We assume someone at Starbreeze played Deus Ex Human Revolution at some point during Syndicate's development. The two games are thematically similar: augmentation may look cool, but by modding our bodies we lose our humanity, they say.
Both games offer guns and super-abilities, and both are set in worlds that dazzle with epic visions of techno futures. And, oh yeah: both have boss battles so utterly hateful they made us want to hurt things. Not the emotion games usually aim to evoke.
It surprises us that, particularly after the criticism of Deus Ex, no-one thought to cut or rework these awful, tedious battles. In fact, we're shocked the bosses in Syndicate plumb all-new levels of digital bastardry; casting an inescapable shadow over an otherwise playable shooter.
Each seems designed to cause the maximum strife via tactics such as regenerating health and armour, one-hit kills, and - our personal favourite - exploding, killing us and forcing a restart at the very moment they do die. To top it all, the last boss of the game does a great job of combining all of Syndicate's most atrocious designs into one giant, miserable encounter.
AUG CUBE
Outside the bosses, however, there's fun. The premise is that you fight with regular weapons and augmented powers, with which you can remotely force enemies to commit suicide, backfire their weapon, or make them fight for you until death.
Using them becomes something you do to escape death, rather than as part of a deeper tactical approach to firefights. Reloading? Buy some time with a Backfire on the nearest bad guy. Similarly, Dart Vision - essentially a glorified bullet-time - lets you nip behind cover or take down a shield. There's nothing too complex about it.
Comments
27 comments so far...
dicky1993 on 21 Feb '12 said:
well this is upsetting
gmcb007 on 21 Feb '12 said:
I'm not suprised. It was never going to set a new level of gaming. Everything about it just looks so average. There is nothing about this game that ever struck me as a USP.
Subject J80 on 21 Feb '12 said:
Wow, that's a drubbin'. Will just rent for a few days so. Expected more from this game. Every other review that I've read say that the bosses are annoying and take awat from the game.
B_G_G on 21 Feb '12 said:
*dontbemediocredontbemediocredontbemediocre*
GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.
I hate you all.
El Mag on 21 Feb '12 said:
I blame that Skrillex song from the first trailer. Nobody deserved that horror!
dicky1993 on 21 Feb '12 said:
the review reads a lot worse than a 6.7
DarthSeaBass on 21 Feb '12 said:
"over an otherwise playable shooter" When that's about the nicest thing you can say of a game you know it's a duffer.
Lady Gagagged on 21 Feb '12 said:
Is it as bad as the loading screen in Marvel Super Hero Squad that describes the abilities each Soul Gem bestows even though they can't be used?
cjw101 on 21 Feb '12 said:
So complaining about some bunch of wankers p**sing all over one of my fondest gaming memories amounts to nothing more than 'silly carping', does it? Well f**k you very much...
Looks like us critics were right though, doesn't it???
Lady Gagagged on 21 Feb '12 said:
Sorry, but who accused you of silly carping or am I missing something?
Black Mantis on 21 Feb '12 said:
It's in the review.
richomack360 on 21 Feb '12 said:
Silly carping ? The only silly carping came from the devs.
Am actually quite pleased this got a cack rating, even if it wasn't Syndicate it was always going to be duff.
Fr33Kye on 21 Feb '12 said:
Probably still gonna play this hahaha. Co-op is pretty awesome. There's too much there to like for me to ignore it. I remember the last co-op game i ignored because of reviews.......
Lady Gagagged on 21 Feb '12 said:
As is the line it fails in its own way. At least it had the balls to fail on its own unlike that lying piece of turd that is Marvel Super Hero Squad.
Metatasian on 21 Feb '12 said:
LOL! Good, I'm happy that this game is a gigantic FAIL. That's what happens when you take a classic RTS and transform it into a generic Shooter. Multiple copies of this turd will be overflowing from the grubby bargain bin in your local GAME store in no time. And where are all the people claiming Starbreeze are such awesome FPS developers? Awfully quiet now arn't we? Lets be honest, we all knew this was going to happen
Lady Gagagged on 21 Feb '12 said:
Why are all the cocks celebrating a game failing? Go live in your nostalgia.
ricflair on 21 Feb '12 said:
I think it's the idea of "yet another FPS", when the original still seems fresh (compared to today's FPS rut) nearly 20 years on, and is an genre that is often overlooked, especially on consoles.
