Talk:Syndicate (2012 video game)/GA1

GA Review
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Reviewer: Famous Hobo (talk · contribs) 18:16, 8 December 2015 (UTC)

I'll take up this review before someone else scoops it up. I'm going to be rather busy for the next few days (school finals), but I'll get to this soon, don't worry. Famous Hobo (talk) 18:16, 8 December 2015 (UTC)
 * Reminding you about this. -- Pres N  04:45, 20 December 2015 (UTC)
 * Update time! I'm currently working on this review, and should have it done by tomorrow. Thank you for being patient. Famous Hobo (talk) 08:24, 24 December 2015 (UTC)
 * Another update! So my apologies, the family Christmas dinner took MUUUUCH longer than I thought it would. I SHOULD have it done by tomorrow. Once again, thank you for your patience. Famous Hobo (talk) 08:03, 25 December 2015 (UTC)

So here's the first part of the review. I would have been able to properly finish the review, but family got in the way. Since I didn't want to continuously put off the review, I figured I'll put out what I have now. Tomorrow I'm going to be driving 8 or so hours back home, so I won't be able to be put out the rest of the review for a while, but believe me, I already feel bad about this whole ordeal, so I'll get it out when I can. Cheers

Lead
 * It is a reboot of the Syndicate series of real-time tactics tactical shooter games developed by Bullfrog Productions. While real-time tactics and tactical shooters are seperate genres, I'm not a big fan of having tactics and tactical right next to each other, might confuse a casual reader.


 * The game, which is set in 2069, revolves around the character Miles Kilo, an agent of EuroCorp, one of the world's largest corporations. Try this: "Set in the year 2069, the narrative revolves around Miles Kilo, an agent of EuroCorp, one of the world's largest corporations."


 * The game features a large variety of weapons; from standard pistols to the futuristic Gauss Gun. It should be noted that a Gauss Gun is another name for a coilgun. Also, why not just simply say futuristic guns, since I'm assuming this game features more than just one futuristic gun.


 * Kilo is implanted with a computer chip that helps him to access the dataverse and use hacking to defeating enemies and solve environmental puzzles. Reword to "Kilo is implanted with a computer chip that allows him to access the dataverse and can use hacking to defeating enemies and solve environmental puzzles."


 * Electronic Arts approached Starbreeze Studios to revive the franchise because Electronic Arts were impressed with the quality of Starbreeze Studios' previous games and believed they could add "style" to the game. After the second Electronic Arts, change were to was, as EA is a singular studio. At the end of the sentence, change game to series.


 * Syndicate was a commercial failure for Electronic Arts, and it had failed to live up to their expectations. Isn't the second part redundant? No company expects a game to be a commercial failure.

Gameplay
 * Unlike the original series of games, Syndicate (2012) is a first-person shooter set in 2069. I'm not sure what the ruling is on the (2012) part. I mean, Syndicate is technically the name of the game, so you may want to remove the 2012 part.


 * These upgrades sometimes alter the nature of these weapons, transforming standard ammunition to cover-penetrating ammunition. Change sometimes to may.


 * Player have three options; "Backfire" that causes enemies' weapons to malfunction... At the beginning, shouldn't it be players?


 * The game also allows players to locate enemies behind cover with the use of "Dart Overlay" and slow down time temporarily, which increases the damages dealt by players and their health regeneration rate. Link video gaming health article in this sentence, and remove the link later in the paragraph.


 * The game does not have a competitive multiplayer mode but it has a cooperative multiplayer mode thjat pits four players together[14] to complete a nine-mission campaign based on the campaign of the original Syndicate games. There should be a comma after competitive multiplayer mode, and fix thjat.


 * Just as a suggestion, the word players is used several times throughout the section. You may want to cut back on the excessive use of players.

Plot
 * In 2069, Agent Miles Kilo, EuroCorp's latest agent, is equipped with the new prototype DART 6 chip created by Eurocorp scientist Lily Drawl (voiced by Rosario Dawson). Why is Agent capitalized, and why does Miles not have a voice actor? Is he a silent protagonist? Personally, I'm not a big fan of mentioning the voice actors for video game articles, but if you wish to use it, then it should be for each character.
 * He is a silent protagonist. He never speaks in the game.


 * After fhey split up and head towards Eurocorp HQ, Kilo is betrayed by Lily and is sent into a trap with EMP mines, injuring him and disabling his chips. fhey. :)


 * After his chips regain function, Kilo is given orders to either capture or kill Lily. Who gives him the orders?
 * Cutscene does not mention the person who gives him the order so I don't really know. This objective is simply given to Kilo through the dataverse.


