Sovereign Syndicate has a wealth of narrative options. But, it can be easy to get lost exploring the streets of London.
Crimson Herring Studios has released no other games before Sovereign Syndicate. They are an Alberta, Canada-based game developer that received initial funding in 2020. Some of the individual members of the team had previously worked on the survival game The Long Dark, released on PC and consoles in 2017.
Sovereign Syndicate opens in a steampunk alternate version of London, England. Airships rule the skies, while various mystical beings are among the citizens. This includes dwarves, centaurs, minotaurs, cyclopes, and more.
The starting main character is Atticus Daley, a worker in London’s East Docklands. He awakens in the streets, helped up by a Masked Stranger. But an Old Crone also whispers in Atticus’s mind. Other important characters include buzzed engineer Teddy Redgrave and his robotic creation Otto and sky pirate Clara Reed.
The story regularly splits among these main characters. It is nice to see different perspectives, but how they always relate to each other can be a little unclear. It is often more various stories around London, with them crossing over at certain points. There is a lot of asset and location reuse as multiple characters may have their reasons for traveling to a place.
You will have to pick Atticus’ archetype and Major Arcana – essentially a class that helps determine what he specializes in. The Chariot is intimidating and strong; the Star is a trickster rouge, the Hermit a thoughtful negotiator, and the High Priestess a deceptive spell caster. Each has small stat advantages and unique dialogue.
Characters are governed by the four suits of the Tarot and an Ancient Greek Humor. Swords and Yellow Bile (Yellow) represent energy, courage, and ferocity. Wands and Black Bile (Blue) constitute intellect and mental stability. Cups and Phlegm (Green) control compassion and obedience. Finally, Coins and Blood (Red) manifest as health and creativity.
Each stat is further custom-tailored for each character’s personality and background. As a minotaur, Atticus’ Phlegm governs his “Self-Control”. However, Clara is a lot slier and has “Tact” as her Phlegm status. This allows for different dialogue choices and more varied outcomes, depending on who is speaking mechanically, though the underlining Tarot and colors act the same.
Each Tarot suit contains 16 cards – numbers ranging from 1 to 14, as well as 100 and -100 (essentially auto success and auto failure, under most circumstances). When a skill check is made, the corresponding deck is drawn and added to the character’s base stat to find the total. You can see the target number and potential success rate if there are multiple skill options.
Skill checks determine most of the actions and outcomes, giving a vibe similar to Disco Elysium. This can be as simple as searching a barrel for food and drink, slipping past undetected, or brutal fights. Combat might be resolved with one or multiple choices, like a stealth ambush or a series of continual slashes.
Race, gender, wealth, clothing, and even mood can grant bonuses or penalties to skill checks. Atticus, Clara, and Teddy might find themselves in similar situations or frequent the same vendors. Such NPCs might detest Teddy for wearing a blue uniform while loving Clara or Atticus’s fashion sense. Another person might mistrust Clara for being a human while giving preferred treatment to Teddy.
Some dialogue options are generic, while others are only selectable with a linked stat or even by the current Major Arcana. Choices may grant Humor, essentially individual experience point trackers that increase at stat once ten are earned. Some special dialogue options can even change someone’s Major Arcana or grant them several simultaneously, essentially multiclassing or having several bonuses.
Other choices also control a character’s Temperament – a mental representation of hitpoints. If it hits zero, they will become unmotivated and incapable of doing much alone. Psychological effects like threats or substance use typically change this by five or ten points up or down. Sustaining injuries or traumatic events are more likely to swing Temperament by 30 or more.
Each character also must manage their inventory. This can include food to restore temperaments or grant buffs. They also carry British pounds and schillings to buy new items or bribe favors. Gears can cog and be used to build, repair, or bargain with certain NPCs. Weapons only give tactical advantages when it makes sense in the current narrative – Clara’s pistol might give the option to shoot at range but does very little in a melee skill check, nor can she arbitrarily open fire.
It becomes a balance of how much you will want to “gamify” Sovereign Syndicate. Why suffer extra Temperament damage just because you decided to check a seemingly innocent intractable that your character hated? Just like other RPGs, namely the recent Baldur’s Gate 3, there is little incentive to simply not save scum and get the best outcomes. Still, some people will accept random Tarot drawings and live with them.
At least, Humor stacking and grinding seem to be fairly limited. Many dialogues only allow for one or two Tarots to be used. If you have solely invested in Wands, you might be in a bad situation when only Swords and Cups are relevant. At other points, the value needed on your best stat might be too high anyway, making it unlikely to win unless you draw the 100 card.
Sovereign Syndicate greatly emphasizes exploration and trying out different methods. This is nearly exasperated by a lack of quest markers and extremely vague journal entries. In one early instance, you are tasked with finding Carlisle McGrady in Sorris Square. The issue is that this zone is rather large, and is she actually in one of the sub-areas like Pavel’s Pinfold or The Bell Jar Hotel? You could spend almost 40 minutes searching for specific NPCs.
What makes this worse is the default character movement speed. Every hero moves a glacially slow walk, regardless of dangers or time sensitivity. There is a toggle in the options menu to run instead, but it is baffling that fast movement isn’t the standard.
Other aspects make wandering around a shore. Most shops and buildings are separated into new zones with loading screens. These load times vary, with small locations being quick and more complex ones taking a minute or two. It would have been much more seamless if the whole map was accessible at once, especially when there were no waypoints or landmarks.
The camera is another nuisance in Sovereign Syndicate. You only have the option of zooming in or out. There is no panning or free camera rotation. This can make it incredibly difficult to see where you are going or to meaningfully navigate. The camera rotates automatically, and this typically does a good job. However, the camera can sometimes obscure objectives and people and, at worst, will spin out of control at dizzying speeds if you decide to backtrack.
Character pathing can be a bit unpredictable at times. There is no free movement, with heroes heading to a position you click on with the mouse. They usually take the quickest path, but they take detours and weird loops at other points. In some rare cases, there are guard patrols, and this pathing can lead you to be quickly spotted. It is usually a moderate skill check to appease the enemy, but it would have been better to avoid the situation altogether.
Sovereign Syndicate has some great art direction. All characters have very memorable and standout clothing fashion choices. The main crew also has distance silhouettes to quickly tell them apart. This does not always translate well to 3D graphics. Environments and lighting can look a bit muddy. In some cases, characters will use disguises that change their portrait art but maintain the same model.
To illustrate more complex scenes, motion graphics and storyboards are used as a form of cutscene. This might show Atticus leaping into the air, crashing down into his enemies. Everything is still being narrated by scrolling dialogue, and the scene rarely has unique sound effects.
Disappointingly, Sovereign Syndicate has no voice acting. This is unsurprising, as Crimson Herring Studios is still an up-and-coming company. It can make reading the dialogue-heavy narrative taxing on the eyes. Even the acclaimed Disco Elysium lacked voice talent when it first launched. Maybe Sovereign Syndicate will receive some voice acting in the future.
Sovereign Syndicate doesn’t have any outright bugs or show-stoppers. There is the occasional slowdown when many NPCs first load into a zone. But, there is nothing that will cause outright freezes, crashes, or progression blocking.
Sovereign Syndicate highly focuses on the narrative and story aspects. Getting into a skill check and using many different Tarot options can be great. However, it is up to you to show restraint and simply not reload after a back card draw. Additionally, many exploration mechanics, like quality of life or customization. You may consider the game if story choice far outweighs good movement controls.