I'd have been glad if it'd been a great twist on the FPS genre, but it doesn't sound like it is particularly, although I didn't want it to fail - the more good games out there the better, regardless of whether it's to my taste.
That said I've still got the demo sitting on my HDD unplayed, and I just can't see me playing it.
Fr33Kye on 21 Feb '12 said:
You should really give it a shot. Kickass co-op. Though they kind of just throw you into it with no info.
Sleepaphobic on 22 Feb '12 said:
How many coop players does it support? Review doesn't mention this and if it's only 2 players I think I'll just pass.
thelazyone on 22 Feb '12 said:
And thats that.
On to the next one.
Megatrons_Fury on 22 Feb '12 said:
I played the demo on 360 and i knew it was going to take a hammering at review.
Its quite obviously a multi player game like borderlands is or dead island is, both titles are great on your own but so much better when played with others and by others i mean people you know not moron strangers who run at enemies screaming ARGHHHHHHHH then get killed and bitch about the game.
Every time i played the demo i was the last person standing, the sheer amount of morons who play games thesedays who have been watered down by the yearly dose of activision war titles never fails to amaze, as soon as i played with people from my actual friends list however and we got talking about flanking tactics etc everything was fine.
It may be hard but i like hard games, it may be the same old hat but then so is every other franchise shooter released and you all go lapping that stuff up year on year eh??? FPS and car racing games by their very definition will always feel the same its the drawback of the genre, basically you shoot or drive theres little that can be done in that sense.
Im going to pick this up at the usual 20 quid price point along with just about every other game that comes out im sure if i look past generic level design i am sure to have a good time
gmcb007 on 22 Feb '12 said:
To be honest, I found Dead Island more fun to play in single player. Anyone who joins your game can just do your side quests and spend your cash making a mess out of your playthrough.
funkyjack on 23 Feb '12 said:
Gutted.
I was really looking forward to this...
TheBusterMan on 23 Feb '12 said:
Can't believe all the love for the co-op,the demo did nothing for me.Prob better played with good mates,but,don't think so.And that cluttered HUD.Wish they'd called it something else as well and not affiliated it with the lovely original.The FPS genre is truly stale.If this was done in 3rd person,with the persuading of citizens,getting them all in a car and a train,watching them all blasting with the shotguns,etc.I wish my Amiga still worked.
xRamzz on 26 Feb '12 said:
I always thoguht this was Deus Ex without all the yellow
Gatix on 27 Feb '12 said:
I love the co-op. Campaign? Meh..
qSPARTANp on 6 Mar '12 said:
Just finished the single player and.........Bloody good fun! Great cover system, I really love it when developers try to keep you in the FPS experience,(except for bloody bash X to pen door ETC) it feels so natural! the co-op is pretty fun, but needs more maps!( sure this will arrive as DLC the buggers ) HOWEVER, THIS IS NOT SYNDICATE! As an old school gamer this captures about 5% of the atmosphere of the original and the story/idea bares hardly any resemblance to the originals. I guess they just wanted the name association to help sell the product? My FPS version of Syndicate would be a case of zooming in down from the isometric view of the originals and straight into the FPS view at ground level for some kick ass action! The originals also had you placed right in the middle of a city where you would be fighting off rival Syndicates and cops, you could also have about 10 citizens all blindly following you shooting at your enemies because you had used the Persuadatron on them...Brilliant! Now as for this game, how about being able to switch into each cyborg agent at will, anybody played Clive Barkers Jericho?, anybody?, ah well your loss. As for multiplayer how can you not have 4 V 4! What a stupid idea not to have Syndicate V Syndicate. I guess my dream of Syndicate as I would have hoped to have had as an FPS is dashed for now.......Starbreeze should have created a brand new IP for this game and called it something else as overall its a darn good shooter in its own respect.