Syndicate

The co-op mode forces players to work together by allowing them to heal and revive each other on the fly, and since co-op is mission-based, some of the objectives require all the team members to do their part. Outside of the actual gameplay, players can form a Syndicate (clan) of their own, setting goals and tasks for their group to achieve. There are challenges and contracts, and even a stock market of sorts which illustrates the Syndicate's performance over time.

Syndicate hints at a fantastic puzzle meta-game, but relies on bullets flying to get through every level. Where the story walks a familiar road, the cooperative campaign’s tough-but-fun arcade action makes up for the missteps. Though uneven, Syndicate remains a good shooter full of incomplete great ideas. Grabbing three friends and battling for corporate supremacy online is well worth your time, but don’t expect to be wowed by playing alone.

Back when the original Syndicate game was released in 1993, I was just graduating from High School.  My gaming was at an all-time low as it took a back seat to partying, girls, sports and all the other shenanigans that go along with one’s high school grad year.  So needless to say, I had zero exposure to the original game.  Almost 20-years later EA has released “Syndicate” at a time when gamers have simply been inundated with shooters.   Month after month we have seen a plethora of shooters released, each one trying to carve out their own little niche.  Syndicate is no different and follows th...

Developers of first-person shooters are starting to realise that they can’t simply mimic Call of Duty in order to score a hit. While lessons can certainly be learned from Activision’s multi-billion dollar military series, there’s a growing sense that the industry understands it needs to differentiate too. The Darkness II is a good example: while it provided precise and snappy shooting, it also offered quirky supernatural powers and a neat co-operative mode, bringing something remarkably fresh to the table. Syndicate – coincidentally the latest project by original The Darkness developer Starbre...

Syndicate's callous world of corporate dominance feels more pressing than ever in 2012, but Starbreeze lacks the confidence to execute on this chilling vision of the future.

I loved both of Starbreeze’s last games, but while I expected to love Syndicate it just left me cold. There’s fun to be had, especially in the co-op which plenty of people will get their teeth into and love, so that makes the game worth it at least. Nevertheless, while Syndicate’s a good solid FPS, it wastes its world, its unique ideas and its potential. And that’s just a damn shame. Bloody corporations.

Imagine a world, dozens of decades in the future, where the world’s biggest corporations spend most of their profits on corporate espionage to protect the company’s own interests and sabotage others. A hostile and volatile world where brutality, deception and infiltration are as much a part of company life as sales meetings and gathering around the water cooler to talk about who got evicted on this week’s X-Factor are.