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Starbreeze's Syndicate

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Some alleged leaked information is making the rounds.

I like Starbreeze a lot, but i hope they don't just end up turning Syndicate into Deus Ex, because we already got one of those coming this year. Heh.

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I hope it's good. Trying to avoid stuff, but this from Dan Marshall is too good:

MSCIENTIST: Hey, we've got these new TechnoFuture things in. You wanna take a look?

FSCIENTIST: Are they as good as the old F-28s?

MSCIENTIST: Hmph! They'd better be. They've been updating the futuristic software since EvilCorp took over exactly 18 months ago.

FSCIENTIST: 18 months precisely isn't it?

MSCIENTIST: Yes it is. Do you want to have Futuristic Cyber Sex with the microchips we all have embedded in our skulls these days, because that's the 'norm' it's just what everyone does because it's the future now?

FSCIENTIST: Not now I have a future headache.

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I'm already concerned that there is a 'main protagonist'. Syndicate games were all about people as expendable resources.

Heh that parody is accurate too. The script is trying way too hard to be futuristic, when the scariest thing about Syndicate was that it was 'near future'.

With X-COM too, it seems the new vogue is for taking classic strategy game IPs and making slightly lacklustre FPS games out of them that miss the point.

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With X-COM too, it seems the new vogue is for taking classic strategy game IPs and making slightly lacklustre FPS games out of them that miss the point.

It's almost like game developers(publishers) forgot what made those classic games great, a game design built off systems that allowed player input to create something wonderful, but rather chose to ditch that and used the super awesome fiction from the ip and just develop whatever game around that.

(that was sarcasm about the super awesome fiction, because it seemed more like back in those days game came first, whatever backstory/narrative second)

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Hollywood reboots

If there's one game that deserves a reboot, it's Baldies

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With X-COM too, it seems the new vogue is for taking classic strategy game IPs and making slightly lacklustre FPS games out of them that miss the point.

X-COM as a brand was tarnished years ago with the crap that came out after TFTD bearing its name.

X-COM is a weird thing to "reboot" because the only people who are going to have name recognition with it are likely the ones who would want another X-COM strategy game. slapping its name on a barely related FPS is a really puzzling move.

And I guess that applies to Syndicate too, except that actually had console spinoffs way back when. i also agree though that Syndicate without disposable units isn't really Syndicate?

I can't wait for Shadowrun Kart Racers

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Gah, well I had my suspicions that because Starbreeze is the rumoured developer, that this project would end up being also some FPS thingy like X-Com.

Starbreeze is a great developer, I rate very highly the Riddick game(s) and would've played Darkness if it was on PC.

Syndicate needs to be all about randomnly named or nameless cannon fodder type guys that you can upgrade and send on missions. Not just one guy.

X-Com and this rumoured leaked Syndicate makes me just sad. ;(

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Really the clue to the game concept is in the name.

You know in cyberpunk you have all these faceless, evil corporations that treat people like cattle or test subjects? The ones that are unconcerned by legal or ethical matters?

Well in this game rather than the hero you play one of these faceless corporations. Cool eh?

You know the type, what's a good name for it, oh yes; The Syndicate..?

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http://www.1up.com/features/starbreeze-secret-history

I found this to be a pretty entertaining read about the history of Starbreeze, there's some very open and unguarded insights into the studio.

To sum up the points pertinent to Syndicate -

1. It's definitely a shooter, an evolution of what Starbreeze is known for.

2. Starbreeze has had massive employee turnover in the last couple years, and the majority of their studio leads have left and formed MachineGames, a studio that will be working with id Tech 5 as part of the Zenimax family of companies.

3. Syndicate is being built on Starbreeze's internal engine, the one that was already looking pretty crusty by the time The Darkness had come out. (The article also notes that the main software engineer behind the tech has also left the company, so they're "fucked, basically".)

4. EA has been meddling with the game, sending over embedded producers and rebooting development constantly.

A troubled development cycle certainly doesn't mean they can't deliver a quality product in the end, but maaan...

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http://kotaku.com/5839046/the-syndicate-reboot-is-real-first-details-leak-out-of-ea

More info was leaked.

I don't know why EA is so gun shy about just revealing this thing, but i get the feeling it would have been canned so fast if Human Revolution had tanked.

So get ready for a "Visceral FPS Experience" :shifty:

Anyways, it definitely isn't Syndicate, and it certainly does sound an awful, awful lot like Deus Ex. (Minus the stealth, i guess?)

Also going to have four player co-op with missions based on levels from the original game, which is sort of neat.

They should have just made another Crusader game, that is another EA-absorbed series that would have actually made sense as a cyberpunk FPS.

