• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Underrated -- Syndicate (2012)

I

Izuna

Banned
syndicate_ipo_download_image_656x369.jpg


Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewwtznVkSxA

--

Artistic and amazing coop. The only real downside was it's lack of support as soon as it released and a Campaign that let's you play as someone that was way too overpowered. But with FPS campaigns being lacklustre these days, this is worth going back to and only costs a few dollars via a reseller anyway.

Probably the only game where I read every bit of lore. The world was beautiful and it's a shame we'll never get an FPS RPG (open-world) like this game deserved.

Anyone else feel the same?

Oh and if any Gaffers want to play coop my Origin ID is Izunin
 
Jeff Gerstmann feels the same. I've pretty much never heard anything about this game, other than him raving about in the 2012 GOTY episodes.
 
Syndicate was great, I really enjoyed my time with it in single player and coop. It also has absolutely fantastic gunplay with beastly guns. It just makes me sad that the staff that left to form Machine Games never took the sound designer with them.
 
i remember playing a demo of it and really feeling it, yah? I ended up never getting it for some reason, yah?
 
Bosses were shit but the game was amazing.

True Ghost in the Shell FPS. Very good hit feedback and great art.

Very telegraphed story though
 
Very physical and intense movement/shooting mechanics, but I found the campaign to be utterly mediocre, if not outright bad in spots. Never got to try co-op but I'm sure it was more fun if only for the focus on mindless shooting with friends.

They had the art and mechanics to make for a really great game but what we got wasn't that. Very interested to see what the supposed original vision for the game (being more hub based, I think) would've looked like. As it is, Starbreeze didn't get to stretch their character + storytelling muscles enough, their 2 biggest strengths at the time.
 
This game came out when there were too many FPS games and the market was oversaturated. I saw a lot of people saying it was just jumping on the trend and it was awful, but I had a great time with it. The hacking aspects were cool (I think you could hack grenades to disable them in mid-air), and I found it interesting how you could hack friends to heal them. The co-op mode was really fun with friends.
 
I've owned this game for years and have yet to launch it as it always managed to look kinda boring and generic to me at a glance, am I really missing that much? Maybe I should load it up and have a look at it.
 
Xyber said:
The game having a very low and locked FoV made it unplayable for me on PC.
Click to expand...

http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Syndicate_(2012) <-- you can change it

Although... SSAO does not work like it suggests, and FXAA has to be enabled every time you enter the game (and forcing it outside the game causes glitches).

It definitely didn't get the support it deserved.

poodaddy said:
I've owned this game for years and have yet to launch it as it always managed to look kinda boring and generic to me at a glance, am I really missing that much? Maybe I should load it up and have a look at it.
Click to expand...

Definitely play though a bit. It was a little ahead of its time with how the character interacted with the world. Standard stuff now though.
 
It was a decent enough game but I seem to remember thinking they never pushed their gameplay mechanics well enough. As in, you got these abilities but never really had a chance to use them well enough. This is from memory from all those years ago so I could be wrong.

It also had a the worst bloom effect I've ever seen in a game. It ruined the entire look of the game, which is a shame because it had a pretty decent art style outside the lousy overwhelming bloom.

Here's an example I found in an old screenshot. Imagine what happens when you go behind the pillar

3404BAA0F2F1D86043F6EEDC05457D6C060788D5
Click to expand...

Doom 3 had a running joke about how every screenshot was pitch black. This was the exact opposite where you could get screenshots which were blindingly white.

EDIT - more memories coming back to me. The co-op seemed fun but it did not scale according to the number of players in the game if I remember correctly. The game was tuned for 4 players which meant it was next to impossible to complete some missions with only 2, which is how I tried to play it.
 
I LOVED the game and feel really bad for judging it before release and being late to the party.

As a big fan of the original and Syndicate Wars I disregarded this initially thinking it was a cheap cash in but once I got it for cheap and played through it I had a blast. The way they showed details from the other games in the new world and the part about the
Church of the New Epoch
that was mentioned had me drooling for a sequel. I enjoyed it so much I was going to write a letter or e-mail to Starbreeze thanking them for it but I'm thinking I couldn't find their contact info...something stopped me from doing it but can't remember what/why now.

