Commentary - Syndicate: How a promising game jumped the plot line shark.

Note: I had intended to review Syndicate initially but found myself far to fixated on the plot line so decided to just go with a commentary on my views on the Syndicate plot. If you’re thinking about playing Syndicate it’s an overall well-designed game and will be appreciated by both the FPS and the science fiction crowd, just be prepared for a letdown in the story department.

I know in my reviews and in conversations about games I oft find myself harkening back to days gone by and games that I grew up with. Reminiscing about the days when the video game market wasn’t the bountiful cornucopia of treats that it is today. The original Syndicate, released in 1993, was one of these games and introduced me to the “cyber-punk” dystopian setting seen in such movies as Blade Runner and games like Shadowrun. For all its redundant game play, Syndicate was an enjoyable game. So when I learned Starbreeze Studios (makers of “Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay”) had been green lit by EA to come up with a modernized version of this classic I was hopeful. After all if the game turned out to be anything like Riddick, we were in for a real treat. 

Unfortunately Starbreeze took a beautiful opportunity and sqandered it.  Instead of taking the opportunity to flesh out the skeletal storyline of a shadowy world run by faceless corporations who fuck the little guy and routinely commit atrocities, Starbreeze decided to mail in the ending of the storyline with a ho-hum predictable off the shelf story of betrayal and changing allegiances.

 As I said back in 1993 I played Syndicate for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed it, to the best of my recollection the story line of the game was this:

It’s the future, the world governments have been replaced by multinational corporations and the world is suffering from over population and pollution. You are some dude in a blimp that’s part of one of these groups. Your job is to take over the god damn world using a cybernetic squad of thugs whom you control. Oh and don’t worry about killing innocents or causing property damage because screw them you have a blimp, a cybernetic squad of thugs, and a multinational corporation backing you with more power than god almighty. Your squad thunders through the different territories killing, capturing and destroying the opposing syndicate’s resources until the world is covered with your corporate logo.

Blimps... because every evil dictator needs a mobile oppression platform.

The thing to take away from the 93’ version of Syndicate was that there were no “good guys” you and every corporation out there were complete ass holes and only concerned with profits and market share. In Syndicate, you were not a hero, in many ways you were the most vile and reprehensible villain. You were the Lex Luthor of the Legion of Doom.  Syndicate didn’t have a super deep or thought provoking plot, but its main theme, that the corporations were ruthless and all powerful shone clearly throughout the game.

So with a clear direction  from the original game and a talented studio like Starbreeze, the reboot of the series could only get better... right?

The modern Syndicate game places you as one of the individual cybernetic agents you previously controlled.  Removing the faceless squad based game play of the original. You play as Miles Kilo an Agent in the employ of Eurocorp, the largest and oldest Syndicate.  The game follows Kilo as he ruthlessly carries out the orders of Eurocorp which are piped directly into his brain via the “Dart 6 Chip” which is essentially a smartphone implanted in his head. The Dart Chip has a symbiotic relationship with Kilo and refers to itself and Kilo as “us” and “we”. The chip also routinely communicates with Eurocorp, seeking direction and revised objectives rather than allowing Kilo to make his own decisions. You as the player are never given an option as far as obeying orders are concerned you just do what the Dart Chip tells you to.

Dart Chip says: "SHOOT DUDES IN FACE!"

The first two thirds of the story are reminiscent of George Orwell’s 1984, with Kilo observing a world which is firmly in the control of Eurocorp. Those who have succumbed to the corporate will have been Dart Chipped and live in relative luxury. Those individuals who refuse to bend to the corporate will are cast into decrepit slums rampant with crime and disease. While playing you learn about this dystopian future from various documents and downloads that Kilo can collect.  As the game progresses this information paints a picture of a world suffering under the corporate superpowers.  The game is bleak and depressing.  At first, blush corporate life appears more or less utopian, but you quickly learn of the darker side with invasion of privacy, silent killings of dissenters, and filtering of the media to spin the corporate story.   The developers did well with the design of shiny steel and glass corporate towers where people are supposed to be living the ‘good life’ but upon closer inspection appear more like corporate prisons. 

