In an already saturated FPS market, how will Syndicate stand out in the crowd?
You play as agent Kilo who is working for a corporation and is about to get wrapped up in a whole heap of conspiracy and many other twists and turns. All in all it doesn't particularly matter because you will most likely have no idea what's going on and you won't care either. Needless to say the story is poorly told. Unfortunately there are no cutscenes and the story is told in the usual First Person View which has rarely worked and all it does is take away the cinematic feel, it also makes your character look stupid as he stands there saying nothing while everything unfolds around him.
Playing through the game is a fun experience for the most part and as with most Sci-Fi FPS there are a handful of gimmicks designed to try and make the game stand out from the crowd. These consist of you being able to hack into the BioChips of your enemies and use an APP which can either cause them to commit suicide, help you or other small things like tamper with their gun. These are interesting at first but they soon become forgetful and just another laborious addition to your arsenal.
Good Points
• Solid RPG with good controls.
• Pretty Graphics with interesting design of a futuristic world.
• Boss Fights are well done and interesting
• Interactive environments provide interesting kills.
• The soundtrack during Boss fights is well made and totally fits the atmosphere.
Bad Points
• The Story is not particularly interesting and not told well either.
• Gameplay becomes tiresome and repetitive
• The Upgrades are boring and don't change the experience of the game.
• Lag and Framerate drops when multiple enemies are around.
• Not much reason to have multiple playthroughs.
• 'Platforming' sections are annoying.
• You don't connect with any characters because most of them are immoral scumbags with a complete disregard for human lives.
If you are into FPS's then Syndicate will provide a solid experience for you. The CO-OP mode is lots of fun and will provide some extras hours to make this game worth your while. I'm giving it a 6.5/10 for being fun but it definitely falls into the trap of not being able to tell a story properly and for sticking to all of the clichés that way too many First Person Shooters use.
Video Version of Review
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DhhKyC93fg&list=UUy_3Qr_C4wY7-5YWkJTFLQQ&index=1&feature=plcp