Introduction

Syndicate is an isometric strategy game made by Bullfrog in 1993. There was also a sequel called Syndicate Wars. This game has little to do with that, though. In 2012, Starbreeze Studios (Escape Butcher Bay and The Darkness) released a reboot of the Syndicate franchise as a first-person shooter and called it the not-at-all-confusing, Syndicate.

Even though it shares a name with the original, it is actually a prequel of sorts and tells a story set a few years prior to the original Bullfrog game when EuroCorp was vying for global dominance.

The setup is a pretty straight forward cyberpunk tale. Corporations (called syndicates) have replaced governments in a world where everyone is connected to the Dataverse (read: internet) through chips in their brains. Corporate espionage is handled by augmented humans called Agents. We'll be playing as one Miles Kilo who is a mute agent working for the aforementioned syndicate, EuroCorp.

The black and yellow colors, cyberpunk aesthetic, back story, gravely-voiced main characters, corporations, and the fact it's a reboot that is actually an FPS prequel may have some people thinking this is a poor man's Deus Ex: Human Revolution and the comparison is apt, but Syndicate's strongest suit is its shooting (important for an FPS) and four-player co-operative mode that features an entirely different set of missions from the single player.

Videos

Co-op Videos

Expert 4-Player Co-Op Videos

Characters

Our mute main character, Distance Weight, is an Agent for EuroCorp and has been implanted with an experimental new form of EuroCorp's Chip implants that gives him a number of neat and destructive moves including hacking people's minds! He is also unique in that he has hands and feet when you look down!

Lily Drawl, voiced by Rosario Dawson, is the generic super-intelligent hotshot scientist that works on the Chip systems for EuroCorp. We'll be seeing a lot of her
throughout the game. Notably, the first thing she does when you see her in the game is teach you how to kill someone with your mind, so there's that.

Fingers-In-The-Air is the CEO of EuroCorp's American branch and is anxious to get the new version of the Chip system out to market before any other syndicates can steal their technology. He is voiced by Brian Cox who is known for always portraying lovable and completely trustworthy characters.

Jules Merit is another Agent working for EuroCorp and fills in the required role of gravely-voiced main character that all cyberpunk stories and video games are required to have. He is voiced by Michael Wincott, who is probably best known for playing the Prophet of Truth in Halo 2, but also plays Death in Darksiders 2. Since our main character doesn't speak in classic FPS tradition, one or more of Merit, Drawl or Denham will usually be around to further the exposition.