That all sounds deliciously gory, though in practice, you're not focused on the splattering of brains: you've already moved on to your next target. The persuade application tops off your repertoire, turning your chosen enemy into an ally until he turns his gun on himself. Then there is the backfire app, which flings a merc to the ground, where he's temporarily vulnerable. With the press of a key, your target is overcome by mental anguish before grabbing a grenade and expiring in particularly explosive fashion. Of course, as a future supersoldier, you don't just get guns: you get a few handy applications to keep the challenge from being overwhelming. You need to breach that bot if you have any hopes of bringing it down. If you're used to predictable shooting galleries, in which foes enter from obvious entry points and seem content in their roles as bullet fodder, then Syndicate will represent a refreshing change. This is no cover shooter, however: persevering enemies approach from multiple angles and keep you moving. Perhaps not coincidentally, Syndicate employs a Killzone-esque first-person cover system. You might feel a bit of Killzone 3 in that feeling of heft. A steady frame rate and sleek animations do their part to keep the action feeling fluid, and you feel a sense of weight when jumping or sliding into a cover spot. Taking aim and shooting feels as satisfying as you'd like. But when the shooting intensifies, the exciting single-player shooter hiding finally breaks free. When things take off, they can really get your pulse pounding, though such moments don't last very long-at least, not until the final chapters. Had Syndicate's campaign focused purely on the action, it would have made a much better impression. If a game never bothers to flesh out its characters, then you can't be expected to care about their pasts or futures. By the time Syndicate makes some last-ditch attempts to elicit emotion in this apathetic climate, it's too late. Compare this approach to last year's Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which used similar devices to expand its proper narrative, not to replace it. The game doesn't tell a story so much as it shoves an encyclopedia at you and expects you to do the legwork. In place of true world development, it dumps thousands of words of text into an infobank, where you can read character profiles and various propaganda. Syndicate does a poor job of answering such important questions. What does EuroCorp actually do? What makes it different from other corporations? What are the real stakes in this corporate war?ĭon't forget about the tactical overlay it might be just the advantage you need. You meet comrades like Lily Drawl and Jack Denham, and you are told of EuroCorp and competing syndicates, but you are never given a reason to care. You know that you are Miles Kilo, a EuroCorp agent with a special augmentation chip that gives you superhuman abilities.

Quiet moments can build tension in games that tell great stories or at least deliver effective payoffs, but Syndicate isn't such a game. Syndicate moves forward in fits and starts, grinding to a halt just when it seems things might finally get awesome. Every whirr and every click is belabored. You look around as the machine ever-so-slowly rises into the air and then ever-so-slowly examines your innards. You watch as straps bind your wrists in place. Developer Starbreeze squeezes out as many minutes as it can out of this unskippable scene (not to mention, the ones leading up to it). Consider this scenario: For narrative reasons, you find yourself strapped into a fancy machine-the kind that appears in so many science fiction games. If only this attention to detail were applied to the rest of the campaign, which is characterized by momentary thrills broken up by pointless puzzle-solving and stretches of nothing that grind the pace to a halt. This is the future, cool and indifferent, and Syndicate does an impressive job of transporting you there. The atmosphere is both gorgeous and emotionally disconnected.

Elsewhere, walls of text scroll down transparent green computer terminals, and countless objects are identified in your heads-up display. In a rainy courtyard shoot-out under the rising skyscrapers of New York City, you're struck by the hazy blue lighting and how it contrasts with the craggy industrial pipes and pillars that surround you. You are a digitally enhanced agent of a megacorporation fighting for domination, and every aspect of the presentation reinforces this notion.

By clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot'sīut such form it is: Syndicate is slick, moody, and in total command of its near-future vision.

Cyndicate game