“‘Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate’s’ Victorian London Is Disappointing and

“‘Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate’s’ Victorian London Is Disappointing and Bland | Forbes But Victorian England? With likely shades of steampunk? I’ve seen it before. I saw it in Bloodborne, and The Order: 1886 just before that. I’ve seen this styling in countless fictional settings in games, movies and TV shows. It’s not a setting that shocks or surprises: it plays it safe with something that looks like fan service. I remember an interview with Assassin’s Creed 3 director Alex Hutchinson, where he talked about why, despite constant fan requests, the series wasn’t going to go to Feudal Japan. “You could always do it, but the point I was trying to make was that in the broad strokes and scale of history, that’s a theme that’s been well-mined in videogames,” he said. “So, Assassin’s Creed is one of those games that can take [lesser-known] time periods or corners of the world and make them cool, fun, new and refreshing.” A summation of why I can’t get excited about any of the steampunky-shaded Victorian-setting video games of late. It’s so pervasive that I’m even having a hard time getting into Dishonored, which is far more respected than the rest of its fellows, simply because its setting reminds me too much of the time-worn vaguely-magicked Victorian era setting I’ve seen too many times before. I mean, not to mention that I’m waiting for the day when Assassin’s Creed takes like…a month or two between announcing new games, but that’s a separate issue. And let’s be clear, I am looking forward with all the yearning in my heart to the day when I find the video game set in the Victorian era that I will point to for the rest of my days, but it’s not going to be another game with a white man with stubble who’s got an arsenal of steampunk weaponry that somehow none of his enemies have (either through divine gift, team of mad scientists behind him, secret society member, etc.) running amok in gritty, poorly-lit streets of London, probably there are lots of rats, probably there’s a quest or a plot line centered around a dead prostitute, probably there’s like…a bomb plot against Benjamin Disraeli or something.But, you say, when will you be happy? Why can’t you just enjoy what there is out there? What will finally satisfy you? I’ll tell you: seriously almost anything else. Anything unexpected out of the Victorian era. It should go without saying at this point in this blog’s run, but there’s so, so much going unexplored about the Victorian era simply because it doesn’t involve white men of the upper classes. Take an abandoned or forgotten historical footnote, treat it with respect (no garish gawking at “freak shows,” no gross narratives about downtrodden women, etc.) and make a kickass game that surprises everyone by being about stuff they’ve never seen before, or ever thought they’d see, in a video game set in the Victorian era. Or, you know, just hire me. -- source link

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