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Assassin’s Creed Syndicate’s lead actors test their real world parkour skills

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Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is the first game in the series to feature two protagonists in the Animus (no, those short Altair sections in
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Revelations don’t count), and unlike the relationship between Assassin and Templar in last year’s Unity, siblings Jacob and Evie Frye’s contrasting personalities only make them more effective at destroying the Templars.

Speaking to Ubisoft’s Anne Lewis at San Diego Comic-Con, actors Paul Amos and Victoria Atkin describe the twins as part of the “educated class” who come to London to take down the Templars on their own terms.

“Jacob is brash and he goes in for the fight, and he’s very typical of the Assassin brand,” Atkin says. Amos, meanwhile, calls Evie “very clinical” and that the two are a “powerful force” when they work together. Of course, although Assassin’s Creed Syndicate features two protagonists, it will not include the cooperative play from last year’s installment. The recent Batman: Arkham Knight is also a single-player only experience, but includes “Dual Play,” giving you the ability to switch between Batman and his allies on the fly. Syndicate sounds like a prime candidate for a similar feature.

Ubisoft has used performance-capture recording extensively over the past several years, but this was Amos’ and Atkin’s first experience with the technology.

“It was like filming a movie. We were in a big padded cell, everything was captured 360° and then they get to choose all their camera angles and all their lighting post [production],” Amos says.

“And like theater, you get to shoot it all in one go, so it was really a luxury as actors to do that,” Atkin adds. Similar technology has also been used in games like The Last of Us, which allows for some … creative ad-libbing during takes.

Although the two leads did not perform many stunts for the game themselves, they challenged each other to the official Assassin’s Creed Syndicate obstacle course at Comic-Con. As you can see in the above video, Amos not only won, but he set a new course record, finishing his run with a classic Assassin swan dive.

Assassin’s Creed Syndicate arrives to Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on October 23, with a PC release following shortly after. It will be the final Assassin’s Creed game developed with writer Corey May at Ubisoft, who recently departed to take a similar position at Certain Affinity, which has notably collaborated with 343 Industries on numerous Halo games since 2007.

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Gabe Gurwin
Gabe Gurwin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
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