ENSLAVED: ODYSSEY TO THE WEST

Ever the masters of narrative-driven single-player experiences, back in 2010, Ninja Theory delivered Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, a game that many consider one of the studio’s best works ever to this day. Sadly, the game ended up a commercial failure. Though acclaimed by many for its storytelling, characters, performances, and its take on the classic Chinese tale of Journey to the West, for whatever reason, it failed to attract a sizeable audience.

Today, we will be taking a look at Starbreeze Studios’ 2012 release Syndicate which definitely falls under this category of games that slipped under the radar for most fans. Syndicate was subject to divisive critical reception which led to underperforming sales and eventually deemed the game a disappointing release – but that’s not indicative of the entire story. Sure, Syndicate does have plenty of rough edges that we will be talking about – but it also has plenty of merits that are worth discussing. 

Syndicate takes place in the year 2069 and paints a dystopian yet familiar vision of the future where megacorporations rule the world and huge cities are filled with towering skyscrapers and bustling air traffic. The narrative here revolves around a peculiar data chip that enables users to access any information available across a massive databank and those who choose to use the chip fall under the indirect influence of these megacorps. As a mercenary for hire, it’s up to you to put an end to these digital shenanigans by whatever means necessary, and that leads our protagonist Miles Kilo down a path lined with conspiracies and plot twists. 

The story isn’t anything special, but the characters are well-written and well performed which makes for a pretty entertaining ride through and through. And despite the familiarity of it all, Syndicate’s representation of a cyberpunk future looks visually appealing with great art direction evident across its environments. The team makes heavy use of bloom in the visuals which was one of the major points of criticism when it was released, but that also lends a rather distinct sense of visual identity to the game. The game has a pretty clean visual aesthetic overall that surprisingly holds up well to this date, though some of it could be credited to the high-resolution textures and gorgeous lighting effects that are used to render its maps.

But much of what makes Syndicate so great stems from the gameplay side of it all. You see, Syndicate was actually a real-time strategy game that came out back in 1993, and the 2012 FPS serves as a spiritual successor to that title. Translating those elements into a completely different genre is obviously a pretty tough task, but Starbreeze Studios has done a commendable job of handling that transition. On a surface level, Syndicate’s first-person shooting mechanics look like a pretty standard affair – you can run, jump, slide, and hide behind cover as you clear out rooms filled with enemies. But as you start to really dig into the game, you will come to realize that Syndicate has quite a bit more to offer than just shooting dudes in the face. 

The protagonist has a DART chip infused in his head that enables you to perform different kinds of special moves on your enemies. You could hack an enemy’s operating systems and cause their weapons to malfunction, lose control, and temporarily serve as your ally, or just straight up shooting themselves in the face for an easy kill. It’s not much in terms of the numbers themselves but using these abilities smartly in a tactical fashion while actively seeking out cover can make for some really engaging firefights. 

It also helps that the enemy variety here continuously forces you to keep changing your strategy and remain quick-witted to ensure chances of survival. The game often throws in heavier armored units with lighter cannon fodder enemies which can quickly down you in a matter of few hits forcing you to use the aforementioned utilities in smart ways to clear out rooms of enemies without getting obliterated by the opposition. 

Syndicate’s variety of weapons is also something that helps in adding depth to these firefights. Unlike many shooters of the time where almost every firearm can be used to great effect in any situation, Syndicate’s offerings of weapons demand that players use them with intention to ensure maximum effectiveness. Furthermore, you could also fit these weapons with different attachments and upgrades that can sometimes even change the functionality in a drastic manner. 

You also get the occasional mini gun with unlimited ammunition to decimate entire rooms of enemies without breaking a sweat, and that makes for some really interesting sections that deliver an unmatchable sense of power fantasy. In addition to this, there are also more than a couple of boss fights with augmented soldiers peppered throughout the campaign, and while they might not be the toughest fights in all of gaming – they definitely serve the purpose of adding some much-needed variety to the experience.

One of the more interesting things about Syndicate is that it’s a largely animation-driven game that adds a rather refreshing sense of realism and tangible heft to every movement that the player makes. Just notice how the placement of your weapon subtly changes as you hide behind different pieces of cover, and how it all functions when you lean over and shoot. Animations rarely break, and transitions happen pretty smoothly which looks very pleasing to the eye. Many of these ideas and concepts can be traced back to Starbreeze’s prior works like The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay, but Syndicate improves on these aspects by a significant margin which makes for a very endearing gameplay experience. 

