Syndicate remake/sequel might have been cancelled.

Okay - so the debut trailer for this has just been released...

...soooooooo, it's now a first person shooter, with a single agent, not teams?

....sooooooooooooo it's basically now Deus Ex?

Fuck. What the hell man?

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Rain Dog 

Okay - so the debut trailer for this has just been released...

 

 

...soooooooo, it's now a first person shooter, with a single agent, not teams?

 

....sooooooooooooo it's basically now Deus Ex?

 

Fuck. What the hell man?

Yeah... not too pleased, but I'm not really mad like I was for XCOM.

Colour me... sitting on the fence. More Cyber-punk is good though...  (please don't make this a game where you change sides to le resistance)

Remains to be seen how the levels are, are open, are there civilians roaming around in crowds? Can you pinch vehicles, come up with your own plans (on your own, sadly)?

They do have a 4-player co-op mode that is it's own thing and not the single player levels. Based off Syndicate and Syndicate Wars. And will those levels/maps be sand-boxy in finding solutions to objectives...

Don't forget the dubstep, man.

I'm going to come off like like a grumpy old man but I'm really getting pissed off with all this. What is this fucking bullshit with everyone ignoring every other genre except for first person shooters? The game industry is so bandwagon happy it makes "inspired from true events" TV movies look like a bastion of free artistic expression. Holy shit. "We're re-imagining X-COM as an FPS." "We're re-imagining Syndicate as an FPS." "We're re-imagining the SSI Gold Box AD&D rpgs as an FPS." "We're re-imagining freakin' Spacewar as an FPS."

Fucking hell.

Never even knew this was in the works. Looks decent, but it's disappointing it doesn't seem to have much to do with the original games or the people who made them. A faithful updating of the old gameplay style would be great and perfect as a smaller-scale downloadable game.

As long as they maintain some sort of RTS elements and tactical upgrades that were featured in the classics, along with the whole FPS stuff than I'll be alright with the shift in gameplay. That being said, there is no way this is getting canceled. 

http://pc.ign.com/articles/119/1196998p1.html?RSSwhen2011-09-28_063900&RSSid=1196998

Quote:

Originally Posted by ryoken 

Also, I really, really hope the story doesnt force you to be a good guy; Hell, id pay good money if the game is about an agent turning into their employers just to take over the corporation; I want some amoral choices and ruthlesness in a "Syndicate" game.

Your hope is in vain. In this one you're doing this because Eurocorp has implanted a super-chip in your brain and is threatening to suicide you if you do not obey.

Oh, the whole "turning on your asshole former employers" scenario is definitely going to happen. 

The trailer sampling the original "OH SHIT ENEMY AGENTS!" music tickled the good part of my brain. As long as you're free to come up with your own plan and it isn't like your typical on-the-rails shooter, I'm game. 

That being said, as a promotional deal, how about re-releasing the top-down RTS a la Prince of Persia HD? Y'know, to further drum up interest? I still have the original game file--it's literally 8MB. The mp3 to the Skrillex remix is larger. You can farm that out to the interns and get it done!

The whole point of Syndicate was that you were operating an absolutely amoral squad of corporate-lackey cyberthugs. This thing has disaster written all over it. Which is infuriating. Syndicate would be massive on something like iOS or Android.

I highly suspect that this game will do well with people like me. In other words, I never played Syndicate, and I thought that trailer looked cool.

It may very well turn to be a good, even great shooter. If that happens I'll probably get it. But my reaction to it being Syndicate will always be "Of course it's not Syndicate. Don't be ridiculous." 

Of course it's not Deus Ex, don't be ridiculous.

Human Revolution was actually quite a bit Deus Ex in the end. Unexpectedly so. Which is why I felt so positive towards it. Also why I haven't mentioned it.

This and X-COM though. This is a whole other thing. Please tell me that you don't think that EA was just chomping at the bit for a chance to revive an eighteen year old game, that barely produced an expansion pack, because the concept of re-imagining it in a whole different genre was the right thing to do. Let me guide you though the process. 

1. Inactive franchise with some name recognition from the core demographic.

2. Inactive studio with a pedigree of sorts to the hot genre right now.

3. Re-imagining of said franchise in the genre said studio has experience on.

These games get as much respect from me as the movie adaptations of Battleship, Stretch Armstrong and The Smurfs. Simple as that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by stelios 

Don't forget the dubstep, man.

