Syndicate - Discussion Thread
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Generic in what sense exactly? Gameplay feels like any other FPS title? How about the visuals and soundtracks? Enemy AI?
aproxymate
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Did anyone try the demo released on xbox or ps3? I tried it on the ps3 and it seemed like they had highly compressed graphics for the demo. Everything looked low res and blurred. The game-play was OK but I am pretty sure it was running at lower than 30 fps. Also, the demo size was 750+ Mb. Too bad they don't have a PC demo. If someone got the PC version, please address the issues I described above.
Reviews aren't very promising unfortunately.
Metro - 6/10
Gamespot - 7.5/10
Eurogamer - 7/10
The Guardian - 3/5
The Verge - 8.5/10
Game Informer - 8/10
Joystiq - 4/5
Giantbomb - 5/5
Videogamer - 7/10
Single player campaign is short apparently and predictable. Co-op has received some good praise.
Metro - 6/10
Gamespot - 7.5/10
Eurogamer - 7/10
The Guardian - 3/5
The Verge - 8.5/10
Game Informer - 8/10
Joystiq - 4/5
Giantbomb - 5/5
Videogamer - 7/10
Single player campaign is short apparently and predictable. Co-op has received some good praise.
Wanted to begin The Darkness II but chose to play this instead. First impressions - good. In fact very good. Some quick impressions follow.
First up, the gameplay and storyline. Fast paced, the game feels and plays much like Crysis and partly like Deus Ex: Human Revolution minus the RPG elements and stealth. The game is definitely short - I am betting a 6-7 hour total gameplay time for the single player campaign considering I am already half way through the game! Storyline seems okay, nothing to write home about. It is 2069 and the global population has hit the 15 billion mark. There are no governments around and mega corporations take charge, referred to as a Syndicate. The society is split into 3 categories with the elite few having access to highly advanced tech. such as bio-implants. And all the corporations battle it out to develop the most advanced neural implant to permit their hosts to connect to the massive dataverse and control it. Enter Agent Miles Kilo, the protagonist of the title and EuroCorp's latest prototype who shares similar abilities with Adam Jensen, the protagonist of DX:HR. Think EuroCorp as Sarif Industries from DX:HR. Agent Miles has EuroCorp's latest prototype DART 6 neural chip implant that allows him to manipulate and hack into several electronic devices such as elevators, doors, hatches, enemy AI, grenades, turrets etc. to name a few. He is tasked with several objectives which includes a series of DART 6 training missions during the initial stages where he acquaints himself with the breach modes. The DART 6 chip allows him to view the surrounding environment in X-ray vision for a limited time, highlighting the several POIs and enemy AI through obstacles for a limited amount of time. Once the bar runs out of juice, it refills itself. The Agent can also attempt 3 modes of breaching which is essentially hacking into enemy AI's neural chip and control it. This includes Suicide wherein the enemy kills himself damaging any other targets in his vicinity, Backfire wherein the enemy's weapon blows itself stunning them momentarily and Persuade wherein the enemy is converted to fight for the player's side temporarily before he attempts to shoot himself towards the end. Once a mode of breach is consumed, it must be refilled using the energy obtained from killing enemy AI. The DART chip can be upgraded as the game progresses when Miles is able to access a similar chip from the enemy AI. A perk can be unlocked from a set of limited numbers which is otherwise locked out.
Enemy AI is very aggressive and would often use a combination of tactical and straight forward approach to flank Miles from the sides with near-perfect targeting. Enemy AI ranges from the basic assault rifle or pistol equipped militia to shotgun or Gauss rifle equipped cloaked units to minigun or flame thrower equipped heavies which can easily take quite a number of hits. The player can equip himself with any 2 weapons from an impressive range of arsenal and a handful of grenades. Ammo and reserve is indicated around the weapon held in the form of a VR display instead of the HUD. Each weapon has its dedicated alternate fire mode - attached grenade launcher and secondary scopes for assault rifles, explosive rounds for the shotgun etc. The Gauss rifle unlike the ones used in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. or Crysis locks down into the target and stalks them from around the corners so it's a pretty cool weapon. But my most loved weapon in the game is the Minigun (it has always been and will always be!). From the early days of UT to Serious Sam to Quake 2 to RTCW (Venom!) to F.E.A.R. to Crysis, this is the weapon of ultimate destruction (which btw actually exists in reality unlike the Plasma rifle!) and slices through the entire bunch of enemy AI pretty quickly with its impressive rate of fire. In the game however, the ammo is infinite and the gun does not get heated up! Not realistic if you ask me because there's no way that barrel can be cooled, not even with the most advanced tech. in place.
