It take two people to tango.
Title : Assassin's Creed Syndicate
As usual, this is another free give for AC series that I have been waiting to play on (atm: Im missing AC 2 & Odyssey as numbered main title) which given high praised for superb design in Victorian Era London. Since I cant comment much on the story setting since different era will have different variety, I will focused more on technical side of the games. And for first time, we get 2 different protagonist in the games that sadly both have not much different but slightly different missions / playstyle.
Assassin Creed is already well established at this point and it is the final era of old traditional formula before it being overhauled in the AC Origins. Parkour, Assassination, Tools, & Combat are well and good. For parkour side, because the city layout are designed to be very far from each other (because large road & horse carriage), the game introduced a grappling hook which allow you to go on top of building super fast as well as create a rope bridge between 2 building, effectively speed up the movement. As for other 3 aspect, I guess it is pretty much the same.
The strength of this games is definitely the settings. You got freaking steam train as your mobile base, you get horse carriage to move around (as well as adding a layer of combat on top of carriage), you got big ass river that full of lives with ships moving around. However though, I sadly to say that the story is not the strongest part. The modern era is laughable (no gameplay) and your main villain is pretty sitting down until you reached him. Even though our 2 protagonist twins start strong, I feel like all the enemy or the act of assassination arent strong enough. Thankfully, the assassination is kinda open ended (except final boss) where you can have multiple approach toward the killing.
Syndicate is probably lost potential of the series. It have beautiful setting, but I dont feel I explore something new in gameplay (despite the combat are fast paced and good) that made it unique. Not the weakest, but not the best either.
Alternative : Ugh, do i have to list alternative? Play Just Cause series for proper grappling hook gameplay, The Saboteur for another samey feeling / setting, Bioshock Infinite is also feel similar (despite different gameplay) and lastly maybe Mafia series because why the heck not.