Syndicate is one of those strange cases where it’s hard to imagine what the developers were thinking when they came up with this. Take an old franchise that was a 4 character turn based RPG and turn it into a FPS with very light RPG elements. Don’t associate with the original franchise’s story, except using the same theme. The original game came out in 1993; there are people alive today that weren’t even alive back then. So is this a way of reinvigorating the franchise or just a way to keep from taking a risk on a “completely” new IP. Except that for all intents and purposes, this is a new IP.
Syndicate allows the player to explore the very Deus Ex inspired world of 2069(seems a little too soon to me, but hey whatever). In this world corporations rule the world and there are two kinds of people; chipped and non-chipped. The chipped people work for the corporations and the non-chipped live in ghettos are not even considered people. Most of this comes through extra information found throughout the game and can be completely ignored if you wish. Which can make the entire game very hollow to play through. The player takes on the role of silent protagonist Miles Kilo; who is an agent tasked with keeping his corporation’s secrets safe. Unfortunately for Kilo, in 2069 this means shoot people full of lead rather than filing injunctions. Kilo is also the test subject for a new kind of chip called the DART system.
The DART system allows the user to use three different hacking abilities on others who have chips and machines in the world. Also, it allows the player to slow down time for themselves a little and marks targets with yellow auras. This works through walls and even close floor to ceiling. It’s detective vision style and works pretty well throughout the game. The only problem I had was that you cannot run when it’s active. Which while it speeds up your actions it doesn’t speed up your movement. Which I thought was strange.
On the whole, Syndicate is a pretty standard FPS. There are certainly the breaching/hacking abilities but in the end these don’t change the game very significantly. They seem to be primarily used in place of using more grenades or as a light puzzle solving device. The game has some terrible cover mechanics that are all most impossible to discern how exposed you are from one moment to the next. The RPG elements are a nice touch; but as a consequence of the way the system is implemented you cannot take hardly any fire in the beginning of the game. So you die quite often, even playing on Normal. Which unless you are overly interested in the gameplay and not the story; wanting to play it twice. The beginning of the game can be a little annoying. I would have preferred all the shield and health enhancements be built in or just not there at all. Considering how many rounds most of the cannon fodder enemies can take in the game, it wouldn’t have been that unbelievable.
By the end of the game the player will end up shooting a rather large group of enemies from one room to the next. In some cases, near the end the game is more wave based shooter rather than a story-based FPS. I would have preferred more story and cutscenes and fewer rooms full of annoying enemies that I’ve been shooting for the whole game. As with a game set in the near cyber future in office buildings; most every environment looks just like the last. When the game does open up to the ghettos of New York. The designers put you in abandoned warehouse and some(wait for it) sewers. I really felt like they could have really taken the time to tell some descent stories here or at the very least show some NEW environments for a game like this.
The only differentiating factor in the game are the bosses. Some were VERY good, some were just OK. But no matter the case, I would have rather had two or three more of them and fewer rooms full of cannon fodder. Each boss, at the very least; had it’s own signature style and powers. Unfortunately, most of the time these battles boiled down to waiting for DART to recharge so I could jump out of cover and shoot the boss full of holes. This didn’t happen every time but all most. But even with this, it was a really nice change from what I’d been doing the entire game.
Thankfully there were no turrets, although there was one sequence towards the beginning that came close to it. Even so, at least they didn’t stoop to on-rails sequences so popular these days. I would have also preferred to have either more abilities or more chances to use them; to further change up the game from just another shooter.
Syndicate’s defining feature from everything else out there is the four player co-op multiplayer. These sessions take you through a number of maps from the single player; but using different kinds of enemies and mission types. There are currently three mission types: one is to get to drop zone, another to secure up to four cases of intel and drop them off at a extraction vehicle, and the final one is to escort a robotic cutter through a level. All of these missions work well and even with people who haven’t played the game for a lot of time get the idea pretty quickly. There is a boss in everyone of these missions. Mostly just a enemy with a lot of health and a lot of armor.
There is an upgrade track for your agent and while there is no cosmetic customization track. You can mod/research weapons and eventually be able to upgrade your agent’s abilities all most to the maximum allowed. Clans are called corporations with different names and simplistic management structures that basically dictate who can invite new players into the corporation. The corporations have separate challenges from players and this allows players to level up even faster. The only problem is that players have to be online, playing Syndicate to invite them. Which makes inviting some people challenging if you don’t have enough officers that can invite people into your group. The online is definitely the star performer here and EA doesn’t even make you have an Online Pass to play it.
While overall, I enjoyed my time with Syndicate. The game just fails to stand out from the pack. The FPS market is one of the most crowded there is.in the entire video game industry. It isn’t enough just to be good, you have to be great. While Syndicate has some good ideas, the good multiplayer isn’t enough to outweigh the mediocre single player. 7.5/10…
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