Every once in a while a video game comes around that’s so vile I have to take actual time out of my day to recover after having played it. Chicago Syndicate on the Sega Game Gear is the latest of these vile and reprehensible titles that I wish I had not wasted time on. This is a side scrolling beat ‘em up title was released late in the handheld’s life span. The Game Gear was pretty much on its way out by the time this one came out. It’s lucky then for unsuspecting gamers that it had very little fanfare and almost no one played it. The genre isn’t hard to get right. Typically the more simple things are the better. So what could go so wrong with a beat ‘em up from Sega themselves? Let’s take a look.
In Chicago Syndicate you play as a former cat burglar Larcen Tyler. If the name sounds familiar that’s because he was in Sega’s fighting game Eternal Champions. It’s the same guy. Chicago Syndicate is kind of a ‘what if’ story of if Larcen had won the Eternal Champions tournament, and gone back in time to the 1920s to save himself from the explosion that took his life. For all intents and purposes Chicago Syndicate is a spin-off to the aforementioned fighter. There’s no denying that this is a neat idea. There weren’t really any spin-offs of this manner back then.
Larcen may have a new lease on life, but things aren’t going to be easy for him. Because Larcen saved himself and the hospital from exploding the mob boss who set up his hit is after him now. He has now put a price on his head, and all of the gangs in Chicago are after him. So what’s a former criminal to do? Larcen goes into hiding and strikes a deal with the chief of police. If Larcen can clean up the streets of Chicago within a year he’ll not only get to stay out of jail (remember, he’s a criminal). Unfortunately everyone in the windy city is out to get him. Taking out all of the mobsters is going to be no easy task.
Chicago Syndicate is a 2D side scrolling beat ‘em up game. Unlike it’s contemporaries this one lacks multi directional movement. Instead you’re stuck moving only left or right. What’s cool however is that you have a hub where you can reset and recover your health as well as a level select allowing you to tackle the stages in any order you choose. You’re shown meters depicting how dangerous areas are, how many items are contained within, and more. What’s kind of neat is the fact that as you progress these values change. It depends largely on the order you tackle the levels. It’s a good idea. I just wish it was used in a better game.
While a lot of the concepts are really ambitious the gameplay itself is terrible. I would go so far as to say that Chicago Syndicate might be one of the worst beat ‘em up games ever released. It’s a shame because all of the mechanics sound so good on paper. Larcen retains most of his moveset from Eternal Champions. He can punch, backhand strike, kick, leg sweep, jump, and even use his grappling hook. The first problem with this is that the Sega Game Gear has only two face buttons. Because of this limitation these special moves must be performed with combinations of the face buttons and directional presses. It’s not nearly as intuitive as it should be.
It feels like button inputs are frequently missed. I found Larcen frequently standing awkwardly still while I’m mashing buttons. It’s sometimes difficult to get him to do something. Anything. The animations are also awkwardly slow. My theory is that the reason inputs fail to register is because the hardware struggles to load the movements in. Also horrible is the hit detection. Punches and kicks sometimes feel like they go right through foes. Larcen moves slowly when walking, and while jumping is way too floaty. At least he can jump high, and if you get surrounded by enemies it’s pretty easy to leap over them. On top of using the grappling hook to strike foes it can also be used to hoist Larcen up to platforms. Not that you’ll ever need to, but at least this feature is included.
Another weird issue is the fact that Larcen cannot turn around. I mean, what the heck were they thinking? Considering enemies can approach from both sides this is a rather bizarre limitation. He isn’t completely defenseless when attacked from behind. He CAN move backwards, but he’ll always face forward. There’s a backhand move you can perform to hit enemies to the rear, but that’s about it. If you press the up and left keys he’ll also do a roll. While this doesn’t damage foes it can get them on the right side of you if timed correctly. Still, it cannot be overstated how much of an oversight this is. This is not a common issue with Game Gear games so you can’t even blame the hardware.
The biggest issue with Chicago Syndicate, in my opinion, is the pacing. I already mentioned how slow Larcen is to move, and how unreliable he is when reacting to inputs. The enemies also have absolutely huge life bars, and it takes a long time to whittle these down. Even the common thugs which should take just a few punches to decimate (as per the beat ‘em up norm) can handle an absolute beatdown before finally falling. I could understand this for a boss encounter, but why are the common enemies knuckle sponges too? Basically nothing in this game makes sense from a design standpoint.
There’s also very little in the way of diversity here. Chicago Syndicate features only a few types of thugs, and they only have basic attacks. When you’re on a different platform than them they’ll sometimes throw projectiles. These are slow moving and easy to avoid. The problem comes when you have foes on different ledges. While fighting one you’ll be dodging the throwing knives of another. This can get a little tricky especially considering how long it takes to defeat each one. The bosses put up more of a fight and are at least different from the garden variety gangsters. Even these are kind of boring though.
Even for a Game Gear release Chicago Syndicate is lacking in content. The main game takes only a few hours to complete and has no save feature. Most of your time spent here is draining the enormous life bars of your foes instead of actually exploring. The levels suffer from designs that are too similar to one another. There are no environmental hazards. Really the only thing you’re getting with each new one is a change of scenery and music. Unfortunately the developers recycled scenery so every new screen of each stage feels like a constant repeat. As far as options go there are very few to speak of. On top of the main game you can change settings, and there’s also a practice mode. This is barebones and uninteresting. Basically you can test moves against an endless array of enemies. It doesn’t actually explain how to play at all.
Chicago Syndicate is a tricky beast when it comes to graphics. On one hand it’s bright, colorful, and the sprites look pretty good. In screenshots the game looks quite good. I also really like the dark neon style that it uses. In motion it’s a different story. The animations are super clunky. They use so few different frames that it can be difficult to tell what Larcen is even doing. As I mentioned earlier the graphics constantly repeat. The fact that you spend so much unnecessary time in each stage seeing the same thing over and over again is truly cumbersome. The music is pretty bad. I went in expecting moody film noire and instead got out of place bleeps and blips. Much of the soundtrack sounds like it would have been a better fit for not only an entirely different game, but an entirely different genre as well.
Chicago Syndicate is a dreadful, horrible and awful game. I knew it wouldn’t be very good because Eternal Champions itself is pretty bad, but nothing could have prepared me for this. The developers made so many bone headed mistakes when in the design stage. Seriously, why can’t Larson turn left? Why can the enemies take like fifteen bare knuckle punches and still be standing? It’s madness, I tell you. Avoid Chicago Syndicate at all costs.
