EA just released a new trailer for Deus Ex, er… Syndicate, showing off over 10 minutes of brand new gameplay footage. The video follows the exploits of Miles Kilo and Agent Merit as they attempts to break into a rival corporation Aspari’s headquarters and steal a piece of hardware from the brain of head biochip scientist Gary Chang. No, really… Miles Kilo… Agent Merit… and… Gary… Chang. I can’t make this shit up folks. Now, they do this by breaching (read: hacking) enemies’ dart6 mind-chip… things, to make them “homicidally insane” and commit suicide. If that fails, they shoot them in the head. It’s a pretty sweet system, really.
As you might have gathered, I’m a bit skeptical about the whole affair. The game is reasonably pretty, but the entire thing seems like a bunch of developers got together, said “What games are popular? Let’s put them all together into one game!” and went on their way. Syndicate reminds me of an amalgamation of Deus Ex – with the oriental styling and honey comb accents – mixed with a bit of Mass Effect for good measure. In addition, a lot of the features just rub me the wrong way. Why does everyone and everything have giant glowing signs and highlights above them? Are players really so stupid that they need this? Why is Miles Kilo so weak that a few foot drop from a drop-ship forces him down on his hands and knees? Why the hell is his name Miles Kilo? Why is EA taking a good classic franchise, and turning it into a completely different type of game?
Syndicate Gameplay Video – “Executive Search”
I can’t answer any of these questions, but I hope that the next few trailers that EA inevitably releases are more original and entertaining than this one. If I wanted to play any of the many games that Syndicate seems to borrow from, I would go ahead and do so.
Syndicate arrives on store shelves February 21st, 2010.
