While the East End of Modern London is often depicted in action adventure, gangster, and sport games where there is an attempt to evoke or exaggerate the contemporary realities of the space, there are also a number of games that engage with Alternative History. These titles speculate on the actions of Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper, beyond their fictional and factual boundaries, or they invoke supernatural folkloric creatures in parallel world narratives. The East End is rarely the sole London location in these games, becoming a site of contention not only for the player, but against other areas and cultures competing to depict the capital city.
Set in 1868, Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate (2015) features cameos from Arthur Conan Doyle and other Victorian figureheads in a plot to wrestle control of London from the Templars. Within this compressed accretion of history, Bishopsgate Station at Whitechapel and Spitalfields Market feature as locations for gang warfare with the fictional Blighters Gang and also as a location for exploring a fictionalized rendering of Jack the Ripper on the pretense that he was a corrupted professional assassin. With the dense overlaying of narratives and cultures, flattened to suit different functions within the game…
The full 1,100 word version of this article is published in the Encyclopedia of London’s East End, edited by Kevin A. Morrison, published by McFarland Books, 2022.
Carl Wilson 