Evie Frye

I admit, I haven’t played Syndicate since its release almost a decade ago, and I don’t deny that some of my enjoyment of Evie at the time rested in the novelty of her being (at long last!) the first playable female character in a mainline Assassin’s Creed game, albeit one who had to share the spotlight with her brother. But there’s more to her greatness than that. Where her hotheaded brother Jacob is reckless and unreasonable, Evie’s ability to stay cool under pressure makes her the real brains of the operation, making it all the more frustrating that the story increasingly focuses on Jacob as it progresses. She’s also genuinely charismatic and likable, which is especially important given how bleak and oppressive the streets of Victorian London can often feel. Evie isn’t naive about the horrible conditions of the city she lives in; far from it, she’s determined to do something about them. But rather than letting the gloom of it all infect her, she stays focused, clever, hopeful, and capable. And her battle-of-wits rapport with her brother is often delightful, leaving little doubt as to who’s the smarter and sharper of the two. Thankfully she wasn’t the last female protagonist in a mainline AC game, but as the first, she proved to be a terrific demonstration of how empty and absurd an excuse for their absence “women are too hard to animate” had always been.—Carolyn Petit