• Summary: 2069 - No longer governed by politicians, the world is divided into regions controlled by mega-corporations known as Syndicates. These Syndicates have revolutionized the way consumers interact with the digital world. Consumers no longer require a device to access the world's data and control their technology - they can achieve this with the blink of an eye after a neural chip implant. Civilians clamored to be "chip'd" and to enjoy all that their selected syndicate has to offer. Housing, medical, banking, insurance, education, entertainment, and employment. One complete package - one complete lifestyle. In return, the syndicates gained unprecedented insights, and control, over individuals and their behavior. With insufficient government oversight, business has become war. The Syndicates stop at nothing for ultimate market dominance. On the front lines of this war are the Agents, the syndicates' bio-engineered and chip-augmented enforcers. They can breach anything in the wired dataverse including their enemies, their weapons, and the environment surrounding them, making them the most efficient and deadly technological weapons in the world. Assume the role of Miles Kilo, Eurocorp's latest prototype Agent, and embark on a brutal action adventure of corruption and revenge. [Electronic Arts] Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 16
  2. Negative: 0 out of 16
  1. Feb 24, 2012
    89
    The separate co-op missions are well worth checking out.
  2. Mar 12, 2012
    74
    Obviously, Syndicate does have the eye-candy factor, as well as interesting battle features, a large number of available weapons and palm-sweating moments of action. But its lack of personality betrays it, as does the completely predictable finale, the absence of remarkable opponents, the colorless locales and the lacking multiplayer mode. [April 2012]
  3. 70
    Neither a disappointment nor euphoria – it's Syndicate, excellent multiplayer action game. Unfortunately, the whole single-player campaign feels like a five-hour tutorial. [March 2012]

See all 16 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 32 out of 73
  2. Negative: 29 out of 73
  1. NOTE - the controls and instructions show as PC instructions ("press 'E' to open" or 'Return' or whatever) - it only gets confused if you have a joystick plugged in. There's a tiny fix (single file) available on internet for this also. It threw me for 10 minutes - then I GOT OVER IT and sorted the problem. Search for it people COME ON please! Now - onto things proper. I read that the gameplay is great, the guns feel amazing to shoot, the enemies are engaging, the graphics are good, the sound is thumping - and then "but it's not worth getting". And I hate that this is the tone of a lot of reviews. I loved the original game, and this is a completely different game, so that comparison stops there. I bought it when it came out because Starbreeze make very visceral, over bloomed, over thumping combat - I knew what I was getting. They make a game where dark is black and light is blinding. I love this style. Since we got it me and mates have played it non stop as our go-to co-operative multiplayer. In the Co-op part of the game, the RPG development elements, the relatively minimal signin nonsense, the solid feeling presentation and mechanics add another dimension to an already solid gameplay experience. You play this game for the feel of the guns, the feeling of managing a firefight, keeping your mates alive, ripping the armoured enemies, unleashing viruses. And MINIGUN - oh yes - MINIGUN.. Having the spoils to take home and invest in your weapon upgrades - that's just the icing. Although after a month or so of play you'll have most things fully upgraded, it's fun doing it. We found that there's a lot of replay potential too as the enemies seem to come in different patterns and spawns each time we play. They are smart too - and the close quarters stuff is nice, with them jinking and ducking out of fire, blind firing when the are suppressed, throwing grenades and storming locations. I enjoyed the single player too, but not without reservation. This game has some Deus Ex feel because the "world" it inhabits is Syndicate. My friend described it as "Deus Ex" - without all the rubbish - and in a way it is. It's a set piece shooter with no pretense. The acting is pretty good in the single player, the Eurocorp CEO in particular, and certainly the extra flavour of the single player makes a nice bonus to the co-op, but is "good not great" overall without the co-op taken into account (co-op can be played on your own - no bots tho). Only thing that annoys me is the low likelihood now that there'll be extra missions after the community response. While currently there are something like 10-15 missions (You travel to different countries -a la the first syndicate - and do reimaged missions from the first one in coop multiplayer game) How cool would it have been (via updates/dlc) if every country got to have a mission? Expand
    • 1 of 1 users said yes
  2. Another COD inspired shooter in futuristic setting, probably one of the most forgettable ones in recent years. The story maybe isn't that horrible, but it's so terribly told, you just don't care about anything, be it the main silent protagonist, the world or the characters. The same, by the way, happened in Crysis 2, who had the same writer (Richard Morgan's style, I take it?). The level design is as generic as it can be (corridors, hallways and again corridors), missions are utterly boring and completely uninspired(kill that, take that, retrieve that and etc). The so called three "Dart Powers" are fun to use in the beginning, but after two-three hours the novelty wears off. They are not anything special either- just "Knock down, blow up or befriend the enemy SWAT soldier". Even the shooting parts aren't the best-enemies take half the clip to be killed, AI, while trying it's best, just doesn't offer much of a real challenge, even guns scream generic.The graphics, like everything else, are average at best: low details, bad textures and the infamous bloom coupled with great effects here and there. The sound,on the other hand, is a positive side : weapons sound OK most of the time, the voice acting is hammy sometimes (who voiced Merit?!), but nothing really bad and music fits the game's stupid, soulless shootouts pretty well.The co-op is all right, but nothing really special. The only real bright spot is probably "InfoBank", an in-game codex, which contains huge amount of interesting (and unfortunately, completely useless) data. In all, it's so sad to think, that such an interesting universe, with so much potential, is wasted on a generic shooter. With that kind of setting even a twelve-year old can write a better story and characters. I was expecting so much more from the creators of Escape from Butcher Bay. Expand
    • 1 of 1 users said yes
  3. I can praise only visual style (however there's too much of a bloom and lighting is bad) and main music theme by Skryllex. Everything else is horrible. Interesting thing is it's actually mediocre on "easy" difficulty and absolutely horrible on "normal" and "hard". Outrageously repetitive non-challenging stupid gameplay (go to next same-looking-room, kill 5-6 waves of enemies, repeat; I know, it's shooter, but "action" is then _something_ happens, not just waves of enemies swarming you). The only good thing in the whole game is second boss (jumps around and shoots rockets). He was fun and interesting. Everything else is just awful. I thought I was playing oh-another-fps-from-CITY-Interactive: no story, tons of cannon fodder. Oh, and "upgrades" and "DART overlay" are absolutely useless, you don't need them at all. Actually, this game had a great potential, but it was wasted. If they'd spend another year or so, it would be a good game probably. Expand
    • 10 of 20 users said yes

See all 73 User Reviews