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Usually if a publisher is shy about showing something, it means it's not looking good at the moment. That's not to say it won't by the time we see it, but even the smoke and mirrors nature of a trailer can usually push a game that isn't quite there to looking pretty interesting.

But yeah, showing nothing after all this time is pretty telling of how production has gone.

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Sigh.

The reason people get pissed off with this constantly repeated pattern is not simple nostalgia. It goes right to the heart of "theme is not meaning".

The gameplay of the original syndicate reinforced what the game was saying about the world it depicted (and by extension our own world): treating people as expendable resources; the supreme importance of economics; being able to see the big picture when things got hairy - this was what Syndicate was about.

It's going to very, very hard to make it about those things when it is an FPS. There might be some clumsy attempt to touch on those themes in the badly written and badly expressed plotline, but that falls short badly.

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Syndicate needs to be all about randomnly named or nameless cannon fodder type guys that you can upgrade and send on missions. Not just one guy.

X-Com and this rumoured leaked Syndicate makes me just sad. ;(

I rest my case. :(

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mKQ5QaBi0T4



Pretty much exactly what everyone feared: a Deus Ex clone that is Syndicate in name only.

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Not like it looks bad, though we just played that game and it was called Deus Ex, but yeah, aside from established brand vs new brand in the market, why even bother call it the Syndicate... developers know there used to be more game types than fps and tps, right?

Also, I really hate how that character looks, not sure why that would stick out since you dont see him much.

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This Syndicate reboot may be the product of a lot of negative trends, but god dammit, i like what i see in that trailer.

If it is, at least, Starbreeze doing what they do and doing it really well, i am on board.

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I'm going to ignore the game is called Syndicate, because I'm interested in playing the game.

But I agree, it's Deus Ex: Lethal Weapon

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I kinda like that dubstep remix, though maybe just because the original music is so wonderful.

This may well turn out to be a good game, but I can't think of anything it shares with the original except the name. It's not even visually similar.

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Hmm. Was contemplating a guided projectiles weapon upgrade in Deus Ex last night, thinking "Oh yeah, I saw video of that". But it was this trailer.

I'm a little cynical about them doing this to Syndicate, but much like XCOM, think "You know what? Fine". They'll both probably be competently made FPSes that aren't all BROWN and WAR and stuff, and that's a good thing. The white ocean installation shown briefly in that makes me catch my breath a little, in exactly the same way

from Wipeout HD does.

The shift to FPS makes it obvious that they won't give me whatever the original games did, so there's no point waiting to be disappointed in that, and at least I don't have to get drawn into some new fiction or elaborate storyline full of overegged mcguffins and stupid made up names.

Overegged mcguffins is my new favourite turn of phrase. "Oh no! I overegged the mcguffins."

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Ugh. What depresses me the most about the video is the lack of civilians or anything that looks like public space. It is all soldiers and military compounds.

Yet another strike against the idea that they are "just changing the PoV". The thrilling thing about Syndicate was that the inter-corporation wars took place in public, with the potential for massive civilian casualties or at least disruption. Here we just have corridors.

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http://www.giantbomb.com/syndicate/61-30734/reviews/

I guess it's... good...really good?

I stopped paying attention to this and am surprised to see it's released already, figured we had another 6 months and there would be some sort of marketing ramp up to remind me this existed.

I should probably play it, but after Deus Ex, I'm still not ready to love another game that looks so much like it. I'm even a little worried if I end up liking it a lot more then I did Human Revolution for some reason I couldn't even begin to understand.

Also, still hate how the main character looks and his name really puts me off... but everything else sounds like something I'd want to try.

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Yeah, how am I going to fire a crowd penetrating laser down the sides of a parade, or run over a crowd of people I just persuadertronned? Those are the reasons Syndicate was so good when I was twelve.

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http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-syndicate/17-5716/

It looks good.

It feels like beating a dead horse to keep reiterating how much this is not a Syndicate game. It's going to be more constructive to just put the title of the game out of mind and focus on the fact that, as a thing judged on its own merits, it seems to be pretty awesome.

I was also playing the co-op demo with some friends, the game has a really great feel to it, and it's really challenging. (Unfortunately, the demo was crashing very frequently after checkpoint restarts on death, so here's to hoping that's not an issue in the full game.)

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It feels like beating a dead horse to keep reiterating how much this is not a Syndicate game. It's going to be more constructive to just put the title of the game out of mind and focus on the fact that, as a thing judged on its own merits, it seems to be pretty awesome.

Completely right. I'm not sure anything could live up to my memories of playing Syndicate when it came out anyway. Including the original Syndicate.

Funny though, I'm not really interested in FPS games at the moment. Maybe it's the imminent arrival of Mass Effect 3, but I'm all about the RPGing at the moment. I don't see myself playing Syndicate until maybe there's a sale on Steam... oh, wait.

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