izigame.me

It really breaks my heart to have to give Sovereign Syndicate a negative review; I despise shitting on the hard work of the talented dev teams of any game, especially a game with such promise. But I can't in good faith recommend this game to my friends, which is why ultimately I have to give this a thumbs down.

I'll start off with the good parts of this game. This is a very interesting world! I like the idea of a semi-fantasy steampunk world, and it carries it's premise very well. On that note, I also like the literal environments in the world- they're all very clear and unique, and I never really got lost in where I had to go.

The visual design of the game was very nice, the atmosphere was very strong throughout (of course this was helped by the music, which really was a great fit for the game throughout!). The characters were at least visually unmistakable from each other.

I actually really enjoyed the Tarot card system, and how it was used to level up skills and help mould your choices by the end of the game. It was a simple and elegant system, and I'd genuinely love to see it again.

Unfortunately, anything positive I have to say, though they are numerous, is overshadowed by the game's biggest flaw: it's writing.

Now let me be clear! The structure of the plot is actually quite solid. By the end of the game, I could see what they were trying to do, and what they were trying to do was a really great idea. It's just that the script was not strong enough to give the emotional impact they were trying to go for.

I understood factually that these characters were struggling in an unfair London, but I didn't feel for them at all. A lot of the time I was being told why I should root for the main characters, I was told what characters were like and what they had done... but I didn't see any of it actually happening. I'm terribly sorry, but the entire time I was playing, I could only think to myself 'This is so shallow.'. I have a feeling that the writers wanted there to be such a level of mystery and intrigue that they obfuscated way too much from the player, which resulted in there being gaps in which they then had to explain to the player why something happened. It made the ending seem so... like, I understood the payoff, but it was incredibly sudden and almost disproportionate.

The pacing also leaves a lot to be desired. I actually quite like that the game was split into chapters. But the first act was long to the point of dreariness, and then the final act felt like I blinked and it was over (which was a shame because I liked the final act). Yes, I understand that the world needs to be set up in the first act, but having to start the game from a different perspective for the first three chapters was tedious. Honestly, I only started getting interested in the story from Chapter 13, more than halfway through the game! I almost feel like the game would have been better if it were structured in a way where you played one character's perspective in your first playthrough, and then play another character to get a whole other perspective in your second playthrough, etc.

I am disappointed, but honestly? I can see the potential of this game and of it's team. If a sequel popped up, or if this team released anything else in the future, I'd love to check it out. This game was a few steps away from greatness, and I'm excited to see when this team releases that game that really blows everyone out of the water. The ideas and the heart that went into this game shows me that they can make something really incredible. Sovereign Syndicate was just, unfortunately, not that game.