Coming to the visuals department, Starbreeze has always impressed us with the visuals of the titles they have released till date. I am not sure what game engine Syndicate utilizes but the visuals looked pretty solid for an FPS title. The advanced options for tweaking the display settings seemed to be missing however. I was able to max it out with a constant 60 fps with the v-sync lock so it doesn't look like a system hog going by the performance. Frame rates were stable across most sequences. Syndicate does not appear to be a very resource hungry game and can easily be maxed out on a moderately spec'd system. But the game isn't without its minor share of annoyances however. The bloom effect and FOV in the game are terrible! When I mean terrible, the bloom appears to be overdone and puts some serious discomfort to the eyes causing it to tear after a while. There is a workaround based on the dev. console to nullify the bloom effect (press Ctrl + Alt + ~ to bring up the console and enter 'xr_effectmodels 0' to disable the effect) but Starbreeze is already aware of this issue and should shortly release an official patch to address this concern. Escape from Butcher Bay and Assault on Dark Athena did not have any of these issues IIRC. Level designs are brilliant, reminiscent of the futuristic dystopian era - high-tech labs, buildings, offices and warehouses to be found everywhere. Character modeling also has been done quite well. Lip syncs may be out of place during some sequences but hey not every game can achieve the level of perfection that L.A. Noire could! Voice acting deserves credit as well.
Summing up, is the playthrough worth it? I'd say yes. Folks who loved futuristic FPS titles such Crysis and DX: HR could give it a shot. Can this run on a mid-spec'd system? Hell yes! That's all I can think off the top of my head. I should possibly be done by the game this evening so maybe I can add something later. I wish I could do the co-op part later.
First up, the gameplay and storyline. Fast paced, the game feels and plays much like Crysis and partly like Deus Ex: Human Revolution minus the RPG elements and stealth. The game is definitely short - I am betting a 6-7 hour total gameplay time for the single player campaign considering I am already half way through the game! Storyline seems okay, nothing to write home about. It is 2069 and the global population has hit the 15 billion mark. There are no governments around and mega corporations take charge, referred to as a Syndicate. The society is split into 3 categories with the elite few having access to highly advanced tech. such as bio-implants. And all the corporations battle it out to develop the most advanced neural implant to permit their hosts to connect to the massive dataverse and control it. Enter Agent Miles Kilo, the protagonist of the title and EuroCorp's latest prototype who shares similar abilities with Adam Jensen, the protagonist of DX:HR. Think EuroCorp as Sarif Industries from DX:HR. Agent Miles has EuroCorp's latest prototype DART 6 neural chip implant that allows him to manipulate and hack into several electronic devices such as elevators, doors, hatches, enemy AI, grenades, turrets etc. to name a few. He is tasked with several objectives which includes a series of DART 6 training missions during the initial stages where he acquaints himself with the breach modes. The DART 6 chip allows him to view the surrounding environment in X-ray vision for a limited time, highlighting the several POIs and enemy AI through obstacles for a limited amount of time. Once the bar runs out of juice, it refills itself. The Agent can also attempt 3 modes of breaching which is essentially hacking into enemy AI's neural chip and control it. This includes Suicide wherein the enemy kills himself damaging any other targets in his vicinity, Backfire wherein the enemy's weapon blows itself stunning them momentarily and Persuade wherein the enemy is converted to fight for the player's side temporarily before he attempts to shoot himself towards the end. Once a mode of breach is consumed, it must be refilled using the energy obtained from killing enemy AI. The DART chip can be upgraded as the game progresses when Miles is able to access a similar chip from the enemy AI. A perk can be unlocked from a set of limited numbers which is otherwise locked out.
