Medium / Hard

Syndicate was such a great game. I remember spending far to many hours researching new weapons, outfitting my guys with new armor and most importantly unleashing hell on earth which was officially known as the gauss gun. The game had many elements that you still see today. The mission based level design is strikingly similar to the quest systems that are so popular now.

The thing I really liked about Syndicate was that the agents weren’t stupid. Inject the right drugs into their system by hitting panic mode and they would identify friend from foe, become more accurate and engage at will. Video after the jump.

This didn’t make the game any easier mind you, the difficulty was designed with this in mind. If you were panicked, you could still be overwhelmed by enemy agents, cut down by laser guns or blown up by gauss guns. What it did do though was put more of a focus on getting into the correct positions, using your equipment as effectively as possible and generally kicking ass.

This game mechanic was balanced out by the fact the drugs would only remain effective for a limited time. You would need to spend time recovering with the assists off after a certain duration which left you far more vulnerable.

I Really think this type of assist makes games far more enjoyable as a game can throw you into situations that are too crazy for the average human to handle, but for a bunch of cyborg badasses with targeting computers and Friend of Foe ID systems they are completely survivable. I love these totally over the top moments where you feel like everything is slightly out of control.

Syndicate is one of the best games ever created and it still stands up today. Sure it’s not the prettiest but having 4 cyborg killing machines running around, persuading, assassinating and otherwise creating all sorts of mayhem was for me at least one of the best experiences I’ve had in gaming.