And who can forget the co-op campaign? Syndicate also features a co-op campaign where up to four players can drop in and complete more than a handful of missions with increasing enemy presence. Players are also free to choose between different character classes that each come with their own strengths and weaknesses, which forces you to play off each others’ strengths to have a shot at success. It’s a pretty fun game mode that serves as a great hook to keep you coming back time and time again once you are done with the solo campaign. 

To say that Syndicate is a flawless game would be a massive overstatement. There are definitely quite a few things that the developers could have improved on. For instance, the animation-driven gameplay has some downsides that it doesn’t feel as responsive as contemporaries like Killzone or Overwatch, the enemies can feel like bullet sponges at times as some stronger variants can eat up entire magazines without going down, and certain stretches of the story can feel somewhat boring and uneventful. 

But despite those flaws, Syndicate is a game that manages to deliver a consistently engaging and quality experience throughout its run. It’s not a misunderstood masterpiece by any means, but it definitely stands out amongst other shooters of its time mostly due to the fact that encounters and shooting generally have some level of depth and variety that many of its peers lacked. Sure, it might not have the constant onslaught of high-intensity set-piece moments – but that tradeoff is worth it for the added mechanical complexity. If Syndicate is something that you never tried, you should definitely give it a shot and there’s a good chance that you might end up being genuinely surprised.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Max Payne

Max Payne raised the bar for cinematic action in video games, appropriating the style of John Woo’s gun fu movies. Of course, we can’t talk about Max Payne’s innovativeness without referencing its bullet time mechanic – an ability to transform shootouts into slomo bloodshed. Max Payne’s bullet time was clearly indebted to The Matrix, and whilst it wasn’t the first video game to feature bullet time it was the first to do it with such effortless swagger.

System Shock

The ways in which System Shock was ahead of the curve are numerous: it’s exploration of prescient themes centring on artificial intelligence, transhumanism, ascension, and the human soul is still grimly thought-provoking; its physics engine revolutionised how objects act in 3D spaces; its morally grey antagonist grounded its fantastical setting; it’s emphasis on player choice and options to avoid combat via ground-breaking hacking abilities. System Shock is an all-time classic, inspiring Prey, Dishonored, Portal, to name a few.

Outcast

A fully explorable open world appearing two years before Grand Theft Auto III isn’t why Outcast is ahead of its time. No, this 1999 sci-fi cult classic delivered immersion by the bucketload, far above anything that had come before. NPC conversation was integral to the narrative, but each had daily routines to follow, opinions on each other, and opinions on you the player. An early example of a reputation system, NPCs will help or hinder you based on how well you’ve treated them. Enemy soldiers are progressively weakened by lack of food or resources too, the result of activities you complete for the leaders of each region.

Red Dead Redemption 2

Much like Outcast some two decades prior, Red Dead Redemption 2 set new precedents for immersive open world story telling. It’s gorgeous grassland plains, swamps, and misty mountaintops encouraged horseback exploration; fast travel was not the optimal way to get around. Rockstar deliberately culled the pace of Red Dead’s sequel, stuffing the open world with a smorgasbord of side activities and random encounters. Open world games released today are struggling to reach the levels of freedom Red Dead Redemption 2 presented.

Mirror’s Edge

Flowstate is a remarkable thing when it happens in games. The sense of body and mind working in tandem, fluidly, uninterrupted. Games had toyed with parkour before Mirror’s Edge but none elicited the serene flowstate Mirror’s Edge did. This is in large part to its first-person perspective, it’s almost texture-less clean lines and minimal, distraction free colour palette switching between bright white and bold primary colours. Dying Light comes close, but the innovativeness of Mirror’s Edge is tough to beat.

Metal Gear Solid

An absolute genre-defining masterpiece, Metal Gear Solid changed perceptions of what video games could be via its unashamedly cinematic approach to storytelling, it’s ground-breaking stealth gameplay, and ingenious fourth wall breaking shenanigans. Never had a video game toyed with the player as much as Metal Gear Solid; etching Meryl’s codec frequency into the game’s physical CD case, or – most famously – the Psycho Mantis battle requiring players’ switch controller ports to evade his mind-reading ability.

