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This steampunk spin on Disco Elysium is a slow burn, but full of great characters

2K View2024-01-12

Sovereign Syndicate

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SHOULD I PLAY SOVEREIGN SYNDICATE?

This is an RPG that’s all about character and setting, so skip this one if you’re mainly interested in combat and stats. While the characters in Sovereign Syndicate have various attributes that I was able to influence, there’s nary a battle to be found—instead, expect an experience closer to Disco Elysium—if Disco Elysium was set in an alternate version of Victorian London in which minotaurs, cyclopes, and werewolves shared the rough streets and opium dens of the East End with humans. That means this is a game where conversations and skill checks are how each characters’ mettle is tested.

TIME PLAYED

I’ve played about three hours of Sovereign Syndicate, which took me through the first two chapters. I played as a different character in both chapters. The first centered on a down-on-his luck minotaur magician named Atticus Daley who gets recruited into a mysterious scheme by a man in a golden mask, while the second stars Clara Reed, a resourceful and influential sex worker who’s working on a scheme to quit London for good. I also unlocked several Tarot cards for both Atticus and Clara, which gave them interesting new dialogue options based on which of their traits and attitudes I had focused on.

WHAT’S AWESOME ABOUT SOVEREIGN SYNDICATE?

• The setting. Sovereign Syndicate is like a steampunk version of Shadowrun, set in a version of 1800s London where magic is real and humans coexist with fantastical creatures like centaurs, minotaurs, and fey beings. All of them face the real-life terrors of the late industrial age, in which poverty was rampant in the working class and problems like homelessness and drug addiction were part of daily life. It’s a genuinely interesting backdrop for a role-playing game, and I’m keen to see where it leads.

• Great writing. Each of the characters in Sovereign Syndicate is thoughtfully written, and I got to experience their inner dialogue, very much the way I did in Disco Elysium. Here, however, the different aspects of each character were represented by the four “humors” (blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile) that physicians once believed governed our health and attitudes. During key moments in conversation, I got to pick which of these humors would take the lead.

I appreciated the fact that Sovereign Syndicate doesn’t shy away from mature subject matter: Atticus wakes up in an alley with a brutal hangover after trying to drink himself to death, while one of Clara’s coworkers needs a morning-after pill when a john pressures her into letting him skip the condom one night. Steampunk settings tend to be pretty tame in my experience, so it was a pleasant surprise to see quite a bit more grittiness here.

• Great visual design. Sovereign Syndicate doesn’t use all the latest whiz-bang graphical tech, but it’s still a lovely looking game thanks to the beautiful textures, fantastical character designs, and incorporation of period history throughout.

WHAT SUCKS ABOUT SOVEREIGN SYNDICATE?

• Travel can be awfully slow. Once I got to chapter two, Sovereign Syndicate allowed me to fast-travel to various locations in London simply by pulling out a map, but most outdoor locations are fairly large and I frequently had to walk all the way across them in order to get from the train station to where I was going. I could make characters run by double-clicking, but it wasn’t much faster. Sometimes I just felt I was spending more time on my way to do something than I was actually doing things.

• The camera can be wonky. In most cases, objects in the foreground would become transparent around my character’s position so I could see where I was going, but that didn’t happen in a few cases. The camera also went a bit shuddery in a few locations as it tried to follow my characters through cramped shops or narrow alleyways.

• Linear so far. While I’ve enjoyed my time with Sovereign Syndicate and its story, it seems clear that this game is not as deep or open as its inspiration, Disco Elysium. There seems to be only one path through the first chapter with Atticus, and while Clara has more quests she can take on and do in any order (or not at all), there’s still only one way the story plays out.