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| Also on PS3 |
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If you're a fan of 1993's beloved strategy game
Syndicate,
you might see the new series reboot as heresy. But if you've dismissed
the new Syndicate because you think it sullies the franchise, you're
doing yourself a disservice. That's because 2012's Syndicate is a really
good first-person shooter with a palpable science-fiction vibe and
rousing cooperative play. If you're looking for a first-class way to
play an online game with three good friends, here's your destination.
Just be sure you come to Syndicate for the co-op rather than the
intermittently entertaining but messy single-player campaign, which
prizes form over function.
But such form it is: Syndicate is slick, moody, and in total command of
its near-future vision. You are a digitally enhanced agent of a
megacorporation fighting for domination, and every aspect of the
presentation reinforces this notion. 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. Elsewhere, walls of text scroll down
transparent green computer terminals, and countless objects are
identified in your heads-up display. The atmosphere is both gorgeous and
emotionally disconnected. This is the future, cool and indifferent, and
Syndicate does an impressive job of transporting you there.
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. Consider this scenario: For narrative reasons, you find
yourself strapped into a fancy machine--the kind that appears in so many
science fiction games. Developer Starbreeze squeezes out as many
minutes as it can out of this unskippable scene (not to mention, the
ones leading up to it). You take drowsy steps into the device. You watch
as straps bind your wrists in place. You look around as the machine
ever-so-slowly rises into the air and then ever-so-slowly examines your
innards. Every whirr and every click is belabored.
Such pace-killing moments are common. Syndicate moves forward in fits
and starts, grinding to a halt just when it seems things might finally
get awesome. Quiet moments can build tension in games that tell great
stories or at least deliver effective payoffs, but Syndicate isn't such a
game. You know that you are Miles Kilo, a EuroCorp agent with a special
augmentation chip that gives you superhuman abilities. 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. What
does EuroCorp actually do? What makes it different from other
corporations? What are the real stakes in this corporate war?
Syndicate does a poor job of answering such important questions. 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. The game doesn't tell a story so much as it shoves an
encyclopedia at you and expects you to do the legwork. Compare this
approach to last year's
Deus Ex: Human Revolution,
which used similar devices to expand its proper narrative, not to
replace it. By the time Syndicate makes some last-ditch attempts to
elicit emotion in this apathetic climate, it's too late. If a game never
bothers to flesh out its characters, then you can't be expected to care
about their pasts or futures.
Had Syndicate's campaign focused purely on the action, it would have
made a much better impression. 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. But when the shooting intensifies,
the exciting single-player shooter hiding finally breaks free. Taking
aim and shooting feels as satisfying as you'd like. 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.
You might feel a bit of
Killzone 3
in that feeling of heft. Perhaps not coincidentally, Syndicate employs a
Killzone-esque first-person cover system. This is no cover shooter,
however: persevering enemies approach from multiple angles and keep you
moving. 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.
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. It
all starts with the suicide app. With the press of a button, your
target is overcome by mental anguish before grabbing a grenade and
expiring in particularly explosive fashion. Then there is the backfire
app, which flings a merc to the ground, where he's temporarily
vulnerable. The persuade application tops off your repertoire, turning
your chosen enemy into an ally until he turns his gun on himself.
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. Some of those targets may require breaching, which is to say,
hacking your target's chip. Powerful enemies require you to breach their
armor before they can be harmed, which requires holding a button for
several precious seconds. When such a foe is playing lone gunman, this
isn't so bad. When he's accompanied by a few comrades, things get a lot
more intense. If the action seems too much, you can activate your
tactical overlay. Doing so slows down time and highlights every nearby
enemy, even those behind walls. And with the right weapon, you can even
snipe targets protected by cover.