 

I'm going to come off like like a grumpy old man but I'm really getting pissed off with all this. What is this fucking bullshit with everyone ignoring every other genre except for first person shooters? The game industry is so bandwagon happy it makes "inspired from true events" TV movies look like a bastion of free artistic expression. Holy shit. "We're re-imagining X-COM as an FPS." "We're re-imagining Syndicate as an FPS." "We're re-imagining the SSI Gold Box AD&D rpgs as an FPS." "We're re-imagining freakin' Spacewar as an FPS."

 

Fucking hell.

More than anything I'd say it's an indicator of the adoption of a serious 'risk-averse' business strategy in this current economic environment.

Unfortunately, its making for some seriously shitty movies and video games for the discerning fan these days.

Quote:

Originally Posted by stelios 

Human Revolution was actually quite a bit Deus Ex in the end. Unexpectedly so. Which is why I felt so positive towards it. Also why I haven't mentioned it.

 

This and X-COM though. This is a whole other thing. Please tell me that you don't think that EA was just chomping at the bit for a chance to revive an eighteen year old game, that barely produced an expansion pack, because the concept of re-imagining it in a whole different genre was the right thing to do. Let me guide you though the process. 

 

1. Inactive franchise with some name recognition from the core demographic.

2. Inactive studio with a pedigree of sorts to the hot genre right now.

3. Re-imagining of said franchise in the genre said studio has experience on.

 

These games get as much respect from me as the movie adaptations of Battleship, Stretch Armstrong and The Smurfs. Simple as that.

I just don't get this mindset at all, I don't get why we have to paint whether we're for or against something years down the line. It's like everyone is lining up to be the first guy to say "yeah, this sucks" so they can be part of some great cresting wave of indignation. I'd much rather judge the product on the product alone, they might do something with Syndicate that perfectly captures the tone of the original but does so with different gameplay mechanics. Or it could be terrible. Or average, or a neat time waster with some serious flaws.

With no sentiments toward the original I can only hope this recent trend of cyberpunk-themed gaming will allow some company to make a Shadowrun game that's not a multiplayer shooter.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spike Marshall 

I just don't get this mindset at all, I don't get why we have to paint whether we're for or against something years down the line. It's like everyone is lining up to be the first guy to say "yeah, this sucks" so they can be part of some great cresting wave of indignation. I'd much rather judge the product on the product alone, they might do something with Syndicate that perfectly captures the tone of the original but does so with different gameplay mechanics. Or it could be terrible. Or average, or a neat time waster with some serious flaws.

Well Spike you could happily see all business decisions - and they are business decisions, not creative ones - regarding modern gaming as some benign ebb and sway dictated by market forces, or you could fool yourself one step further and believe that these decisions are based on nothing more than plucky young dev teams wanting to give a new spin to an old classic in an effort to reinvigorate a much loved game series...

...or you could see a creatively bankrupt industry desperately milking long dormant 'brands' and turning out cookie cutter product in an effort to maximise profits while minimizing risk.

It's nice you want to judge every game on its merits as if they simply drop from the sky like manna, unsullied by any kind of context as to their history or pedigree. I for one see it differently.

I'm willing to give Starbreeze the benefit of the doubt here, mostly because I think their Riddick game is pretty damned awesome.  If they can make a good licensed game based on a movie (something which never happens) perhaps they can also make a good game based on a long dead franchise, even if the mechanics are completely different. Regardless of whether the decisions leading to this new Syndicate game were purely business related or not, I think there's at least a chance it could turn out to be a really good game. Have some optimism people!

12 minutes of gameplay here. I must say, that looks pretty cool to me.

That gameplay looks freaking awesome to me.  I love the "augmented reality" style of the HUD.  Also that Gauss rifle with seeking bullets looked really fun to use.  Hopefully the full game turns out as slick and polished as that looked.

Wow so I'm left to be Debbie Downer huh? Looks okay don't get me wrong, I guess EA wanted in on that Deus Ex action...

...but that aint Syndicate. Not by a long shot.

Nah, I got your back, Waldorf.

I'll get it if it's actually good instead of only seeming good, but its name will never stop bothering me. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Rain Dog 

Wow so I'm left to be Debbie Downer huh? Looks okay don't get me wrong, I guess EA wanted in on that Deus Ex action...

 

...but that aint Syndicate. Not by a long shot.

