Sovereign Syndicate is a Victorian steampunk RPG released by Crimpson Herring Studios, and they were kind enough to send me a copy to check out, which I always appreciate. I am going to handle this review a bit differently, normally I do everything I can to avoid spoilers, but this time, I feel like that isn’t really possible without also failing to describe the game. So what I am going to do is give you my score here and warn you that if you keep reading, I am going to spoil small parts of chapter one. Nothing major, but things you may want to discover on your own. The game, however, is a solid 8/10 and well worth your money.
The game will start you out as Atticus Daley, a minitour with some memory issues who struggles against voices in his head and a huge drinking issue. You will make a decision about your stats and how you were raised before being woken up after a drunken bender by a stranger. This will lead you to your first series of decisions. You will also discover that you have a substantial bounty on your head.
Whether these decisions are successful won’t be decided by dice rolls, but by drawing tarot cards combined with your stats. These stats can be improved by what you do in-game. Moving on from here, you can decide to pick up the sword cane you own or leave it. I chose to pick it up because, honestly, I always wanted one in real life.
After a bit of searching, I ended up underground in an attempt to escape this strange man. I found a uniform I could use to disguise myself from guards, but apparently forcing it on a minitaour was the first but not the last bad decision I would make. This would make a few conversations later somewhat more enjoyable for me, however.
While I won’t go to indepth about my first chapter play through, suffice it to say the strange man was only too happy to let me wander off because I ended up right back with him. Turns out he has a job for me, and my options are work for him, or he will collect the bounty on my head, and he doesn’t really care which it is. I also discovered centaurs are real in Sovereign Syndicate, and they are racist as hell towards minotaurs. The story is amazing, and the characters are absolutely a joy to get to know. The world just feels like a real place. My only real complaint about the game is that the major and minor arcana system is barely explained. Basically, Major Arcana are used to unlock dialogue options and the like, while Minor Arcana take the place or tradional dice rolls. If you need a 15 to succeed at something and your stat is a 5, you need to draw a 10. People unfamiliar with such a system are left rather confused, and I don’t feel the game explains this well enough. The game, however, is a must-buy. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
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