Shadow of the Colossus

Originally released in 2005 at a time when video game contingent was still debating if the medium could be considered art. Contemplative, bleak, beautiful, befuddling Shadow of the Colossus put that contest to rest via minimal storytelling told ostensibly through environmental puzzles masquerading as boss battles. There really was nothing like it at the time. A wholly unique experience with an ending, like some of the world’s greatest art, wide open to interpretation.

Red Faction

Remarkably ground-breaking for its Geo-Mod technology was Red Faction. It’s incredible how much destruction developer Volition managed to build into its gameplay, and whilst there was a multiplayer component to the game the single player campaign was treated to this bar-raising destruction tech too. Players could reshape the world around them with unparalleled freedom. See a locked door? Blast a hole in the surrounding rock. Want to infiltrate a guarded building? Fashion underground tunnels with rocket launchers. Prior games included scripted destruction, but Red Faction was the first to grant players pure unscripted world-altering capabilities.

Shenmue

Sure, Shenmue’s stately slice of Japanese life divides fans and critics to this day, but the developer’s ambition for what they hoped would become a sprawling series was certainly ahead of its time. Introducing the concept of open world game design to mass audiences (well, Dreamcast players at least), Shenmue heightened immersion through its day and night cycles, NPCs with jobs and routines, and dynamic weather. The interactivity inherent in its detailed world cemented Shenmue as a trailblazer too, ranging from mundanely examining the objects of a kitchen drawer to hitting the arcades for some vintage game time.

Prototype

Prototype’s Alex Mercer is the perfect anti-hero. It’s as simple as that. So many powers and abilities are stuffed into his skillset that there was no more powerful a feeling possible in games than raising utter carnage in downtown Manhattan and barely feeling a scratch from an army desperate to stop you. In blending shapeshifting, superhero-esque aerial acrobatics, offensive and defensive body augmentations, thermal vision, guns, tanks, and helicopters, Radical Entertainment risked Prototype being a sludge of mechanics. Instead, Prototype is a blast; combining so many combat mechanics seamlessly truly was an achievement ahead of its time.

Battlezone

Never had a game merged first-person action, real-time strategy, base building, and tank simulation as cohesively as 1998’s Battlezone. Whilst the similar-in-scope Uprising: Join or Die released a year earlier it didn’t have the same sense of finesse that Activision’s effort exuded. Battlezone dripped in atmosphere, featured dynamic missions inside an engaging dual-perspective campaign, and – crucially given its melding of disparate genres – a sleek interface innovative for its simplicity.

RAGE

You can debate until you’re blue in the face on the memorability of RAGE. It brought legendary developer id Software back from the brink of mediocrity, but it’s shooting, premise, enemies, story – all middle-of-the-road at least. A solid 7/10. RAGE though had an ace up its sleeve: megatexturing. This tech wasn’t new at the time, but thanks to game engine id Tech 5 RAGE’s environment artists were able to build in an endless stream of unique textures. Dynamic scaling based on PC capability kept the game running at 60fps too; another feature prevalent nowadays but none-too-common back in 2011.

Syndicate

1993’s Syndicate put you in command of four trenchcoated, mirror-shaded cyborgs undertaking a corporation’s nefarious dealings via the trigger of a minigun. Gameplaywise, you’d take to the streets – early examples of living cities – to assassinate, coerce, rescue, or destroy, depending on your objective and whims. There was intelligence beneath the bloodshed too, a satirical mirror exposing the tunnel vision of rampant consumerism. Grand Theft Auto took these themes and ran with it, but Syndicate was the first to do it.

Far Cry 2

If Far Cry 2 were released today, it might be criticised for an overly minimalist approach to open world game design that’s become much more commonplace than it was back in 2008 when it originally released. Thing is, it’s Far Cry 2 that arguably started this trend. A true pinnacle of emergent gameplay, zones aren’t acquired like a shopping list and NPCs don’t tend to function as quest givers. Instead, it’s up to you to head into the bush a cause your own trouble, but beware as guns often malfunction, exploded vehicles cause rampant bushfires, healing is strictly limited. Far Cry 2 had the confidence here to blend FPS with survival mechanics, with Metal Gear Solid V, Fallout 4, and The Forest to name a few taking many leaves out of its book.