Enemy AI is very aggressive and would often use a combination of tactical and straight forward approach to flank Miles from the sides with near-perfect targeting. Enemy AI ranges from the basic assault rifle or pistol equipped militia to shotgun or Gauss rifle equipped cloaked units to minigun or flame thrower equipped heavies which can easily take quite a number of hits. The player can equip himself with any 2 weapons from an impressive range of arsenal and a handful of grenades. Ammo and reserve is indicated around the weapon held in the form of a VR display instead of the HUD. Each weapon has its dedicated alternate fire mode - attached grenade launcher and secondary scopes for assault rifles, explosive rounds for the shotgun etc. The Gauss rifle unlike the ones used in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. or Crysis locks down into the target and stalks them from around the corners so it's a pretty cool weapon. But my most loved weapon in the game is the Minigun (it has always been and will always be!). From the early days of UT to Serious Sam to Quake 2 to RTCW (Venom!) to F.E.A.R. to Crysis, this is the weapon of ultimate destruction (which btw actually exists in reality unlike the Plasma rifle!) and slices through the entire bunch of enemy AI pretty quickly with its impressive rate of fire. In the game however, the ammo is infinite and the gun does not get heated up! Not realistic if you ask me because there's no way that barrel can be cooled, not even with the most advanced tech. in place.
Coming to the visuals department, Starbreeze has always impressed us with the visuals of the titles they have released till date. I am not sure what game engine Syndicate utilizes but the visuals looked pretty solid for an FPS title. The advanced options for tweaking the display settings seemed to be missing however. I was able to max it out with a constant 60 fps with the v-sync lock so it doesn't look like a system hog going by the performance. Frame rates were stable across most sequences. Syndicate does not appear to be a very resource hungry game and can easily be maxed out on a moderately spec'd system. But the game isn't without its minor share of annoyances however. The bloom effect and FOV in the game are terrible! When I mean terrible, the bloom appears to be overdone and puts some serious discomfort to the eyes causing it to tear after a while. There is a workaround based on the dev. console to nullify the bloom effect (press Ctrl + Alt + ~ to bring up the console and enter 'xr_effectmodels 0' to disable the effect) but Starbreeze is already aware of this issue and should shortly release an official patch to address this concern. Escape from Butcher Bay and Assault on Dark Athena did not have any of these issues IIRC. Level designs are brilliant, reminiscent of the futuristic dystopian era - high-tech labs, buildings, offices and warehouses to be found everywhere. Character modeling also has been done quite well. Lip syncs may be out of place during some sequences but hey not every game can achieve the level of perfection that L.A. Noire could! Voice acting deserves credit as well.
Summing up, is the playthrough worth it? I'd say yes. Folks who loved futuristic FPS titles such Crysis and DX: HR could give it a shot. Can this run on a mid-spec'd system? Hell yes! That's all I can think off the top of my head. I should possibly be done by the game this evening so maybe I can add something later. I wish I could do the co-op part later.
Ze BLOOM effect!
Why of course I did mention that it was pretty bad. Even Dinesh mentions that 'bright color is hurting my eyes' which is essentially the bloom.
But toning it down using the console command removes the sun shafts visible through windows so I decided to forego this tweak.
Completed the title and all in all it was a good package! The last level was a b1tch and initially I could not figure out how to terminate the 2 opponents before confronting the final boss. It may take a while to understand how to go about doing that. The story is predictable however and we might possibly guess how the events would unfold towards the end.
Pretty sad the game wasn't advertised much and met with a very lukewarm response. A title worthy of a playthrough IMO. Does not have any replay value however.
Pretty sad the game wasn't advertised much and met with a very lukewarm response. A title worthy of a playthrough IMO. Does not have any replay value however.
Forgot to update about this game. Completed it last week and it was pretty good. I wish Deus Ex: Human Revolution was made on this engine, whilst retaining it's RPG elements; it would have been glorious. Anyway, this was a complete no non-sense FPS with the same cyber-punk theme and storyline as DX: HR, more or less. Technically, it was extremely stable with maxed out settings. As mentioned by countless other people, the bloom was over-done and it was seriously annoying. Sound effects were spot on. Weapons were kick-ass. For once, someone actually realized how much fun it is to provide unlimited ammo and no reload to a mini-gun. Short and quite enjoyable I'd say. Looking forward to the co-op campaign later on.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... Cry some more!!!
By the way, Sire were you able to check out the Multiplayer?
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