Syndicate review and more!

Hello everybody! Enjoying your weekend? Well hopefully it's about to get better, but enough small talk! Tonight I bring you a review of EA's Syndicate, so let's get to it! BTW if you noticed the lack of a couple of posts or posts that just suddenly disappeared it's because I removed them. It's part of my bringing-you-the-best philosophy and I didn't think they cut it.  
 
For those of you that don't know, Syndicate is a not-too-old FPS with a near-futuristic flare. Firstly, one thing to bare in mind...In 2017 the largest corporate merger in history occurs creating EuroCorp. As is characteristic of situations like these, the rest of the world's large corporations feared EuroCorp's influence and combined into their own mega corporations. Thus, Syndicates are born. 

In 2025 EuroCorp releases the DART chip, a neural implant that allows the user to directly connect to the Internet and other electronic devices -  a system that EuroCorp calls the Dataverse. Because of this new-found power the world's governments collapse and Syndicates start to take over countries. Half of the world's population reject the chip and become socially lost. Corporate espionage ensues. Now rampant, Syndicates start to invest in "Agents" (Bio-engineered soldiers that protect their Syndicate's interest). 

In the year 2069 (this is where the story begins) you take the role of Miles Kilo, EuroCorp's newest Agent.
EuroCorp implants their latest DART 6 chip into him and sends him on his way to do their bidding. 

Let's start off with the storyline. 

WARNING: This may contain spoilers.

Story

Do not think that this is going to be a Bioware tear-jerker, because it's not. Syndicate has quite a thrilling start with you being thrown immediately into the action. The story then continues with you carrying out all of EuroCorp's dirty work, mainly against other Syndicates. The story of Syndicate is fairly entertaining but (in my opinion) leaves a lot to be desired.  The ending left a bit of a poor taste in my mouth, but it is far from the worst I have seen.
7 out of 10



GFX

Syndicate had a lot of nice visual effects as can be expected from a AAA game. There was a nice contrast between the dark, dusty tunnels of the downtown cities, and the light, sophisticated environments of the rich suburbs. Syndicate can be easily played on a medium-end PC whilst still producing effects that will have you saying "OOOOH".
8 out of 10





Gameplay

Syndicate is your run-of-the-mill shoot, beat and kill FPS. Its gameplay seemed oddly familiar reminding me a lot of Deus Ex: HR. While it didn't display much innovation or redefine the genre it was still a lot of fun to play. 
7 out of 10




User-friendliness


The menu's in Syndicate were easy to navigate and user friendly. The loading screens didn't take long to get you in game and - in my play through - I could not find one glitch to speak of. Something that did start to annoy me after awhile was the chromatic aberration. I know it plays in well with the whole theme of the game and it does look cool the first few times that you enter, it eventually starts to irritate your eyes and make you wish you could auto-adjust the screen. 
9 out of 10



Misc.

 

As far as the miscellaneous aspects of the game go, there isn't too much to talk about. It does have a four-player co-op mode that I haven't had the pleasure of trying but, from what I've seen, looks pretty decent. If you enjoyed the SP you should definitely try the MP since it is the same agent-type gameplay just with another three people. 
8 out of 10

The verdict

Syndicate is a FPS that doesn't reinvent the genre or bring a story that will drive you to tears, but it does have nice GFX and fun, glitch-free gameplay. If you have the opportunity you should definitely play this game. Don't expect your mind to be blown, but do expect to be intrigued.  

78%             

Like always feel free to comment or send me an email at TheStrangerHazardous@gmail.com
Enjoy the rest of your weekend guys.
TheStranger out.

I love the internet! :)

Hey! What's up? All of us here at Hazardous are just about to receive a large quantity of games...which means plenty more reviews and videos...erm...I guess I would need to put up videos before I could say that right? :P LOL. We do have legitimate reasons for not bringing you Hazardous TV just yet, primarily because of the uploading size and speed since the videos are of a high quality. But fret not! We have got a few ideas on how to solve those problems! Yay!


The last few days I have been working on a whole review system (inspired by the Syndicate review I was supposed to do) that will review every aspect of our chosen candidates from gfx to gameplay to modding community and everything in between! This will make our lives and yours a whole lot easier! It will give you coverage of everything you will need to know before buying (or wasting bandwidth ahem....;) so stay tuned, that should be coming up shortly.


I don't know how many of you out there have played the S.T.A.L.K.E.R series or primarily S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of chernobyl but for those of you that have and loved it but thought it needed some revitalising I have the answer! Yesterday I stumbled across the S.T.A.L.K.E.R modding community which, I might add, is quite large and powerful. One mod in particular stood out for me...It is called Oblivion Lost 2010. This mod compilation is a total re-work and re-balance of most of the elements of SHOC and is absolutely amazing! 


It adds tons of new equipment (Mutants, weapons, attachments, drive-able vehicles etc etc) that really makes you feel like you are playing a different game. Among these changes are many gfx changes, improving the condition and realism of the Zone and a re-balance of the bullet ballistics. Warning: THIS IS NOT A MOD FOR NOOBS. It makes S.T.A.L.K.E.R extremely challenging and realistic (one bullet could kill you and them) finally no more emptying of AK magazines just to kill one person! So if you loved the series or want to see it with a new spin go to http://www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-soc-oblivion-lost-2010 and see for yourself.


Like always drop me a message at TheStrangerHazardous@gmail.com or just say Hi! in the comments :).


Good hunting STALKER.    

Thanks for reading :) This is TheStranger out.

Feelings of Relief

Don't you just love that feeling of relief when you know that you have no work to do for a couple of weeks? Well that's how we are all feeling. This past weekend we had quite a decent sized LAN as a nice way to wind down after tough exams, so now we all have got lots of time to spend on posts and other interesting things for you guys. 

We took the oppurtunity and recorded some Crysis Wars video's which I will upload soon and we worked a little on a Minecraft world where we will record a series in, at a later date. 

As I know some of you also have a bit of time off now so if you're looking for some good games I will be happy to oblige.

The games some of us at Hazardous are playing right now are :

Syndicate
A game all about the power of technology and giant enterprises called Syndicate's where a hostile takeover literally means a HOSTILE TAKEOVER. If you like the idea of being a super soldier working in a very tech based world, this is one you will like.




Serious Sam 3
An odd mix of action, arcade and big guns, if you liked the previous Serious Sam or like killing hundreds of enemies at a time this arcade FPS is for you.




COD Modern Warfare 3
Yes this is a big one that came out in November so it has been out for a while, but some of us were living under a rock for the last few months. Great game, great story, still with a short campaign and awesome multiplayer. If you haven't played it yet I suggest you do or else some of your buddies will just love putting a spoiler in casual conversation just to mess with you.



The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series
No not like your creepy neighbour, this is all about trying to survive a nuclear wasteland Russia. A great series that has been out for a few years which (surprisingly) only a few amount of people know/play. Lots of freedom, surprising mutant attacks, great multiplayer and some of the most fluid combat mechanics of the FPS genre. This is defineatly a great choice if you have time and love a good scare every now and again.

 

Minecraft
A game that never dies no matter how many times you have built a giant castle and destroyed it. Amazing mulitplayer, a huge amount of mods and with 1.3 being released soon you will want to jump in all over again. A great game especially if you have a lot of time. 



Well folks that is all for now, stay tuned for the Machinima that is on its way and a whole bunch of LAN tips and tricks.
TheStranger out.

PS. I have not forgotten about the LAN access and other articles, they will be posted soon :).
As always any suggestions on LAN articles you would like us to post or research send me a message on TheStrangerHazardous@gmail.com or comment on this page.