Nah, you're not the debbie downer...It does look good. But, its not Syndicate. Not even close

So apart from the whole "it's now an FPS" thing, what exactly makes this NOT Syndicate?  Educate the ignorant please.

You mean apart from it being a whole other genre of game?

And you playing as an agent instead of the CEO?

And, I bet my ass, no collateral damage?

Pretty much the same game.

I'm not saying it's the same game.  I'm saying that everyone is harping on the fact that this is an FPS, and therefore not Syndicate.  I was just wondering if there were any things having to do with the universe that means it's not Syndicate.

For a semi-crazy hypothetical example, what if somebody made a Starcraft FPS.  If it still had Terrans, Zerg, Protoss, the look of Starcraft, and bunch of specific characters from the universe, nobody would be claiming that it wasn't a Starcraft game.  They'd be saying it's a completely different genre, but it would still be a Starcraft game.

The way everyone is reacting to this new Syndicate game ignores that franchises can span different genres.  Perhaps it's not exactly the norm, but it isn't completely unheard of either.  So saying that this new game isn't Syndicate just because it's an FPS and ONLY because it's an FPS rings pretty hollow to me.

Now maybe Syndicate never had a rich mythology, backstory, or anything.  I never played it so I have no idea.  I just think it's silly that people are being so dismissive of this game, seemingly for only one reason.  So I was just curious if there were any other reasons besides the obvious one that everyone is shouting from the rooftops.

For another example, what if people started saying that the recent Space Marine game wasn't Warhammer 40K because it was a third person shooter and not a tabletop game or an RTS or whatever. That sounds pretty silly, doesn't it.

I never really played the original. Well I played it, but I never got into it and pretty much forgot a week later. Anyway though, these companies would be a lot better off if they made these things and just said they're set in the same universe.

Using that Warhammer example is a good one. For years I've thought the LOOK of Warhammer is incredible. Gigantic freakish guys in massive armor with guns that shoot man size missiles is amazing. But I never bought any of the RPGs or tabletop toys and until Space Marine I didn't know shit about the lore. So basically they made a Warhammer game for me. There's room out there for games set in the same universe. It's like Xcom, it's nothing like the original. Unlike Xcom though this actually looks interesting to me. So we'll see.

Full disclaimer I fucking love "cyberpunk", I buy my friends Neuromancer and Snow Crash and pester them until they read that shit.

I would love to see more games set in the universes of popular franchises. It's a good excuse to try something new too without sullying the reputation of the original.

I dunno, my two cents.

Quote:

Originally Posted by stelios 

You mean apart from it being a whole other genre of game?

 

And you playing as an agent instead of the CEO?

 

And, I bet my ass, no collateral damage?

 

Pretty much the same game.

My points exactly. It's set in the Syndicate universe...but is it Syndicate? To me, no. Syndicate was never meant to be a FPS. The original were the best way the game could exist. Of course I'll play this, and im sure it will be awesome. But a part of me will still be semi-disapointed no matter how good it is. I want a Syndicate like the original.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Polygon_Wizard 

For another example, what if people started saying that the recent Space Marine game wasn't Warhammer 40K because it was a third person shooter and not a tabletop game or an RTS or whatever. That sounds pretty silly, doesn't it.

Not the same thing at all. Setting a game in an established universe and making a 'sequel' diametrically different from the first game, are not the same thing. Table-top, turn-based Warhammer 40K still exists and still is the flagship franchise.

Another example. Say, there are rumors that Capcom is working on Street Fighter 5. The time comes for the unveiling of the game and it turns out it's a turn based RPG. And you don't play as any of the main characters but are simply in the Street Fighter universe. And it's not about hand to hand combat but rather about weapons. And it's not called Street Fighter: Tactics or Street Fighter: Gaiden or whatever. Rather Capcom is saying "No, this is Street Fighter, get over it. We need us some of that sweet Final Fantasy money."

Do you call bullshit or not? 

I would definitely call bullshit on that. haha.

Not the best first impressions.

Voice cast announced. Rosario Dawson, Brian Cox, and Michael Wincott:

http://www.gametrailers.com/side-mission/2012/02/10/rosario-dawson-headlines-syndicates-voice-cast/

Brian Cox is pure win in video games. I mean he is Scolar Visari.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ryoken 

Original "Syndicate" arrives on GoG this week!

 

Just 2 more days! im buying thsi the second its available.

OH MY THANK GOD.