Alas I don't know if we'll ever get one since I believe it didn't sell that well. I'm guessing it's gone back into EA's pile of IP's they own and will sit unused for a long time. I heard so much praise about the co-op too but never knew anyone on Origin and my friends are too against other game clients to get it even if I gifted it to them (no joke).

If anyone wants to play the co-op shoot me a PM and I'll get it reinstalled. Sounds like it would be fun to try out.
 
Fucking loved this game. Combat felt fantastic, great gunplay and the continual hacking kept you on your toes, constantly engaged, and feeling powerful.
 
Cobalt Izuna said:
http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Syndicate_(2012) <-- you can change it

Although... SSAO does not work like it suggests, and FXAA has to be enabled every time you enter the game (and forcing it outside the game causes glitches).

It definitely didn't get the support it deserved.



Definitely play though a bit. It was a little ahead of its time with how the character interacted with the world. Standard stuff now though.
Click to expand...

I know, but as they also mention, it breaks things in Win 10 and scales weird with iron sights. Not worth my time.
 
It piqued my interest, but not enough for me to play it when so many other games were coming out. I was playing a lot of other games at the time.

I keep seeing it at Walmart in discount bins, though, and have been tempted. I'm going to wait for it to be dirt cheap, though.
 
Fisty said:
Only played the demo, but the Syndicate theme by Skrillex was good as hell, first song of his I heard
Click to expand...

Skrillex is the guy that produced 4Minute's "Hate" (their final song) no? Anyway, I played and loved the original RTS Syndicate game when I was a kid, never played this FPS though.
 
The main story is whatever, but some of the collectible logs are really cool, and the gunplay feels fantastic. The moment when you get the flamethrower in the campaign feels amazing.
 
I remember owning this game, completing it and really enjoying

However i cannot remember a single thing about this game. Hell i had to sit for a bit and try and remember if i actually did own this game, or if i just played the demo
.
 
Big_Al said:
Syndicate was great, I really enjoyed my time with it in single player and coop. It also has absolutely fantastic gunplay with beastly guns. It just makes me sad that the staff that left to form Machine Games never took the sound designer with them.
Click to expand...

I just had major deja vu reading this post and watching that video.

But yeah, everyone was trashing it at the time, but I really enjoyed it. One of the games that made me glad that I didn't listen to others.

OCDChewie said:
It piqued my interest, but not enough for me to play it when so many other games were coming out. I was playing a lot of other games at the time.

I keep seeing it at Walmart in discount bins, though, and have been tempted. I'm going to wait for it to be dirt cheap, though.
Click to expand...

It's been dirt cheap on all systems for years.
 
I've had it sitting on my hard-drive for about 3-4 years, never loaded it up. I fully intend to play it some day, but that back catalog...
 
I remember being hyped for the game because it came out at a time when I was quite into dubstep (I know...) and the trailers for the game had some track that I really liked. I remember playing the demo a lot with my friends and having a ton of fun with it, but after I picked up the full game (two or three months after its release) I just didn't find it to be anything too special. The campaign was mediocre and IIRC there were some really stupid boss fights in the game too, definitely wasn't a fan of those. I guess the co-op was the real meat of the game, but I never really got into it, I thought it was okay but I traded the game in pretty quickly. Not really interested in returning to it in the future.
 
It's got Starbreeze genetics so of course it has an amazing FPS single player campaign

The sounds of guns in that game are particularly incredible
 
Rellik said:
It's been dirt cheap on all systems for years.
Click to expand...

I don't remember seeing it for five dollars in sales, but maybe I've missed it. It's very possible.

I've seen the physical disc for $20, but that's more than I want to spend.

I'll start keeping a closer eye out.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Metro Exodus Is Severely Underrated
2
81
1K
Gonzito replied
Your most underrated game?
Opinion  2 3
137
2K
violence replied
The Most Underrated Game of 2025
2 3
119
3K
adamsapple replied
GameShare is a great and underrated Switch 2 feature nobody talks about
5
481
SScorpio replied
What’s Your Favorite Underrated SNES Game? (No “Big Classics” Please!)
2 3 4 5
234
4K
Skywarp replied
Top Bottom