Syndicate – Just Go Play Deus Ex a Second Time

Cyberpunk? Dystopian future? Evil corporate supersoldier? SIGN ME UP. Syndicate sounded like it had everything I wanted. Like Deus Ex, only crazy, evil, and immoral. I fired it up, ready to inflict some serious financial losses on my corporate foes; oh how they would pay for being foolish enough to cross whoever I worked for!

Looking back, I can’t help but laugh at my naivete.

You begin the game inadequately strapped to a chair. I say “inadequately” because you easily just break the bonds by lifting your arms. You the proceed to go on a killing rampage, stealing a gun and shooting your way through a swarm of, well, whoever these evil soldiers were. Ten minutes later, you find out that they’re Eurocorp soldiers, and it was all just a test. Ha ha, welcome to Eurocorp! So begins the story of Kilo, the clumsy gullible mute super agent.

I’ll start with the positive. The backstory to the game and the world history of the corporate factions (syndicates) is quite interesting and detailed. It’s a not-altogether-unbelievable tale of runaway corporate power and the downfall of world governments. I’m not sure how much was pulled directly from the original, but I wish that they had made this a much more prominent element of the game than they did. All the best parts of the history were just text files that you could read, and almost entirely irrelevant to anything taking place.

Syndicate‘s art design is also quite good. The designers did a nice job creating a unique look for each corporate faction and the downzone (future slums), while still maintaining a coherent look for the game as a whole. Each corporation’s soldiers look unique too. Visual effects, like double vision, flares, fire and explosions all look very good as well, especially for a console port.

I found that Syndicate was devastatingly mediocre on the whole. Moderate consolitis, a predictable yet often incoherent plot, weak and clumsy weapons, sloppy controls, unexciting combat, and an unsympathetic cast and protagonist all work together fantastically to underwhelm the player. Let’s start with the consolitis. I understand that consoles are the bigger market for games, and that games will be designed with them in mind. That said, there is no reason why they can’t be easily adapted to the PC. Desdspace 2 and Skyrim are excellent examples of console ports done right. Their controls are tight, mouse support is reliable, and gameplay difficulty has been adjusted for the difference in PC hardware. Syndicate, on the other hand, has no support for mice with extra buttons, sloppy and imprecise mouse control, slow movement, and gameplay still tuned for console players. Fortunately, most of the guns are “spray and pray” style, so you won’t need to worry about aiming a great deal anyway.

Kilo, the protagonist, is not an inspiring or interesting character. He has no personality, and says literally nothing during the entirety of the game. This might be a good thing though, considering how unintelligent he seems to be. (Even the AI on the chip in your head thinks you’re kind of special, and labels things like garbage, benches and handles for you in your overlay. In case you weren’t sure what they were. Don’t put that in your mouth, Kilo.) Despite being a supersoldier on the bleeding edge of technology, Kilo has problems with guns. More specifically, holding onto them. When he falls, Kilo drops his guns. When he gets punched, he drops his guns. (Sometimes he even gets them taken away, and then gets severely beaten with them.) When leaving to go on a mission, Kilo brings no guns, despite the fact that his ONLY JOB is shooting people. I guess that part of the DART 6 chip is still in the works, or something. bringyourguns.exe not found.

Kilo spends the entire game being deceived and used by other characters, and at no point is there a chance to take control and make a different decision. I can’t help but picture Kilo as Frankenstein’s monster: extremely powerful physically, but inside a confused simpleton, unsure of how the world works. Interesting from an external perspective, but not a very rewarding character to play.

The very limited cast of characters in this game is equally uninspired. You can tell easily which characters you’re meant to like and dislike, but they all manage to be so uninteresting and flat that it’s difficult to care about any of them at all. The plot, in all its linear simplicity, still manages to be full of holes and inconsistencies, and still boring. (I would go into greater detail, but I would give away what few surprises Syndicate actually has. Suffice it to say the ending will only surprise you with how unsurprising and formulaic it is.)

Weapons in Syndicate are generally weak, inaccurate and uninspired. It typically takes about a half mag of torso shots to down an enemy, unless you’re using the DART overlay and upgrades late in the game. Even the weapon that sprays out a spread of rockets doesn’t usually kill in a single volley. Fortunately, your health magically regenerates in seconds, so there’s little danger of enemies actually killing you, unless you leave the room to get a drink. As a result, combat tends to be tedious rather than exciting. Pressing the grenade button doesn’t quickly toss a grenade either. Instead, you put away your gun, and pull out a grenade, which you can then opt to throw. (This is if you managed to pick up some grenades that you hacked in mid-air to defuse. Living enemies seem to have infinite grenades to throw, dead enemies have no grenades on them.) By the time you’ve gotten it out and thrown it, any grouped enemies have usually dispersed, and it would have been faster to just shoot them all with your gun in the first place.

While the game is quite graphically appealing, the developers decided to really go crazy with flare and bloom effects. All bright lights are blinding, and frequently (and inexplicably) cause lens flares on your eyeballs. These are stylistic choices, but often times this gets in the way of the gameplay, and you can’t see what’s going on. Of course, enemies are not hampered by this whatsoever.

I think the reason I was so disappointed by this game was because I really wanted to love it. It hurts to see so much potential go to waste! Syndicate isn’t a terrible game, but it’s not good either. For a better experience, rent Blade Runner, and shoot rubber bands at the screen when you see bad guys. Sound effects and alcohol optional.