 * Kris reveals he started the war so he could hack into the Dataverse and kill the syndicates and their chipped populations as punishment for abandoning the unchipped. Dataverse is already unlinked in the setting section, and is uncapitalized. This should be fixed.


 * Kilo fights Kris, who attempting to suicide bomb him. Shouldn't it be attempts? Also, it isn't clear as to what happens to Kris. I'm assuming he dies from the suicide attack.


 * As the game ends, Eurocorp lies in ruins and Lily gives Kilo a pistol, letting him choose his own fate. This should be explained in more detail. Is Kilo allowed to shoot Lily? Or is he only allowed to shoot himself? And if he can shoot himself, why would he? From what I read, there was no reason he'd want to kill himself.
 * ✅ She simply gives him a pistol, and then end credits rolls.

Development
 * Electronic Arts had wanted to make a new Syndicate game for a long time but had not found an opportunity to do so. A long time sounds a little casual, try several years.


 * They hoped to bring new elements and drastically altered gameplay concepts that would suit the universe. State that it's the in-game universe, otherwise your saying EA wanted to improve the overall universe (regardless of what you may think of EA, I sincerely doubt they'd want to improve the entire universe).


 * It focused on the story instead of the cyberpunk element. Link cyberpunk
 * A year adter development began, the game was sent for reworking because the studio thought they had not captured the magic of the Syndicate series. First of all, adter, second, magic seems a little too casual.
 * The team had once worked on a competitive multiplayer mode, but thought it was not original enough for inclusion. Which game did they once work on with competitive multiplayer?
 * The story of the multiplayer mode bears little relation to the main campaign, and it is as important as the campaign, in accordance to Starbreeze. Is this sentence really necessary? If so, why is it important? Why wasn't it mentioned earlier then?
 * The boxed quote needs a ref.
 * Starbreeze considered the difficulty of the first game is part of the franchise's legacy and was worth preserving. Change the "is" after game to "to be".
 * Players still can still kill innocent civilians but the team minimized these scenarios... "still can still"
 * He played the original game for referenc and included elements that those who had played it would immediately recognize. Change "played" to "used", and fix referenc.
 * The game was designed to be different from contemporaneous first-person shooters. "The game was designed" was already used in the opening sentence of a previous paragraph in this section. Try to reword this part to avoid repetition.
 * This was achieved by using a "split-world aspect", which divided the game's into two areas, each with a different artsytle. Artsytle at the end is a typo.
 * Syndicate (2012) uses Starbreeze's in-house game engine, which had been modified for the creation of the game. As the (2012) part was changed in the gameplay section, it should be changed here.
 * The engine allowed the inclusion of post-process-effects previously used in Assault on Dark Athena, such as motion blur and Depth of Field. Why is Depth of Field capitalized?

Reception
 * He also liked the depiction of the two major areas of the game—the Upzone and Downzone—both of which features different art directions. The part about the two areas using different art directions is redundant, as that was already mentioned in the development section.
 * The board was especially critical of what it considered the game's excessive violence; explicit depictions of dismemberment... First off, I think there's a "to be" missing in between considered and the, second, change the semicolon to a colon.

See also
 * While this section looks nice, all the links seem to focus on themes presented in the game's plot, and aren't important enough to warrant their own section.

Refs
 * In ref 52, Edge leads to a disambugation page. Other than that, everything looks to be in order. All dates are good, publishers, yadda yadda... I also did a spotcheck of several of the sources, and the ten that I got were perfect.

External links
 * Remove the wiki url. It appears to be broken (or at least it is on my end). Regardless, I don't think linking a wiki is a good idea (oh the irony of that sentence.)

Alright, took me way too long, but it's done. This is a very well written article, and with all the issues cleared up, is easily deserving of that GA symbol every editor covets. In standard procedure, I'll be putting this article on hold for seven days. Also, be careful of typos. Cheers Famous Hobo (talk) 09:22, 29 December 2015 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the review! I have addressed all the issues you have raised above. Thank you once again! AdrianGamer (talk) 07:33, 31 December 2015 (UTC)
 * Alright, looks like everything is taken care of. Nothing else I can see holding back this article, so here you go, passing this article. You can now add this one to your growing collection of GAs. Famous Hobo (talk) 09:01, 1 January 2016 (UTC)