Assassin's Creed: Syndicate will have playable female protagonist

Reports are indicating that Assassin's Creed: Syndicate, the 2015 iteration of Ubisoft's hit historical action franchise, will have a female protagonist for the very first time in one of the series' main console titles.

According to sources cited by Kotaku the game will follow brother and sister pair Jacob and Evie Frye through Victorian London, with their report saying that gameplay time will favour Jacob by about a 75% / 25% split.

The siblings are part of a vast Victorian-era criminal underworld which will serve as the basis of the game's story. Apparently players will switch between them for particular missions and outside of missions so they can explore the game world as both characters.

Last year, after the disastrous release of Assassin's Creed's first fully new gen game Unity, this year's title was leaked. Once called Victory, the game is now called Syndicate and will be announced properly at 5pm today (12 May).

Kotaku's report also states that Syndicate will not have any multiplayer modes, unlike last year's Unity which boasted four player co-op missions for the first time. It was that co-op which caused a some outcry in the gaming community as none of the four playable characters were female.

That in itself wouldn't have been so bad but Unity's technical director James Therien told VideoGamer in response that adding a female character would "double the work" for the development team. It was a statement which didn't go down well at all.

It was a shame because the Assassin's Creed series has boasted some good female characters in the past, including Elise, an unplayable character in Unity itself. The series has had playable female characters before, in Vita title Assassin's Creed III: Liberation (later released on consoles) and the 2.5D downloadable game AC Chronicles: China released last month.

Assassin's Creed: Syndicate is expected to be released around October or November 2015.