Syndicate demo now available - Here's what I think

The Syndicate Co-op demo is now available grabe it HERE . I've played quite few games through now and have to say that despite a little lag (Which should be fixed by release) it's shaping up to be even better than I anticipated.

The demo consists of an early Co-op mission set in Western Europe, one of the "Corporations" has become a little cocky and your team has been sent in to extract the chip from the generals brain.

From the off it becomes very clear that co-operation is key here, you'll get nowhere on your own, a whole heap of men and an APC with turret attached block your way through, it requires careful consideration on how to progress, do you go in guns blazing? or lay down covering fire so some of your squad can flank and disrupt the APC? even more choices become available later on in the demo and all require some serious Co-op action, one area has a closed door to a warehouse with a skylight being the apparent only means of entry however you can send two squad mates up if you choose and allow one to drop in and quickly open the door while the other covers from the rooftop. Even the bosses require careful consideration, the general for instance will only become vulnerable to gunfire once a member of your team has hacked his armour, this is dangerous as it requires getting in close and taking some point blank fire from his minigun.

One of the things I really noticed during my playtime is the amount of options at your disposal, multiple loadouts with a whole heap of upgrades and "mods" to be earned means you can really shape a character to the way you play, it's akin to Battlefield in this respect as a decent squad will consist of various roles from Snipers to Medics right through to Support players the options become almost endless, couple this with truely multiple ways to tackle each objective and it's a game that never feels the same twice.

Weapon handling took me a while to get to grips with as the guns feel very weighty and have the best sound effects I've heard since BLACK, controls are silky smooth though and run and gun players will love the fact that you can slide into cover and hop railings with ease.

The thing that really set the game apart from other shooters for me was the huge variation and teamwork within each playthrough, it really never gets old and the game also gives the chance for some friendly competition with each action rewarding you XP from simple kills, healing your squad right through to hacking a retractable roof to stop enemies peppering you from above.

All in all my only gripe is that it lags a little and the weapons can take awhile to get used to.

Give it a go, it'll be even better with friends!

I tried this last night Tom and agree with pretty much everything you have said - without working together you get slaughtered really quickly and much like battlefields squad system, it is worth spending a few minutes before starting setting up loadouts with your team mates to ensure a balanced set up to cover the likes of hacking, shield boosts and medical support.

Going it alone on this and you get fucked over very quickly as your agent cannot take a great deal of damage before going into an offline state (where you can walk slowly) and then fully downed on the spot which leaves your team mates horribly exposed if they try and revive you.

The gun play is good, as Tom said the guns kick with force and require some getting used to. Even with an SMG you can forget trying to hold with the trigger down constantly as there is just too much kick back and for once its a good thing. Careful bursts of fire reap great results and you can take enemies down pretty quickly. Shotguns are AWESOME on this - get up close and you one shot enemies and they really fire off with a bang. The weapon sound effects are really well done - Starbreeze have done a great job with this

Some minor niggles, the visuals arent very crisp but hopefully this is because it is a demo. The screen can get a little busy when there are a lot of enemies on screen as you accumulate score for kills etc and having a load of text flashing up on screen when in the middle of a firefight can be a bit distracting. The other issue is going to be difficulty. Even on normal, the demo mission is not a walk in the park and the 2 other guys I played with last night got slapped a few times - I can see the game getting brutal on the later levels - hopefully, the levelling up system with help balance the difficulty out.

The other thing is how much of a 'Syndicate' game it is - it looks like they have retained the research side of things and the world map looks very much like the original but the original was all about directing you agents around like a despotic overlord, wreaking havoc whereas this puts you very much on the ground floor in the line of fire and I still need to be completely convinced this is for the best.

Definitely give this a try though guys, it is a very well put together shooter with a lot going for it and if anyone wants someone to team up with, give me a shout

Would be nice to get on a game with you and try out the Hard difficulty mate

Yeah, def. Tom. Any idea how long till you get back online mate?

Hopefully I'll be back on next week