Sovereign Syndicate Review (Sylvanara)
Sovereign Syndicate is an interesting game that for the most part, hits the notes that it is trying to accomplish. It has a nice aesthetic, a good build to the story (if frustrating, more on that later), and interesting characters that have distinct capabilities and motivations. This makes for a solid base that does a lot for the overall gameplay. Still, there are two key issues that I have with the game.
Story Progression and Quest Goals
Figuring out the various tasks (i.e. – quests) is rather opaque. With no quest markers and a character that moves somewhat slowly (and ungainly, with the minotaur Atticus), you spend a goodly portion of your time traversing a rather limited map to locate the next prompt that will permit you to proceed.
Adding to this is the limited utility of the quest log, which often summarizes the end goal without giving too many clues about where to go. Without spoiling anything, there is one quest in Chapter Four that asks you to seek someone with a more specialized knowledge of a more sordid world, and that results in you wandering around trying to find a character that fits the bill. To wit:
• Most NPCs interact with each of your toons differently, and while you of course should be able to retain some level of knowledge of each one’s stories, without a way to cross-check things, you either need to take a few notes or just enjoy speaking to each NPC across the board.
• In this quest in particular, there is also the issue that speaking to someone with knowledge of the seamier side of London has a resolution with a Black character, which, you know, optics.
Finally, since there are no quest markers or clues about whether you can complete a quest in a given chapter, you really have no idea whether you missed something that may only be available at a given time. Compound this with a very limited knowledge of gaining money in the world to buy the few things that will complete said quests means that you may be selling items that the other character would find useful. Instead of being strategic, then, this only leaves me feeling frustrated that I sold items in Chapter 1 that a future toon actively uses as part of their build.
Narrative
Here, I have no real complaints, even if it is very esoteric and a bit confusing to tie together the myriad events in the early chapters. If anything, possibly building the tale out a little earlier would be nice, especially since each toon has bits of the meta story within their own arcs, and it would make more sense. However, the intent of having strangers unite and giving each other context may be the ultimate goal. I have only just completed the fourth chapter.
Controls, Bugs, and Gameplay
I have only encountered one bug, but since the game has a very aggressive autosave function, I lost little progress that I had to repeat. In the same vein, with this autosave mechanic, SCUMsaving is very viable and means you can re-roll interaction bits to unlock a new path in the solution.
The tarot card system is basically a slightly confusing remapping of a normal CRPG method of using dice. Instead, you randomly flip minor arcana tarot cards in the hopes of adding their numerical value to your innate skill with a certain option. Nothing is really novel about this, and failing a check does not seem to impede your progress to any great degree (such as in BG3, wherein a failed check could completely reroute your story; that does not happen here).
Controls are straightforward, but as I mentioned earlier, I really feel like you move too slowly and since you have to run all over the map sometimes to find clues (or blindly figure out what will trigger progress, which happens way too often), I have found myself playing this game in bursts because I get frustrated running slowly back and forth to the train station to locate a clue.
Overall
I do recommend Sovereign Syndicate even with the issues I noted above. It’s a fun game and the story is shaping up to be interesting. With only one bug in 9 hours of gaming, that also means the game is solid in that regard, and controls are simply point and click. Be prepared to run blindly around the map sometimes since there are no markers, but enjoy the story as it develops and see how each character plays into it.