Syndicate Review

Syndicate has returned to our screens and is nothing like we remember from the good old Bullfrog days. Goodbye isometric tactical shooter, hello FPS corporate gang-bang-athon. Corporations rule the world and you are the latest guinea pig for Eurocorp, the biggest of them all. You take the role of Kilo, one of the company's infiltration agents, outfitted with the latest offering from R&D, the Dart 6 chip.

What this chip does is highly top secret and the other corporations want the same technology for their own personal gains. However, it seems the morale of the very researcher that is working on you isn't all that high, as you find very early on that she's actually sharing details with rival corporate researchers. Normally I would refrain from giving away spoilers in game plots, but as this emerges in the first actual mission then I don't feel bad about it.

As you progress through the game, you learn more and more about our protagonist. He begins to realise what he's actually fighting for and why he's doing what he has to do. These play out through the numerous "interactive" cutscenes in the game, where you're essentially a passenger in this on-rails narrative, just you have to move Kilo yourself. The combat is standard FPS fare: run, shoot, not die; athough the extra abilities you're given via your little head implant can give you so much fun when used correctly.

These abilities are your breach abilities and allow you to remotely hack droids, cause other chip users to commit suicide or completely mind control an enemy to fight along side you for a short period of time before punching his own ticket. All of these abilities require some adrenaline before usage so you have to make sure it's used correctly or you could be stuck between a rock and a shotgun. You also can fire up an additional vision mode which allows you to detect enemies through walls and scenery, but this again has limited usage so there's no constant reliance on sneaky wallhack mode in the game, just short bursts where it counts.

The single player campaign will give you a good chunk of entertainment, the action is fast paced and well balanced while the enemies are sneaky buggers and will attempt to use tactics to stop you in your tracks. Hollywood actors such as Brian Cox (Bourne Identity), Rosario Dawson (Clerks II, Men In Black II) and Michael Wincott (Alien Resurrection) all add to the gripping atmosphere of the game. However you would have to question who on earth mapped the faces of these actors onto the character models as they look highly questionable, especially Rosario Dawson. Good god, that model does not do you any favours at all!

If you’re looking for a deep engaging story line then this really is not for you, if you’re after an entertaining romp where you run and gun, then step right up this is the game to play.

The game also contains a fairly competent co-operative mode where you and up to three compadres rip it up for your corporation, stabbing pen like implements into the skulls of the fallen in order to retrieve operational data on your competitors. This co-operative mode is even more intense than the single player component of Syndicate, while you now have the ability to heal each other, you'll find that this is easier said than done due to the sheer bombardment your team receives. Additionally, this has no crappy EA Online Pass either so everyone's a winner for online gaming. The co-operative missions are fairly well balanced too which seems to be a rarity these days due to most multiplayer modes feeling more of an obligatory add on rather than a well thought out piece of content.

The futuristic setting of the game is not as vibrant or wacky as you might imagine it may be, while granted there are flying robots etc, the visual setting would not look too out of place in the modern day world. The city locations look plausible for something set today, the nightclubs aren't overly extravagant, it's all believable; it feels like this could actually be our future. The corporation laboratories look clean and sterile like actual science takes place in them, while the weapons look mean like they would actually put a hole the size of a cow through a bus.

That being said, there are still some far fetched ideas in this game, aside the whole mind chip hacking thing, we have weapons where you lock onto targets and the bullets will home in on that lock, akin to that scene from The Fifth Element, as well as some hard as nails soldiers that are covered with a shield. These guys take one hell of a beating before you can even physically harm them, so watch out for these bullet sinks, they will eat your ammunition.

Overall Syndicate is an entertaining and solid shooter, worthy of carrying the legacy on; though deep down we really would like another isometric strategy game, just the same as the original.