There simply are not many games out there like this. I honestly did not know what to expect when I downloaded the coop demo for this. The banner add had said 'Cyberpunk Action,' and that got my attention. I wouldn't say I am an avid follower of the genre, but there is some interesting stuff that falls under that banner (Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell, Deus Ex, the Matrix, etc). Once it was downloaded and installed though, within an hour I knew I had to own the game.
I had my reservations, and my experience with the game (so far) has largely confirmed that this is far from a perfect title, but it is still an awful lot of fun. I will break this down into different segments, rating each section with the number of stars I would give it out of 5 in each of those sections. There's a mix of good and not-so-good here, and I will try to outline those things as I see them for the sake of those who might consider buying this game.
I will start by saying this is a game unlike most first person shooters you will play. Yes, ultimately you shoot the bad guys, but there is a greater level of complexity to it than that in Syndicate since your character has a computer chip implanted in his head had he can use that chip to alter the actions of people around him, to effect the environment by activating different systems, or to cause equipment malfunctions. How and when you use these abilities can greatly effect your experience in the game, much more so than tossing grenades.
GRAPHICS ****
I suppose its is mostly tradition that would have me start with graphics, though by this point in video games, we are reaching a point where most people are pretty happy with most of the things they look at. Syndicate does manage to look pretty good and create its own visual style. So many games out there are made with the Unreal engine (with a few tweaks) and they largely end up looking good, but similar. Syndicate manages not to do this in a number of ways, though not all of them are good. I shall start with the positives. The game has a nice color pallet, one that fits with most cyberpunk feel. There are a lot of greys and blacks, with technology standing apart with very vivid colors.
This game also loves light blooms, sometimes to the point where you can't see much but light, but I would say that it has never been a bad experience since it feels like when that happens, it is supposed to be there for more cinematic reasons. Similar to this, there are a lot of parts of this game that feature very strong colored light sources, and this is also used to good effect. There are directional lights and certain areas where external light just peaks through little cracks and is really rendered very, very well. All things considered, I would say the lighting is superb in this game, and probably one of its best visual strengths.
Where perhaps Syndicate falls a little short is some of the textures and models. For the most part, I think they did a very solid job with designing the look of this game, and the models themselves have aesthetic qualities that fit very nicely into the setting they are trying to create, the guns look superb, but there are going to be some times where it looks like they were models have noticeably low texture qualities or the complexity of the model itself looks somewhat dated (polygon count).
This game features a rather large amount of information on the screen other than just what you are shooting at (aka Heads up display or HUD). This is bucking the trend of other games, where the trend is definitely 'less is more.' I personally think they did it in a very stylish and enjoyable sort of way, but I know some of my friends have been less than impressed with how much stuff there is to look at including: other players health, their abilities, a very brief combat log, pictures, names, enemy labels, enemy life bars, blood, your ammunition, your abilities, and so on (or actually that might be it). I especially enjoy how the HUD is not fixed to your TV. It floats around a little as you move, which makes it feel more natural, but again, it is not for everyone.
STORY **
I will talk briefly on this subject because there is not much to say. The story for Syndicate is not bad, but it is certainly not very good either. I would describe the writing as somewhat lazy, uninspired, or perhaps most aptly "just there." This actually isn't that uncommon for Cyberpunk as a genre. You could call it a dangerous trap but the characters around you in this game are not all that interesting. In fact, the script doesn't go to any attempt to make them interesting or even all that human or relate-able. Now this is kind of unfortunate for those people who were fans of the original Syndicate series, but honestly if you're playing this game, you are playing a first person shooter made by EA. Chances are pretty good that you've experienced this sort of 'serviceable plot' before. Its probably not going to do anything to really piss you off, and at times it can be even kind of engaging just from an action point of view, but you're probably not going to write home about what a great story this is or even remember the characters names.
I would say if you are purchasing this for the purposes of just wanting to play the story line, since it is relatively short and not all that interesting, you should seriously consider renting this title or at least waiting until the price had dropped significantly.
GAMEPLAY/CONTROLS ****
Syndicate delivers a very stable and polished gameplay experience. There won't be any/many times where you are frustrated with the way that the game is behaving from a control or interaction point of view. As a general game design critique, I might offer that in most of the game, your choices for how to get from point A to point B is pretty limited in the geographical sense. This is in some ways made up for by other mechanics in the game. The breaching techniques (your computer mind-powers) you use can change your game experience, and perhaps how you get through these sections.
The controls for this game are solid, and it responds in a very enjoyable sort of way. Now, I won't pretend that everyone is going to love this, because the gun movement is a little sloppy. This is pulled off smoothly and consistently, and with the way you raise, lower, and move your gun to shoot around object, I assume this was an intentional thing to try to better emulate how people really hold guns. Your aim seems to easily fly off course because this game doesn't strafe or change directions in the sort of crisp, clean manner we have all been accustomed to since Doom II. If you are familiar with the sort of clumsy, human movement of the original Killzone 2--before the first patch `fixed' it--and you liked that feel, there is some of that here, though it is not quite as disorienting.