Silent Hill 2

Dealing with mature, taboo, brushed under the carpet subject matter in such visceral ways; intrinsically linking a character’s innermost desires and torment to gameplay, to monsters encountered; in crafting an atmosphere so noxious it chokes you – these are all reasons why Silent Hill 2 is an ahead of its time masterpiece, and stands the test of time some 22 years later. In a way, Silent Hill 2 is experimental; for one, its story is told extremely subtly. A very hands-off approach which many developers, plus Konami themselves, haven’t learned from.

THE ORDER: 1886

There’s no denying that The Order: 1886 didn’t exactly do justice to its premise, but at the same time, this is the sort of premise that could really have come into its own if it had been given the chance to build on its foundation and learn from its mistakes. The 2015 title looked gorgeous and transported players to a vividly imaginative setting, and we would have loved to see that idea being expanded and built upon in a sequel that worked to address its predecessor’s issues.

SYNDICATE (2012)

In 2012, EA and Starbreeze teamed up for a revival of the Syndicate series, only instead of making a real-time tactics game like the originals, they made a first person shooter. It was drastic shift, of course, and 2012’s Syndicate doesn’t ever match the heights of its predecessors- but it’s still a fun ride. It looked really good for its time and brought its cyberpunk setting to life really well, and there was a lot of fun to be had in its combat encounters.

FINAL FANTASY 15

Final Fantasy 15’s larger narrative is a bit of a mess, while the game often also receives criticism for how it sheds its open world approach and forces player down linear corridors in its final chapters. Not to mention the fact that after over a decade of anticipation, there were many who felt that the final product just wasn’t worth the wait. But while Final Fantasy 15 is not a perfect game, it is still a damn good one. Great combat, an open world begging to be explored, some excellent boss fights, and a memorable ensemble cast of four excellently developed characters make it a true diamond in the rough.

We will be posting out official Game of the Year awards pretty soon too, so stay tuned.

Tell us which games were your favourites in the comments section below.

Rashid Sayed

Hitman: Absolution (Read our review)

For me, Hitman Absolution is the second next generation game after Battlefield 3. I am sure many of the veteran Hitman followers wouldn’t have appreciated the changes that IO Interactive has made to the formula, but some of the gameplay mechanics just dazzle and stand out. The AI is revolutionary, the visuals are amazing, the story is breathtaking, the characters are interesting, the disguise system is next to perfect and I can probably go on for a day or two and still the list of good things about Hitman Absolution will continue.

Moreover, the game gives you an element of choice. Be the silent killer or just go crazy, all guns blazing. IO Interactive, the developers behind the controversial and critically bashed Kane and Lynch series, are back, and boy, are they back with a bang

Kirk Mckeand

Far Cry 3 (Read our review)

This year was a strange one, because in October I was sure that my GOTY would be Dishonored; nobody could match the quality of Arkane’s masterpiece before the end of the year, could they? And then Far Cry 3 came along. Complaints about ludicrous narrative dissonance aside, the game was an absolute joy to play. The environments sucked you into the experience, the skills were deadly and so was the island. The antagonist, Vaas is one of the most convincing sociopaths we have ever seen in a game, his menacing presence stalking you throughout, always a step ahead. I’ve never played a game that allows me to unleash a stampede of giant-chicken-looking-things (technical term) onto an unsuspecting convoy of militia. Never before have I hunted buffalos with landmines. If we are voting purely on merit as a game, Far Cry 3 leads the way with its emergent gameplay and beautifully crafted everything. Just don’t read too much into the story; Spec Ops it ain’t.

Shubhankar Parijat

Mass Effect 3 (Read our review)

A lot’s been said of Mass Effect 3 and BioWare this year, and plenty of it has been bad- the ending’s bad, the DLC sucks, BioWare and EA are fooling people into paying money, blah blah blah. Well, that doesn’t stop Mass Effect 3 from being the best game to have been released this year and one of my personal favourite games of all time. Mass Effect 3 provides a riveting, exciting and thrilling thirty hour campaign that has everything you’d want in a game- great, tense combat, a great storyline, emotional moments, memorable characters, an epic soundtrack and an overall quality to itself that you’d find in few games these days. I agree that the endgame isn’t exactly the best one out there, but the last 15 minutes didn’t really affect me much, because no matter how bad they are, nothing can ruin the 30 hours of excellence Mass Effect 3 delivers before it reaches its conclusion.

