There are also new scenarios that play out like investigations in a Sherlock Holmes game. As you locate the clues, their descriptions will appear written on the world. Whether it’s on a bloody carpet, a dying tree, or a torn down wall, you can read the situation. You’ll even have to figure out trajectories and use past knowledge to see how events played out. It adds a nice bit of detective work to break up the newly changed action, providing a welcome ebb and flow to the new story.
Then there’s White Chapel and the City of London. The setting proved to be an amazing character in the base game and that comes through in the Jack the Ripper DLC as well. It’s darker, much more gloomy, and fear has taken hold of the people and the streets. Civilians riot as they implore the police to stop the string of vicious murders, women are hunted, and suspected individuals are run down in the streets. You can feel Jack lurking around every corner as your presented with beautiful details that just scream out unsafe. You may stumble across an unfortunate victim, or people harshly whispering as you walk by, and that makes it all feel so real.
The city comes with new side activities as well. You won’t be just taking down Templar outposts. Instead you’ll parade would-be abusers in front of their fellow civilians to drag their names through the mud, or clear out brothels. Everything feeds back into the lore of Jack the Ripper while still allowing you the freedom you’ve come to expect from the series.
In that way, Jack the Ripper feels like a true expansion. Something that takes what was and creates something new and exciting, as well as a bit spooky. It has its flair of horror yet still does its best to stay grounded in Assassin’s Creed’s relative realism. If there was one bad thing to say about this DLC at all, it’s that it wasn’t made available as stand alone. You don’t have to play the main game to enjoy this side story set in the future (although a bit may be spoiled at the very beginning), and you can select this new adventure right from the main menu. Being able to download just this bit would have been amazing, and would have allowed those not willing to take the full plunge into Syndicate to enjoy something unique.
But still, if you do have Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, then Jack the Ripper is more than worth its asking price. It may not be the longest piece of content, but there’s more than enough there to keep you occupied for hours, and seeing the transformation of the city as it is gripped by fear is one of the better experiences of the year. The Ripper is most definitely worth it, just make sure to hunt him down quickly before any more innocents have to die.
