You wake up on a spaceship, dazed and confused from the effects of cryosleep, and begin to search for the rest of the crew. Where could they have gone? All too suddenly, you discover that most of them are dead, and those still alive are… changed.
With Syndrome, Camel 101 takes first person survival horror back to its roots. In the dark confines of the ship, you look for ways to defend yourself. There are a few weapons scattered about, but nowhere near enough ammunition to deal with all the transformed monstrosities.
To survive and uncover the events that took place while you were asleep, you can’t always face your enemies head on; sometimes hiding and breathing as noiselessly as possible is your best course of action.
Careful resource management is a key part of Syndrome, but so is learning your enemies’ behavior. What will attract their attention? What will give you a few precious seconds to pass by undetected? Take note―each misstep could be deadly.
It's not hard to see the inspirations behind Syndrome's attempt at outer space horror, but the danger when inspiring reflection on the likes of the Dead Space series is that the comparison may leave your game coming up well short of the mark...
Syndrome for console is a game that should have mature a bit more. Lighting is off, sounds are off, but if you manage to turn the brightness up on your display of choice you are welcomed with a mostly empty horror-mystery game set in the space.
Syndrome doesn't bring anything to the table as a survival horror. There are many better games in the genre.
Syndrome takes after similar space horror games like Dead Space or System Shock 2, creating a well crafted atmosphere and interesting setup, but failing to achieve either enjoyable gameplay or good enough graphical level, incapable of reaching its full potential.
All in all, Syndrome is a buggy, frustrating mess that doesn't make the slightest effort to be original.