Only three games have managed to impress me this year- Mass Effect 3 (of course), Kid Icarus: Uprising and The Walking Dead. But still, 2012 hasn’t been a bad year in gaming- for me. Because those three games by themselves- and Mass Effect 3 especially- are enough to lift even the crappiest 12 months to an entirely new level of awesomeness.

George Reith

The Walking Dead (Read our impressions)

As always, it is the things we least expect that bring us the most joy. Though Telltale have been hammering out awesome episodic adventure games since their Sam and Max series showed up in 2006, their take on the Walking Dead series seemed to come out with little or no fanfare. Initially confusing it with the upcoming Activision FPS, I missed Telltale’s Walking Dead series for its initial release. After hearing some good things about its writing, I waded in to find the hype was well deserved. With so many games wrongly given the title of “well written,” I expected to be let down by The Walking Dead, but it is a series of deep characters, interesting plot twists and incredible pacing. It’s not likely to change the way you view the world, but it’s certainly the most engaging story to be told in gaming this year, and shows off just how successful episodic game structures can be. In an industry so focused on increasingly polished action games, it’s fantastic to see a developer committing to the more emotional elements of the increasingly overused zombie apocalypse setting.

Pramath Parijat

Kid Icarus: Uprising (Read our review)

Going into Kid Icarus: Uprising’s release, there was no reason to believe it would turn out as well as it did. It had been delayed multiple times (always an ominous sign), the controls were reported to be awful (to the extent that Nintendo was bundling a stand with the game as a concession to the fact), and it seemed to be a nightmarish miss mash of an on-rails shooter and a third person action game.

Happily for everyone, Kid Icarus: Uprising came through, as not only a great game in its own right, but arguably as  the best game of 2012. The stunning visuals, incredible soundtrack, witty and charming dialog that was self aware and genuinely funny, and perhaps most importantly, the gameplay all made Kid Icarus: Uprising a unique game unlike any other. The game’s massive single player campaign, complemented by its fun multiplayer modes, gave it lasting value beyond belief. People like to say that Nintendo does not take risks with its software, that it falls back on the tried and tested formula again and again. Generally speaking, that might be true. With Kid Icarus, it wasn’t, and as a result, we got the best Nintendo game in quite a while, and the best game of 2012.

Kartik Mudgal

Dragon’s Dogma (Read our review)

Many people might disagree with this choice, because Dragon’s Dogma does have its flaws- yes, I know that. It’s got tedious backtracking, some clunky mechanics, bizarre glitches and a few other hiccups along the way, but in the larger scheme of things, those issues ultimately amount to very little. Because the pros of Dragon’s Dogma far outweigh the cons. Not only is Dragon’s Dogma one of the most wonderfully complex and deep RPGs in recent years, it also has an incredible, believable and atmospheric game world and a visceral combat system that pumps adrenaline into you like water running from a tap.

Then there’s the fact that Dragon’s Dogma probably has one of the best decision making systems ever that leads to a truly unforgettable and satisfying conclusion that does perfect justice to the intriguing, riveting storyline. All in all, Dragon’s Dogma may not be the most perfect game of 2012, but it certainly is the best. 

Bojeeva

Syndicate (Read our review)

For me, the best game this year is undoubtedly Syndicate… the long-awaited reboot of the 1993 isometric classic, which finally made it to our screens in February. I must admit I was among those cribbing about its radical overhaul at first but while it looks and feels different from its predecessors – with Starbreeze transforming it into a first person shooter – it still retains the style and substance of the original. The campaign is fantastic fun but brief – and it isn’t until you get a few friends together for some multiplayer co-op action that it becomes a truly exceptional game. An awesome array of weaponry, the new Breach hacking mechanic, the awesomeness of the DART overlay, and the lengthy missions make this a game that shouldn’t be missed. Its lack of sales was a travesty… but on the plus side, you might be able to pick it up at a bargain price!

Cameron Foster

Mass Effect 3 (Read our review)

Finally being able to finish Shepard’s epic galaxy-spanning fight to save the world was the gaming highlight for me this year. Yes, the ending riled a lot of people up and definitely left me wanting more too. But overall, the experience was exhilarating, exciting, tense and downright terrifying at times. I’ve grown attached to these characters over the years and saying goodbye to the ones who survived at the end of their quest- and the ones who sadly didn’t make it- was definitely emotional. Goodbye Shepard.

