Reading the first two of my materials in this series, you probably noticed that we were talking about very old games. One, No One Lives Forever 2, is 20 years old, and the other, Medal of Honor Pacific Assault, is 18 years old. This is understandable – only the first, early games bring us sincere pleasure and remain in our memory for a long time. Then they all slowly and gradually merge into one, or rather, one, first-person shooter. . And against this background, games that are at least somehow different are real treasures.
. . . A year later there was Bulletstorm, the best meat shooter of the seventh generation of consoles. . A year later, exactly the same thing happened with Syndicate. .
. There wasn’t much production in it – Starbreeze never really got along with her. But they got along great with how to make their game truly alive. With the fact that the main character should have a body, inertia, that he should not scratch the wall with the muzzle of a machine gun, and when shooting from around a corner he should definitely stick it out. That weapons should really be different from one another and that you should believe that you are holding a machine gun in your hands and not a hammer drill.
"Deus Ex meets F.E.A.R."- https://casinoallbritish.co.uk/bonus/ this is exactly how Syndicate was characterized before the release, and this is an extremely apt definition. Syndicate is exactly that F.E.A.R. seventh generation gaming systems. The games are almost mirror images of one another – dark corridors of a gloomy future, surprisingly smart special forces enemies, an abundance of below-average rooms and signature slow-mo.
But the main thing in which they are similar is why you die. There are usually only three people to blame for your death here – you, you and you again. Because, looking at how local enemies act, you can only blame yourself for another loss. They flank you, suppress you with fire, smoke you out of your hiding places with grenades, and in every possible way (pardon the pun) they don’t let you live. Every room is a puzzle, every cover is an opportunity, every grenade on your belt is an unbreakable trump card, every battle is a test of reflexes, and a second of delay is like death.
If in Call of Duty you can play foolishly with your left back, then Syndicate will not tolerate such treatment. And not only will he not tolerate it, but he will also hit you on the head and hands in every possible way, as if trying to awaken you from hibernation. After an hour of playing Syndicate, this is exactly how you feel – awakened from hibernation.
You don’t stand still for a second, you roll up to your enemies in slow-mo, hack their weapons and themselves, and go around their flank to send them a long burst at point-blank range or hit them in the jaw with a rifle butt. Rain of bullets everywhere, holes on the walls and furniture, sparks from locked weapons – the battle as it is, without unnecessary words and theatricality.
Actually, this is precisely the main reason why you should play Syndicate. If you miss the times when a game gives you a real challenge (based on competent design, and not skewed balance), instead of playing a shiny show in front of you, or after DOOM (2016) and DOOM Eternal you "want more", then this is what you were looking for. Here you don’t just watch a beautiful scene, you create it. A diamond in the rough, a breath of fresh air – call this game what you want. .
There is also one important detail in Syndicate. . This is the local light. Penetrating everything around, very deep, and, strikingly, piercingly, simply insanely bright. Exactly how he should be in a real cyber-punk.
If I were asked to describe Syndicate with one frame from the game, this is exactly what I would do – I would choose the most overexposed screenshot. Because the whole game is one big flash. A flash of gameplay, style, reflexes, but most importantly – adrenaline. And not just adrenaline, but adrenaline created by you. The last third of the game is especially indicative in this regard – Starbreeze completely spit on the production, and, leading you to the next room, they simply throw you another portion of chickens for slaughter.
Everything tends to be forgotten. After completing it, you are unlikely to remember the local plot, characters, events, and even the constant adrenaline rushes that this game gives will be erased from your memory. .