Kilo carries out the corporation’s orders blasting through everything that gets in his way. Kilo never speaks or expresses his opinions on his predicaments or duties. He just moves around doing his job. Kilo never voices an opinion or even takes action to show that he has a personality which in the context of this game was appropriate for the protagonist. It added to the feeling that Kilo was nothing more than a manifestation of the corporations will. To me it didn’t matter what Kilo thought, because from the previous syndicate I was led to believe that Kilo doesn’t think. He cannot be reasoned with and he cannot be dissuaded by fear or personal feelings. Eurocorp points and Kilo obeys. Playing a blank silent character fit well with the dehumanizing theme of Syndicate where people are referred to as “soft assets” and the amount of trouble the corporations will go to protect their populations is directly linked to how much money they are worth.

IN THE FACE!

So the first two thirds of the game stay true to the original games theme: a world controlled by ruthless powerful corporations,  Any attempt to stand against them or get in their way is met with a response that involves guys like Kilo and high calibre firearms. Unfortunately Syndicate jumps the shark around the last portion of the game, with a fairly predictable twist likely intended to add depth to the Kilo character. 

The change in story line comes during the last segment of the game when the only true voice of descent against Eurocorp, a group of unchipped slum dwellers, has just been wiped out by Kilo alone.  While  The group represented a resistance that was only allowed to continue because it was so ineffective against the corporate power that it was below the corporations notice.  The mission ends with Kilo being injured while attempting to terminate a rebel sympathizer who was a scientist at Eurocorp. The scientist informs Kilo that she triggered a safety protocol in his Dart chip when he tried to kill her and he is now unable to injure her. As she turns to leave she tells Kilo that there is a human in him somewhere and that she hopes he finds it again someday. As a result of his injury, Kilo recovers memories of his childhood in which he learns that Eurocorp murdered his parents and kidnapped him at an early age because they deemed him to be genetically compatible to becoming an agent. To which I remarked, so what? Was this supposed to be a surprise? Did you miss the lion’s share of the game where Eurocorp demonstrated repeatedly that they were murdering dick holes who would sell their mothers eyes?

Young Kilo is taking this very well... after all he did just see his parents get shot, in the face. IN THE FACE!

So out of left field Starbreeze decides to shoe horn a personality into the up until now, silent more or less blank state of a character.  Apparently Kilo, who has been the pointy end of the aforementioned dick holes for his entire adult life, is surprised by the actions of Eurocorp.  He decides to change sides and fight alongside the rebel sympathizer through Eurocorp HQ to the CEO’s office while the building is being attacked by an opposing syndicate.

Kilo preforming brain surgery to steal the Dart Chip of a dude he shot. Why? Because Kilo and Eurocorp are dicks.

All of this just feels out of place and like two different plot lines got spiced together in post-production.  Aside from a single short cut scene where Kilo grabs the sides of his head and appears distressed after killing his former partner Kilo doesn’t do anything to show he has changed or even cares that his parents were killed by Eurocorp. Perhaps if they had from the beginning of the story shown that Kilo had a mind of his own or  reservations about his actions I might have been able to swallow this twist.  However,  as the game stands itfeels like Starbreeze never really knew where they were going with Syndicate and after painting themselves into a corner decided to wrap it up as quickly as possible.

"Ok Kilo, time to learn about your way tragic past and then spontaneously grow a personality, ready? GO!"

Personally, I would have preferred to see Syndicate go the other way and stay true to the 93’ versions roots. Kilo could have learned of his past and battled his way through the forces of the opposing syndicate to the CEO’s office only to have him turn and kill the sympathiser at the behest of the Dart chip and Eurocorp like the good corporate flunkey he is. Stay with the dehumanizing, depressing set up to the game and make the point that Kilo isn’t free, Kilo never was free because Kilo is an agent and an agent is an instrument of the corporation.

There is an adage in movies that says that if you drop the ball in the ending people’s perception of the whole movie will be tainted.  With previous games like Chronicles of Riddick under Starbreeze’s belt, I truly thought that this new Syndicate would easily be able to put forward a story that would do its predecessor proud and With the way that the first portion of Syndicate’s plot was playing out I thought I was going to have one of the top games of 2012 on my hands. Unfortunately the game concluded with an unsatisfying crash landing in predictability with an unconvincing change of heart. Syndicate had an opportunity to tell a thought provoking story that would strike chords with people and draw parallels with current events such as the greed that led to the global debt crisis, or at the very least given us a story that would make George Orwell proud. Sadly all we ended up with was a plot twist worthy of a Michael Bay film.