allows her to become virtually invisible to the enemy, even on open ground,” the Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate director explained.

The chameleon skill is activated by standing still, and the player will then see ghostly outlines of her character. She is visible as soon as she moves again. Phillips was able to guide her around several patrolling guards using this method, though.

Evie holds another unique “knife master” ability. This gives her more throwing knives than her brother, and they do more damage when they strike their target. Throwing knives briefly takes her out of invisibility, but allows her to perform virtually silent one-shot headshot kills on enemies.

This isn’t the first time that Assassin’s Creed has featured a female assassin, as Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation starred Aveline de Grandpré as the main protagonist. However, this is the first time that players will be able to freely switch between assassins Jacob and Evie during open-world events.

The main storyline missions will primarily star Jacob, however, with the brother getting approximately 75 percent, versus the sister featured in the remaining 25 percent. This is due to the need to construct missions around each character’s particular set of skills.

“Our mission design actually depends on the personality of the protagonist that we are designing the mission for,” explains Associate Producer Andrée-Anne Boisvert. “These two people have very different personalities, so of course we’re going to design the missions to suit these differences.”

“Evie’s missions will be more oriented toward tactical choice and stealth by definition or design, and Jacob’s will be more about confrontation,” Creative Director Marc-Alexis Coté adds. “Their trees are a bit different. They will share a lot of core skills, but Jacob will have more combat skills, and Evie will have more stealth and infiltration skills.”

Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate is set for an October 23 release for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC. What do you think of the skills that Evie brings to the table? Sound off in the comments below.

[Images via Assassin’s Creed]