Ravi Sinha

Far Cry 3 (Read our review)

It’s not so often that a truly open-world, stealth mechanics, involving story-telling, memorable characters, action-packed missions, beautiful visuals and hot-as-fuck voice acting and dialogues come together. It’s even less often that a game carries that “It” factor to tie it all together, and that immersiveness to convince you that you part of this world rather than playing it. Far Cry 3 does all this and so much more, packing so much into such a humble package without forgetting to be fun. It also features a completely separate co-op experience and solid multiplayer. Take note, Capcom: This is how you over-do a game for the better.

Tell us which games were your personal favourites this year in the comments section below!

It’s not a secret that Syndicate bombed spectacularly. The reboot made by Starbreeze Studios and published by EA, had the misfortune of releasing in a cramped launch window and having basically negligible marketing to back it. However, Starbreeze CEO Mikael Nermark is still proud of having worked on the game.

“I’m still proud of it. To have the courage to reboot the franchise – We knew from the get-go that there was going to be a small but very vocal [group] of gamers and journalists that was going to hate us whatever route we took,” he told EDGE.

“If we didn’t do an exact copy of the game, they’d hate us. If we did do an exact copy, they’d say we didn’t innovate. They were never ours to win; it was a lost battle from the get-go.”

We reviewed the game and our author Shubhankar liked it, giving it a glowing 8/10 score: “Syndicate has plenty of shortcomings, but a thrilling co-op mode, wonderfully realized world, slick presentation and some unique ideas make it a shooter worth playing.”

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Syndicate developer Starbreeze says that the game has had less than average sales because of the issues with UK retailers GAME and Gamestation, because Syndicate is “such a retail product”.

“There’s so many reasons why a game succeeds or fails from a commercial point-of-view,” Starbreeze boss Mikael Nermark said while speaking with GamesIndustry. “

We released the game about a month or more ago, and we’re doing our post-mortem right now: what did we do right, what did we do wrong, and of course we will look at the commercial side as well.

“The numbers are not as high as we would like, and I think if you asked anyone they would say the same thing about any game they made. But [Syndicate] was released in the midst of GAME going under; the retail space is hurting, and I think that hurt us because we were such a retail product.”

It’s a shame, really, because we though Syndicate was a genuinely good game, albeit with its own flaws. In our review, we gave Syndicate a 8/10, calling it “a flawed yet wonderful shooter”. Read the full review through the link above.

The 1993 classic strategy franchise, Syndicate recently got a reboot, and it was something we hadn’t seen coming. It was a first person shooter, and a lot of fans were enraged at this decision. EA, however, believes this was the right choice.

“It’s been nearly 20 years since the original Syndicate came out back in 1993,” the game’s producer, Jeff Gamon, told Eurogamer. “”So a lot of people playing this game would probably have heard of the original Syndicate but not necessarily have played it.

“Obviously we get asked a lot about the reaction of fans of the original to us taking it into first-person direction. But we have to maintain that was the right decision.

“Why remake that classic in its original form when it’s still out there? So with a whole new audience and tastes in video games, and a whole new suite of platforms to develop for, the game we made was the right choice.”

“I knew that no matter what we did people would have strong opinions about it,” lead co-op programmer Lars Magnus Lang chimed in. “I can be the same with some games, also. I can still feel like, oh, did they have to do that?

“So, absolutely, it was quite a bit of pressure to live up to those expectations. We knew that we really couldn’t do that. Unless we made it into an RTS they would not be happy. But if we had made it an RTS we would have made only those people happy.

“They might have heard of it, but most people haven’t played it. We wanted to cater to those people also, to everyone. I’d rather make a really good game for our players and make them really enjoy it, than just make a copy of an old game with updated graphics. That’s not that super fun for either the end user or us. That game already exists.”

He gave the example of Bethesda making so many changes with Fallout 3, which also stirred plenty of controversies. “I remember Fallout 3 also had the same thing. It is kind of forgotten now because it was great. Almost everyone liked it. There’s always a few…

“We make it good on its own merits, then we take the universe, the setting, the cyberpunk, and really be true to the original Syndicate, and that’s it.”

The devs at Starbreeze talked about several other things, and you can read the full story here at Eurogamer.

We reviewed Syndicate recently and liked it pretty much. Read the review here.