Let us talk about
Syndicate. What, you’ve never heard of this series? Well, you should be
ashamed! I mean, seriously, you must be the biggest idiot known to man! Okay, I
admit, I didn’t know about Syndicate either. I then decided to do some research
and find out for myself about this series. The first game released in 1993 was
an isometric shooter with some real-time tactics mixed in, made by a company
called Bullfrog Productions. It was well received even though its violence
brought up some controversy, since back then you really couldn’t have a violent
game and not be known for its violent parts (looking at you, Mortal Kombat). It
was critically acclaimed at the time for its top-notch presentation (for back
then, of course) and adult story with themes of violence and drugs. An
expansion was made for the game, and then a sequel called Syndicate Wars was
released in 1997 for the PC and Playstation 1. After that though, the series
died off when others rose to power. In 2006, the producer of the original
series wanted to go back and make a new one, but from what I could tell, it was
a bit of a stretch to make a sequel or a reboot for a series that did well when
it was released, but was now forgotten by gamers and time. Now we come to
Starbreeze Studios who worked on the first Darkness game for the PS3 and 360
along with the Chronicles of Riddick video game, which was highly praised for
being one of the best movie-licensed games of all time. They are here now here
to show us the reboot of the series simply known as Syndicate! While this could
be a good thing to bring back a franchise that was long forgotten by the gaming
mass, this could also be a total and utter disaster. For example, Shadowrun, a
point-and-click RPG was a cult favorite gem of a game. Then, in the 2000’s, a
company decided to bring it back as a multiplayer-centric-shooter. The result
of all this? The game bombed and was considered to be utter garbage, and the
result of that was FASA Studio, the developers’ company, shutting down, and the
servers for the game not even staying up for an entire year. So, how does this
game turn out? Let us find out.
The year is 2069
where a huge company called Eurocorp has made a very powerful chip called the
Dart chip that can enhance the human body and have huge corporations rule over
everyone instead of the government. How that works, I don’t know. You play as a
silent main hero named Miles Kilo who has just been given the new Dark 6
prototype chip and is sent off on a mission to stop a rival company. Of course,
this is not as clear as day, and there are backstabbing, twists and turns, and
it is up to you to stop whatever the heck is going on. To be honest, the
problems of the game start here with the story. It is really generic, very
predictable, and to me, not very enjoyable. There are some interesting things
here and there, but the overall experience has been seen before, and is almost
like Deus Ex Human Revolution.
The gameplay is
not of the original isometric third-person shooting of the past, but is now
reborn in a first-person shooter. The aiming mechanics are pretty typical. You
use Iron Sights to better your aim and you can only carry two guns with you at
a time. The mechanics come into play with your new Dart chip that is in your
head. There are some cool mechanics here, like you can hack into an enemy’s
mind and have him kill himself, make enemy guns backfire and stun them, and
even put one under your control to attack the other enemies in the room and
then kill himself. You can also hack turrets to attack the enemy, destroy the
armor off of stronger enemies and bosses, and activate machines to make things
happen depending on what the situation is. There is also a slowdown mode where
you can do more damage and see enemies behind walls. This is usually pretty
useful when you need to scope the area out, but you will normally use this
mechanic to shoot enemies who are hiding behind smoke or the game’s bloom
effect on the graphics. The boss fights are pretty typical, you’ve got the fast
guy, you’ve got the strong guy who uses a gun that has bullets that can go
around corners, and another guy who uses a missile launcher. The boss I liked
the most was the one who used missiles against you and you had to quickly
redirect them back at the boss. The weapons range from the typical machine gun,
shotgun, and assault rifle, with a few cool guns like a laser cannon, chain
gun, flamethrower, and the already mentioned gun that has bullets that can go
around corners. The single player is decent and will take you about 5-6 hours
to complete. The multiplayer is surprisingly different. It plays more like a
squad-based shooter like Binary Domain or the multiplayer for Mass Effect 3.
You play as different classed characters and you take on different missions and
get rewarded with points depending on how many enemies you kill, how many
teammates you heal, and you get the idea. Overall, I kind of wish the single
player was more like its multiplayer, and was a squad-based shooter instead of
a rather generic first-person shooter.
The graphics are
nice and get the job done. They have a very clean corporate look to them, which
I guess fits the whole corporate feel of the game and the corporations that you
are usually put into. The voice acting is decent, with voices that usually fit
the person they are put with and it gets the job somewhat done in keeping you
interested in the story. The music is basic techno and sounds like beta songs
from a Daft Punk tribute band. I guess, to be more honest, the whole
presentation of this game is just okay, it isn’t super amazing, but it isn’t
super terrible either.
Here we are with
the complaints I have with this game. The entire game as a whole is very
generic and not very inspiring. Again, I have seen these themes and settings
before in films and other games and implemented better. It feels like the whole
look and feel of the game is stuck in some kind of book of clichés on how to
make a science fiction shooter. I doubt this was the developers’ true intent,
and I know I am being a tad harsh, but I had some hope for this game being
unique and not be one of the shooters that come out and is not that good. The
boss fights are not that fun either besides the one with the rockets. They
remind me of the boss fights in The Darkness 2, but are not handled as well.
The biggest offense I take with this game however is that it was boring. When I
think of a shooter like Killzone 3, Mass Effect 3, and Vanquish, I think of
something extremely fast-paced and exciting, but this game overall was very
boring and underwhelming. There were just no wow moments for me and I was
almost done with the game before I gave up, due to being bored of playing it. I
think what is to blame is that it’s very linear, short, and the story is not
very entertaining. Again, I know this probably wasn’t their intent and I doubt
any company that wants to come up with a story wants it to be bad, but I just
couldn’t get myself to finish the game. No game should be boring, and
especially a shooter shouldn’t be boring.
Overall, this is
probably the most disappointing game I have played so far this year of 2012. I
don’t know if it is the worst game of the year since we are still in this year
of games with only a few bad games out as of right now. I just wish this game
was, to be honest, thought out more. I wish it was more like a squad-based
shooter like its multiplayer mixed in with some actual tactics and maybe some
of that fancy Mirror’s Edge wall-running and not so much set up like a generic
shooter. The trailers made it look fast-paced and intense, but for me, it just
doesn’t live up to any hype it had going for it. I have played much worse games
like X-Men Destiny, but I can’t recommend this game if you have not played it
yet. It might be a bad game, but again it isn’t the worst, and I know about
shooters that have had much worse releases, like Brink and Mindjack, which are
worse shooters games. Let us hope the shooters get better in the future, and
they should be since Mass Effect 3, Darkness 2, and Binary Domain have shown
that shooters can be good. We can hope for that right?
This
game gets a 4 out of 10
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