There are buttons you will need to get used to because there are things you can do in this system this sort of setting that you cannot do in most other games. The use of the D-Pad to control most of the Dart 6 overlay and the R2/L2 buttons is a good choice. The only button I struggled to find, originally, and this is because I don't play a whole lot of other EA first person shooters, was the alternate fire select, which happens to be the down button. Once you figure that one out, everything else seems to be pretty standard. Every gun (or just about all of them) in this game does have an alternate fire option, which is neat.
One thing about this game, there are times, particularly when you are fighting other agents, that the difficulty gets ramped up in a significant, noticeable, and ultimately fatal way. It was frustrated with one part in particular. There are other parts that I could see being very frustrating too because of this. Basically, being able to breach/hack things creates a bit of a learning curve and puts you at a disadvantage more so in 'the boss fights' than it is an advantage otherwise.
SOUND ***
There are some things that I really love about the sound in this game and there are some things that kind of stand out. I think it is only fair to compare this to other titles that come out for other companies that are (at least in theory) first rate developers, so that sets the bar pretty high. Probably the most important thing about a first person shooter and sound is that the guns sound believable and the environments react with the appropriate sounds as well. Check. This game does that pretty well. There is really no part of firing a gun in this game that I can complain about. It looks great. It sounds great. It feels great.
The soundtrack to this game is actually a combination of original music by Skrillex--which is very appropriate and fun in the context--and some other music of the classical variety for some of the background music. It actually fits in the scenes, and actually having a gunfight while you hear a dainty piano concerto works at one point in the game. The music, in other words, is also a plus.
Where the game doesn't do such a great job is in the voice acting (in parts) and in the mixing. This game actually features Brian Cox, who just has a great voice and is a well practiced and talented voice actor. He does a good job. Some of the smaller parts and lesser actors around him do not, and his solid performance kind of highlights some bad editing or timing, and some mixing oversights. There should have been a little more attention paid to trying to make the voices sound like they fit within the space any particular scene was shot in. If a room has ambient noises that make it sound like it is sparse, slightly echoing, and very open, then the actors should not sound like they are in a 6 by 10 sound booth. This doesn't kill any of the scenes, granted, but in other words, this could be better.
MULTIPLAYER *****
This game features an online multi-player cooperative mode. This isn't the same as the story mode in even a small way. For now it looks like not-quite-a-dozen boards that can be played with 1-4 players. Unless you are amazing, I would always suggest four players on anything harder than a normal difficulty level, because the game does not scale the encounter for the number of players, at least not enough that I have been able to notice.
The multiplayer is a great time for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it is much more wide open than the single player levels. Strangely, there aren't as many issues with textures that I have found on the multiplayer games either. The missions are, never-the-less, straight forward, and probably last about 10-15 minutes, depending on how well you do. There are multiple levels of difficulty, and things start to ramp up in difficulty pretty quickly, so you are sure to have a lot of opportunities to play through this enjoyably. The demo could give you a very good feel for how this game actually works online.
I really can't say enough nice things about this game and its multiplayer, and the only thing that I can say about it that I don't like is that it uses a peer-to-peer hosting system. This type of system is not bad for up to 4 players, but sometimes you get some interesting lag, and if you are like me, your system doesn't host so well.
UPDATES
According to the creators, they are going to be doing something on every 1st and 15th of the month. I am not sure what that is at this point, but it sounds like there could be a good amount of additional content coming which would be great to see in a game that is enjoyable and has so much potential.
Overall Impressions and Closing Thoughts
In my opinion, the multiplayer really makes this game. I am not usually the type to be sucked into just that area of the game, but really those missions are fantastic and my friends and I have already enjoyed playing quite a few matches on the demo, and now in the real game. I have recommended that people try the demo just to experience how much fun this can be, and many of the people I have suggested do that have also gone on the buy the game, but not all.
I would consider this game, ultimately a bit of a niche game. If you are a big fan of Cyberpunk, you know there isn't a lot of stuff out there that fits into the genre. I would say this game represents the genre fairly well. The writing may not be great, but the feel is pretty excellent, and it is well executed. If you aren't sure what cyberpunk is, if you like Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell, Deux Ex, or the Matrix, this might be worth a good long look at. The same could be said for someone who is just looking for something a little different than all of the other stuff out there.
If you're in this for the Multiplayer, I could see paying full price for it. It is certainly as fun as games like Payday, Dead Island, or Left for Dead. I have a feeling the second hand price for this game will come down pretty sharply within the next 2 months though because this game isn't for everyone. If you are in this game for the single player, I would rent it or wait.
D.K.
Expert Gamer