Poll: Who LIKED Syndicate (2012)?

[DoctorObviously]

We're nearing the end of the year, and I just reinstalled Syndicate. And, to be honest, I still really like it. It's good old dumb fun. The story is utterly generic, but the graphics look awesome, I like the music as well and I think it's very satisfying to complete the levels as quickly as possible while still killing enemies in a stylish way. The shooting feels satisfying and impactful for me.

If EA was a smart publisher and named this game "Man With Gun" I think that would have boosted sales right there.

I would like everyone to be honest on this thread. If you put away your love for the older games, did you still had fun with the game itself?

Everyone is, of course, entitled to his or her own opinion.

 

[shrekfan246]

I'd never played the older games, because strategy games aren't necessarily my cup of tea, and yeah, I thought it was a bit of fun. The boss-fights were pretty terrible, but the upgrade mechanic was nice, the shooting had some fine weight behind it, the story wasn't absolutely abysmal in its execution, and while the bloom was overly-excessive, the game still looked pretty nice underneath it all.

I think maybe they should've tried making it its own thing instead of relying on the weight of an IP name like that, but I'm not entirely sure I'd say it was unique enough for that. If I had to give it an overall rating out of 100 it'd probably range somewhere between 60-70. Average/pretty decent fun, but nothing memorable that'll upend the way you view first-person shooters.

 

[dumbseizure]

Me? I love the damn game.

I just about love anything cyberpunk though, but holy shit, I would make babies with that game.

The gunfights were fun, the story was meh, graphics were good, but the setting, I LOVE THAT CYBERPUNK SETTING!

 

[hazabaza1]

I remember playing and for the most part enjoying the multiplayer demo.
That's about all I played of it though.

 

[Rack]

What I wanted: A new tactical combat Syndicate game
What I'd have been happy with: A great FPS with the style of Syndicate
What I could have respected: A great FPS that had nothing to do with Syndicate at all

What actually came out: A totally banal FPS that had nothing to do with Syndicate at all.

It wasn't awful but it was completely unnecessary, better perhaps than yet another MMS or Halo clone but I'd have hoped the developers of Riddick could do a lot more than that.

 

[Zhukov]

Nah, sorry.

I never liked the original Bullfrog game and wasn't against the idea of turning it into a shooter. But I still found the new Syndicate lacking.

Too linear for one. I'm generally fine with linear level design, but it can be taken too far. When there is just one hallway to walk down, followed by just one room, then one vent to crawl through, then one staircase to climb... I start to wonder why they bothered designed the level at all.

Gameplay was lacking as well. An incredibly sluggish shooter with a few abilities that mostly amounted to free kills whenever the cooldown ran out. Likewise, the whole 'breaching' mechanic amounted to little more than a long range 'use' button.

The story was... moving on.

Occasionally it would hit its stride for a few seconds, like when using the takedowns in close range firefights or disabling incoming grenades. The multiplayer was also better than expected, with sufficient challenge to actually necessitate a degree of cooperation.

 

[Iwata]

I liked it. The game got a lot of flak, but I enjoyed its single-player campaign more than I thought I would, and the co-op is a lot of fun. I'm a huge fan of the original games, and although this doesn't reach their exceptional level of quality, it's still a fun little game.

Also, Brian Cox.

 

[Smooth Operator]

As CoD clones go it was at the very bottom end, also had bubcus to do with Syndicate and was just all around stupid simplism.

 

[KissmahArceus]

I thought it was pretty sweet, I finished it wishing Deus Ex had the tight gunplay of Syndicate tbh.
It could of been better for sure but I really enjoyed the campaign and the co-op was good too

 

[antidonkey]

I found it disappointing.
Things I liked:
graphics
sound
Voice acting
setting

Things I didn't like:
Combat
story
how the special powers were used
difficulty

I can't help but think the game would have gone down better had it been called something else. Associating it with the Syndicate name put expectations on it that it was probably never going to fulfill.

 

[Kopikatsu]

As CoD clones go it was at the very bottom end, also had bubcus to do with Syndicate and was just all around stupid simplism.

If by 'CoD clone' you mean 'Is an FPS', then yes, it was a CoD clone.

OT: I really liked it. Especially because the shotgun kicked ass and I love shotguns.

 

[deviltry]

Just finished. Well somewhat half-way through the game I thought "wow, this is really underrated". But then story dropped in one cutscene (I wanted to shot her for a reason, nah, same story, we shall ignore thy choices). Actually turned off xbox and took a long break.

And it's short.

Mostly it's the story. I was so disappointed I haven't even played CO-OP before uninstalling. Meh.

Guns sounded nice, cover was fine, breaching with "active reload" style bar did add some flavor (except for those mini puzzle games). Although with +40% energy it's OP together with dart vision's health regen. 2 points and game become a cakewalk.

 

[johnnnny guitar]

Hmmm I didn't like the gameplay but the world it was set in was really cool even if it was massively different to the 1993 syndicate but that just goes to show that EA where just using a nostalgic title for a quick cash-in.
If it was part of a new series with more varied gameplay styles, less handholding, less floaty weapons and more open levels it could have been a fantastic new cyberpunk game series but looks like cd projekt is beating EA to the punch.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Being the big sucker for cyberpunk that I am, I rather liked the setting of the game. The sleek, bright & sterile character of the corporate world juxtaposed with the dark, griminess of the lower classes created some nice visual variety and it felt like Starbreeze put in a decent effort to establish this world. Too bad the game ended up not doing a whole lot with it.

The gameplay was adequate, but unremarkable. The upgrade system in particular felt rather inconsequential, not really changing a whole lot or opening any worthwhile new abilities or anything. The music annoyed me, not because of it being dubstep, but because of being bad dubstep. And the story, well, no comment.

Probably the biggest thing I hold against the game is that it's not the game I expected it to be. Back before release the various trailers and previews by games media led me to believe Syndicate was going to be a more action-oriented "Deus Ex, but you're a bad guy". Maybe I was just fooling myself, but with the reasonable success of Human Revolution the year before and previous games by Starbreeze in mind (Escape From Butcher Bay and The Darkness), it didn't seem that much of a stretch to expect a semi-open fps with rpg elements, sidequests and such.

Needless to say, I was quite disappointed. Would aping Deus Ex have made Syndicate into a better game? Maybe not, but I probably would've liked it more.